On this day in history...

June 29, 2006 is Irene Freak-Out Day.

Although not celebrated, this is a holiday in my Perpetual Calendar of all things significant and noteworthy. (The calendar dates back to 1992.)

Explanation of Irene Freak-Out Day:

The exact reason for the end of the friendship with Irene is related to her indignant reaction to our moving our business out of her building in Worcester, MA and moving into 26 Valley Rd. in Barre.

As far as I know, the reasons behind her reaction involved some expectation that we were going to buy a building and her business and ours were going to move into it...and/or we were just supposed to stay in her building indefinitely. I'm not really sure what were the reasons because they weren't ever verbalized even though I asked several times.

When we moved our travel business and art gallery to Worcester, we were very upfront about giving the move a one-year trial. After one year, we'd sold exactly TWO pieces of art, so we realized that being in Worcester didn't mean a larger customer base. Since it was about a 35-40 minute drive to Worcester and we'd found space in our hometown of Barre (The Tatman House) we decided to move.

When we told Irene, she didn't say anything and pretty much stopped talking to us altogether. Moving out was stressful and awkward. I had offered the July rent, which she refused.

The friendship ended at that point, which was very upsetting. We'd been the very best of friends for a couple of years, and an abrupt end to the friendship was totally unexpected.

That's the story from my point of view.