On a Friday night in October, two years ago, I joined some friends at Koto for a birthday dinner. From there we headed to the OP for some birthday drinks. When my new friend Michelle decided to leave with some other friends she had just introduced me to, she came over to say goodbye.

"We're going to head to another bar for a while, but I'll meet up with you guys later," she told me.

"Alright, I might head home soon, I'm pretty tired.... but I'll see you at my place for the party tomorrow night, right?"

"Yes!" She said, enthusiastically, "I'll see you then!"

I'm pretty sure you all know the rest of that story.

The past few weeks has been incredibly draining, for obvious reasons. The emotional toll of attending the murder trial, combined withspending time with a group of people who has not spent time with eachother as a group in over a year, was intense. And on top of everything,I had Brian Rooney's face staring me down from every copy of Seven Days, in every little corner of our office.

But through it all I found one calming force. Music.