A Close Friend...

I learned a few hours ago that my friend Matt Preece (at left) was found in a helicopter crash in a remote region of Nepal (near Mt Everest-photo taken by Matt at right). It's been two weeks since my last blog and I am going to start with current news and work backwards. On Saturday, I learned that one of my best friends from high school Matthew Preece was in a helicopter that went missing in the eastern region of Nepal. Search and rescue teams took two days to find the helicopter b/c of bad weather so I spent the weekend waiting and hoping along with our mutual best friend Amber who has been in touch with Matt's parents. Matt was over in Nepal on behalf of his organization, the World Wildlife Fund, working on some conservation projects-among the 24 people on the helicopter, included a bunch of high-ranking Nepalese officials, international officials. Well, a few hours ago they found the helicopter and no survivors, here is the link if you want to read more-
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/25/nepal.helicopter.reut/index.html
http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildplaces/him/updates/wwf_loss.cfm

I have barely slept the last two nights. Matt was one of my two oldest friends-we've known each other since we were 14, he was with me in the hospital with my other best friend Amber on the night in 1994 when my mom died. Matt had just sent us photos a week ago on his trip-incl a helicopter ride to Mt Everest. He and I had emailed about a week ago and spoken before he left for his trip. The last time I saw him was over a year ago when he came to LA to visit for a few weeks. Matt is the ultimate traveler-he has been everywhere in the world working-incl working with farmers in Latin America, leading students on beach ecology trips in the Galapagos, Baja Mexico, we have always given him a hard time about not settling anywhere and having a stable job. So he gets this job with the WWF in DC. It's all just surreal and weird.
-----I wrote the update below before I heard the news...although it will be a while before my next blog entry-I may be travelling soon back to NY.

So before I got this news and it consumed all my thought, I was going door to door in my neighborhood talking to my neighbors and inviting them to a neighborhood mtg at my house where a police officer will speak about what we can do to prevent crime, etc Speaking to my neighbors I learned that one of them had 20,000 taken from his house, someone else had their cars stolen, etc, it reminds me that I live in LA and not Tucson.

Well as for more pleasant news-I threw a huge party last weekend at my place-my biggest one yet-50 people, with the goal being to invite everyone I have met in LA and have these different groups mingle. I told everyone they had to meet new people and it was a success! People started coming at 6pm and it went on for hours, there were even some people that I hadn't met before, I had gone shopping at cosco and gotten a shitload of stuff, I still have a huge amount of beer and wine left which means that I may need to throw another party. My voice got incredibly hoarse that night but it was fun-to see so many people-from various alumni groups-Cambridge, Wellesley, UCLA people, neighbors, even some Aussie gals I had met.



Julie