Tragic

I came home to find a very brief email from a very close friend. Her son was killed yesterday in Iraq. I am still coping with this, as is my family - we all knew him and really liked him. He was a student at my friend's high school, and she helped him get a job as a counselor at the summer camp where we all worked. Back then he was fun loving, but very responsible. A great guy to be around.

His home life was a little bit on the depressing side. His mother was not around for him, and therefore he had little stability, and wound up dropping out of school and living in my friend's house. She and her husband helped him get into some programs to help him develop skills and pass the GED, and to enlist and get a decent assignment. My friends became his new family and he was a son to them. On leave he went to stay with them, most recently only about 2 months ago. Now, like so many serving, he is gone.

On a slightly less depressing note, the meeting with my student's parents went 90 minutes with little or no resolution. Mother refused to acknowledge any point of view but her son's, wants us to praise the positive, but neglected to inform her son that reminding him not to be talking at certain times is not a negative, and he doesn't have to become surly because of it. I see more meetings in the future, as this boy won't rein himself in.

Dinner for the anniversary (shifting to the positive) was nice. We went to a place called Beauty Shop - which used to BE a beauty shop. Some of the seats are those dryers with the hoods. Good food, too. She had steak frites (steak was bacon wrapped filet with peppercorn and mustard crust) and I had a really nice cioppino. mmmm