I think she gave me the kiss off in an e-mail before my 40th birthday a couple years ago but I didn’t care. Sheila will always be my friend and the door will be open to her until one of us passes. Sounds rather gloomy yet I don’t feel that way. It’s an ember of fiery optimism. One day, she may have the time to catch up.
The bummer of it all is her location. After all these years, Sheila lives in Austin as I do; I figured she was still in San Francisco which was her favorite city. Maybe I’ll run into her, her husband and children at a Marquette thing because she was more “patriotic” than I ever was. (Trust me, nothing makes you a foe of your alma mater‘s team like living in the same dorm as those spoiled, low IQ assholes.)
So why didn’t I remember on the 17th? I did have the day off. Just the inertia of recuperating coupled with the “need” to empty our Netflix streaming queue preventing me from bothering…not any kind of payback. Sheila remains an important friend in my past which means I want to honor her birthday. She is also the only major friend from Marquette Somara has not met. Last year, it was the Silders in person and we’ve covered Nelson, Jose, Phil and Lee over the years. I think my wife needs to see the whole picture for Marquette first. Meanwhile, I’m juggling post-Marquette and pre-Marquette too.
If you know Sheila, wish her well for me. I may take a gamble on writing her an e-mail. Put the ideals of Ghandi and King to the test.