Make Him Work For It in the Pursuit of Happiness

Every once in a while I get to do interview or  speeches or guest blogs  http://brainpower5k.blogspot.com/2014/07/iram-j-leon-survivor-story-on-bp5k.html) ... there I try to clean up the story some because I get the privilege of stepping back... of getting, giving, contemplating perspective  (and also because it's going to be complete strangers reading/hearing it as opposed to you, my friends, cause only my friends read this right? ;-). But here where we pick up hitchhikers,  this is just train of thought and a cursory reading of it will tell you that I've made mistakes, grammar emotional and otherwise in pouring my heart out to a blog... so maybe there were plenty of reasons why the George Clooney approach was moderately successful (or the most massive failure of my life depending on your perspective but I was amused that there's a picture of Clooney in a government museum in DC) because that intensity when dealing with someone should be done proportionally, properly paced remembering that a good relationship is more like a marathon and less like a track workout. And while marathons are hard, I also hear I won a marathon pushing a stroller once I... so...

While I still am blown away by the privileges, the opportunities  that came from that. The shirt that I wear during Spartans, the make him work for it shirts (makehimwork.com), the founder, David Landau was kind enough to get Kiana and I out to his home in Washington DC. I'm not going to get much into politics because I voted for Pedro (honestly because I think that both parties have some very valid points and some incredibly dumb ones but because it's such a divisional system with only two choices, it gets tough to be productive. I'm a guy with problems with gray matter and while some of the world is black and white I'm a bigger fan of the
rainbow, those moments where you stand in a museum with multiple colors flooding in light through various windows, even when you turn around for sunsets and catch that even lights that are fading create a beauty if reflected right.

Still, when in DC this weekend, we did a tour on a bus-turns-boat tour where we got to see the big monuments Kiana and saw some of the great museums. When you ask her to describe her favorite moments, she talks about some of the historical monuments but she also talks about the butterfly garden. And I loved the historical stuff, some of which I'd never seen before but I also enjoyed the 12 mile run along the Potomac. And perhaps what made my day just as much was that Kiana was smiling when we got on the plane home somewhere comparable to on the way there, where she realized home and trips were both worthy of excitement. We had moments there where strangers became friends and where one of the friends I've made through brain cancer at Duke and his family came out to have a meal with us.

Cancer and it's side effects differ for different people. I've seen two people I love whose treatment ended earlier than they thought and figured out or are trying to what to do in light of that. For me, the MRI because someone made a typo they wanted to delay my MRI today. Frankly, the sitting in suspense and having things on your calendar messes with you enough to where that's uncomfortable but that's a fairly  petty reason to be upset. The MRI was scheduled for today (mostly) because Kiana leaves to be with her mom for an extended summer visit. It is possible/likely that we may be tweaking the anti seizure medication either way. And of course if something shows on the MRI cause I have such a great track record of how I get emotionally detached during medical times, or if I have something to deal with the medication, I thought a 7 year old would be best having fun elsewhere. The time at which the MRI was to make it possible for someone to be there and in my best dreams they will show up in one form or another but either way...

Let's just say when they tried to delay it... well I showed up at their office and sat and waited and waited while they made phone calls and they tried to track down their mistake and asked why I wouldn't just be patient and have it happen another day. I said that today Kiana leaves for a couple of weeks and anyway, the MRI is happening today as scheduled even if they interrupted my days regularly scheduled programming to make it happen.

So whatever will show on the MRI has already been determined... like a good or bad photographer... this is just documenting it. But tonight sitting in suspense, I should go watch a movie or something to distract myself... maybe that new Jersey Boys one to remind myself that my life is just too good to be true or that Planet of the Apes ones to let out my inner monkey. Or maybe go do a track workout where I keep making him work for it. Either way now, lunch is done, the MRI is in a few hours, and whatever happens today and tomorrow I hope to keep giving it what I have to make him work for it in the pursuit of happiness.