when i woke up, sun did shine

i have the best, most amazing friends, in the entire world. they may not be hipsters and all that shiz, but they sure have got yours beat in the loyalty and love category. i love you all.

so i get off an okay shift last night. not too bad, but i found out that my stupid supervising manager did not give me the time off for minnesota. even though i wrote a note about it, oh, i don't know, a month ago, and somehow my brother put his in a week ago and got it off. huh.

well, i wasn't feeling too snazzy. but i grab my phone, and there's a voicemail from tia, wishing me happy birthday because it was midnight according to central time. that lifted my spirits.

and as kaely and i were walking to my car, a bunch of vagabonds fanned out from behind a minivan and attacked me with hugs. katie had her ipod hooked up to a speaker and was appropriately playing the innocence mission, no less. they had baked me two red velvet cakes (that still looked like chocolate, but who's complaining?), one of which said happy birthday, and the other of which begged of me to ask if it was a truck. which i did. the latter we consumed in hearty good-feeling happiness. a few of us went to shari's afterwards.

this completely made everything better. i told you, i have the best friends in the world. go stick your head in the sand, you non-believer. ha.

and that almost negates the feelings that the fact i am about to relate to you bring to my heart.

i woke up at approximately one-fifty this morning. not without crying, not without remembering. there are no storms today, no booming thunder claps and no scores of lightning bolts. there is sunshine, and pleasant weather, and you are probably running the big marathon in the sky right now...running where the streets have no name.

kyle, how could i forget you? i thought i would cry more today than i already have. but now i'm just smiling, because everything's going to be all right. i went through the same emotions a week and a half ago that i did a year ago; walking myself through the events that have forever imprinted these days on my calendar. in the end? i am not depressed. i am grateful that you don't have to suffer any more than you already did.

rest, and run, and then rest again, in peace, my friend.

you were, and are, and always will be, loved.

-d