everybody has prostate cancer

Okay, maybe not everybody, since women don’t have prostates. But apparently prostate cancer is extremely common in men. Most men actually die with some form of prostate cancer…more men die with it than from it. Why the sudden interest in prostate cancer? Well, my dad has been diagnosed with it.

This sucks.

He’s going to have a bone scan done this week to see if there is metastasis (I think?) which would be bad. Hopefully they have caught it early and he will do well with treatment. I think the hardest part for him is going to be deciding what type of treatment to take…surgery, radiation, or "seed" therapy, where they insert little radioactive "seeds" into the prostate. They all sound like they can have bad side and after effects, but as long as they get rid of the cancer, I think he can live with whatever the accompanying results are.

It still sucks.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know that I am big believer in the power of positive thinking. I do not hesitate to spill the beans on what’s going on in my personal life if it means that some of you might add a loved one to your prayers or other positive thoughts. So…please think good thoughts for my dad, pray for him, do whatever it is you do when you’re scared and you want to call in a little help, okay? I really appreciate it.

The weekend was weird. There was an ice storm and we woke up on Saturday to sheets of ice covering the ground. Kona didn’t like it and was really picky about where she would pee or poop. Guy was like a little kid, going outside every few hours to "check on the ice," and trying to convince me to bundle up and go slide around on the top deck of the parking deck with him. I think that must be a guy thing. It’s cold, and it’s icy…if I’ve seen it once, that’s enough for me! I’d rather stay inside and be warm.

Yesterday I went to a baby shower for my old co-worker Steve and his really cute wife Penny. They are (obviously) having a baby, and the little girl is due on February 28. The shower was hosted by their next-door neighbors, who did a great job with the food and party games. Steve and Penny got lots of great stuff. I had never set foot inside a Babies"R"Us before, and I had no idea that half of the things they registered for existed. Penny said she didn’t know either, but they had an experienced mom help them pick out things like toilet locks and baby safe ‘n’ sights. I went with a safety theme, stocking their home with outlet plugs and the aforementioned toilet locks, along with some really cute rattle socks I saw over Christmas. They were so cute, I just had to buy them, and I knew that Steve and Penny were pregnant, so it was the perfect excuse to buy them and play with them for a while.

Anyway, most of the people present were their neighbors, and there were so many babies or babies-to-be! It was kinda weird being "the single girl" there…it seemed as if everyone else was married with kids or just plain married. Guy was working on a bug in his software, so I was really unattached, and it was kind of surreal being surrounded by all the cute parents and babies…it’s a totally different world than the one I live in, where I’m surrounded by adult X-box games, snowboarding trips, and trying to get skinny to fit in an old pair of jeans. Although I guess new moms can relate to that last one for sure.

I feel really blah today. Work has kinda sucked lately. I still really like my job and like the company I work for, but one project in
particular has become more stressful lately. It stinks. I knew today would be a very busy day…it was one of those days when I wished I could just disappear for a while, into thin air.

Disappearing to Hawaii would be nice too.

Guy finally watched Lost in Translation with me this weekend. That is such a good movie. I watched the behind the scenes feature on the DVD and it was so neat to see how excited Sofia Coppola was that Bill Murray had actually agreed to be in her film. She seemed like she was in happy disbelief, and she was crying that kind of quiet happy cry where you just wipe the tears away while you keep talking and smiling. I bet she had no idea what a success her film would become, and how wonderfully she would be rewarded for it. She won an Oscar! Lately I have been feeling the urge to create something…I’m not sure what, but I’ve always wanted to make a film. Like, for real. Of course, I have no idea how to do that, so we’ll see where that takes me.

Anyway, I’m headed home for the evening. We’re supposed to have a new Internet connection at home. They came out to do the install on Friday, but it didn’t work all weekend. I cancelled our other service effective today, so if I’m without Internet access when I get home, I’m going to be pretty stinking angry.

There are more important things in life though.

I hope my dad is going to be okay.