Vince's Journey

This morning I stopped at McDonalds to pick up a dollar breakfast burrito...biggest mistake I've made in quite some time. When I got out of my car I noticed that the guy who had parked next to me was making a disgusted look so I asked him if I had done something wrong. He informed me that I had parked illegally; It was snowing and I didn't realize I had parked in a no parking zone. So I got back in the car to move it and that's when the day went south in a hurry - the key would not turn the ignition! I tried for about 10 minutes but it wouldn't budge. So I called our insurance company for roadside service but due to the snowy conditions this morning it took almost 3 hours for the truck to make it to where I was. I guess that's what happens when the service call goes to a call center in Arizona and they send a truck from White Oak (easily 20 miles away) to a disabled car in Mason. But this is not where the story ends; since my car is front wheel drive and I was parked in a position where the driver couldn't access the front of the car, the truck that was sent was not capable of making the tow. The driver told me he could have them send another truck but it would probably take another 90 minutes. I had already been at McDonalds over 3 hours so I called the shop where I was having the car towed to (a mere 3 miles away) and they had someone over to pick me up in about 20 minutes. The driver was nice enough to drop me off at our house where I waited another 3 hours to learn it was going to cost $340 to fix the ignition. So not a very good start to the last week in January, 2011. Fortunately things are looking a lot brighter as I'll spend Wednesday and Thursday at the doctor's office getting my sixth and hopefully final chemo treatment. I know you are all insanely jealous - with this kind of luck I need to go play the lottery!

Seriously, I am anxious to get these treatments over with. I started the week after Labor Day and although time has gone by pretty quickly it is just a daily grind dealing with the mental aspect of all this. I've accepted the fact that this is something I'm going to deal with the rest of my life but at this point I'm ready for a break. So let's get the treatments behind me, look forward to some clean scans and then I'll breathe a big sigh of relief.

It seems like a day doesn't go by without hearing that someone in our lives is fighting cancer. Julie's Aunt Sharon is also struggling with a form of cancer - she recently received scan results that were not as we had hoped and now her doctors are trying to decide what the next step for her should be. I also work with a woman who is having similar issues. We need to continue to pray for everyone battling a form of cancer and do everything we can to find treatments and cures for this worthless disease. I know the answers are out there and if we all band together we can eliminate these diseases once and for all. What a wonderful legacy thatbwould be for our generation to leave behind.

Julie started he her job at Medpace last week. She really likes it so far but admits that she has a lot to learn. The kids are all back to school although Abbey has already had 3 snow days since the start of the year. Judd and Aaron have been back to school for almost 2 weeks, I don't think we've had to go to the grocery since they left - the house has stayed a lot cleaner, too. Still, I miss them not being around. Here's hoping they all have great semesters. Abbey appears to be down to a final 3 for her college choice; Dayton, SLU and Marquette. Hopefully she'll get the tuition exchange offered to her by all three.

Well it's that time of year - tomorrow they'll announce this year's nominees for the Academy Awards. Last year I predicted who I thought would be up for the top 5 awards and thought I'd give it a shot again those year. We'll see how well I do when they nominations are announced tomorrow morning at 8:40.

Best Picture (remember they went to 10 films being nominated last year)

The Kings Speech
Inception
Black Swan
The Social Network
127 Hours
The Fighter
True Grit
The Kids Are Allright
The Town
Toy Story 3

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges - True Grit
Colin Firth - The King's Speech
James Franco - 127 Hours
Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network
Ryan Gosling - Blue Valentine

Best Actress
Annette Bening - The Kids Are Allright
Natalie Portman - Black Swan
Julianne Moore - The Kids Are Allright
Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone
Nichole Kidman - Rabbit Hole

Best Supporting Actor
Jeremy Renner - The Town
Christian Bale - The Fighter
Geoffrey Rush - The King's Speech
Mark Ruffalo - The Kids Are
Andrew - The Social Network

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams - The Fighter
Melissa Leo - The Fighter
Mila Kunis - Black Swan
Barbara Hershey - Black Swan
Hallie Steinfeld - True Grit

Best Director
David Fincher - The Social Network
Christopher Nolan - Inception
Tom Hooper - The King's Speech
Darren Aronofski - Black Swan
Danny Boyle - 127 Hours

I may have misspelled a few names and I'm sure I didn't get all of the predictions right. Two supporting actresses who could spoil my picks are Helena Bonham Carter and Jacki Weaver. His recent battle with cancer could get Michael Douglas a nod. Michelle Williams has a strong shot for an actress nod and Lisa Cholodenko could get a directors nomination for The Kids Are Allright although I'd say her nomination is more likely in the writing category. Sure bets to me would be Christian Bale for Best Supporting Actor and Toy Story 3 for Best Animated Feature...Colin Firth also seems to be a sure bet to win Best Actor. The campaigning all starts tomorrow.

I think that's enough for now - thanks for checking in and I'll put up another post at the end of the week.

This morning I watched the 'school closing scroll' to see if Xavier was going to be closed. At about 7:45 I decided it probably wasn't goin to happen so I hopped in the car and headed south for for my 21 mile commute. The drive really wasn't that bad, it took about an hour. I settle into my office, get a few things started and the next thing I know, people are telling the University just closed! So, it's back out to the car for another 21 mile drive which will probably take a bit longer than the drive down here. So I thought I might hang around a bit, head over to the gym around 11:30 to get a work out in and then head home. Sounds like a fun dasy, huh?

I hope everyone had a Happy New Year. It really took me a little longer to bounce back from my 5th treatment so I really didn't feel very good throughout the end of our holiday vacation, in fact, it wasn't until January 5th that I really felt like the worst of the treatment was behind me. I did get my blood checked and everything looked great. My 6th and final treatment is scheduled for January 27 and 28 and if everything check out, I should be finished - that would be quite a relief. i've been dealing with this relapse since last April and it would be awesome to have it behind me. As I've said before, here's hoping for an 'unremarkable' CT scan in early February.

We saw a couple very good movies recently - 'The Fighter' starring Mark Wahlberg and Chritian Bale was very well done and Bale will most likely win an Academy Award for his performance as a washed up boxer addicted to crack - not the most uplifting movie character ever but a tremendous performance nonetheless. Look for Melissa Leo (as Wahlberg and Bale's mother) and Amy Adams (Wahlberg's girlfriend) to also get nominations. We also saw 'True Grit', the remake of the John Wayne classic which won him his only Oscar. I've never seen the original but it's hard to imagine Jeff Bridges took the same route Wayne did in playing Rooster Cogburn. He may get a nomination for best actor but I think the most likely nominee from this movie is 14 year old, Hallie Steinfield, who played the spunky daughter out to avenge his father's murder. The academy loves spunky performances by young actresses.

I really enjoyed watching Ohio State finally beat an SEC team in a bowl game. They tried to give it away but a gutsy defensive call which called for the defensive end to drop back into pass coverage lead to an interception late in the game which preserved the Ohio State win. Many have been critical of Jim Tressel's decision to allow 5 players suspended for the first 5 games in 2011 to play in the Sugar Bowl but it means they all come back and serve their suspenisons, I think it was a good decision.

The boys are still home on break but will be heading back to their respective schools later this week. It's been great having them home but I do think they are anxious to get back to class. For Judd, this will be his final semester - he is scheduled to graduate on Mother's Day - unbelieveable.

Abbey will be heading to Italy next month with some of her MND classmates - she's participating in the Model UN program and will be there for 7 or 8 days. The house will be very quiet with none of the kids around - almost eerie!

Well, it's getting close to 11:30 so I think I'll end. Hope all is well with you and will try to put up another post over the weekend!