And Now For Something Completely Different

A blog is a selfish thing at most times. You spend all your time talking about yourself, either because you're using it as therapy, as most of mine is, or you're trying to let people know what's going on, which is the rest of what this is. There is always an aspect of hope that people will read it because they care enough to. Whether it's just because you write well enough to keep people interested or they simply care about you enough to want to know. all of which applies to my and my blog here.

I just wanted to take a moment and say how much I love my family. I don't know what I'd do without them. Don't get me wrong, my friends are awesome too, but there's nothing in the world like having a family that truly cares about you. And I know enough people who have crappy families who don't seem to care about much but themselves.

My parents, who are still married to one another, a rarity, are the best. Not only did they fly all the way from Florida to Arizona for even the small biopsy I had in April, but they came back and stayed through my entire operation and recovery in ICU, visiting me every day. It doesn't sound like a lot really. I mean, whose parents wouldn't do that for their child? Too many it seems, and I'm aware of that enough not to take it for granted.

My parents are retired. My father is a smart man and made plenty of preparations for his retirement. Granted he had the means to plan a good one for himself and my mom, being a retired airline pilot and was employed before the airlines basically gutted all their pensions and wages, but he had the foresight to even plan for my daughter's college education, enrolling her in the Florida Prepaid College Plan. There is no way I could have sent her to college without it.

On top of that, my mom and dad have taken the even more amazing step in renting a house here in Chandler so they can be here for me throughout my entire chemo and radiation treatment. While it is true that renting a house in Phoenix in the middle of summer isn't the same as during the fall and winter - it's cheap - it's still another expense draining their retirement funds. I can't say that isn't somewhat hard to deal with - the idea that my illness is taking away from their retirement. Even the idea that my mom can't go play tennis with her friends and my dad is missing his regular golf habit and the golf tournament he plays in every year - the one he won last year - is hard for me to take without feeling a bit sad.

My daughter is in College in Florida and can't be here for much of my treatments, but she came out for the operation and is planning to visit me in August. Even still, she texts or calls me nearly every day just to ask how I'm doing. I'm supposed to be the one bugging her about stuff. Asking how she's doing, making sure she's doing well in school and not partying too much, and here she is taking time to check on me.

I love my family. Thank you mom and dad. Thank you Kaia. You're the best things about me.