He was a friend of mine, and he died.
The last week has taken a huge toll on me, both physically and emotionally. I found out that a friend of mine passed away while I was in Illinois, two days before Thanksgiving. He had stayed up all night helping compile a list of sample test questions to help his brother study and slipped in his room in the afternoon. Broke his neck; killing him almost instantly. I had met him when I was eight years old. He was the one who introduced me to computers, and BBSes, how to build and fix them. He was only two years older than I am.
Through the years we kept in touch. He went through some rough mental problems and the ever-changing medications would create almost a new person every month. Two years ago, at my wedding, he did a number of things that made me snap. I told him that he needed to back off and that I needed time to stop being angry. Very soap opera of me.
I stopped being angry about a year later, I think. I just never bothered calling him back. I had considered it more and more this past year, and in some lame way I suppose I was building up to it. I guess that's one of the follies of youth - time seems plentiful.
So now the one person who had known me the longest, who was a teacher and a mentor to me, is gone. And I was too busy being pissy about a single night's series of disasters to be a part of what turned out to be his last years.
This does not sit well with my psyche, as you may imagine.
So when I woke up at two in the morning of Tuesday with a huge burning pain in my gut, I was not thrilled but for whatever reason not surprised. I had already been beating myself up mentally for the past few days, I supposed it was time to get some physical damage as well. Boy is that an understatement; Enter Stomach Flu. Both for my wife and I. Twenty Four hours of explosive mass exodus of every single bit of anything from my entire digestive track out of any orifice it could find. It was easily one of the most painful and brutal things I've ever endured physically. Let me tell you that Gatorade is like Nectar when you have absolutely nothing in your system and you can hardly walk from the dehydration and lack of vitamins in your system.
I'm doing better right now. Still home from work with no leave time, so it's not something I'm happy about. I can't function enough to work though. Hopefully that will be different tomorrow.
Through the years we kept in touch. He went through some rough mental problems and the ever-changing medications would create almost a new person every month. Two years ago, at my wedding, he did a number of things that made me snap. I told him that he needed to back off and that I needed time to stop being angry. Very soap opera of me.
I stopped being angry about a year later, I think. I just never bothered calling him back. I had considered it more and more this past year, and in some lame way I suppose I was building up to it. I guess that's one of the follies of youth - time seems plentiful.
So now the one person who had known me the longest, who was a teacher and a mentor to me, is gone. And I was too busy being pissy about a single night's series of disasters to be a part of what turned out to be his last years.
This does not sit well with my psyche, as you may imagine.
So when I woke up at two in the morning of Tuesday with a huge burning pain in my gut, I was not thrilled but for whatever reason not surprised. I had already been beating myself up mentally for the past few days, I supposed it was time to get some physical damage as well. Boy is that an understatement; Enter Stomach Flu. Both for my wife and I. Twenty Four hours of explosive mass exodus of every single bit of anything from my entire digestive track out of any orifice it could find. It was easily one of the most painful and brutal things I've ever endured physically. Let me tell you that Gatorade is like Nectar when you have absolutely nothing in your system and you can hardly walk from the dehydration and lack of vitamins in your system.
I'm doing better right now. Still home from work with no leave time, so it's not something I'm happy about. I can't function enough to work though. Hopefully that will be different tomorrow.