The happy memories make me sad

It's just beginning to sink in that she's not coming back. She was so often gone -- times when we just weren't in touch and I hadn't heard from her in forever -- that it's kind of felt like that since I heard. But I was writing a note to Shannon tonight and it just began to sink in that she's really gone. I'm not going to get some weird middle of the night phone call from her. I dug out all of my old pictures tonight. I'm not even unpacked in my new apartment and I have half a dozen half unpacked boxes strewn about my living room as I hunted for pictures and old yearbooks. I found most of them. There was one picture of Gretchen in particular that I was looking for -- it was from homecoming of probably 1993. She went with the exchange student from Austria whose name I forget. She wore this silver dress that, when she spun (and Gretchen liked to spin) flashed everything -- so she bought a pair of silk boxers to wear under the dress (Gretch was always a pro with lingerie). They were blue with moons and shooting stars on them. And I have a picture of her from after the dance -- we're in the parking lot of Bennigans at the mall -- she's wearing someone's leather jacket and she's pulled up her skirt to flash her boxers at me. And she's just laughing. *sigh*

I'll probably post some more photos and stuff later.