damont ([personal profile] damont) wrote2007-05-03 01:41 pm

In memoriam, and other bits

So today is the last day of classes at W&M, the semester having been cut short one day due to Queen Elizabeth II's visit to the campus tomorrow. The Wren Bell is ringing (far and near? no wait, that's the students' voices doing that, according to the Alma Mater) all day long as graduating students celebrate their last day of classes. I have asked, over in [livejournal.com profile] william_mary, that those who read it ring the Wren Bell one extra time in memory of Rise (Cait for those who knew her in the SCA).

Rise/Cait and I weren't close but we did always try to find a minute or two to do more than just say hello. I think that having known each other in college was part of that; she graduated two years ahead of me. We would find each other accidentally in places where one wouldn't expect, say "Fancy meeting you here!" and catch up just a bit. I'm sorry she won't get to be with her kids as they finish growing up; more sorry for her kids who won't have her around through the possibly messy years of adolescence and twentysomething yet to come; and for potential grandkids down the line, who won't have the chance to meet her. (My own mother is a breast cancer survivor, and her family far prefers to have her still around, thanks.)

My best friend from college, who started as a freshman the same time as Rise did, said to me: "I've always lusted after her hair, and admired and been slightly awed by her range of interests and the amount she put into and got out of each (many of which I shared, but was never as productive or active at). Even though I haven't even walked past her at an event in years, the world was a brighter place just knowing she was out there... and now she's not."

So today is a bit subdued after hearing last night of her passing.

In other news... the You Can't Get There From Here highway project starts in earnest this coming Saturday; they've been putting up new signs and rearranging existing signs for a couple of weeks, and the actual destruction starts in about 42 hours. More about that later.

Happy belated birthday to [livejournal.com profile] ladypeyton!

Welcome to [livejournal.com profile] martelvonc and [livejournal.com profile] devreux, and also to CT7!

Last night at Stierbach's barony meeting, the seneschal was doing Atlantian trivia, with the rest of us divided up into two teams (one on each side of the room). The team I wan't on was heard to complain "but *they* have *Evan*!" (At which point I tried to find a place to hide, with no success.)

Hug your loved ones today. A bit more than you usually do.

[identity profile] cfram.livejournal.com 2007-05-03 05:49 pm (UTC)(link)
I least I guessed right about the question in which I was a data point. *grin* To miss that one would have been a shame.

[identity profile] dr-zrfq.livejournal.com 2007-05-03 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, the embarrassment would have been nigh unbearable had you missed that one...

[identity profile] maziemaus.livejournal.com 2007-05-03 07:01 pm (UTC)(link)
*hugs* and *hugs* and *hugs* and, um.. you get the point. Please spread them around at home for me, too.

[identity profile] dr-zrfq.livejournal.com 2007-05-03 09:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Will do. And *hugs* all around up there from all of us.

[identity profile] 3fgburner.livejournal.com 2007-05-03 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Wherever Cait is, she's probably already kicked back with a beverage o choice, telling "No $#!+" stories.

I've been trying to figure out WTF the 28 signs were for. Now I know.

The one Barony meeting that I could've made in the past several months, and MISSED, had a trivia quiz? DANGIT! Bet I could've had fun.

[identity profile] dr-zrfq.livejournal.com 2007-05-03 09:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[a] quite likely.
[b] Yep, and the coming weeks are going to suck. Especially for all the traffic coming out of Park Meadow onto Westfields Blvd.
[c] Yes, you'd have had a good time with the trivia questions.

[identity profile] jacylrin.livejournal.com 2007-05-03 08:43 pm (UTC)(link)
*hugs*