Ups and Downs

I must say, the highlight of my month has got to be seeing my pseudo-nephew running up to his mum, arms out in his little jacket and hoodie and giggling his little head off.

That tops off the long and exhausting month I've had.

Twas the first tuesday of the month and I'm on my way to work.  I hadn't had a good start to the week, just from work, but I receive a considerably long message.

It started off with "If you are receiving this text it's because I consider you a close friend".  That's a nice thing to say.  While I have hardly seen Stacey in months, and much the same beforehand, it's nice to know that she considers me a close friend.

The message then goes on to tell about how she was admitted into hospital on the saturday beforehand on Severe Anemia, contrary to the double dose medication she was taking ("I came in with a [Red Blood Cell] count of 57 when it should be about 120") and after a few tests, she found she had Cancer.  By the end of the week, we knew it was Stage 4 Lymphoma.

Happily when I went to see her, we had a few minutes to ourselves and she explained it out to me and said that given the various cancers there are, this would be the one you'd settle for because there is a finish line.  It just takes time to get to.

But the fact that a good friend has gone to hospital?  That's a fucking shock to the system.  And it happened not long earlier too in march, because another close friend was hospitalised with Arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat condition.  And the other day, I found out that she has to continue to take medication for the rest of her life in case it causes some more significant damage.  I haven't seen her yet, but it has always been difficult to get a meeting together with her.

And slowly, but obviously surely, it has really burrowed itself into my head, and thrown a wrench into my work which has its own vicious cycle.

It hasn't all been bad this month.  As of the time of this writing, Jenny will be here in 4 weeks, and we've been getting our shit into gear.  I'm going for my provisional license on Monday, which was a wonderful day of flipping out on myself.

I had gotten my finger out and checked out when the closest booking was.  However, I had left it a bit late.  Turns out all all the driving instructors in North Brisbane were booked out until the 4th June.  So I'm panicking, and figure "Lets try South Brisbane".  Nope, their earliest was the 7th.

I'm panicking more, because I'm a little embarrassed that I don't already have it, (I've had my learners for 5+ years) but I was more flipping out because I've left it too late, I wouldn't be able to get my license before Jenny gets here because there aren't any available bookings and I wouldn't be able to drive her around, it'll all be Public Transport and favours. (Which costs an arm and a leg)

So I looked further out.  The earliest I could get was at Currumbin on the 15th May.

First question I asked myself was "How the FUCK am I going to get to Currumbin?"  I checked.  It's not easy.  But it's available, so I filed it away and searched for the next best thing.

Which turned out to be Caloundra on the 18th.  I checked the public transport, and it's easy enough: Take a train to Landsborough Train Station, and there's a bus going up "Steve Irwin Way" which would plant me right in front of the Transport Depot.  Done.  It's a 2 hour trip, 3 if you include the walk from my place to Bald Hills station, but it was possible.

But heeding advice from the customer service lady of the QLD Transport Dept, I checked the monday afterwards for any cancellations.  "There are always loads of cancellations, so be sure to check like twice a day."  Luckily, there she was: 30th April, Caboolture.  Very easy to get to, closer to me, and all I have to do is get there and take the test.

It's going to be hard fought, because after today and yesterday, it's going to be a rainy day on that Monday.  Goody.  I'll just take things slower than usual and get through the day.  Hopefully without Hypothermia since I'll be walking through the rain on getting to and from there.  And trains never fail to have the Air Conditioning blasting.

So that's my personal life up until now.  Otherwise, Tuesdays have been booming with people coming in and having fun, then Friday nights are getting much clearer with the game Champions (I really should read the rulebook for that) and D&D... I've already blogged about.

Then there's Jenny.  Fuck I can't wait for her to get here.  We're in the process of sorting out the Schedule.  Jenny made a list of things we plan to do in the 10 days she's here, and now we just have to organise it.  The only thing that unchangable is the Saturday Night Dinner.  So far, we're up around 50 people so she is feeling a bit humbled, especially by those coming interstate to see her. 

Thank you everyone.  I really appreciate it.