R.I.P. Alicia Joy Strauss

This Journal entry is dedicated in loving memory of my GOOD friend Alicia Joy Strauss!

*We miss you and we love you! You will always be in our hearts and thoughts!*

My good friend Alicia Joy Strauss passed away friday. I was in denial this whole week. When I got the call Saturday I was in total disbelief. I kept saying, "There's no way! She'll be saying in a week or so that it was a joke and that this was just for everybody to be together." I kept thinking there was someway that she faked her pulse not beating, and that it was just her way of making everyone coming together for a laugh. She used to always do disappearing acts (along with her ex-girlfriend) when they lived down the hall from me. So, I just thought this was another one of those acts, I was NOT ready to admit that Alicia was TRULY resting in heaven and I finally had to deal with a death of a loved one. Alicia was the first person that I've known to pass away. I never had any friends or family pass away. She was the first, so it didn't sink in until tonight when I was at her viewing. I bawled so hard that I couldn't breathe and my good friend Dee (which was Alicia's ex and best friend for 9 years, but Dee is also my sister's ex and Dee is also one of my CLOSE friends) jumped the first time she heard me do it, then she started rubbing my back, trying to comfort me, but it just wasn't working. When I walked up to the casket, I thought she was going to jump up at me and say, "Ha, I got you Theresa!" "Ha, I got everybody, now where's the party? Let's go celebrate my life!" It was horrible looking at her like that, she was beaten really bad, and the makeup was not covering it, she had black and blue marks everywhere. I started thinking of stupid things we used to say and do. When I walked up to say my final goodbye, I was standing there with Julie (her ex, that broke up with her about 2 or 3 weeeks before her death) and Dee, I started thinking about how Julie and Alicia used to come down the hall and say to me, "Theresa, let me pop all your pipples!" I would always say, "NO! That's gross!" Of course Julie and Alicia would not take NO for an answer, so they would get Dee to help pin me down and pop pipples all over my face and back ..... ALL THE TIME ..... so as I was standing there thinking about that, I turned to them and told them what I was thinking and Miah (lived upstairs from Alicia, and someone I've known since I was like 5) and Julie and Dee started laughing and I was crying and I said, "Now who is going to pin me down and pop all my pipples?" Miah says, "Now I can't pour water on her head and watch her hair grow,  I lost my chia pet."

For anyone who has had to deal with a death .... I feel your pain .... GOSH it hurts SO bad ..... you don't know when you will see happiness again!

Alicia I just want you to know that I love you, I miss you dearly, and I will never forget all the times we had together. All the late nights. All the just sitting around because we didn't have anything to do. All the fights. All the times I always got stuck walking to A-Plus at 4:00 in the morning with my sister (almost everyday) to get everyone cigarettes. All the times we would sit out front of the club and just chill. All the times you told me what I was doing right or wrong. All the times that I made you and Julie dinner, because you two couldn't afford groceries. All the times we complained how hot it was up there. All the times we would argue over stupid LITTLE things. All the times we would run down to Tyrone's apartment to tell him something. All the times you would yell at my sister for running down the hall, pounding on the wall, her being lazy, or her being selfish. All the times me and my sister would try to come and wake you and Julie up, just because we missed you over the night, even though you were 15 feet away from us, in your apartment. All the times we would bum cigarettes from each other (when I smoked).

I'll never forget the day Dean's Newsstand caught on fire and me and my sister came running down the hall to wake you and julie up and tell you about the fire and how it might spread over to our house. You two were so sound asleep that you didn't hear all the commotion, not even the fire trucks that were right outside your bedroom window. Then when you two finally woke up HOURS later, we told you, and you said the next time, we should just kick the door down.

Alicia Joy Strauss, I LOVE YOU!                REST IN PEACE!