Long Island

H. looks pretty terrible today.  He is white as a ghost with huge, dark circles under his eyes.  I feel 'worried' about him - but he reminded me that he didn't get a lot of sleep last night.  He picked up his friend at SFO at 9 and from the sound of it, they partied with friends until the wee hours of the morning.  I saw H. briefly around 6AM when he came down in search of Gatorade - but his friend slept until close to 2PM.

From the sounds of it, he hosted the get together last night and burned through some money so I was 'the best mom in the world' (and possibly a pushover) and provided funding for tonight's shindig.  Getting together with friends at Buffalo Wild Wings -

He said 'I love Long Island Iced Teas, Mom.  Do you?'.  And I said 'yes, but they are wicked and very expensive'.  He said he thought they were around $5.  No, they aren't.  I said 'you know they have four kinds of liquor in them, right?'.  And he said 'um, no - I thought they had a little alcohol mixed with iced tea'. No, these aren't Arnold Palmer lemonade iced teas, son.  Those are designed to get you buzzed quickly.

Indeed.

He's in week two of radiation and I suspect it's harder and harder to get himself up and moving each day...and not just to make the 45+ minute drive to Modesto.  Just to get out of bed.  That's how he looks - like it's hard to move.

A friend posted something on Facebook this morning, sharing that her boyfriend of five months had a 'freak accident' at home.  He hit his head hard enough to sever his spine at the C3,C4 & C5 vertebrae.  He is paralyzed below the neck for the rest of his life.  The damage is permanent.  He is on a ventilator and had surgery to stabilize his neck (with hopes he will someday be able to hold his head up).

In an instant....just like that.  Something happens and your life is re-framed for the rest of forever.

They are already talking about 'finding the new normal' as they move through this with him - and forever, his family and friends become his caregivers and cheerleaders.

J. and I are heading to Jackson for dinner tomorrow.  My 'special promotion' thing is good Friday or Sunday and it occurred to me 'why waste a perfectly good Sunday morning when we could wedge in a nice buffet dinner (special Seafood buffet on Fridays!).  So it's a date.  I'm leaving work at 3, heading home to pick him up and we'll head up.  There will be traffic 'cuz it's Friday and it's on the same route to Tahoe that seemingly everyone in the Bay Area is on every weekend - but we'll get there.

I had a great day today plowing through year-end stuff and will have another meeting free day tomorrow, too.  I do plan to work this weekend but can work at home off and on and make enough progress to feel OK while still enjoying most of a weekend at home.  I hope.

I have the weird rash on my arms again and don't feel great....and my doctor is on vacation until the 25th of August.  I'm not sure I want to see the other on-call doctor - I don't like her.  But we'll see how I am Monday.  It's been a week of the rash and it's not going away on it's own.

The actions of the Islamic terrorists ISIS are in the news.  They are beheading Christians.  And how do I know that?  A 'chirp' alerted me to an update on Linked In that a friend posted - and it's someone I work with so I clicked on it.  And it showed the very graphic, horrible photos which are now burned into my brain forever.  I can't imagine why this person posted that link on the page of a website where she is highlighting her professional accomplishments in the hopes of finding employment somewhere else someday.  I should point out she is from Iraq.  And she is Christian.  And I know she feels strongly about this and rightly so.  But really?  Links of graphic pictures of beheaded people?  Why?  I feel strongly about it, too.  It's wrong.  It's terrible.  It's scary.  But I'd never in a million years post pictures like that on a career networking website. Never.

It bothers me so much - and I'm tempted to talk to her tomorrow and say 'this is me as a friend of yours - not in my role as a district administrator - but I think you should take those pictures off.  They are disturbing and the person clicking has no idea they will be seeing something horrific they can never 'unsee'.'

Though I sure wish I could.

Her tag line 'They are beheading Christians and the world stays silent'.  That's not exactly true as the news shows were all about what's happening and the President spoke at 6:30PM PST about what may happen.  He OK'd air strikes against them 'if needed'.

We just have to define 'if needed'.

And the rest of the world rarely says anything.  It's always the US that's involved.  Always.  On the one hand, we have the power to obliterate them in short order.  But why is it always us stepping out on the limb to do what needs to be done?

No answers from me.  I don't know what's best or right.  I feel so incredibly sad for those people....it's horrific and barbaric and a gazillion other adjectives.

It's just always the US that utilizes the vocabulary to describe and act on things.  Doesn't anyone else in the world speak?