Sunday, May 03, 2009

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.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Be Thou My Vision is a beautiful song. If Anne attempted to sing it, she must have a lovely voice. I wish I could have heard it!
Christy

Stephanie said...

Umm...in all of your spare time, you think you could babysit my three? Ha! Kidding of course. Praying your through the next several weeks. Press on, Mike! Our Lord goes before you!
Steph