For the Most Part

I am so tired.  Astoria, Chicago, Portland, Atlanta--so far this week I have spent at least one night in each city, and tomorrow night I'll sleep in Seattle.  


Why?  Well, let's start with the lack of comparable-paying jobs where I live, and let's finish with where else would I get 8 weeks of paid vacation and full pay and benefits for my whole medical leave last winter?  And in between, let's think about the great health insurance and the pension, and the fact that, for the most part, I actually like what I do.


Emphasis on "for the most part."


"Road warrior" is not the right phrase.  "Road tolerator" is a hell of lot more apt, if linguistically challenged.  I Skype with J nightly and miss her like I would miss breathing.  I just try to get the work done and get back home to her.


I saw a woman today (another lawyer) whom I had not seen since before I was diagnosed last year.  I like her, though we are technically opponents, and could see being friends with her under different circumstances. It was good to see her because I have been feeling the need to get my "old normal" back, and she's part of that.  Life goes on, and the good things and the good people stay the same.  


For the most part.

In the Beginning

One has to start somewhere.

Do I begin with, "I was born on a dark and stormy night"?  I have no idea if it was stormy, though I suppose it was dark since it was almost midnight, and it was October, and it was in Chicago. 

Or do I start with my first day of school?  Lincoln Park Cooperative Nursery School, if you were wondering.  

Do I start when I finished school?  Graduation from University of Oregon School of Law--again, if you were wondering. 

Do I start with meeting my husband?  It was my birthday, but neither dark nor stormy.

Do I start with the birth of my daughter?  A cold, wet day on the Oregon Coast, yet the sunniest day of my life.

Do I start a when she was a toddler, and I learned I had breast cancer?

Or do I just start here?  Welcome.