Back in July, you may remember that my MRI scan came up with an area of concern. Dr L and the UCLA team wanted me to fly back to LA for a Dopa PET scan to assess the situation, but I really wanted to give the chlorotoxin some time to do its' thing. The doctors said it would be fine to wait until my usually scheduled three month MRI, placing all of the testing out until October. In the meantime I was very scared. I felt certain that the area of growth was truly tumor, and at the time the doctors warned me that if it was in fact tumor they would be recommending further treatment (like radiation or chemo).
This brings me to one of my life dreams. I've never considered creating a "bucket list" or anything of that nature, but there is one thing that I have always wanted to do with Dan: take him to Fort Worth to check out the city, show him where I came into adulthood, and most of all get back to TCU for a football game. The problem is that we're always on such a short time span. It's always three months by three months by three months, never knowing if I'm on the cusp of further treatment. Flash back to July, Jobi and her husband visited the NW for her birthday (you'll remember she's one of my college roommates). As women do, Jobi and I, later, devised a master plan for Dan and I to visit her turf. I talked to Dan and we decided that even if we were doing chemo we could handle the trip. (The chemo for gliomas is uniformly pills that you administer yourself.) Thankfully, I'm not doing chemo or radiation - one more thing to celebrate!
Flash forward to tomorrow, in the wee hours Dan and I will hop on an Alaska Air flight. We will make our way to the lone star state. We will head to the ranch and celebrate with a friend's Thanksgiving! Jobi and I are going to cook up a storm; the boys are doing some sort of delicious deep fried turkey (yum!). We will ride around the wild Texas ranch, and probably shoot some guns - don't worry, probably not at the same time (my friend Meghan MF, and all of my anti-gun friends, are vomiting in their mouths right now). It's going to be the best throwback to my college days! Then on Saturday, we will head to the TCU vs Baylor football game, which also just happens to be the final home game. I. AM. SO. EXCITED.
I haven't been back to TCU since 2004, for Jess Abu's graduation. I have so many wonderful, hilarious, memories from college. To mentally prepare for the trip, I just pulled out some old photos. Here's the first picture I ever took on the first day I started living away from my parents. I was sitting on the front steps of Shirley dorm.
Here's a few random photos from my college days. Looking back makes me very grateful for the opportunity to attend a college half the country away. To go to a state where I knew no one was definitely a challenge, but it helped me grow, and evolve, and learn, and observe (TX seriously is like a different country), and make new friends, and work my way into an adulthood. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but what I do have came from those old disposable cameras, so I'm just lucky I have any photos at all. Aaaah, the days before camera phones. Actually, at this point of my life I didn't even have a cell phone. I remember being a little bit proud of that fact. Of course, I eventually caved. :)
Aaaaaand, for the original "photo bomb".
"The most invisible creators I know of are those artists whose medium is life itself. The ones who express the inexpressible - without brush, hammer, clay or guitar. They neither paint nor sculpt - their medium is being. Whatever their presence touches has increased life. They see and don't have to draw. They are the artists of being alive." - J. Stone
ReplyDeleteJess, that quote so reminds me of you. You are like a living masterpiece of art in the way you live and the way you express yourself. Who needs Van Gough or Picasso when their's Jess Oldwyn! I, and so many others admire your passion, tenacity, will power and your joy of living. The way you are constantly transcending, evolving, clearing life's hurtles great and small, helping us take stock of what matters most in life and what we are capable of. You kindle the light in the rest of us to do our best, to shoot for the moon. On Thanksgiving may you be showered with blessings of gratitude from all of us that love and admire you! C.