June is a busy month as we take advantage of our reprieve from medical appointments and treatments to fill our social calendars. Our calendar is divided into the relatively known and the relatively unknown – lots of activity between now and June 6th (when Nick has his PET scan) and then empty space after that.
Since before Christmas, Nick and I have spent every other Friday in a chemo treatment room, so it was an awesome feeling to replace that this past Friday with rappelling down an 18-story building. We chose We Are the Champions by Queen – the song that was playing when we left the hospital two weeks ago – to be played during our descent. The lyrics seemed apt. I’ve paid my dues, Time after time, I’ve done my sentence, But committed no crime. Our cheering squad – Ray and a couple of my former co-workers – cheered us on from down below.
We enjoyed having Rocket with us for the week. Normally when Nick comes home late at night neither of us hear him come in. Nick claims it’s because he’s a Ninja. Rocket, it turns out, has Ninja-detection capabilities, and he makes sure we’re wide awake with adrenaline streaming through our veins when Nick comes home. Then he wags his tail, greets Nick enthusiastically, and looks at us as if to say, “It’s cool. Friendly human. Everyone stand down. Back to sleep.”
May through July is Festival time in Ottawa – Tulip Festival, Poutine Fest, Ribfest, Westfest, Jazzfest, Bluesfest- the list is long. Saturday evening Ray and I attended Glow Fair, a 10-block street festival with everything from roller skating to burlesque shows (neither of which we partook in), while Nick and a friend went to the Italian Festival, then met up with some other friends at Glow Fair. Afterwards, they went for a late-night tour of Shopify, where one of Nick’s friends works (in terms of workplace perks, it’s the Google of Ottawa – lots of free snacks, a virtually reality room, a slide, etc.). As Rocket had left earlier that day, Ninja Nick returned home undetected in the wee hours of the morning.
Ray left a note asking if Nick wanted to join him and some friends for a Sunday morning cycle at 8 am…on Father’s Day. He didn’t really expect that Nick would get himself up that early after a late night out, but Nick surprised him by showing up dressed and ready to ride at 7:45. The two of them spent much of the day together, cycling and watching World Cup games. And I had my first Father’s Day without my dad, but tried to replace the sadness with thoughts of the laughs he gave us, which is what he’d have wanted us to do.
As always I feel privileged and grateful to read your blogs Carolyn . I’m in Holland and Belgium at the moment catching up with 2 of my cousins. Aisling has recently had her first baby but sadly her mother , my aunt died 4 years ago and I have the privilege of ” stepping in” What I hope is helpful and relevant is that Joel , the baby’s father had Hodgkin Lymphoma level 3 when he was 20.
Quite incredibly, he and my cousin had only 1 IVF treatment and have Samuel, my gorgeous 2 nd cousin ( aka my ” surrogate”grandson😘)
Nice good news story! Thanks Lou, and congrats on becoming a ‘grandma’!
Sorry I wasn’t there to cheer you both on as you rappelled down that tall, scary tower! 🙂 Couldn’t escape work. So happy to hear all the fun activities you are partaking of in this respite! XO
Looking forward to sharing fun activities with you guys in a couple of weeks! And I’ll hopefully see you at RR one of these days…
I have to remember not to read your blog while I’m at work. I can’t help it though – as soon as I see there’s a new blog I have to read it. Today when I read the part about Rocket and his ninja-detecting capabilities, I almost started crying because I was laughing so hard. “It’s cool. Friendly human…”. 😂
Congrats to both of you on your most recent daring adventure 💕
Hi Lynn,
Great to see your family having so much fun. Much deserved! My thoughts are with you and your family going through the first Father’s Day without Uncle Barrie. We had the same experience here without my dad, too. Perhaps they are playing pool together somewhere in Heaven like they did in their younger years. Missing them both, and your mom, very much.
A delayed response….amazing! Congratulations, you monkeys! Yahoo! 🐵 🙈 🐒