Second wedding

So I just realized that I didn’t ever tell you people how the second wedding last week went. I know you all are waiting on the edge of your seats to hear, so here it is.

The second wedding was the one for one of my bestest friends, Juan. I have known Juan for many years, about 15 actually. He has been married once before and had a son with her. I wasn’t invited to that wedding, which I give Juan crap for a lot. I’m not saying I had to be invited, but since he didn’t invite anyone to that one… So this time I was very pleased when he told me the date and handed me an invitation. We talked more about it, and since it wasn’t the first marriage for him or Blasa (his now wife) they weren’t going to have groomsmen or bridesmaids or any lines at all. I teased him about how it was an accomplishment that I was invited…kind of like being nominated for an Oscar is enough for people. He got a kick out of it. So Saturday comes along and I am psyched about the wedding. I get there a little early and of course Juan is running around looking very nervous and excited. I sit down and he comes over to me and asks me to come with him. I figured he would need me to do something, but I had no idea what it was. We walk into the next room and he asks me to sign something. I asked what it was and the priest answered that it was the license. So I witnessed the marriage license. It was my first. I cried. Just kidding, I didn’t really cry.

The ceremony was short, sweet, and to the point. Juan and Blasa’s daughter stood between them the entire ceremony looking up at them and the priest. The reception was nice, I couldn’t stay long because my mom and sister were not feeling very good, so I had to drive them home.

I’m so happy for Juan and Blasa and I wish them all the best.

September, the month of weddings

So I am back on New Mexico for the long weekend and I stopped into my favorite spot, Dos Hermanos, for some lunch and I see my mentor there. He has been trying to marry Blasa for some time, and I didn’t know if it was ever going to happen, but it is. He came up to me when I saw him and he gave me a hug and told me “we have a date.” I was very excited at this, because I know that if he set a date, that it is almost certain to happen now. So later this month I am going to his wedding. The funny part of all this is that isn’t the only wedding I am going to here in New Mexico this month. My friend from work is from here and so is his fiancé. They are getting married the weekend before Juan. I don’t know how I’m going to pull off going to both, but I’m gonna try!

Good things happen to good people too

I will explain the title of this post in a minute, but first I want to tell you about the start of my evening.

I am in New Mexico this weekend attending the annual Erin Trujeque Memorial Golf Tournament and gala. I have been attending this event in some capacity for the past 12 years. It is a major contributor to the Children’s Cancer Fund of New Mexico. Now, if you are new to my blog, you may not know, but I am a childhood cancer survivor. I have benefited directly from these 2 organizations and am so happy that as a long term survivor, I can lend my support to them. Tonight was the gala event. It is held at one of the casino resorts here in Albuquerque. The evening started out very different this year than previous years. I got there and walked into the ballroom and for the first time, I didn’t recognize anyone. I was a little afraid that I wasn’t going to see some of my close friends, but as the event moved on I saw them. So I am wandering around the silent auction before dinner and I ran into several people I hadn’t seen since the event last year. It was very nice to see them and catch up. One of the main items that was being raffled off was a brand new Lexus. I am not sure of the model, champagne does that to me, but it was worth about $40k. Raffle tickets were $100 a piece, and they were only going to sell 1,000 of them. So I did my part and bought one. Standing next to the Lexus was my good friend Justin. I have known him for 16 years, and he is a survivor as well. As I was talking to him I found out that he is married and expecting. When I heard that he and his wife were expecting, my jaw dropped. Like me, he was given enough chemotherapy to destroy any chance of having kids, and the doctors told him that he was not going to be able to have them. The Lord works miracles, and he is going to be a dad. After congratulating him, I started talking to him about the car. He entered as well and we made a deal that if he won it, he would give it to me so I could drive back to Tucson. 😀 More on that later… So dinner goes well, salsbury steak with mashed potatoes and asparagus. Once the live auction started, with Diane’s ever popular cookies that went for $10k, I was free to roam around and find people. I found my friend Petra and her husband Jason, and talked to her for a while, just catching up. I talked to a few other people and the night was winding down, but there was still the car to give away. As they announced they were drawing for it, the room got eerily quiet. They drew a ticket and I am sitting there hoping its mine. They call out the first name…but pause on the second…they can’t make it out. Now, with the first name, which wasn’t “Scott”, I knew I was done for. But the name they called, “Justin”, peeked my anticipation. Diane walks over and screams into the microphone the last name of my good friend. I couldn’t believe it, my friend just won a car. He couldn’t believe it either, he had to be dragged up on stage to accept. After he came down I went and congratulated him and graciously let the deal we made previously slide on the technicality that we never really shook on it. 😛 It is such an amazing thing when you see someone who could really use a new car, who has survived cancer, and who’s birthday is today (ya go figure) win. I thanked God that he won it and that he is here to win it. I hope I can go to lunch or something with him before I have to leave.

Tonight was a really good night.

Oh, and we raised $467k for the Childrens Cancer Fund of New Mexico.

Back home

Well I am back home in Tucson now. I got back yesterday evening. It was definitely a different sort of visit back home. I have to say it was a very low key return. As I flew into Tucson the sun was setting and the whole sky, well at least the part I could see out the tiny window, was bright orange. I landed and Josh picked me up. He was joking with me about my car all the way back to his house. For those of you who aren’t reading my mind…Josh had asked me if he could use my car to go pick up his mother-in-law in Phoenix. I agreed, which was my first mistake. Tuesday night I was texting him asking how the trip went and he started teasing me that he crashed my car and that there weren’t any serious injuries, “nothing plastic surgery won’t fix” were his exact words. I knew that he was teasing, especially since he tried to tell me that Katie was supposed to have called me to tell me instead of him…Anyways, he got a kick out of it. I ate dinner with them, <drool>carne asada</drool>, and then we watched 3:10 to Yuma. I have to say, I am not a real big fan of westerns, but this one was pretty good. All in all I am glad to be back, but I am still worried about my dad…but I hope that will ease as he gets stronger and stronger.

Dad is home

I went to the hospital about 2:45 this afternoon and was there about half an hour before the nurse came by and told him he was being discharged. I was very surprised that he was being discharged so early. The doctor did say he thought he would be discharged this weekend, but I thought the earliest would be tonight or tomorrow morning. It is good to have him back home, I was having a very hard time visiting him in the hospital. Even though it has been over a decade since I have been in a hospital for myself, the memories are still there. I want to thank everyone again for their thoughts and prayers and text messages. Thank you Josh for posting on your blog for all your thousands of readers. 🙂

It’s done…

Today was one of the more exhausting days of my life. Today was the day my dad had surgery to remove a brain tumor. We went to the hospital this morning at 7 am. It wasn’t until 7:45 that he was taken to pre-op. After that we were allowed to go see him and he wasn’t taken into surgery until 9:45. For a hospital surgery, that was doing really good as far as “on time.” The surgeon and the nurses assured us that the surgery would be about 3-4 hours in duration. My brother, Chris, came down from Farmington and was there all day. It was very comforting to have him there. He isn’t really a man of many words, but he was there and if I needed to go for a walk he was right there with me. He lost his dad several years ago, so I was able to talk to him about my fears and frustrations. Around lunch time, I went with Chris to get some lunch at Juan’s restaurant, Dos Hermanos. He paid for our lunches. It was such a small thing, but it was helpful all the same. Juan has always been there for me, and I for him. About the 5 hour mark we saw Tim who is the husband of one of the oncologists that followed up with me at the hospital here when I was fresh from my illness. He recognized us and came right over and said hello. He had apparently seen my dad’s name and recognized it. He had peeked in the OR and seen what was going on. He told us that everything was going good and that usually when doctors gave an expected time duration, it was their time. So the setup time for this type of surgery wasn’t included. That helped some, but as the time continued to pass it became less of a comfort. Tim came out several more times with updates for us and finally that they were closing. By this time it had been 7 hours since the surgery started. Tim’s final visit was just to chat with my mom and tell us that he was done for the day in case we needed anything before he left. He was our life-line to my dad during the surgery. Someone that was actually involved in the surgery should have been coming out to update us, but since they didn’t I am so glad that Tim was willing to do it.

My dad is now in the ICU for the night. It was so hard going in to see him. He looked so different than the image I have in my mind of my dad. He was pale was drugged up and had a bandage on his head. It was hard to watch him lay there so helpless. I have come to terms with my own mortality, but I had not realized my parents were also afflicted with being mortal. It opened my eyes a new to my family, my friends, the people around me that I see every day. I also have a new found respect and admiration for my family. Being on the other side of a serious illness is not an enviable position. I didn’t know I had it in me.

I am so thankful for all the prayers and text messages and phone calls that I received today. Thank you all.

Getting ready

Well I have been getting ready mentally, spiritually and physically for Thursday. I now know that the surgery will be at 9am instead of the 11am that it was originally. I know I will be there through it all. Other than those 2 things I have no idea what is going to happen. I have been steady in my level of stress for a few days now. I am taking that as a good sign that I am not getting worse. I had a talk with a really good friend last week about what is going on in my life. He told me that it sounded like I was going through my first real test in my new faith. He suggested reading the story of Abraham and his first trial. I also got a tidbit of wisdom from another friend when he pointed me to Phi 4:6 which I have tried to do every time I start to worry. I will post news as it comes.

Another year down

Well another year has past. It was a pretty uneventful new years celebration for me, but I am pretty used to those. I started at my friend Carrie’s, but I got a call from good ‘ol Josh that they were coming home and needed some help. So I left Carrie’s and went to their house and helped them get situated again. Then Josh and I got to talking and we popped in a movie and before I knew it, it was 2008 by 2 hours. As I look back on 2007, I have no idea how I got to where I am from where I started. So many things have happened that it hardly seems like only a single year, 12 months, 365.25 days have gone by. Here is a small list (no it is not complete, there are a few bathroom breaks in there somewhere.)

• I started calling Beginnings my home
• Found a new friend in Josh
• Lost a good friend Moira to cancer
•  Was baptized a Christian
• Found out my dad has a brain tumor
• Became part of the leadership at Beginnings
• Was called “Uncle Scott” for the first time

All in all 2007 was a good year. I am not quite sure what 2008 has in store for me, but it should be interesting.

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish everyone that reads my blog, yes both of you, a very merry Christmas. It was a good Christmas here. I got a bike! And before you say anything, it did NOT have training wheels. I also got some jerseys to wear while biking and even some “porno pants.” You might be wondering what kinds of pants I get for Christmas, but they are just the normal biking shorts. One of the characters in Chuck called them porno pants in an episode. Now Katie calls them that and jokes with Josh about his. I called them to wish them a merry Christmas and she asked me if I got my “porno pants.” I nearly choked on the eggnog I was drinking. It was pretty funny. Anyways, the only thing that could have gone better was having my brother here, but he couldn’t get any time off. But it’s ok, cause I’ll see him when he comes down to Albuquerque for my dad’s surgery. This whole season has been a roller coaster. But there have been more ups than downs, for instance going to Winterhaven with Josh and Katie was awesome (see pics here).

Dad’s Surgery

Well my dad is going in for brain surgery in January. It is so weird saying that out loud, “My dad is having brain surgery.” Fortunately, I have a really good support system here. It is comforting to know that if I needed them to, my friends would go with me to sit in the hospital, even though it is in New Mexico, they would go if they could. I wish I could ask my friends to go, but I wouldn’t want to stress my mom out by having people staying at the house during this time. She would feel like she had to entertain them and she doesn’t need that extra stress. I am also fortunate to work for a manager that can empathize with my situation. Her dad didn’t have a brain tumor, but her parents have gone through difficult times and she was able to take time from work to be with them. I talked to her and she has told me to go home and be with my parents. So around my dad’s surgery I am going to be taking a week to be there. I am going to be working after the surgery from New Mexico, but by that time he should be home from the hospital. It looks like my brother is going to be in town for my dad’s surgery too. Well, I say “my brother” but he really isn’t. To make a long story short, he is my god parent’s son. He has always looked out for me no matter where we lived and he is in every aspect except lineage my brother.