Tuesday, May 30, 2006
What Melts
I drove to campus this evening. Library notice came via email today: Another patron has requested your copy of.... I needed to collect the book from the office. Right here; I've got your Writing Genres right here.
Next, I had a whim to swoop up a brick of ice cream on the way home. Sweltering weather today in CNY. Drove over to the local P&C grocery store, parked the Element, and walked three aisles of the store before zeroing in on it.
And then I came home, thinking I might have a dish of ice cream and dust off
the blog with an entry about the Pistons or about Google Analytics or about Y.,
the dog. Instead, my inbox set me back with an email delivering tragic news: a
friend was killed in a car accident in D.C. Tampa over the weekend. She was
a regular at the camp I'm heading to this weekend, a friendly PhD student in
sociology, working in urban schools in the New Orleans area until last fall's
hurricane. Simply a really really terrific person; a quiet, good-humored
colleague with whom I'd taught many a basketball lesson over the past few
summers.
Dammit.
Added (6/1): I didn't have all of the details right: more.
Posted by Derek Mueller at May 30, 2006 10:00 PM
to Under a Bushel
I'm sorry to hear of your loss.
Posted by: Tamika at May 31, 2006 10:31 AMThanks, T. Just came as such a shock (these things so often do). A strange sadness comes in losing a distant friend, distinctive somehow from losing someone close (with it, a mourning for which we're much better socialized, I think).
Posted by: Derek at May 31, 2006 10:41 AMDerek, I am so sorry to hear about your friend's passing. It sounds like the world lost a wonderful soul too soon.
Posted by: joanna at June 7, 2006 8:50 AMYou're right, Joanna. The camp wasn't quite the same. It was sad at times, as would be expected. But there were several gestures to remember Danielle, so it was therapeutic in many ways, too.
Posted by: Derek at June 8, 2006 3:37 PM