Remembering last year!
When you lose someone you love you spend a lot of time replaying the last days that you spent with them. I really wish I would have written things down sooner since I’m sure I have forgotten things.
Patrick turned 49 one week before he died. I bought tickets to the Paul McCartney concert for his birthday. Originally I bought two but then I ended up buying two more for the girls. Since I bought them at separate times we weren’t sitting together. Sierra came home from Long Beach that day and stayed through the weekend. Patrick wanted to go to The Mad Duck for dinner but we called them on the way and they were already super busy. So we ended up going to the Elephant Lounge, a mostly Indian restaurant. As we drove into the parking lot we were relieved that it was mostly empty. There was one small car in the front. Someone said it was good it wasn’t crowded and Camille said, “Oh, but there’s a clown convention in town”. Patrick beamed with pride. He was almost as proud of their sense of humor as he was their other accomplishments.
Dinner was great. We took pre-concert pictures that turned out to be my last picture ever with Patrick. While we were enjoying some naan bread Sierra began singing “Naan, naan, naan, naan, naan, naan, hey, hey, hey…”. We all laughed and Patrick beamed with pride again. 
Whe
n we got to the concert there were already long lines so we ended up waiting quite a while but Patrick kept us entertained and we took the picture of Patrick and the girls that I love and another of Patrick acting goofy (at the top of this post).
When we 
finally got inside the girls headed to their seats and we texted each other pictures of the view. The girls were much closer to the stage! Then we found Phillip and Becky in their section.
Thirty minutes after the scheduled concert start time Patrick started saying that it was very unprofessional that he was starting so late and if he didn’t start in the n ext ten minutes we were leaving. This was kind of a typical Patrick thing to be upset about something like this. I hoped he wouldn’t leave but there was no way I was leaving! I knew the girls wouldn’t leave either. Luckily the concert started and we had a great time!
I don’t remember everything we did over the next few days but I know Camille had a track meet on Saturday so we went to watch that. We hated saying goodbye to Sierra on Sunday but we knew the semester was almost over and we would see her again soon.
On Monday we had the Clovis East girls soccer awards dinner. This was a little later than normal due to our post season games. We had a nice time and the girls got a l ot of recognition. Coach Jasara said some nice things about Camille and she had special Valley Champion jackets made for the team.
That week I was having two online Jamberry parties. One customer had questions and I offered to take her a sample. When I learned she was leaving that Saturday for a cruise I decided she needed a full set of Jams! On Tuesday we had to pick the bus up from the shop. Patrick drove my car to work and then picked me up so I could take him to get the bus. On the ride there I told him how much fun I was having with Jamberry. I had no expectations of getting rich but it just brought me a lot of joy. He was happy that I was happy.
That night after dinner I went to the customer’s house and had a really nice visit with her while I showed her how to apply the nail wraps. As I drove home I made plans with Cathy to meet at Mickeys yogurt since we knew they had our favorite flavor, Oatmeal Cookie Gelato. I took a picture of Cathy enjoying hers and sent it to Camille to tease her. Of course she would know that I would bring some home to her! I look at that picture occasionally and it’s surreal that I was having such a good evening and the next day he was gone!
When I got home I remember that Camille was doing homework in the family room and Patrick was watching TV in the living room and enjoying a beer. Or two. I remember telling him what a great evening I had but I don’t think it was a particularly long conversation. I went into the family room with Camille and I ended up staying up late scheduling Facebook posts for my parties so they would post throughout the day while I was working. He went to bed at some point and said good night. When I went to bed he was asleep and I didn’t wake him. 🙁 When I woke up Wednesday he was already gone. Literally.
I am so grateful that we made so many memories that last week. I’m extremely happy that Sierra was home for 5 days and we had so much fun at the concert. And of course Patrick came home from the concert and learned to play Blackbird. At some point he recorded it and I will cherish that video for the rest of my life!
