I have now been to the Grit

For a few years A has been yammering on about the grit...Elizabeth City, NC. Well, this weekend we traveled through a lack of cell reception and public toilets to attend her wedding in Elizabeth City. Beautiful! The town is cute (oh so tiny, but cute), the wedding was beautiful, and the bride was beautiful. It was great, except when I ran into the glass door, but still great. Our camera ran out of batteries (YET AGAIN). Here's what we collected.

Cute?! Baby ducks are cute!

Our first Bulls game of the season. We had tickets when Tina was here, but alas, we were rained out. It was the Blue Monster's birthday and Scarlett LOVED the hot dog canon! Tina, it shoots t-shirts, not hot dogs :( ...

I hated the multiplication tables

but I loved those damn loafers!


Yep, front row...big hair (of course)...bigger smile.

Death and rebirth

In Palm Beach, FL, an older woman, somewhere around 70 years, passed away last week. She had a life, a family, and friends. She was an organ donor.

Drive a few hours south and you hit Ft. Lauderdale, FL. My Uncle Tim waits for a new lease on life. He has been battling liver disease for almost a year. It was shortly after Mason was born last June that the doctors diagnosed Timmy. Giving him months to live, they suggested hospice. Fail! Timmy started hospice so he could get medication and time to get government assistance for his medical care.

Backstory...Timmy sold his home and left his job to begin anew in Florida after a messy divorce. He hadn't been on his new job long enough for his insurance to start up and he had let his past insurance lapse distracted by the home sale and move. Unable to return to work and now diagnosed with terminal liver failure, he had no option for care but hospice. The government's failed health care system suggested that he just go and die in hospice.

My grandmother didn't give up. She wrote to state official's...spoke with doctors...pushed social security and medicaid...tossed the morphine and canceled the hospice care. They came and took his hospital bed from the house...because he wanted to live.

Last week, the woman in Palm Beach passed away and doctors transferred her liver to Ft. Lauderdale. My grandmother answered the call from the doctor and took Timmy to the hospital to accept his new liver.

He called us two days ago. We had visited him during the holidays and I had talked with him on the phone a few times. The heartbreak of seeing someone I cared for so sick and so helpless was terrifying...made worse by Hope's cancer recurrence and subsequent death.

He called to say thanks for visiting him and thinking of him and that he loved me. I saw him wasting away and now he's calling me. He sounds vibrant and aware and alive. I'm so happy that he has been given a second chance.

He has hope.

organ donation, consider it

Book Chapter

The book came in the mail yesterday. I opened up to my chapter and on the random page that I picked...glaring mistakes. ARGH! Proofread...I hate to do it...I don't do it...I am embarassed. A revision now would see me chucking half of the writing and opting for a more planned and precise critique. There are some nice sections, then shit, then something nice.

Also, why the fuck did I use real names? Geesh, what was I thinking? I feel the fool, but that goes along with the whole idea. It wouldn't be such a big deal if I didn't see some of these elmentary school chums on facebook. Weird.