May You Live in Interesting Times

It's been several weeks since I last posted here. It's not been lack of interest that's kept me away. No, it's just been a lively month. Where do I start....

OK, (1) Adam came home for a visit. We had a week to get our "oldest son" fix, and teach him enough recipes to survive the summer. Seems it was gonna be cheaper for him and his friends to cook for themselves than to go through the school's food services this summer. Adam's a good cook, but he's never had to do it on his own, and he's never had to survive on it.

(2) My computer developed a terminal disease, and it was a scramble to get vital files safely off it before it was re-imaged. I got the stuff that couldn't be replace, thank goodness -- photos, music, documents, emails, etc -- but replacing the replaceable stuff has been a bit of an adventure. I did lose all my writing stuff, which was kinda sucky. I have hard copies of all my stories and story fragments, which is good. But my research on the new story, my support documents (character charts, maps, etc) and my copious notes were all lost. Nothing that can't be reconstituted; it's just going to take a ton of work.

(3) I had a cyst that became an abscess, that became sepsis. I was in a bunch of pain, but foolishly, I took my usual approach: suck it up. It's stupid, I know, but it's a weird conditioning from my childhood. After seeing the amount of pain that I watched my father endure on a daily basis for seventy years (he had cerebral palsy), it becomes hard to complain about the occasional hurt. You feel like a whiner for crying over some little ache or boo-boo.

This may have been a mistake this time. I bought a clue when I started throwing up, and having fevers. I finally dragged myself to the doctor. Get this: her first words on seeing the infection site? "Oh, shit." Yeah, from a doctor who's very good, very experienced, and is generally unflappable. Kind of a sign I need to get it handled.

So they do a hurry up surgery, we get it cleaned up, I get some really great drugs, and everybody's happy. Well, except my bank account, but still.....

(4) My sister's breast cancer has had a lucky turn. She had a radical mastectomy which, for you men out there, is a very very bid deal. Emotionally, Lil took it well; "Fuck it if it can't take a joke," was her response; she's very pragmatic about things, the same as me. But even so, it was still hard. Physically, it's major surgery, an amputation that is as dangerous as any other. But it had to be done.

So they analyze the tumor, and yes, it's really cancer. But a lot of it is a calcification buildup; the tumor isn't near as large as they originally feared. "Stage One Micro," they called it. That means no chemo!!!!!!!! Yippee!

(5) And now, the latest: as you know, I've decided to go back to school, at long last. Well, today was the day I went down and got my paperwork handled, got my schedule, handled all those niggling money questions. It wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it was gonna be. There were a lot of pimply teens, but there was also a woman in her 60's, who was getting her degree as well. Nobody laughed at me for being an old broad, nobody said anything ugly. I even saw a few familiar faces.

So what's my schedule? Usual boilerplate: Intro to computers, US History through 1865, Intro to Biology, Intro to Biology Lab, and College Algebra and Functions.

I'm a little nervous about the Algebra, if only because I've not done a conic section formula since high school. The rest looks simple enough. The Intro to Computers is required for all students, and prompted a funny conversation:

"Intro to Computers is simple enough," says the advisor. "You'll learn to use Word --"

"I use Word every blessed day," I interrupt.

"You'll also learn Excel --" the advisor says.

"I use Excel every day," I say (it's great for character checklists)

"Then you should breeze through the class, no worries."

Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished, is all I can say on the matter. Classes start August 13.