Right after I posted the long post below, I turned on iTunes to listen to those songs.   For some reason iTunes put a link to bossa nova singer "Bebel Gilberto" in the suggestions box at the bottom of the screen.   That got my attention as I am a fan of Joao Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto.    I listened to a sample which reminded me of an afternoon 11 years ago.   Back then I worked at the Biology Department at Utah State University.   One of my favorite professors was Dr. Janis Skujins.   One day he asked me to come over to his house to install a printer.   His basement was a museum exact replica of what I imagined a hip sixties jazz lovers basement to be.   I told the good Doctor that I felt we should be listening to Bossa Nova in such a place.   Why I would remember that small episode I don't know, but it got me curious about Dr. Skujins.   A Google search showed that he died almost three years ago.  That site is focused on the community where I used to live, where I grew up.  As I scanned the obituaries page I caught the name Erin Christine Betz, my first girlfriend.

Erin and I dated in our senior year of High School.  We both went to different schools, me to Sky View (a school on the edge of cow pastures) and she to Logan (in the big city of 40,000 people).   I really liked someone else, and went to a dance at Logan High to find her.  Instead I ended up dancing many times with Erin and leaving with her.  It is so very cliche, but that night was my first time kissing, in my Dad's OldsmoBuick up on the hill overlooking Logan.   We went out for maybe 6 months or so after that.  I remember once while we were dating, Erin called me and said "If you really love me you will put on your Sunday clothes (Utah speak for nice shirt and pants, tie and jacket if you have one) and come over to my house this morning.   She wouldn't tell me why, but when I arrived she asked me to go with her to her grandmother's funeral.  She said she just wanted me to sit next to her and hold her hand, that she didn't like funerals.  Those few months were all good.  I learned a lot about dating and what to say (and not say) to a girlfriend.  I think Erin matured faster than I did and we grew apart as graduation neared.   I lost touch with her after graduation as our lives took different paths.  

It hits home when someone your age, someone you were close to for a time is now gone.  It puts many things in perspective and I really feel for Erin, for the things that will be missed in a life cut short, and I think that I must live life more fully, because you never know...

Rest in Peace, Erin Betz, thanks for those few months long ago in high school.

And as for Doctor Janis Skujins?  His office was upstairs from mine, and he would often come down and talk.  By that time he was an Emeritus Professor, mostly retired but still editing a journal.  We would talk about his homeland in the Baltics, he was from Latvia.   The fall of the iron curtain was just a few years before. He would travel there every so often and bring back Latvian chocoloate.  He would offer me a piece and say "Much better than Belgian chocolate, no?"  I would joke in reply, "Yes, but compared to Hershey's..."   

The best part of that job was hanging out talking to professors.  They would explain their science to me, and I would try to keep up.   It was a good job, mostly because of those professors and their willingness to spend some time talking to the computer guy about any imaginable topic.