The threads of life...

..are sometimes cut untimely short.

I found out today that one of my online friends and regular blog readers, Laura Watkiss, passed away suddenly this weekend. She was only in her 20s, and leaves behind a relatively new husband and a house in the process of being built.

My last memory of her was a trade-off on the 'fake memory' meme, where we completely disregarded the Mythbusters warning to "don't try this at home", and got in serious virtual trouble. My earliest memories are of Farscape, and discussions of the "iron ring" that Canadian engineers wear. I never had the honor of meeting her in real life, since she was on the other side of the continent in Vancouver, and I regret that I didn't know her better. I hope that someday I may get the opportunity in the next life.

Eternal rest, grant unto her O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen.

Going coastal!

Yesterday I got to experience a personal 'first' - I can now say I have seen (and set foot in) the Gulf of Mexico.

It all started last week when I got a call from a meandering friend who is moving to Florida, and wanted to know if she could get together with myself and K, a stitching friend who I met online but who lives in my same town. From there, plans pretty much took off, and yesterday K and I drove across the state to the Tampa area.

It was a beautiful day for a visit, and the drive there went pretty quickly. We all had a great time. We inspected M's new house, and talked while showing off current projects. We had lunch at a nice Cuban restaurant called Columbia, and afterward walked across the street to the beach.

Now, I'm not much of a beachgoer in general - red hair and extreme sun don't mix particularly well - but I did want to see the Gulf and do the requisite ankle-deep wade. I also picked up a few shells for DD.

Afterward, K and I drove back to our coast. Traffic was a bit worse than in the morning - we must have hit Bucs stadium traffic - but we made it back safely. A great time was had by all.

Next time, we need to lure M to the east coast!

The little things....

This weekend, I got a lovely unexpected email from a reader - a fellow stitcher and Catholic convert - telling me that she found my blog to be an inspiration to her.

I was deeply touched at the wonderful compliment. Warm fuzzies out of the blue...

And I think that whether I realized it at the time or not, it was something I needed to hear. It often seems to me that I'm just chasing my tail, so it was a small but powerful reminder that even the little things I do in the course of living my life can have a profound effect on others.

So to M, once again I thank you. Your email means a lot to me, and it really made my weekend!

A grief observed...

Sometimes my timing is absolutely abysmal. After I posted on 'death and taxes' yesterday, I learned that a family friend suffered a devastating loss over the weekend.

And I don't know what to say or do in support, especially from half a country away. I feel helpless, as well as having my own grief over the loss.

The blogging Borg...

...resistance is futile....

I got started on blogging early last year, after reading friends' blogs. And I've had folks tell me they felt more "in touch" with what's up in my life by reading my blog. And now I've passed on the favor - I got an email today from a friend up north who finally bit the bullet and started his own blog. Congrats and welcome aboard the blogging bandwagon!

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On the work front, it's been a very mentally draining week. Today especially - this morning was full of meetings, some of which were a bit...adversarial. Painful for me to witness - I'm very much a conflict-avoidance person. This afternoon was good, though - we got a tricky problem figured out. Still, I think the day in general burnt off some of my time in Purgatory.

Hopefully the rest of the week will be a bit easier on the nerves.

It's a small world after all...

This could either be a good or a bad start to the year: I've got a business trip next week, to the DC area. I don't travel all that much on business, mainly since DH travels a fair bit, but I generally try to make the most of it when I do. My last trip was about 6 months ago, to Ottawa, which was a lot of fun, and I met some fellow stitchers. This time, I'll be meeting up with at least one fellow stitcher one evening. I also have family in the area, so I'll be meeting up with them as well.

And hey, maybe I'll actually get to see snow? Probably not, but I can always hope!

Speaking of meeting up with folks, I did discover there's another stitcher from the boards who lives in my town! She actually works only a couple of miles from where I do, so we met for lunch at my favorite Irish place today and talked about kids, stitching, and framing. And it turns out she's very good friends with a woman who works in my same building. Small world, indeed. I also saw pictures of some of her framed pieces - I definitely need to get in touch with her framer....I bet her framer could do something grand with Last Supper when I finish it. And with the MarBek Nativity, when and if I ever get around to it...

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I stayed up way late watching the Orange Bowl - USC crushed Oklahoma...by the end of the first quarter, it was obvious it was going to be a loooong night for the Sooner faithful. USC scored so often I suspected I would have the Trojan fight song stuck in my head for days.

Friends will be friends

I'm still pretty fried. My commute to work this morning was frustrating (a 15-minute drive took nearly an hour), and my motivation is at low tide. I have this strong desire to hang out in the hot tub with a pint of ice cream. Too much to do for that, though. Maybe I'll at least get to sit around and watch football and stitch tonight, after I do some web updates.

Sorry to continue being unoriginal, but I'm going to lay another meme on you - last week's Friday Forum.

1] What qualities in a friendship are most important to you?
Honesty, trust, and respect.

2] Who is your oldest friend [in terms of how long you've known the person]? Who is your newest friend? How did you meet both of them, and why do you get along so well?
My oldest friend (in terms of length of time known) with whom I still have some sort of regular contact, I've known since 4th grade. We don't communicate extremely frequently, maybe email every month or so, but we've managed to keep in contact since high school. We were both in the 'geeky' crowd throughout most of our school tenure, and have oddball senses of humor (ah, pun wars!).

My newest...well, that's hard to say. There are folks from the stitching BBs that I've known for a while and am communicating with more often of late. The newest in-person friend, I met on my recent overseas trip. He's a good friend of a close friend of the family, who figured he'd get on well with DH and I. Good call.

3] Have you ever met someone, become really close friends with them, and then drifted apart for some reason? How did it happen, and did you ever try to get back in touch with that person?
It often happens. I've reestablished contact with various folks who were friends in high school, then we drift apart again because there's very little common interest anymore. People change, and sometimes friends can go in opposite directions. I've also had close friends at a previous job, and when either they or I left the job, there wasn't really a common bond anymore.

4] Do you feel that men and women can be good friends? Why/why not? Do you have any close friends of the opposite sex?
I believe that they can. I'd wager that up until recently, more of my close friends have been male than female - falling into the 'geek' crowd in elementary school where I was the only female, and continuing through college when I was in predominantly male classes, I had a lot more in common with them. And not exactly being Miss America material, I tended to have 'sister' or 'one of the guys' roles instead of 'prospective date'. The gender ratio of friends (and close friends) has shifted, but I do still have male close friends. One of whom is one of DH's oldest friends (the 'friend of the family' mentioned above).

5] Do you tend to make friends easily? Why/why not? Do you have many online friends? Which of your friends lives the closest to you?
I think I make friends easily, although close friends take a bit more time. I make friends more easily than I used to - I was terribly shy growing up, and just being more outgoing and treating people with respect has helped.

Do I have many online friends? *laugh* I probably have more online friends than friends I've met live, and there are a couple of online folks that I consider close friends.

Which of my friends lives closest to me...well, there's a couple who are friends with DH and I that live about half a mile south of us. And both of our regular gaming buddies live about 2-3 miles north.

Found and lost...

Well, I'm back from Ottawa, which I found to be a lovely city. I was planning on writing about my trip (which I will get to, I promise), but I got some news that trumps my trip report.

My friend Stacey's son, 4-year-old David Tippen, is missing.

For those of you who read other stitcher's blogs, you probably already know about this. But I also know that some of you are friends from other facets of my life, which is why I'm doing echoing other postings. And those of you in the Atlanta area may have heard about this on the news. In any case, Stacey and her family could certainly use your prayers for David's safe return. And open eyes, for those of you in or near Atlanta.

I can't even begin to imagine what she's going through right now. When my stepson ran away back in May, I went through hell - but the odds were heavily in his favor for his safe recovery. There's a world of difference between a missing teenage boy, and a missing preschooler...