Ups and Downs
I know it looks like I haven't posted in a while, but I've got a fair number of private posts racked up now.
The Greenbride family's been having a really ill-fated year. There was the repeated flooding of my parents house, which caused panic attacks in both my mother and sister, the end of my grandfather's long battle with cancer, and now, my uncle's cancer has decided to kick into high gear as well. On top of all this, we recently learned that a close friend of the family has been diagnosed with stage II lung cancer--inoperable.
This is the father of one of my brother's childhood friends--we played defense together on the high school soccer team, and had dinner at each other's houses more times than I can remember. I took on the incredibly frustrating job of installing windows 98 and a new harddrive on his wife's 486, back in high school, and I distinctly remember enjoying every conversation I had with this man. He's one of those no-nonsense construction contractors, the kind you actually want working on your house, who'll tell you how much it'll really cost to fix/build something, what can go wrong, and honestly keep you abreast of progress. The kind of guy who gets things done, and doesn't make a lot of fuss about it. Unfortunately, it looks like many of the places he worked contained asbestos, and he's got more than any 50 people should have in his lungs.
The doctors gave him 12 months. My father saw him recently, and says he's starting to show that washed-out pallor with which we've become far too familiar. Cancer isn't an abstract concept for me anymore, and the tools we currently use to treat it seem more and more like fumbling in the dark. How can we not have a better understanding or method of care for a condition that affects such a large percentage of our population?
So, this isn't all that's been happening in my life. I've loved every second Evelyn and I have been able to spend together over the last 5 (count'em!) months, made progress in my salsa classes, and even led an Israeli Dance night almost entirely on my own. I've got pictures from the wedding of one of Evelyn's Japanese friends at the Ritz Carlton in LA, from Evelyn's first Ballroom dance competition with her new partner (at which they placed in every event!), as well as of my costume for this year's Halloween bash with the Oak Street kids (hint: it involves preternaturally blond hair). The weekend before last we managed to visit 3 parties (out of 5 invitations) and have dinner with Shoshana and Keith (my childhood friend and her husband) who're moving out to the Bay Area for Keith's new job(, and to have Shosh's baby)!
Finally, I'm writing this from home, the night before my brother's marriage and four days before his exit show, the culmination of his 5 years of college art work.
So, I've been keeping busy, but my mind's been in a rather private place lately.
Hope no one minds.
The Greenbride family's been having a really ill-fated year. There was the repeated flooding of my parents house, which caused panic attacks in both my mother and sister, the end of my grandfather's long battle with cancer, and now, my uncle's cancer has decided to kick into high gear as well. On top of all this, we recently learned that a close friend of the family has been diagnosed with stage II lung cancer--inoperable.
This is the father of one of my brother's childhood friends--we played defense together on the high school soccer team, and had dinner at each other's houses more times than I can remember. I took on the incredibly frustrating job of installing windows 98 and a new harddrive on his wife's 486, back in high school, and I distinctly remember enjoying every conversation I had with this man. He's one of those no-nonsense construction contractors, the kind you actually want working on your house, who'll tell you how much it'll really cost to fix/build something, what can go wrong, and honestly keep you abreast of progress. The kind of guy who gets things done, and doesn't make a lot of fuss about it. Unfortunately, it looks like many of the places he worked contained asbestos, and he's got more than any 50 people should have in his lungs.
The doctors gave him 12 months. My father saw him recently, and says he's starting to show that washed-out pallor with which we've become far too familiar. Cancer isn't an abstract concept for me anymore, and the tools we currently use to treat it seem more and more like fumbling in the dark. How can we not have a better understanding or method of care for a condition that affects such a large percentage of our population?
So, this isn't all that's been happening in my life. I've loved every second Evelyn and I have been able to spend together over the last 5 (count'em!) months, made progress in my salsa classes, and even led an Israeli Dance night almost entirely on my own. I've got pictures from the wedding of one of Evelyn's Japanese friends at the Ritz Carlton in LA, from Evelyn's first Ballroom dance competition with her new partner (at which they placed in every event!), as well as of my costume for this year's Halloween bash with the Oak Street kids (hint: it involves preternaturally blond hair). The weekend before last we managed to visit 3 parties (out of 5 invitations) and have dinner with Shoshana and Keith (my childhood friend and her husband) who're moving out to the Bay Area for Keith's new job(, and to have Shosh's baby)!
Finally, I'm writing this from home, the night before my brother's marriage and four days before his exit show, the culmination of his 5 years of college art work.
So, I've been keeping busy, but my mind's been in a rather private place lately.
Hope no one minds.