Callaluna - I am so sorry. Had no idea this is this bad (I am trying to avoid news here as much as possible, other than hearing the 7:30am radio news brief and whatever comes in Twitter. It's like poison to my nerves).

If Belgium is scary, the whole world is unsafe.

I can't remember if I read it here or somewhere else - maybe in the weekend's newspaper, so apologies if I'm repeating anyone. There was this article about the awful things that happened in France that ended with "when other people's most catastrophic and violent fantasies are coming true, there is no choice but pulling [one's own] other fantasies in front of them". And I feel that this is very true. Especially with ita.

I think inflicting a headache on one of her friends would be about the last way ita would want to mark her passing. Now, if your TV turned itself off as a Halle Berry movie came on Saturday night, I might not be so quick to dismiss it as coincidence.

I was seeing it more as a serious disruption in the Force than ita smacking a friend upside the head.

Her call? Clearly the Halle Berry thing.

I was seeing it more as a serious disruption in the Force than ita smacking a friend upside the head.

That's what I thought, too. All that pain had to go somewhere.

I probably spent more time thinking about this than you really intended. I believe it was not a conscious act of ita's spirit but rather a matter of empathy. For whatever reason, your brain and spirit were receptive to the brief connection and you felt with her. The idea gives a joy (not a happiness, mind) similar to what I had when I read that ita had her laptop open, reading email ... she was not truly alone. However that no one was physically at her side, ita was not alone in spirit.

Allyson, do you want to just take a look at the photos people have been posting on FB, and see if there's any you (or someone else, or her family) likes, and either take from there, or ask whoever posted them for?

I am not a writer, and can't help with the statement, but I'm guessing someone here who's good at that could take some of the stuff people have written in this thread, and some of ita's words that have been quoted here, and make something pretty damn awesome. Though not as awesome as ita.

I believe it was not a conscious act of ita's spirit

I don't, either. If anything, I think it was that all that pain had to go somewhere.

For whatever reason, your brain and spirit were receptive to the brief connection and you felt with her.

If I explain the dream I had Tuesday morning right before I woke up to the news of ita's death, you all really WILL think I'm crazy, because it requires an understanding of the connections my brain makes with things. But suffice it to say that I think my subconscious felt everyone's pain Tuesday morning while I slept. Really. (It's happened before, and it makes ME feel crazy.)

Allyson, do you want to just take a look at the photos people have been posting on FB, and see if there's any you (or someone else, or her family) likes, and either take from there, or ask whoever posted them for?

Anyone who has access to her Flickr serenada account [link] can take a look -- there are many, many good pictures there. Of just ita, of ita and her family, ita and Buffistas, ita and krav people, and (I think) a couple Montreal pictures.

I have to run out the door for most of the rest of the day, but I can look when I get back if no one else does.

I'm in the process of putting the pictures from Facebook all in one place.

Thanks, Ginger. I should have asked you to begin with.

I think that flickr account is open to everyone. I'm currently logged into flickr on an account that I know she didn't add as a contact (since it's one that my family just uses for family photos), and I can see all the photos there.