Thankful for another Manic Monday

I hadn't posted for a few days, because I didn't seem to have much to say. After this weekend, though, I am not even sure what to say. It is a funny thing, the weekend. Most of us in corporate America look forward to the weekend. By Wednesday, we are thinking ahead, wondering what fun the few days off have in store for us. By Friday, we are in our jeans and t's, thinking of happy hour, the movies, straightening our homes, seeing friends and family or looking forward to sleeping in and lazing around. This is how I was last week. Within an hour of being home though, it all changed.

After being on the L, that once again took forever to get me home, I changed clothes and walked to the bar where I work on Friday nights. Nat had been sick all week and I was looking forward to seeing her and all my neighborhood friends and embarking on a weekend of fun. When I got to work, I found out that 2 of my friends had been struck by a car crossing the street on their way to the bar. Police and an ambulance were still outside the bar and witnesses were recounting all that had happened. I was shocked by it all.

Thankfully, while one had an overnight stay to treat a concussion, both were okay, spared from the worst of it. As the night wore on, I worked. It was really all I could I do. The bar was slow and JC, the other waitress that night, and I uttered the words, "I'm so bored" throughout the evening. It was all so very normal.

At the end of the night, we sat and did our closing work. Cleaning tables. Counting money. Entering in the Log. Tipping out. All so very rote. JC and I chatted about the Southside parade, she had been gathering flair for the event all month. We speculated about the crazy drunk people that would be out on St. Patrick's Day next weekend. She was newer to the bar and was going to work her first St. Patrick's Day. I warned her about the chaos that would most definitely ensue.

A bit later, she talked to her friends, who had come to visit her this weekend and go with her to the Southside parade. She was bummed that they had gone out that night and were all tired. She got off the phone saying that they were a bit lame and she teasingly bemoaned the fact that she was going to head home, because they didn't want to go out anymore. I walked her to the door and watched her grab a cab. I thought it was pretty funny how she dashed to the cab - almost bouncing along the way. It brought a smile to my face. Again, it was all so rote and normal.

Saturday morning, I woke up to an update about my friends. I got ready to go wedding dress shopping with my sister, my mom and my aunt. I met Nat for coffee and a bagel and then went off to shop. We stopped for lunch and it was then that my phone began to ring. Not knowing the number, I let it go to voice mail, since we were in a restaurant. When the number called back again soon after, I thought it was weird and I got up to check the message. That is when the weekend turned again for the worse. It was JC's friend looking for her. I told him about the friends staying with her and how she had headed home soon after work. It was then that he told me about the fire in her building.

The next few hours passed with a myriad of wedding dresses, phone calls, messages, and updates. In the end, it was not good. It was not only her building, but her apartment. It was not only her, but her friends as well. It was not only a fire, but an arson. In the blink of an eye, they were all lost. All I could think was that I was sad for her young son. Sad for her family. Sad for her friends. I was mad at myself for getting cranky with her earlier in the evening. (Though grateful for her sweet heart and for the fact that the moment passed quickly and that the evening ended on a series of good notes). No matter how I looked at it, it just didn't seem fair at all.

We gathered last night at the bar. Not really knowing where else to go or what else to do. For awhile, we all sat, a bit stung by all that had happened. I kept thinking about her excitement about the parade. How close she was to finishing school. How she had a ridiculously, wonderfully positive spirit. We toasted her and took a moment to acknowledge how precious life can be. I had no idea on Friday that watching her get a cab would be the last time I saw her.

And at some point in the evening, we started to sing and dance. It seemed to have evolved organically. We sang ridiculously loud and danced horribly. And when Better Days played, we hoped that its message was true. And thought it may seem inappropriate to dance and sing on a day like that, I think that JC would have liked it. In the short time I knew and worked with her, it seems like she would've liked the impromptu celebration of her life.

This morning, a few of us gathered for church. To pray about all that had happened this weekend. To thank God that Friday's accident was not worse. To pray for JC's family and friends and her friends' families. To thank God for our own families and friends and for the life that we have been given.

If there is anything good to be found in this tragedy, it is the reminder that life is an unknown and that it can never be taken for granted. Each day that we are here is one to be lived to the fullest. The little things are just that, little. Nothing matters more than those you love. I am thankful for another day.

So as you go about your busy work week and begin to look forward to your next weekend, don't put anything off until tomorrow. Don't go to bed angry. Don't forget to say I love you. Don't let a day by without realizing how great a gift it truly is.

“May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.”