Comas are things that happen to other people; but remember, we're other people too

One of my coworkers is in a coma.

Even better, it's the Boss's Daughter.

She's barely been working at our store anymore; she got a higher position working at Bluenotes some time back, and only works the odd Saturday shift now. I'd forgotten she wasn't on the schedule this week, as I'd been more than half-expecting to see her today. I'd CERTAINLY expected to see my boss, because unless she's on vacation, Boss Lady is there every. single. day.

Instead, I get to work to find out that BD is in a coma and my boss hasn't been in at all since she's been at the hospital by her daughter's side since early in the morning.

Turns out that she went out partying to celebrate the Stampede, as it's that time of year again in Cowtown. She's always been a HEAVY partier and a heavy drinker (with aspirations to be a bartender), so I imagine she was doing more of the usual. She'd originally gone out with, "my Edo boys," the guys who work next door at Edo Japan; she's gone out to bars with them a lot in the past, and they introduced her to raves. But apparently they got separated at some point in the night (I don't think we know the full story on that yet, so I won't speculate), and sometime early in the morning BD was found by a kind stranger lying unconscious downtown.

Paramedics were called, etc. And when all was said and done, she's in an alcohol-induced coma...and not expected to make it.


Just...what a stunning thing to hear first thing when you walk in the door. I've spent most of today struggling to process this news.

Just last night, I saw her because she came running into the store just as I was about to leave and dropped off a shirt and a straw cowboy hat. (Which I gather she didn't want to take drinking with her.) Since the store belongs to her mom, BD has a tendency to treat it a little like you would your own living room, dropping off possessions in the back and picking them up on a whim.

She said, "'Night Dan, love you!" and went dashing off to meet a friend; I blinked at her back and probably said something like, Oh, you too. Um, goodnight. Mainly I was overwhelmed by the cyclone she can be. As introverted as I am, she can be hard to watch - she's the very definition of "extrovert." As much as I've griped about her in the past, it's because nobody ever tells BD off to her face. You can't. Despite being a spoiled princess, there is something almost forcefully likable about her. She is everyone's best friend. Since she's stopped working here, some things have run quite a bit more smoothly...but it's much, much quieter.

I'm much quieter. I have no one to talk to. Outside of the internet, she's the only person I might have vaguely considered a friend.

Just this morning I was thinking glumly that since House, M.D. is over until September, and Doctor Who is over as of today until...indefinitely...that work was going to get incredibly monotonous. (It's probably sad that the highlight of my week is a television show, but there you go.) Just same old, same old - my biggest fear right now is that I won't be accepted to any school I've applied to, and I'll be stuck another year making tacos for people.

Now, unless BD wakes up, I'm going to be working for a boss who's grieving the loss of her younger daughter. There's no earthly way in this situation that I could quit out of mere boredom, but I don't imagine work is going to feel comfortable for a while.

I keep thinking of things I might have talked to BD about. She hasn't put me on rail the past few Saturdays she's worked, so we're not even beside each other to talk much.

I also thought about how last Halloween she'd wanted me to go in drag, but I didn't because I wasn't prepared with anything suitable to wear. Admittedly, she didn't want this in order to see a boy wear a dress as a costume, but because she wanted to see, "What Dan would have been like as a girl." But I'm not totally opposed to the idea, and I was debating between that or dressing up as the Tenth Doctor for this coming Halloween. I was trying to conjure up some scenario where I might get completely dolled up for her, given that I don't party, wouldn't feel comfortable going out with some fraction of her very large circle of friends, and don't have any other friends I'm in touch with right now that don't live in a box.

Now she's probably never going to see me in drag at all. Or discuss the next season of House. And I might never get together with her to introduce her to Doctor Who, like I've been intending to. And we might never play Guitar Hero together, like we've been meaning to.

Just...


...shit.

Even the episode title hurts

Excellent finale.

( But. )

Two-parter reactions posted together later. I gotta go to work now - I'm going in early to make sure everything will run smoothly without our boss.

Coworker/coma update

So my coworker?

Yeah, she didn't make it. Passed away sometime last night, apparently.

Her mom came into the store tonight to give everyone a hug - something which threw me, since I'd expected to have at LEAST another day to decide what to do or say when I saw her. (I mean, really, what do you say??) So I panicked just a little when she walked in the back door.

But she didn't wait for anyone to come up to her; she just started hugging people.

It's awkward how I just don't tend to react emotionally with as much strength or immediacy as other people do. One of my other coworkers was in tears all day; others kept making worried faces or bringing it up. I'm sure they ALL wondered what they should say, but I don't know if anyone wondered how sad they should pretend to be. Anyone but me, anyway. I mean, is that in any way normal?

When my boss walked in the door, I was faintly aware of my face running through test runs of expressions while I watched everyone else, trying to find a face that matched the emotional tone and volume of the room. (No, nobody was looking at me, as I was behind everyone else.) I was primarily concerned with my boss, of course, but a small part of me was uncomfortably aware of the fact that I was performing sorrow more than feeling it.

Nevertheless, I must have done an okay job hiding that, because my boss took one look at me and literally burst into tears on my shoulder. She said, "She loved you guys so much," and I suspect she meant me in particular at that moment. Not necessarily because BD actually loved me more than anyone else; but because both of them have always been vaguely maternal towards me, and BD in particular had always made it a point to tell me she loved me - for what reason, I can't quite guess. Maybe she just thought I needed to be told that a lot.

So I hugged my boss a lot and rubbed her back, and that seems to have been an okay thing to do, because she recovered and eventually she and her older daughter (BD's sister) left.

Apparently she was a wreck this morning, and the people who remember when she lost her father have suggested that we may need to keep a close eye on the management side of things for ourselves for a while.


My poor boss. She has practically nothing except this business, and then there were her two daughters. I can't imagine, but it must be incredibly hard.