mizarchivist

Exposition-
I didn't come to being very active with the regional UU group until I was independently mobile, say 17-18, or there abouts. But then I adored them, ended up going to Ohio University and it had a huge UU group, some I knew already. Like so many who graduate and move away, I did not stay active with the old UU friends or UU-ness in general. had always defaulted to more social rather than spiritual interactions with church, and when I moved to Boston had the UUs to get me through the first lonely year, but I inevitably found a differently focused social group. 

Fast-forward to last night-
I see in Facebook that a friend who is now in Boston but someone I knew from my earliest UU days had posted a picture. He'd lit a candle for another of our YRUU compatriots, A-, someone I'd not been particularly close to and had not really thought much about for the better part of 15 years. This guy's been in the hospital with a failed liver for a few weeks and there's been a ton of chatter on the YRUU group page, but thanks to my filtering and lack of attention, I never a whisper about it until last night, and now I'm catching up with my concern and just looking back. I have no idea if he'll pull out of this. He's my age, though, and really- livers should last longer than that. 

Some observations-
It's been so long since I really-really thought about my old friends and my old life, I started to doubt a bit that it was that much of a thing. But, no. They were very important to me. I'd say 80% of my friends in college were associated with the UUs. Maybe more. I went to weekly meetings, held office within the group, helped organize fundraising and events- all of it. Some people had Greek life, I had the Unitarians. My tribe. How could I lose track of something so central to my life? Why did I forget it? (she asks rhetorically, then answers pedantically)- Because life is like that. Filled with overlapping things, hopefully mostly good things. And as Robin pointed out at lunch, we can as humans only keep track of about 150 people at a time with great feeling. This feels true. Even if we had the miracles of all the current social media, not just college email accounts and the most rudimentary internet- I still might have slipped through and on.  I was filling my life with new: people, place, activities.

This is a horrible situation and I hate that someone who is still in the prime of life is struggling to breathe and make it through the day. It's scary and thinking about it very hard makes me want to hide under my desk or the equivalent thereof. However, if A- had not gotten sick, if his friends hadn't used that YRUU page on Facebook to keep the rest updated, I'd have never known, not thought about them or that time in my life. Now I am and I remember bits and pieces: how they made me feel better after years of being teased in school. They reveled in my weird. They expected weird. So, despite this bad, there is some good coming out of it. Let the universe be kind. Let A- get out of this and has several decades more.

Light a candle, think a thought, say a prayer, play a song, look at pictures, hug the hugs: whatever it is that you do when you are scared for someone and you can't do anything to intervene. And really, this isn't just for A. It's for ricevermicelli, who has been on my mind so much the last few weeks, and I can't do anything for her, either. And for the others out there, beyond my scope worrying and struggling. Love to you all. 

After the commentary from Thursday, I decided to extend a bit longer to make sure the reboot works. Not much else worth noting other than I'm not dead- neither is anyone else. I may get mini eclairs at BJ's when we go at the end of the week, though. (Mwah hah)

I was just minding my own business this morning, riding my bike to Alewife as I have been doing rather often when I came to the last 1/4 mile and whoom. Have some downed branches. OK, have some down trees. I was able to duck under the first one, but the other three required major clambering and bike-carrying. Microburst, you say? Yowza.

It seems that once a year near quiet_elegance 's birthday (observed), that there's the biggest cleaning events that overshadow all other uncluttering moments. Q_E started on Saturday, which sparked me to do many random things yesterday, things that are not apparent to the casual observer. However, my art drawers are now beautifully arranged. The Ikea bookshelves are much more full and hold 90% of card/board games and a large stack of the over sized art/coffee table books. I am most pleased.

I may have mentioned that I really have taken a shine to Chef Sang, the sushi guy at Teppenyaki. We took lifecollage  a week ago and purple_terror  this past Friday. That makes 2 converts in 2 weeks. He's really that brilliant. quiet_elegance  made a box out of rosewood for our chop sticks that we're keeping there and Sang hung out with us after we were done eating, as there was rather significant lull at that moment. Supposedly, they're redoing the menus eventually, but even if they did, I don't think I'd use them. I'm more than a little happy to be a guinea pig for new ideas he has. I have yet to be disappointed with anything, rather it's usually way too brilliant for a middle-of-the-road establishment. I am keen on taking one of his classes at some point.

Tomorrow: I go to my first salsa class in years. Should be fun, though. I am curious to see what they're working on, how much I remember and how much Bollywood improved my ability to pick up moves faster. After all, I know all the basic moves already, so that's an advantage. It will be a sadness not go go with q_e.

Motorcycle: Still in the shop. The latest theory is that there wasn't enough compression in the ...uh, tubes (?), which threw off the vacuum and so fuel wasn't going through the petcock like it was supposed to. The mechanic almost certainly experienced the bad when he was testing it out and he saw this with another bike earlier this season. This is apparently a gradual deterioration, so it makes sense that last fall it could limp along, but by 2 weeks ago, I was doomed. I'm hopeful that I can pick it up on Friday. Fingers crossed!

I haven't seen Richie around in quite a while. Last time I saw him was when he was having issues with a cop hassling him, so it's possible that he's had to set up shop elsewhere. But I worry enough to him in random dream cameos.

I can see exactly NOTHING outside my office window. Just reflections of what's in here. It could be midnight, not 10:30 AM. It obviously started raining. I do not look forward to winter in here. Definitely need further and better lights in here. Woah.

If you read quiet_elegance's last post, you know that his grandmother is close to dying. She's been unwell for quite a while, but it seems that the moment is not just in my mother-in-law's head.

I've never been that comfortable with death. Is anyone? I suppose there are folk, but I'm firmly in the "not" camp.

I'm unlikely to go back to Ohio for the funeral. Q_e has been pretty steady on going alone. "one travels fastest when one travels alone" has been our motto for a while on various trips home.
[time passes, phone call from q_e, I continue w/ the typing]

We hate waiting. We really do.