This has been an odd but decent day... I am about to embark on the second half of my love affair with the closet organizer so all of my shoes may find a proper home... Chris' sister keeps calling... I know she's doing her best to reach out and it's frustrating... how can I be upset with her? She's lost her brother... but our conversations inevitably turn to how angry I am that the girlfriend has his remains and she has yet to return my phone calls... the kids are starting to wonder what happened to their pet mice that were at Daddy's... maybe they died, too... they want to know when she'll let us go over and get their stuff... so I tell Chris' sister that it would be greatly appreciated if someone would talk to her on our behalf because the longer she takes, the more likely it will be that this will all be settled in a court and that can only get ugly... having his sister call like that is starting to be stressful... I have managed to make it through most days without looking at what has been lost... I have managed to put one foot in front of the other and put the pieces of our lives back where they belong... and then the phone rings and it's her... and I can feel the tears welling in my eyes and I have to excuse myself from where the kids can see me... I really don't want to cry any more over him... and I'm finding myself talking to him when I'm annoyed and ask him to give me a sign of what I should do... that's when I check my email and see that "Chris" and "Peace" have notices posted on my freecycle group back to back... and these are not normally people who post much on our group... I also had another parent interview today and turns out she knew Chris... she works at the bar where he spent many many nights being himself and was a bit shocked when I told her that he died... this truly is a small world... so basically my mind's a bit scattered today and I am going to go do the one thing that brings me peace... I'm going to go play with my power tools and put away my shoes...