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Memories from the Newport Beach Relay for Life...May 19-20, 2007

Where People Know Your Name

Work closed early due to office renovations and I'm hanging out this afternoon at my favorite coffee shop in the world ... Sips Coffee and Tea. Best coffee, best staff, best big comfy leather chairs, and free wireless internet. Every starving student's dream. This morning I had to break the news of my impending move to Kristen and Shon (the a.m. staff that keep me caffeinated and make me smile) and it was actually really sad. The closest I've come to tears since making this decision. At a coffee shop, of all places.

I guess the emotions were spurred by the knowledge that I'm leaving behind a lot of really great memories here. The last few years were some of the most challenging I've faced in my young life and they all happened here in Durham, so you'd think I'd be chomping at the bit to get out of here. But instead I dwell on the good things and Sips has been one of the best there is.

This is the kind of place where the correct coffee cup size and your favorite pastry have been laid out for you the minute they see your car pull up in the parking lot. I've actually arrived to find my Mocha Blenz already blended. The morning patrons know each other's names and newcomers are made to feel like they are part of the family the moment they step in the door. In the midst of my crazy life, I knew I could come here and breathe.

There's nothing better than escaping to a place that is yours to enjoy. I've shared this place with friends and arranged for meetings here, but I still consider it mine. I come here alone to be alone but also be surrounded by people who are always up for conversation. I hope there's a Sips-like place back home that I can discover by accident. This place has saved my sanity.

Change of Plans

Sooooo.... After a great deal of soul-searching, I've decided it's time to go home and be with my family. It actually wasn't a hard decision to make. Do I a) put off nursing school for one more year and be with the people I love or b) try to focus while 3,000 miles away doctors are doing God-knows-what to keep fighting this beast in my dad's body? It's so obvious.

Yes, there is much unpredictability about what will happen. But I have options. Duke knows my situation and has said I can choose to defer and know I have a spot to come back to with next year's class. So I can go home and if things go swimmingly, I know I have something to come back to. I can also apply to programs out in California (UCSF is one of the top nursing programs in the country) so that I start next summer instead of this August. So in a way I'm one year behind, but most of the programs out there are Master's Entry programs, meaning you start a graduate nursing program with a Bachelor's degree in something besides nursing. It's three years instead of 16 months, but I'd have a Master's on the other end and be preparing to be licensed as a nurse practitioner to boot. I'd probably get there faster through this route than through 4 semesters at Duke, a couple of years of working to pay off loans, then another 2-3 years in a graduate program.

Actually the most daunting part of this are the hellish logistics to take care of in the next 6 weeks. Will Mr. D be coming with me or stay behind for about a year and then join me next summer, hopefully in San Francisco? Do we try to sell the house or put it up for rent? Do we REALLY have to pack and move AGAIN? How will we be able to afford living in CA when we're barely surviving here? Do we pack and ship, or use a Pod and pay to have it stored in a Pod warehouse until we know what the heck we're doing? Do we try to trade in Lola for a better car (if we can afford it) and then do the cross-country road trip (which I've always wanted to do)? Do I quit work a week earlier than planned and we drive out to meet my family for the August trip to Catalina? Or do we fly out for the trip, fly back to finish packing and then make the big drive? If we're not working in August where will the money come from to pay the bills? Our savings is nonexistent right now.

But all that pales in comparison to this.... there will be no regrets that I wasn't there or didn't do enough or didn't spend enough time. The logistics will be taken care of one detail at a time. So where to begin...

Lord Stanley's Chalice

My father and brother are humongous Anaheim Ducks fans! I take pride in turning them onto hockey 15 years ago, before there even were Ducks and we cheered for the L.A. Kings. When the Ducks (then the Mighty Ducks) first came to town, I teased my brother endlessly about cheering for a team named after a Disney movie. A hockey game is the perfect place to drown in testosterone. So a team whose cheer was "Quack quack" was not going to get my respect.

But as the years have passed, Dad and bro have gone to more and more Ducks games, and every once in a while have taken along me or my sister. The Mighty Ducks of yesteryear featuring the cartoonish "Wild Wing" are no more - they're now just "The Ducks" with a catchy logo, crazy colors and kickass players. Testosterone reigns at the Anaheim Pond, er, the Honda Center. Damn corporations! I've never seen such hard checks, such fearlessness, and such skill combined into one team.

The season started magically and rarely was less than that. Our boys in orange and black dominated the Pacific Division and the Western Conference, and stormed through the Stanley Cup playoffs to face Ottawa in the final round. It only took five games for them to knock off the final obstacle to hoisting the cup above their heads.

The best part of it all was that my dad and brother got to be there. They were one of the screaming fans that lit up the Honda Center last night. Dad had said before the series started "I hope they win the first two at home and then lose one of two away, so they can come home to Anaheim and win the Stanley Cup here in Game 5." They must have read his mind, because that is exactly what they did.

Who knows what the future holds for my dad or my family. But I'm just thankful that for this time, all of our minds are off the cancer and on the Cup.

Thanks for winning this one for Dad, guys!

Tragedy Back Home

Just when you begin to come to terms with the ups and downs of life, you get hit in the gut with news like this.

I attended elementary and junior high school with Amy and it is safe to say she was one of the kindest, most thoughtful people I have EVER met. She was just one of those people that everyone loved. I grieve for her family and her young husband but I take comfort in the fact that she lived her life to the fullest and made such a huge difference during such a short life.

Why do horrific things like this always seem to happen to the good people?

Pilot writer's daughter killed
Religion columnist and daughter were traveling on I-5 when the van's left rear tire burst and sent the vehicle off the road.
By Kelly Strodl

Amy Strutzenberg was the kind of person who made things happen.

At 21, she earned a master's degree from Stanford University, and the Corona del Mar High School graduate was moving back to the area to get her MBA from UCLA.

Those plans ended when she died in a car accident on Sunday. She was 25.

The daughter of Newport Beach residents John and Cindy Trane Christeson, a religion columnist for the Daily Pilot, Strutzenberg was a passenger in the car her mother was driving on a trip from Strutzenberg's home in the Bay Area when the left rear tire of their van burst and sent the vehicle rolling off the road.

Christeson, who has written "The Moral of the Story" column for the Pilot for about 10 years, was driving south on I-5 near Bakersfield when the accident happened, CHP authorities said Tuesday. She attempted to turn off the highway but instead lost control of the vehicle, Buttonwillow Highway Patrol spokesman Rick Jorgensen said. Strutzenberg was ejected from the van and died on impact, Jorgensen said.

It is unclear whether Strutzenberg was wearing a seatbelt, but she was seated in a reclining position that would have negated the restraint's protection, Jorgensen said.

Christeson was taken to Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield and treated for minor to moderate injuries.

"Her heart is broken," husband John said. "She's … grateful that she was with Amy when it happened. Our challenge now is to not be sad. Every minute we spent with her was just joy."

Strutzenberg and her husband, Tyson, had just sold their home in San Mateo and were in the midst of moving back to Southern California to pursue graduate degrees from UCLA.

Cindy Christeson flew up over the weekend to make the trip south and spend some time with her youngest daughter.

John Christeson spent the past two days calling Amy's family, friends and co-workers to break the news.

Monday, he spoke with David Poe, managing director at Edgar, Dunn & Co., where Strutzenberg worked for the last three years as a financial consultant.

After they heard the news, the firm's staff gathered to grieve and reminisce about the good times with someone who personally invested in all of their lives.

"She was the kind of person who was always going out of her way to do things for people," Poe said.

"Whenever anybody needed help, they knew she would always make time for them, and she was in such high demand because she was always thinking beyond her responsibilities to others," he added.

"When she knew people needed an uplift, she would bring in her bread. We couldn't wait for the day Amy would bring in the banana bread."

Poe saw Strutzenberg for the last time Sunday, when he took her to lunch for a chat about the future in the hopes he could keep her involved with the firm.

"Amy was probably the brightest, most capable person we've ever hired," Poe said.

"I hated to see her go to graduate school but knew she was destined to go … improve herself and the lives of others," he added.

Last year, she became the youngest senior consultant at the global financial firm in San Francisco since the firm opened in 1978.

Before re-embarking on their educations, Strutzenberg and her husband planned a trip to Vancouver, B.C., in July, then planned to fly to Peru and spend the summer building houses for the needy.

"She had an idea and went and made it happen," Christeson said. "She was just that kind of person."

The family is in the process of planning memorial services.

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