And so it goes ...

Tonight I fly back home to Chicago to attend a service for one of my friends.

This is a friend I've known since childhood, dated after high school, and was one of only 2 people I kept in contact with after I moved to TN 15 years ago.

We hadn't talked in a few months, but that was ok.

It's how a lot of old friendships go - you can go stretches without any contact, but it's as if no time has passed when you talk next. It's the type of connection you can only have with someone you've known for 20+ years (in this case, almost 30). An old, comfortable friendship.

There's something completely different about it, though, when you know the person's gone.

I've been flopping back and forth from ok to not so ok. Fine one moment, crying the next. Patrick's been super supportive and it's made this a bit easier for me.

I'll have to find a way to bring him a pizza from the best pizza place in the world - Giordano's.

People are flying into Chicago from all over the country - some of us are part of that core group of friends from high school, others are people he met only online who were touched by his amazing intelligence, wicked humor, and kind heart.

From what I can tell, there is likely to be at least a couple hundred people showing up at his wake on Tuesday. I can google his name and find several sites mentioning his passing, with pages of replies and memories of their own.

I can't think of a worse reason to return home for the first time in several years.

RIP Frank.