It's funny how things change sometimes

February 15th came and went this year, and I managed to not burst into tears at all for the first time in 8 years.

Feb. 15, 2004. The start of the crappy things that happened in 2004. Long story short: there was a bunch of drama, a huge fight/gunfight broke out. At the end, 1 was dead and 2 were hospitalized. By 8:30am a second man, Mike Jessie, had died. Mike was a good friend of the family. What they had originally thought was a bullet wound to his head turned out to be trauma. He was beaten to death. A 3rd man was so severely brain damaged that he will live out his life in assisted living facilities. I haven't seen him but once since that night.

Usually, I would think about that and cry a bit. This year, I had something good distracting me. My beautiful daughter was 3 months old that day. I wrapped myself up in taking care of her, and I didn't even fully realize the significance of the day until the day was nearly over.

I think Mike would've loved to see my little redhead. Hell, he's even missed out on his own grandchildren.

I think, at this point, it's wrapping my mind around the fact that it's been 8 years since that happened. Which means in June it'll be 8 years since the AEP truck hit my Intrepid, 8 years since I graduated from high school, and 8 years since my parents' nasty car accident. Man, 2004 pretty much sucked.

Slightly more positive: this past week/weekend marked 4 years that Nate & I have been together. Yay!