I’m a bit tucked after Memorial Day: precipitous news combined with merry revelry, magnified by a lack of coffee this morning adds up to a bit too much weekend.
It looks more and more like one of my housemates will be moving out in June. I have been looking forward to her departure for quite some time, even though I stand to lose money on a wager position, having bet that she would not actually leave. It was confirmed yesterday that she has purchased her ticket to Singapore, where she will take a teaching position in film history at a university there. This will be her first job since graduating with a master’s degree in video art last April. Anyway, her mother was out to see her this weekend, and thereby relieved the house of her passive-aggressive personality and allowed us all to enjoy the weekend a little bit more.
”Are you sitting down?” segues my father after we had discussed seven-gallon carboys, champagne bottles, and the Indy 500. It seems that he has been prone to fainting this past month, and while setting up for an ultrasound the tech could not get a shadow near his pelvis to resolve. Further scanning on other equipment has identified this shadow as a fist-size mass attached to his appendix and the small/large intestinal interface and pelvis. The biopsy of this mass has confirmed that it is cancerous. Last week, in addition to a barium enema and a bone marrow biopsy he had a harrowing MRI experience. He has been advised to go with chemotherapy and this week will have more tests done to ascertain dosages. Treatment may start as early as in two weeks.
My house celebrated the start of summer with a barbecue. Unfortunately, the nearby Grocery Outlet was all but out of beer, so we had to settle for a sweet tasting Danish beer in green cans, “Bear Beer”. The house vegetarians assented to the grilling of sausages and chicken alongside their zucchini and eggplant. The men looked quite suave in their seersucker suits, and the women very pretty indeed in their sundresses.
I am at work now, writing this after having obtained coffee. This is the first time I have repeated to myself the contents of yesterday’s telephone conversation. This is different from the last time. Three years ago it was a heart attack, the emergency room people did a great job, and he was scheduled for bypass surgery the next week. I flew out to meet him coming out of the anesthesia. Action was all I could do. This, this is all schedules, plans calendrical. Everything is laid out like hopscotch. I wonder as to where my place is this time.