Unless something awfully important happens today, the blog is taking a time out.
I received an email this morning with the news that my former assistant, Christina Loehrke (now Smith) had been stabbed to death near her home in Fayetteville, NC.
She was 29. She was a gentle soul, an inherently kind and good person and she was brilliant. She was highly competitive, but kept things in perspective. Her potential was unlimited.
Not long before she resigned to move to Texas with her (now) husband, she joined a few of us on the MS 150 Charity Ride for Multiple Sclerosis. We all had expensive road bikes, biking gear and were pretty serious riders. Christina had her 10-speed from high school and tennis shoes. But she trained for it and gathered a lot of pledges. That year, the organizers changed the route and instead of the gentle spin through the countryside that we expected, it was a grueling, hilly, torturous 75 mile course. At about mile 35, we urged Christina to quit. Heck, we were considering it. She wouldn't hear of it. She completed the 75 on Saturday and over dinner, we told her not to bother for Sunday. Again, she wouldn't hear of it. She was there at the start at 7 am Sunday and completed the ride. It was an incredible performance, and she was at work before me on Monday morning.
I haven't seen or talked to her since early 2002, but that doesn't make me any less sad. Poking fun at Sarah Palin or creating mock indignation against some J-Mac lie just isn't going to happen. My thoughts and prayers are with Christina's parents and her family.