Last I heard from Moore, she was suffering board burn-out from her mod duties on the SOC AMC board. That was about 3 weeks ago, right after the VT tragedy.
KaeEll is right -- I've just been swamped, and was also deeply affected by the VT tragedy. I had intended to make a post about it over here, but just didn't have the heart or the energy.
I had JUST been down to a wonderful reunion at my boarding school that weekend (just before the shooting). My school is in Staunton, Virginia which is in the gorgeous Shenandoah Valley, and Blacksburg is about 1-1/2 hours south of that. It was a wonderful, emotional weekend, and my former headmistress was still there, as usual. The woman is phenomenal. She's 96 years old, and is still tutoring disabled adults in the Charlottesville community! She sat with our class in chapel, and again at the Saturday luncheon.
Well, Monday morning we all heard the news about Virginia Tech. One of my classmates, who was at the reunion, works in the administration building, and both her son and her nephew currently attend VT. I immediately emailed Carol to make certain that she was okay. She was rattled, but fine, as were her son and nephew.
Then, another of our classmates who had attended the reunion emailed to say that she was in shock over the tragedy. I had completely forgotten, since I was focused on Carol, that Susan had graduated from Tech, and her son lives in Blacksburg. So, they were also very upset...
As the day went on, more and more connections to the tragedy began to surface. I realized that one of my daughter's best friends is a freshman there, so I called my daughter (out in Arizona so she was still asleep and hadn't heard anything about it yet) to be certain that Adwoa was okay. Thankfully, Adwoa was fine, but was friends with two of the young ladies who died...
My husband and I also remembered that our neighbor has a son at Tech, so we immediately called to make certain that they weren't affected. Their daughter and this same son grew up with my two older children. As it turns out, Evan is studying to be a CIVIL ENGINEER, and was ON HIS WAY to Norris Hall when he was stopped by a police officer, and told to go home.
Several of those who were killed were from this area, and of course the shooter was too. Northern Virginia sends a lot of kids to Tech, so there is probably no high school up here, both public or private, that hasn't sent kids to VT. I can't count the number of neighbors who've had children graduate from Tech over the years...
Anyway, I still haven't sent any of my classmates the happy pictures we took at our reunion, and they haven't sent any to me either. We were all too rattled by the incident, and our wonderful reunion weekend suddenly seemed trivial. At least we all had the opportunity to hug, and to express our love and devotion to each other, even after all of these years. Thank God... I can't comprehend the grief that the families are enduring right now. It's just too much.
My daughter (the one in Arizona) will be coming home next week, having completed her first year in college. My husband is flying out there, and the two of them will drive home in her car. It's a LONG three day drive, possibly four normal days, and we just thought that it was too much for her to do alone. They did the reverse of this at the end of Christmas break in order to get her car out there for her to have this semester. After that, she'll have her roommate (who has never been outside of Arizona) visit her the first part of June. They're going to tour Washington, DC, and then scoot up to NYC for an overnight.
After that, my husband is facing spinal surgery!
Thank you for thinking of me; I apologize for having gone into hibernation, especially now that spring is finally here. I'm way behind in a lot of household chores, as well my usual spring gardening routine, so until I get a grip on those things, and on getting ready for my daughter's return, I may not post much.
After that, though -- "I'll be back..."
-- Edited by Moore ideas at 11:37, 2007-05-03
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Oh sweets, it's so good to see you're ok and to hear that no one was harmed. I hope that everything is ok for you and everyone else from here on out. OH and I am glad to hear that you had a good time at your reunion. LOL we only had 14 people in my graduating class so we won't have much of a reunion when the time comes.
We only had 35, but of course the "class" consists of others who attended for a couple of years, but didn't end up graduating with us.
Nevertheless, we had twelve people come, so that was 1/3 of the number who graduated! Several others had tried to come, but had other things prevent them from doing so. Otherwise, we might have had in the high teens!!!
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
OH eyah lol that would be so much fun. You know I really need to make my way up to your part of the state. I haven't seen fy friends from DGN in so long and I miss them all like crazy.
hey moore, glad to hear you are breathing. I am actually heading down to NC this month and will probably drive right past you...Hope that things are going
