My brother, the trooper

I have avoided writing on this blog for awhile, because I didn’t want to have to say what is real. I was hoping it would go away. But it hasn’t gone away—yet. About two weeks ago, my brother was diagnosed with a blood disease called myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), very unusual for a person his age and in his good health. His bone marrow is not producing blood cells correctly and his platelets are very, very low. The good news is that he is feeling perfectly normal overall, and is able to go out and have fun and feel good. He started chemotherapy treatment this week, to kill off the bad cells and help promote the good ones, which might slow him down a bit. And then he will need to have a bone marrow transplant. Hopefully, we will find out this week if I (or my parents) are a bone marrow match. Then we can get moving on that. As scary as the bone marrow transplant may be, I think it will be a relief in a way, because it will be the major thing that can cure him. It will be rough, and the recovery period will take some time, but then it will be over. He has tons of friends and family who are supportive and care about him and want more than anything to see this disease go away.

Hanging fruits

Hi! Lots going on, sorry for the lack of posting...

In the meantime, here is a photo for you to enjoy.

Thirty-one

31 -- that's how many years I've been around. I'm especially thankful for Brian, and my brother, and my parents, and all the wonderful family and friends in my life and the nice birthday wishes and flowers and cards I've received. Brian has a really sweet post on his blog.

And I'm thankful for Le Pichet, where we're going to dinner tonight!

And I'm thankful for my new bicycle!

Back to "normal"

My life was pretty exciting there for a few weeks, and now it's back to regular life: working, boozing, and wedding planning... sometimes simultaneously.

Actually, it's true that I've been working and wedding planning at the same time (minus the boozing unfortunately). I've been calling cake places, restaurants, the wedding site, and next I need to call the florist, the caterer, and a hair salon. It's actually pretty fun, I don't feel stressed about anything yet. It was more stressful a few months ago when I had so many decisions to make, but it was too early to make a lot of the decisions.

Anyway, I know you're not here to listen to me talk about wedding planning!

I should give a shout-out to Trevor, the infamous commenter on Brian's blog, who was here visiting for the last few days. (Sorry the weather was so shitty, Trevor!) Listening to Brian and Trevor's conversations is like entering another world. A world of jokes I don't get, sci-fi mumbo-jumbo, movie trivia, and stories about the good ol' days. There weren't nearly as many weird food conversations this time, though. I kind of love those weird food conversations. Sometimes Brian starts talking to me about his latest idea for a new food item (double-sided pizza! toppings on both sides!) and I start to zone out, and it's those moments when I really wish Trevor was around. He would fully appreciate the wit and creativity involved in inventing new food items. I, on the other hand, just don't get it sometimes. Although I do remember one of our first dates when Brian was telling me about his "grisket" invention (he will have to explain it), and I thought I was going to bust a gut laughing so hard. That evening also involved a lengthy discussion about man-boobs and a lot of cruel laughing. That is when Brian really won me over. He made me laugh so hard I cried.

Another highlight of this weekend was an exhaustive conversation about science fiction movies and why many women don't like them. I believe the conversation ended with me and my sister-in-law talking about the Sex & The City movie. Clearly, a defeat for the guys who were trying to convince us why science fiction is so great.

But the biggest highlight of all was probably seeing the Sex & the City movie on Sunday with two female friends (and readers of this blog)! The movie was quite traumatic, with all the relationship messes and heartbreak and then making up, etc. Too! much! But packed to the brim with all that wonderful relationship goop that many women love to obsess about, myself sheepishly included.

Now back to my book. Alice Munro is my latest hero.