9:32 p.m. - August 10, 2002
Summaries
I'm taking my break now: yes, 9:32 PM and it's my break. I was at work today and since people are coming over tomorrow, I need to clean house so my mom won't freak out too badly when she sees the clutter in various rooms and so forth...

Anyway, for those of you wondering about what is going on with Mike and his family...I stopped by his parents' house yesterday after work to give them my condolences...and Linda was scary because she was smiling and being the perfect hostess..."Oh Stacey, it's so nice to see you...come on in, come on in...would you like something to drink? Something to drink?" But I think she's in shock, in a state of disbelief. One of Mike's brothers was there--his younger one, Mark. Mark was also acting pretty normal. Everyone was acting so normal.

I spoke with Mike's aunt, Carol, who was the one who seemed to be the one who really grasped Mike's death, and in a whisper, her eyes glancing over to the doorway to the formal living room and dining room, where Mark and Linda disappeared to..."I don't know how Linda's going to handle this. She's never going to get over this. I think she's in shock now...and it's warm here, Linda turned off the air conditioning because she's been so cold...I think it's nerves."

Carol told me that Larry, Mike's older brother by a year, has taken to bed, unable to get out of bed because he's so depressed. Larry and Mike are close; they have the same friends, they do everything together and are in the family business with their father--who has been working like crazy, probably to keep thoughts out of his head...Carol, with tears in her eyes, informed me, "it's almost as if half of Larry has died..."

On the way to Linda's, I was driving behind a motorcyclist, and he was making me angry--riding without a helmet, and also popping a wheelie as he drove faster. Somehow, with the thoughts of an unfortunate accident in mind, I can't look at motorcycles the same way. If you ride a motorcycle, please be careful.

But no, yesterday was a good day, except for thinking of what was going on in our friend's family. My friends and I had an omnibus birthday celebration and housewarming at my friend's new apartment...so that was wonderful. I fell into the comfort of familiarity, of cracking jokes with my friends and having conversations that were completely random. I loved it. And my friend gave me a stuffed Tribble.

I think I'm going to clean now.

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