Vince's Journey

So, yesterday I finished up treatment number 4! Nothing out of the ordinary, I feel a bit queasy and bloated today and suspect it will last a day or two more. I was able to see Dr. Leming this time and he was happy with my progress. I did learn that treatment #5 will be December 29 and 30 so I may finish up before February...that would be a bonus! The plan would then be to do scans and make sure everything is back to normal (if there is such a thing anymore) and then I guess its back to watching again. Sounds like a blast, huh?! I do have to say this treatment has been a breeze compared to the CHOP chemotherapy I did 5 years ago. I still have a lot of energy, I actually rode 16 miles on the stationary bike today and I've put in about 60 miles this week. The nurse in the chemo parlor was very impressed that I'm able to keep so active!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. It was great having the boys home and we look forward to them coming home for the holidays in the middle of December. As a treat I was able to land 5 tickets for the Ohio State/Michigan game and we had a great time watching the Buckeyes win their 7th straight game over those nasty Wolverines; its almost to the point where I feel sorry for them but I'll never forget the way Julie and I were treated at a game at Michigan in 1991 so I doubt I'll never supass that almost threshold!

Last week I went with Abbey for a campus visit to UD. I think she really liked it and hopefully she'll be able to get the tution exchange offer there. Judd has had a wonderful experience at UD and we would love for Abbey to stay close to home. It would have been great if Aaron could have stayed close to home but given my benefit and his initial interest in Engineering, it just wasn't going to work out. He does enjoy St. Louis but it means he's not able to get home as often as we'd like. From Aaron's perspective, that's probably what he likes best about it but we do miss him being close.

It is hard to believe another holiday season is upon us; only 21 shopping days until Christmas! Hopefully you've all done more than I have which is basically nothing. I don't even have my lights up but I'm usually the last one on our block to do it so that shouldn't come as a surprise. As long as I get them up before the boys get home I'll be happy.

I have many wonderful holiday memories. I think over the next few weeks I'll highlight some of the more memorable Christmas days. Some are actually more unbelieveable than memorable and I think I'll start with the most unbelieveable of them all...

1983 - I had literally just started dating Julie, our first date was December 22nd. I was 25 at the time. I was kind of a vagabond back then...I still 'lived at home' but probably only spent the night there a couple times a week. Many nights I'd stay with friends from work and when I was home I usually slept on the couch in the living room. My dad always got in a very 'Scrooge-like' mood around Christmas. Probably because he had to buy presents for 8 kids on an Ironworkers' salary. Maybe because his oldest son slept on the living room couch! I never really asked him why. But I, on the other hand, loved Christmas. And I was in a great mood that year because I had just started dating Julie and I had Christmas presents for everyone and was looking forward to them opening their gifts. The only problem was, dad wasn't coming out of his bedroom to do Christmas...he was actually boycotting it! We were dumbfounded and adding to this scene was the fact that one of my sisters had invited a Jewish friend to come to our house to see what a 'typical' Christmas was like...boy did she pick the wrong house! So there we were, mid-afternoon and dad is still in bed playing his gift that he had bought for himself...electronic checkers, most likely kicking that computers ass! (I wish I was making this up, but I'm not.) The Jewish girl was probably wondering what kind of lunatics we must be and I could only imagine what she must have told her parents when she went home..."Well it was kind of wierd, the dad stayed in bed playing checkers until everyone went into his bedroom...." Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself! Anyway, I finally decided - enough is enough; I picked up my present that I had bought for dad (a spiffy pair of new bowling shoes) and marched into his bedroom along with the rest of the family (little Jewish included) and announced, 'If you're not going to come out for Christmas, we're bringing it to you!' My dad looks at the little Jewish girl most likely wondering 'who the hell is she' and almost on cue she asks, "Are you having a Merry Christmas?" to which dad replies, "Maybe I will someday." We all preceded to give him his gifts and you could see the look of humiliation grow on his face until finally he says he'll be out in a minute....Christmas was going to officially begin at about 2:30 in the afternoon! Very bizarre to say the least. I couldn't tell you what I got that year, I think it might have been a 'Janie Frickie's Greatest Hits Album', but the pleasure I received from getting the old man out of his funk was more than I could have ever hoped for. After that year, he was actually civil at Christmas. Needless to say, it was the first and last Christmas that the little Jewish girl attended at the Hopkins house.

I'll have more memorable Christmas stories in the weeks to come. If anyone can top the one I just described, I want to hear about it! Have a great weekend everyone! Peace and blessings!!!!