La Vita

Life

I have been thinking lately a lot about life and all the different turns we take.
First off, my uncle has Multiple Cell Myeloma. In other words, he has cancer of the blood. I have seen him a couple times on this trip home, and he does not resemble the guy who taught me to play catch or kick a soccer ball anymore, and it breaks my heart. He is like a skeleton of his former self, all skin and bones, and his pain medication means that his mind isn’t all there anymore either. I don’t know how much longer he has left, and it is just so sad that such a great guy if being forced to suffer through this disease. There is always the hope that he goes into remission, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Anther thing that got me thinking was that on the drive to visit my grandmother on Saturday, and today again on the train, I went through Camp Pendleton, the marine base, and I saw a little tent city that seems to be a training camp of sorts for Afghanistan/ Iraq. I also saw them training a bit, and heard some war games the other day. Its so odd that it takes coming home, to San Diego, to feel more about what is going on than living in the Capitol does. It just brings it home how real the War is and that people are dying every day.
I have also been thinking a lot about friendships in the past couple weeks. Last year I was a bit upset when my birthday came and went and people who I thought I was important to didn’t acknowledge it at all. This year, instead of getting my hopes up, I was pleasantly surprised when random people I haven’t talked to in years wished me a happy day. Granted, they only remembered because they saw it on facebook, but it still doesn’t take away from the fact that they took the time out of their days to say hello; especially when certain other people managed to miss my day again. All in all, it was a good day, and it ended with some good people (Dano, Justin, and Esteban). Then there is Alexandra. I really have no idea why we are still friends, lol. We have next to nothing in common, and in fact, are opposites in everything; we never see each other, except for 3 hour lunches once every couple months; we are terrible at keeping up with email and phone calls. Yet, there are never any awkward pauses in conversation, we talk about everything form politics to friends to family, and though I am exasperated by her and do not understand a lot of her choices, I think we will always be friends.
I am on my way to spend a couple days with Dad, which will be nice since I haven’t seen him since February I think it was. I miss him. We used to talk every night on the phone, and then I went to college, lol. I need to be better about that. Part of it is laziness, not going to lie, but the other part is the time difference and busy lives. In any case, I am looking forward to a couple days in his company before heading back to DC, though I am bummed I don’t get to spend more time with my friends. Such is life.

La Vita