Somebody that I use to know

 It was brought to my attention the other day that a friend from college died of cancer earlier this month.  Obviously, this sucks.  But what I'm finding strange is how I'm feeling about it.  Lily Hung and I were good friends in the early 90s.  We were at UIC together and our group would meet in the cafeteria before class and grab coffee or breakfast.  We would often have lunch together too.  I had my first Guinness with her at Hawkeye's.

Lilly also introduced me to volleyball and the Lincoln Park Volleyball club.  She was a far better player than I and she often played in tournaments, which is where she met her husband, Andres.  And that is when we started spending less time together.  A few times over the years, she'd make a half-hearted attempt to get together but our schedules never jived and it fell flat.

Again, I'm not sure why this is causing me so much confusion.  We had our Season in the Sun but then grew apart.  No big deal, really.  But perhaps my neurodivergent mind is telling me, while looking through the Lens of Time, that we could have had a different type of relationship.  

Could we have had a romantic relationship?  She often pointed out that I was good looking, but I guess I never made a move.  Could she have helped me navigate the Mysteries of Life better?  What would be her motivation to do so?

My short answer is that I guess I missed the lunches and dinners and good conversations we use to have and that they went away only because the dynamic changed.  She needed something more and I couldn't provide it.  

Bathroom Renovation Project to begin shortly

Update from the future:  This post sat in my drafts folder while I worked on other things, namely finding and ordering tile.  Our contractor completed demo and has done everything he can do until the tile arrives, hopefully soon. 

We are about to embark on a project we do not want to do but desperately need to do: renovate our master bathroom.  It has gotten to a point where it's only gonna get worse if we don't fix the issues now, and we want to enjoy it for a bit before we sell this place.  There is an assumption that we will sell this place, and it is one thing that keeps my will to live going.

To be sure, this should be an exciting, fun thing that we should want to do.  However, it isn't because this family only has one income, and it is stretched thin.

We could just replace the shower, but that still leaves the Jacuzzi bathtub unusable.  And our vanity is very outdated and looks just terrible.  Basically, it's almost a full gut rehab with the exception of the His/her Walk-in Closets.  Have I mentioned that this is the best bedroom-bathroom combo I've ever lived in?

 

FYI my contractor is rather annoyed that we don't have our tile yet.  I'm not too upset about it because when we first approached him, he did that thing people do to get customers to light a fire under their butt and commit.  He said he had a project in early August and would like to get us in before then. 

I knew he was blowing smoke up our butts but Nightingale kinda bought it and also wanted to get everything purchased before the next round of Tariffs increased prices.  However, we just didn't have the bandwidth to check out tile until the weekends and there is a learning curve.