Death makes me think too much

I was laughing on the phone with Jillian about nothing very consequential when Shannon interrupts me with the news that her best friend Melanie called to tell her that her Mom passed away suddenly. In a minute life turned very serious. There, on the right, is Shannon and Mels at Shan's graduation in April. Mels is a 3rd year law student, her mom was barely 50 and there were no signs before the massive heart attack occured. They were Shannon's second family while she was in undergrad since she was so far from home. It was sobering, as death always is. My Mom has had her parents around for 60 years. Mels is 24. Death is a necessity as everything has it's opposite, but the manner and timing are all so weird and funky. Needed there ASAP, Shannon found a great ticket on priceline.com yesterday for $330 bucks and flew out to Atlanta this morning.

In other news I still haven't started working yet, which is totally fine with me. I finally got a very non-specific message that orientation will probably be sometime next week. Great. I got all my student loan funding and so I am set until next September. Life is slowly shifting into another 'era.' My friend Julia got laid off this week from her failing company and it was just another kick in the pants, courtesy of life, sending her in the correct direction. Luckily for me that direction is L.A....not that Santa Barbara is far, but it's certainly not convenient for going out to dinner on a whim. Los Feliz is much closer and that's where she's looking to move. I'm trying to reign in the excitement to be a good friend as she's not as 100% excited to be leaving her fabulous apartment and what was her life for the last 4 years. This I understand all too well. But... *whispering loudly* I'M STILL SO EXCITED. Jillian is about to murder someone out of sheer loneliness and I told her that if she didn't live in BOCA that maybe we would drift in that direction. I keep holding out that our presence will pull on her like a magnetic force and she'll eventually move out here too.