TWO ANGELS

Today, I lost two students in a car accident. David was 18, had just graduated from high school in June and was accepted in Bachelor of Administration at university. Alina, nearly 17, was about to begin her graduate year at the school where I teach. Two of their friends, both 17, were in the back seat and are in critical condition.

I have known these kids since they came to me in grade 6, 11 years old, wide-eyed and impressionable. David played the trumpet in my band and Alina was my keyboard player. Chris and Stacie are in first and second alto sax seats.

The news hasn't hit the media yet, but the family called me, because I helped Alina through a difficult personal crisis last year and they consider me to be like family. I am blogging now as a sort of catharsis. I am in shock. All I know, and don't understand at all, is that alcohol played a role, and neither David nor Alina were wearing their seatbelts. One day soon, I will address those factors, but not today ... today I am just writing. It won't be a pretty post. Like that matters. I can't tell anyone here yet. Mac has company this weekend, so I can't cry on his shoulder. So I'm blogging. Lol. I already said that, didn't I?

So here are a few lines that I found. They seem appropriate.

They were taken, far too soon, but in our love, they carry on, in our

hearts, forevermore. They were all, far too young, to be taken away like

that, but if we remember, they will be near us. Too soon were they taken

to heaven, but if we try, we can keep them alive inside us, for all of time.

HELP ME !!!!!!!!!!

I NEED A MEME, PEOPLE !

CELEBRATING

HAPPY 44th BIRTHDAY, ROSS

MIDDLE NAME MEME (thanks Trav)

I was in hospital again for a bit this week, so I didn't get here, or to anybody else's blog. Got some ground to cover. Thanks to Trav for hitting me with this meme to give me a jumpstart. Big hugs, honey.

Here's the rules:

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts.
4. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Well, I don't have the same problem that Trav had, since my middle name is short and easy. So here we gooooooooooooooo ......

R is for red, because that's my signature colour (as opposed to my favorite colour, which is green, but that doesn't start with R). I am never without at least a little bit of red clothing on my person, although you can't always see it ...

O is for oranges, which are my favorite fruit. Currently, the choice at our house leans towards those yummy seedless clementines that are easy to peel, but I'll eat just about any kind of orange.

S is for Scrabble. It's my favorite board game, and I will accept all realtime or online challengers because I love the game so much.

E is for Email. Hello, my name is Coco, and I'm an email addict. Yes, I check my email compulsively, about once an hour if I'm near a computer. The great thing about that is, I almost always have something! I used to be better at responding to all of it, too, but I've gotten out of that habit, thankfully. Wasn't getting anything else done. So now I only respond to personal correspondance, or work-related stuff.

So that's my middle name: ROSE. And just as an added bit of trivial, yellow roses are my favorite roses, although daisies are my favorite flower. Now, I'm supposed to tag somebody, but who? Okay, I'll shoot in the dark here, and tag Am, Anndi, Bond, Sue and TopChamp. Maybe one of them hasn't been tagged yet.