… or, why I love lurkernomore. 
This last week has been quite hellish. First, the fear of the terrorist attacks and praying that there wasn’t anyone I knew in the buildings as I waited for 3+ hours outside of Penn Station to get home. Then, I received a phone call from my father telling me, “You know that hurricane in the Gulf? Well, it’s headed right for us.” (thankfully, not an incredibly damaging one, but since my dad and step-mom live on a small body of water, there is worry none-the-less). Then, while in upstate NY for my sister’s bridal shower, my sister called my father to talk about the father-daughter dance. That’s when he told her that he wouldn’t be able to make it because of his health. (Didn’t blame him, blamed my step-mom b/c she had said she wasn’t coming previously. My thoughts were if she came, he wouldn’t have to drive it, and he would be able to make it there) Yesterday morning just continued the pattern when I ended up being an hour late for work because the traffic was so bad heading toward the Licoln Tunnel. I wanted to go home and go to sleep, waking up to find that it was last Tuesday morning and NONE OF THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN.
I called lurker when I got to the office, and he noticed how down I was. Things started getting busy on my end, so I had to let him go, but he called me back later, just to see how I was doing. Made me smile and did brighten my day.
I took the train home and he picked me up from the train station because of the luggage I was carrying. When I got in the car, he asked me if I wanted fondue for dinner and told me his original plan was to go to my house before I got home and start it, and surprise me with it when I got home, but he wasn’t sure if I wanted it for dinner, or if I would want to eat as soon as I walked in the door. When we got back to my place, he made the fondue (he doesn’t cook much, but he’s getting to be a real fondue expert! 
) I was reading the e-mail I’d missed over the previous weekend and found another shoe to drop. My father’s health is much, MUCH worse than originally known. He may be spending time in the hospital because of it. If he’s not careful, I could lose him sooner rather than later. It was too much, and I became hysterical. lurker just held me, let me cry it out, calmed me down and talked me into reason. It’s what I needed.
Not long after, he finished the fondue, and we sat down for a wonderful, quiet dinner. I’ll leave the rest of the evening to your imaginations, but I will say that we never did make it to the darts match we were planning on going to!
I want to publicly thank him for being who he is, which is there for me.
And so this doesn’t become a TP and lurker thread, what has someone done to bring you back up?