Brief Schedule Update

Ever dive off of a high dive into a pool and realize with total clarity & grimness that you're not going in straight & that you don't know how bad it's gonna hurt & that you have utterly no control any longer over it? That's pretty much how I feel thinking about this schedule...

Yesterday afternoon (Sun., 5/3) - Anne's voice recital @ WCU. She did great! If I can find the camera chord, I'll post a pic or two. She absolutely nailed some operatic type stuff, several Broadway tunes, and a great version of "Be Thou My Vision" as the finale. I'm totally biased, of course, but Anne has an amazing soprano voice, especially for an 18-year-old. It will always make me sad that neither the HS choir nor the church choir valued her voice nor her; one sort of ignored her, & the other pretty much stiff-armed her away (yeah...I'm a bit bitter about both...). Oh well, Dr. Leslie @ MSU--who offered her a vocal scholarship--has said to her, to us, and in writing that he's looking forward to having her in his choir. I didn't shed a tear yesterday, but I wanted to...

Next weekend: trip to Oxford to watch a dear friend receive his Pharm.D. While there, we're gonna attend a UM-MSU baseball game. Oh, and naturally we'll be hanging out w/ my favorite pharmacy student too.

Weekend after that (5/15 & 5/16): (1) Anne graduates from HS (5/15).
(2) The 20th anniversary of my 30th birthday (5/16). (The first is far more significant than the second)

Monday, 5/18: *sings like Larry Gatlin* "Houuuuuuu-ston..." *sighs at failed attempt to get psyched up for the return* Back to MDA.

Tuesday, 5/19 - injection of nuclear waste, tests, scans, blood-sucking, etc.

Wed. 5/20 - all-important appt. w/ Dr. Mehran the surgeon to discuss results of tests & scans + plans for...

Thurs. 5/21 - surgery on left side to remove small melanoma implantation near rib cage (assuming scans still show this spot)

The hope is to be back home w/in a couple of days after surgery with the all-clear (again!). This will give me an entire week to recuperate before summer classes start.

Tues. 6/2 - 25th wedding anniversary!!!!! This will be celebrated in the traditional way...by meeting the 1st session of my summer Principles of Microecon night course. (Note: we're aiming toward a beach trip sometime in June, Lord willing)

Fri 6/5 & Sat 6/6 - Lisa & Anne in Stark-Vegas for orientation. I can't be there because...

Saturday, 6/6 - CFA Level II exam in Jackson. 6 hours of test-taking fun w/ a 2-hour break in the middle to eat lunch, pray fervently for the Lord's imminent return, and realize how very unprepared I was...

Scattered among all of these weeks is, of course, studying like a fiend for the CFA II exam. I'm not ready right now, but hope/plan to be by showtime on 6/6.

Sunday, 6/7 - I may sit & eat about 6 baskets of chips @ El Rancho after church and just giggle randomly because there's very little on the schedule from this point forward and because I have so few brain synapses still firing. I also plan to take about a 4-hour nap. I plan to actively not think deeply about anything nor do anything for a day or two.

So yeah...now you see why several of you have asked me about doing something & have heard the very bizarrely random sounding answer: "anytime after June 6"...

Forrest Gump said it best: "I'm kind of tired..." *grin*

Your prayers for any & all of this are most welcome & needed & appreciated!
bb

p.s. - in all seriousness, obviously some of this is exciting stuff, some (MDA & surgery) is not so exciting. Also, some (CFA) is self-inflicted. So please don't read this as whining. Just laying out the schedule realities for us for the next few weeks.