I was meeting Chris at 8 in Tampa. I started talking to Chris last week, online, and we've had some interesting conversations. :) So after the week I've been having and how worried I've been about Mike and Bob, I wasn't sure that I could do it... I wasn't sure that I could meet someone for the first time and actually have a good time with all this going on. Such foreshadowing...
So 7:45 rolls around and I'm still at home, stalling... Chris was online and said something about it almost being 8, so I got in the car and drove over to Tampa. I thought I knew where I was going. I ended up walking into Panera Bread in Hyde Park and looking around like, This isn't Starbucks... then I walked back out and got on the phone with Chris asking him where Starbucks was at. It was right down the street, so we walked there, got coffee (Iced Caramel Macchiato all the way...!), and walked back to Panera for a table, cuz Starbucks patio was bougie central. There were no open tables...
So we sat in front of Panera until all the Panera customers left and our drinks were long gone. We walked back towards Starbucks, but it was still packed, so I drove to Old Hyde Park Village, which I had never been to and didn't even know existed. It was nice though, I liked it. We walked around for a couple minutes and then sat at a table by one of the fountains. We sat there for a while and just talked. Chris seems like a really nice guy. I really enjoyed being around him, which was good, for multiple reasons, but it did take my mind off of everything.
Until 11:36. Alix called me and I excused myself to take the call, not really knowing what to expect. She asked me if I was at the house. She wasn't either. She told me that Mike had called to tell her that we lost Bob. He went at 10 sharp. After I got off the phone with her, I was kinda shaky, and didn't know what to say...
I took Chris back to his house and said goodbye to him. He was really understanding, and I told him I would call him tomorrow. I wanted to call Mike, but not while I was driving, so I stopped at Walter's. I called Mike to try to be supportive/reassuring, but we both ended up in tears. Mike and Bobby were so in love, and Mike took such good care of Bob up until the end. He was there when it happened, along with Bob's Mom and good friend.
I sat at Walt's for a little bit and had a glass of water, just kind of numb... Drove home and went to sleep around 2ish, I guess.
I haven't talked to Mike today, but he had sent out an email to select people at work last night. Lots of people asked how he is doing, if there was someplace they could send flowers, etc. I came home on my lunch break as usual, and when I went to leave there were flowers on the porch from one of our supervisors. It made me feel very lucky to work with such a great group of people.
The topic of my birthday came up again today at work. And again when asked what I was going to do for my birthday, I said I didn't have a clue... They asked me how old I was going to be, and when I said 23, everyone was like, Oh my god, 'what was I doing when I was 23, I can't even remember', and 'i'm older than 2 of you...' I am so tired right now...
