Happy Valentines Day you sexy hunka man!

Hi Steve,

I have been in Virginia Beach all week, using up our timeshare block. Yeah, they sold us week #6, and usually it's not so crazy and cold here, but this year apparently, winter has sucked here as much as Pittsburgh and the whole east coast. To us, though, a 40 degree day is a heatwave compared to the 'burgh! We left when the temp was 15 degrees!

Tomorrow ends our time here, though, and we are off to Washington DC for a kinky hotel event all weekend. It's called "Dark Odyssey." Should be fun, we'll know several people from camp who will be attending as well.

Saturday, they will bury my high school friend, Cindy. I have ordered flowers to be sent to the church, for her memorial service. I am still reeling from her death. Same age as me, same home town, same high school, etc. It is all just too close to home, ya know?  I am not doing well with handling all these losses of people I care about. Does it ever get easier, I wonder?  And now, Shirley Temple and Sid Caesar have also died--along with Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Damn.

Sometimes it feels like there won't be anybody left but me.  I know that sounds irrational but all the good people are dropping like flies all around me....soon it will be the hardest hit...my Holocaust Survivor friend, Nesse Godin.  I will be a complete wreck when she is gone.  She is the last of my "peeps" that I was closest to when I worked at the Museum.  Jacob Weiner and Manya Friedman were my other 2 best buddies. Kurt Pauly is another one, he is Anne Frank's cousin.  There were several other Survivors that I worked with who are gone now too.  It just hurts my heart every time.

In other news, tonight Pete and I had dinner at a Greek restaurant with my friends Kim and Kathy. They are planning a trip to California in April and they want me to come along. But, I told them I am not as obsessed with YOU---yes, they are going there to find YOU...or, at least, to see your home town and your high school and things like that...I joked, "I won't have enough stalker bail money to get all 3 of us outta jail!"  They don't like the word "stalker," they said....they consider it "creative searching."  Ahem.  Well, you KNOW I love you Stephen, but I really have no interest in stalking you!!!  Sorry, you are awesome and all, but that's just not how I roll. Now, if you actually called to INVITE me, I might stop by to say hello.  I wouldn't maul or molest you (unless you asked me nicely), and I wouldn't wear out my welcome. But, until that day comes (and it probably never will), I think I will just "live vicariously through them" as the embark on their pilgramage to the land of Steve Perry.

I love watching the waves on the ocean. It is mesmerizing. The overwhelming power of it just fascinates me. There's a whole world under that water that I'll never see.  But I do worry about YOUR ocean, with all that radiation (300 tons per day) traveling to your coast line from Fukishima Japan's nuclear plant leaks. That really has me freaked out. Your water and fish are contaminated...this leak has been happening every day for the past 2.5 years and they don't know how to stop it. And with the oil spills in West Virginia that are STILl poisoning the water, it won't be long before that will spread to MY neck of the woods.

It seems like we are both doomed. This world just depresses the shit outta me.

Pete and I exchanged Valentines gifts already...I gave him some heart suspenders (that he will probably never wear), some snacks that he likes, a gift card for Fandango to get movie tickets, and a restaurant gift card too. Along with a Batman pen.  He gave me a stuffed animal that sings and lights up. (Last minute thing, I think). But, he also let me go shopping at the mall.

And tomorrow I won't see him much because his "girlfriend" Judy will be attending Dark Odyssey also. Sigh.  He really loves her, I think. More on that later.

Have a Happy Valentines Day Steve!!! I love ya!!! Hugs!!

Love, Rebecca