It's been a tough couple of months.Yesterday, the Hubs came in from work with a rather sad demeanor, and with sad news: a friend of ours from high school had died. I knew him from high school; he and the Hubs had been buddies since elementary school, I think. We lost touch with him, and with the whole group, years ago. I don't think many of them kept in touch except this guy and one other, who put out the news yesterday, Googling people here and there until he found them.
The Hubs was one of six guys who were best buds, some of them since they were little. He was in two or three of their weddings, although we had a very small wedding party, so they were all just guests at ours. Three of them became lawyers and three of them doctors. Although they were just classmates and acquaintances to me in high school, I knew them all, and one of them married a girl who had been one of my best friends in junior high school. There was no falling out in the group, really, everyone just drifted apart over time.
We are anticipating something of a Big Chill experience on Saturday when we go into Brooklyn for the funeral. Peter was a Wall Street attorney who lived in a very upscale Brooklyn neighborhood. A long time ago, we all met in the city, had dinner in Chinatown -- Peter's immigrant mother would write out the order for us all in Chinese ahead of time -- and then went up to see his brand-new "office" in some ridiculously tall building with an incredible view of New York Harbor. I put office in quotation marks because it was more like a shared cubicle. Such was the reward for being near the top of your class at Georgetown Law.
I don't know why I should feel so sad at this point. I lost my own cousin -- also Peter, also to liver cancer -- in April, and a dear friend of the family just two weeks ago. My cousin was only a few years older than I am, so it's not his age. I was closer to my cousin, so it's not that. I don't know. Maybe it's the cumulative effect of it all. Too much too fast.
Otherwise, not a great day, a longer story I don't even want to bother to remember. I'm considering the possibility that I may have been having a migraine all day; I've never thought that I had one before, just bad headaches, but maybe that's what this was. I finally got medical advice for my tendonitis: wear a sling. Yes, good idea; I'll do that as soon as I don't have to eat or write or brush my hair or teeth or drive or ever go to the bathroom again. I should be right as rain in no time. (I'm going to an actual orthopedist on Tuesday.)
In the meantime, in about an hour, I'll be dressing up and re-doing my make-up for the evening's festivities, where I'll get to speak for the Chum's retirement. Joy
