One thing about cancer, it makes Halloween a lot less scary. “Something in my body is trying to destroy me from the inside. But oh no, a black cat.” Tomorrow is Halloween, and it is one of Jaimie’s favorite holidays, which means tonight and tomorrow we will take a break from our regularly scheduled RuPaul’s Drag Race to watch horror movies. I’ve never really liked horror movies. Maybe it’s because when I was seven I watched one of the Nightmare on Elm Streets and was convince

I spent a couple of hours at my parents' house yesterday afternoon. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and 75 degrees, and I figured that the best place to enjoy it was on their back porch. I got there around 3:30. My dad was outside practicing his guitar. My mom had made a pitcher of sweet tea. “How southern is this,” I thought to myself as I poured myself a glass. If she had had biscuits in the oven, I might have had to turn around and leave. After a few minutes my sister and her

Today would have been my 16th wedding anniversary. There needs to be a name for that day, anniversaries of marriages past. Xversiary? Oopsy Day? Emancipation? Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments below. They say that your wedding day goes by in a blur, but what they don’t tell you is that the next sixteen years go by in a blur as well. Sixteen years. Shit that makes me feel old. If I had accidentally knocked her up on our wedding night, that accident would now be ab

I found out that I was approved for the Clinical Trial on Tuesday at around 4:15pm. I was kind of freaking out considering my first infusion was scheduled for Wednesday at 8:30am. When the call finally came I squealed a little and thanked Trafina, my trial coordinator, for getting me approved so quickly. I had to pick up a couple of things for my reading on Tuesday night, so it wasn’t until after the show at 9pm, when Jaimie and I were already on our way to Atlanta, that I wa

“What is that thing that looks like it’s giving a high five?” “That’s your heart valve.” “Huh.” Given what I was looking at, I probably should have come up with something better than a simple “Huh.” At the time, though, it’s all I could think of. “It just does that all day everyday?” “Hopefully,” the doctor said, clearly not as mesmerized by my body as I was. “Now breathe out and hold.” _______ It’s not everyday that you get an up close look at your heart. But there I was yes

“What did everyone do this weekend?” I love to ask that question. I love to know what people do when I’m not around. And maybe it’s the writer in me, but I want to hear details. What did you eat? What did you watch? How long did you nap? Rarely does anyone get into the weeds with me. Rarely do we give anyone the total truth. We give highlights. We tell about the movies we saw or the concerts we attended. We give overviews of the parties we went to or the hikes we took. No one

Have you ever had someone say something that cut through all your noise and bullshit? A statement that made you feel seen and known. That made you feel big and small. All the while making you wonder how on earth they knew that about you? I’ve decided to take part in a clinical trial out of Emory. While my oncologists think the current treatment I’m on is working, it’s not having the overwhelming success that we were hoping. We feel like it’s a good time to try something diffe

I’ve been commenting on political posts again. I hadn’t done it in a while. During the summer I was all about that life. School was out so I had nothing but time. If something idiotic came across my time line I would sit back and fact check the hell out of it. But then Jaimie reminded me that I was supposed to be practicing self care and these political arguments were making me blind with rage. That and school started back, and I figured I had better things to do other than s

I might be the first teacher in the history of Furman University to spend class time discussing the food at our nation's gas stations. The discussion was academically viable. I promise. We have been studying a play called The Flick by Annie Baker. In order to give these Psychology and Communication majors an idea of how actors prepare for a role, we have been using Uta Hagen’s Nine Questions to get into the minds of the characters. Yesterday we were talking about the characte

On Monday a student told me that her and her family went apple picking over the weekend. “That’s weird,” I said. “I didn’t know people went apple picking during the summer.” “It’s October,” she replied. I stared at her for a moment. She was right. But I didn’t respond. _______ My buddy Dylan lives in Montana. He rides his bike to work and a few days ago he posted pictures of his morning route. Apparently it had snowed the night before and the picture was of pine trees covered