Happy Birthday Dad

Sorry for the hiatus. The internet at my house has been down since last Friday, and Time Warner is being really annoying and not helping to fix it (I think the modem's broken. Or something.).

Today is my dad's 63rd birthday. I'm wearing my Eagles sweatshirt with pride. (Okay, actually it's Katie's Eagles sweatshirt... shhh don't tell anyone.)

In a few minutes I'm going to go out for lunch with the rest of the Soc 101 TAs and our professor. After that, I get to do my first Statistics assignment ever using SPSS. Oooh. With school starting this week, life has become much busier - a very good thing. I was going a little bit crazy last week with nothing to do but wallow in my own ridiculousness.

I discovered Pandora Internet Radio at pandora.com... and it's probably the best thing since... milkshakes? I don't know. It's cool.

And that is your update.

Happy Birthday, Dad. I love you.

*Saving Grace*

Right now I'm listening to Tom Petty.
I haven't had his playlist on for a while...
but he still comes through for me and makes me feel better when I'm feeling low.

Fighting Writer's Block

I'm back in Milwaukee.
I left for my parent's house on Dec 18th, and got back here this past Friday evening.

There's much to say, but I have very little ambition to say it.
The holidays were rough this year due to Dad's illness.
I did get to attend a great New Year's Eve party in Minneapolis.
Sadly, a few days later on January 2nd, Dad passed away. He had been so strong and brave since his diagnosis in September with glioblastoma (decidedly the "worst" type of brain cancer... although no forms of brain cancer are the "best").
It was scary and hard, and I'm still a little bit numb. I do feel very blessed that we were all there with him when it happened, and Mom never gave in - he stayed at home through it all and was never in the hospital.
I got so many calls and emails from friends offering their love and support... I feel so blessed to have so many good people in my life.
I'm sure you'll hear more about this at some point when I can write.

We had the memorial service the following Saturday. It was beautiful. I read and miraculously didn't cry while reading (although I sobbed through the rest of it).
We're having another service out east this spring - we'll return his ashes to Cape May, the city he loved so much (those were his wishes).

So now I'm back in Milwaukee. I have a week to get my head together before school starts and become VERY FREAKING BUSY. We'll see how it goes...

I bought season 3 of 24 yesterday. (They were out of seasons 1 and 2.) Then I came home and watched 6 episodes (I took a break between episodes 4 and 5).
I just downloaded the new Scissor Sisters album from iTunes... okay, so it's not new, it just took me a while to get it. I am satisfied with my purchase. I think it was two years ago this month when I discovered their first album... good stuff.

Like I said, there's a lot to report right now... I just can't write.