Surreal...
It's been two weeks since I updated my blog and I sit here on a quiet Saturday night, enjoying the peace and quiet. It's my first quiet day in the past two weeks-what's that line that Hugh Grant utters to Julia Roberts in the movie "Notting Hill"-'it was nice to meet you, surreal but nice."
I have just had that line in my head-the past two weeks have felt like a dream-starting when I found out that Matt's helicopter went missing, then to hearing it was found two days later with no survivors, to flying to my hometown of Albany, NY the next day to be with friends and figure out where the memorial would be. The time in NY was intense-we spent many hours putting together emails and photos that friends of Matt sent to his best friend from around the world-Matt travelled to 15 countries over the years-doing alot of needed environmental work and it was so easy for him to make friends. Even my labmates at UCLA who met him for a few hours last year, felt his impression.
Anyways, while in Albany, I saw a bunch of old high school friends, had the chance to chat a lot, we worked on a dvd of photos with music of Matt's life-from his days in elementary school and up. Also spoke to a reporter and they ran a nice story in the local paper, here's the link-
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=520143&category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=LOCAL
Then we heard from his folks about the memorial service in Utah so we flew there last weekend. It was so emotional to see his family but also good to exchange stories. The service was nice-people shared their memories, there were trinkets of his collected while abroad on various tables, photo albums, big photos, etc, met alot of his friends that I hadn't met before.
I spoke too-although I was self-conscious b/c I ran out of LA without packing any nice clothes and so I was in sneakers and jeans in front of a well-dressed audience. I had to go up to the podium twice too to read a msg from one of his close friends.
It was pretty intense-I came back wanting to not have to be around people all of the time, the slightest things set me off-my tolerance is low, again a reminder of a loss I experienced years ago brought back to me, when my mother died, feeling the same complex emotions and shock. I went back to work on Tuesday and have been swamped all week-working long hours, but it's been good to get back into the routine. This coming week I leave for the Neuroscience mtg in Atlanta for almost a week so I am trying to store up rest before then.
Meanwhile, I have a major gas leak outside my house-in the yard line to my house-smelled gas last night, called the gas comp, and landlord, sure enough a leak supposedly fixed while I was in NY wasn't fixed, so my gas is off while the landlord gets the city permits to rip up the sidewalks and replace the pipes-fun, fun. At least the gas is not inside my house.
I've done needed things for myself this week-bought some books, saw that movie The Departed-Jack Nicholson and DiCaprio and Damon were all excellent and I have never been a fan of Dicaprio. Probably one of the best movies I have seen in a while.
Julie
I have just had that line in my head-the past two weeks have felt like a dream-starting when I found out that Matt's helicopter went missing, then to hearing it was found two days later with no survivors, to flying to my hometown of Albany, NY the next day to be with friends and figure out where the memorial would be. The time in NY was intense-we spent many hours putting together emails and photos that friends of Matt sent to his best friend from around the world-Matt travelled to 15 countries over the years-doing alot of needed environmental work and it was so easy for him to make friends. Even my labmates at UCLA who met him for a few hours last year, felt his impression.
Anyways, while in Albany, I saw a bunch of old high school friends, had the chance to chat a lot, we worked on a dvd of photos with music of Matt's life-from his days in elementary school and up. Also spoke to a reporter and they ran a nice story in the local paper, here's the link-
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=520143&category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=LOCAL
Then we heard from his folks about the memorial service in Utah so we flew there last weekend. It was so emotional to see his family but also good to exchange stories. The service was nice-people shared their memories, there were trinkets of his collected while abroad on various tables, photo albums, big photos, etc, met alot of his friends that I hadn't met before.
I spoke too-although I was self-conscious b/c I ran out of LA without packing any nice clothes and so I was in sneakers and jeans in front of a well-dressed audience. I had to go up to the podium twice too to read a msg from one of his close friends.
It was pretty intense-I came back wanting to not have to be around people all of the time, the slightest things set me off-my tolerance is low, again a reminder of a loss I experienced years ago brought back to me, when my mother died, feeling the same complex emotions and shock. I went back to work on Tuesday and have been swamped all week-working long hours, but it's been good to get back into the routine. This coming week I leave for the Neuroscience mtg in Atlanta for almost a week so I am trying to store up rest before then.
Meanwhile, I have a major gas leak outside my house-in the yard line to my house-smelled gas last night, called the gas comp, and landlord, sure enough a leak supposedly fixed while I was in NY wasn't fixed, so my gas is off while the landlord gets the city permits to rip up the sidewalks and replace the pipes-fun, fun. At least the gas is not inside my house.
I've done needed things for myself this week-bought some books, saw that movie The Departed-Jack Nicholson and DiCaprio and Damon were all excellent and I have never been a fan of Dicaprio. Probably one of the best movies I have seen in a while.
Julie
posted by Julie Miller at 10:36 PM
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