I'm back, baby!
I'm back in Berkeley after nearly 4 weeks in Tennessee. It was a pleasantly long break, and I did only the bare minimum of work. I cooked a lot with my brother Sam, even making fudge with my mom's guidance. That was useful for my parents, in part because....
Now, I should probably tell you that my mom has multiple myeloma, a sort of marrow cancer. I've been avoiding telling people because I don't want them to see me as needing their support. I mean, what can people do? But it turns out they can do a lot, in particular taking care of my guinea pig Chester while I was gone. Thanks, Chung Hay, Todd, Cheryl, and Ryan!
So, my cooking was useful because my mom, with her low blood counts, wasn't allowed to use a knife, and that means my dad has been doing most of the cooking, so our help with that was probably useful.
In any case, my mom is at Vanderbilt having another round of chemotherapy right at this moment. She says the side effects aren't as bad as she'd been warned, and the main result is a lot of tiredness. The worst part is the low immune system and clotting afterward--she was in the hospital for 1-2 weeks after her last chemo because she had a mysterious fever. And it made her miss her brother's wedding, but at least she got to take part via Skype. It was kind of amazing that she could be there with us in a way. (The wedding was wonderful, by the way.)
Now that I'm back in Berkeley, I'm aiming to graduate by the end of the summer. I think I can do it, but it will require substantially more effort than I've been putting in so far. For the forseeable future, I'm officially declaring Sunday a weekday. Onward and upward!
Now, I should probably tell you that my mom has multiple myeloma, a sort of marrow cancer. I've been avoiding telling people because I don't want them to see me as needing their support. I mean, what can people do? But it turns out they can do a lot, in particular taking care of my guinea pig Chester while I was gone. Thanks, Chung Hay, Todd, Cheryl, and Ryan!
So, my cooking was useful because my mom, with her low blood counts, wasn't allowed to use a knife, and that means my dad has been doing most of the cooking, so our help with that was probably useful.
In any case, my mom is at Vanderbilt having another round of chemotherapy right at this moment. She says the side effects aren't as bad as she'd been warned, and the main result is a lot of tiredness. The worst part is the low immune system and clotting afterward--she was in the hospital for 1-2 weeks after her last chemo because she had a mysterious fever. And it made her miss her brother's wedding, but at least she got to take part via Skype. It was kind of amazing that she could be there with us in a way. (The wedding was wonderful, by the way.)
Now that I'm back in Berkeley, I'm aiming to graduate by the end of the summer. I think I can do it, but it will require substantially more effort than I've been putting in so far. For the forseeable future, I'm officially declaring Sunday a weekday. Onward and upward!