RIP Christine Cushman
Christine is the one on the left. She died yesterday, from Leukemia. She was a friend from a long time ago. When I met Christine, she was dating Marc Nelson. It was probably 1995 or 1996. We all used to go out dancing and to shows, and all those things we all did right out of college that seemed so important at the time.
My favorite Christine story was the time...well, those of you who know me personally know that I have real problems attaching names to faces. So we were in Marc's van, riding home from Cold Rice, Ian Spiv's dance night at Kaffa House. And we were in the van, and I had some girl who I was dating at the time. Crazy Karen? Who remembers now. Anyway, I was introducing this girl to my friends, and for some reason I introduced Christine to her as "Nicole." And Christine laughed, and corrected me. But forever after that, for me only, she would answer to Nicole.
Anyway, she eventually married my friend Vin. Shortly after that, she discovered she was sick. She fought it for a long time, and I would see her at Fort Reno and at shows until I left DC, and then, like a lot of people, I just sort of fell out of touch with her and Vin. And I feel bad about that now. Not that she didn't have a lot of friends and support in DC, but still. I feel like I should have been there too.
Yeah.