An update with a side of levity, not brevity

Thanks to those who listened to my introspective post yesterday. I've pulled it, because it stirs too many emotions for me. Thank you Montserrat for your comment.

I attended Justin's funeral Tuesday morning. It was one of the most spiritual, touching services I've been to. The family pictures on the program were so - well, you could just feel how much they loved him by looking at the pictures. They were wearing white shirts and khaki pants and in one of them all of his siblings were kissing him at the same time while mom and dad embraced all of them. There was so much joy in their faces they were radiant. That is what I want my family to feel for each other.

I suppose there are some changes I need to make. Far too often my children have felt the worry, the tension and the stress of what we're dealing with. We are going to put F-U-N back into the picture.

We will meet with the surgeon (who happens to look a lot like this guy) on Thursday. I'm pretty sure he will suggest waiting for 5 or 6 weeks to see if the tumor has stabilized at this smaller size before deciding whether surgery is necessary. We're just concerned that the tumor will start growing again now that it's not being assaulted with chemo and end up being too large to remove.

We found out today that the Tumor Review Board will actually discuss Ty's case next Monday, and we will have their opinion on June 5th.

If there is going to be some time in between now and the next step, I'd like to put us all on a plane and go somewhere with sandy beaches to walk on, hammocks to nap and listen to the surf in, and dolphins to swim with. And for just one week, put all of the medical stuff behind us to reconnect and enjoy each other.

Now for a tip from your friendly neighorhood uptight gal - there is nothing like sinking your hands into the earth and ripping out scores of weeds by their little, rooty hearts to make you feel great. Try it, it's very satisfying. It's even more so if you forget to put on your gardening gloves first and you can feel each finger wrap around their noxious little stems.

This only applies to weeds though, not people. Wrapping your fingers around anyone's noxious little stems will only get you into trouble and we're trying for stress relief here.

Every once in awhile, I have some questions rattling around in the back of my mind - none of them important - but they're still there. Like that song from the Muppet Show that gets stuck in your head when you hear it -


Does anybody remember the Muppet Show?

Anyway, as I was wondering:

1) Where did these come from? French Manicure Acrylic Toenails are kinda cool, in a creepy way. Too bad I didn't invent them - I'd be living on that island I was going to buy in the South Pacific by now. At least you don't have to worry about how to zip up your jeans or pick up change off the counter like you do with acrylic fingernails. Probably, the biggest hazard is to your sleeping spouse in the form of an accidental (or not) toenail bloodletting - some of those puppies are pretty long.

2) Do your plastic container lids "multiply and replenish" every time you close the cupboard door? I think I have about 1/10th the number of containers as I do lids. Maybe the containers have just up and run off with the mates to the socks in my unmatched-sock bag. The numbers come out about right.


3) How come, no matter how late at night I'm out driving, I always arrive at a stop sign the very same time someone is driving through the intersection, but there is no one to be seen before or after them for miles? This is so strange to me - why do I arrive at a deserted intersection at just the same time as the only other driver out and about?

4) Can you take a doctor seriously when he looks like the bad guy in an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie? This is, of course, a reference to my son's surgeon. And I'm really just blowing off steam here - he's a very good surgeon who just happens to look like an actor. Who plays bad guys in movies.

5) How come a teaspoon of frozen OJ concentrate gets rid of the hiccups?

I'll save the rest of my many musings for another posting.