Hey everyone, I’m going to dictate this, so please excuse any typos or weird turns of phrase. I’m sorry it’s been a while since I posted. I’ve been struggling with whether I should even post anything at all actually. Apart from everything else that’s going on in this country which honestly is just a drain on everything, especially emotionally. I’ve had some things go on that have been taking my attention away from things that I should be focusing on. A lot of you know one of my friends I don’t wanna name them here but it’s very good friend of mine that I’ve known for over 20 years. They’d been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer last year and we found out a few weeks ago, well I found out about six weeks ago that the cancer had spread to their brain and that they’re in treatment of course, but I don’t know what the prognosis is to be honest. I am just spending as much time as I can with them and helping as much as I can. Trying to lighten the load for their family a little bit and their boyfriend. Yeah it’s been really tough. We went out today and drove around the city for the most part of the morning/afternoon. They live in Santa Monica and so we drove out to Los Angeles and went to a restaurant we hadn’t gone to in a while. We seem to always do things around getting lunch! Of course we got turned around and stuck in traffic with all the construction and everything going on. But we went back to their home and we were going to pick up some things in order to run some errands return some items and I had them get out of the car so that it would be easy for them to exit the car and they proceeded to collapse onto the pavement, which was really bad. You know they hurt their nose and their hand and wrist and getting them to the apartment just to rest. Thank goodness their boyfriend saw my car in the street as he was leaving and came back and the neighbor that saw everything and came to help stayed and watched my car. Honestly, I was rattled. It was almost like a seizure and they don’t remember what happened.  

So, planning our next trip I think I need to take into consideration a little bit more that their mobility is limited, but on the flipside too if I coddle them too much they’re gonna get upset. So it’s a fine line to walk when it comes to wanting them to have feel a little bit independent but still be safe. I mean the last time we went out two weeks ago and spent the day together. I think it was two weeks ago And their balance was OK but it would you know they would be shaky every so often and I asked about a cane or a walking stick or something for support and they didn’t want one because they needed to keep working those muscles to walk on their own. They didn’t want to atrophy anything And just a couple weeks later they have a walking stick which I know they don’t like. But I don’t know if it’s the medicine that’s doing it or if it’s the cancer that’s doing it. So that’s been keeping me busy mentally and preoccupied and stressed and upset pretty much all the time when I stop and think. 

I guess Work is is OK. I’m not thrilled, but that hasn’t changed just I’ve got someone that I work with who as I’ve mentioned here before I feel that their cognitive abilities are in decline and that’s been hard because I’ve worked with them for it’ll be 10 years in a few months And to see that decline happen has been difficult. One of the side effects of their decline is they’re already short temper has gotten shorter and so there’s a lot of yelling going on and I don’t know about you guys, but I certainly don’t like being yelled at when it’s not their place to yell at me nor is that anybody’s place to yell at me, but It’s hard to get really upset back when I don’t know that they understand that they that they shouldn’t be doing it. I mean it’s not like it’s terribly abusive or anything. It’s not like an HR issue, but it’s you know reactionary to different situations and you know that makes it hard. So yeah it’s been a lot. 

On a different note, I’ve mentioned last year that I did a walk the Saturday before Thanksgiving that was from USC to UCLA. It was an urban hike and it was almost 15 miles through different areas of Los Angeles and it was really really neat and this year is again the Saturday before Thanksgiving and it’s going to be from one Wilshire to the ocean. I guess there’s a statue in Santa Monica and I think that’s where it’s gonna end. They haven’t posted anything as of yet with details, so I’ve been trying to do some sort of preparation for the walk hike whatever you wanna call it urban hike. I couldn’t sleep this morning so I left my house at about 4am armed with pepper spray, of course and I did almost 6 miles walking, not running but walking and got home about an hour and a half or so it’s not too bad. It was nice cause it was cold and little bit misty out not too hot, but I’m hoping that I can build up to close to the distance that were that we’re going to be doing in November I still have almost 2 months and I think I’ll be able to do it. I just remember feeling really old last year because when we hit mile five you know your hip starts to hurt and then the backs of your knees start to hurt and then you start walking not completely upright so I don’t want that to happen this year. Last year I didn’t do any preparation. I just did it And I think that was a little bit of a mistake but then I found out about it fairly close to the time and date that we were gonna do it so there wasn’t really the opportunity to do anything ahead of time. So hopefully this year will be good. I’ll probably do the same thing, park at the destination and catch a Lyft or an Uber or the bus or train back to the Start of the walk. That way I have a ride waiting for me and I don’t have to try and grab a Lyft or anything back to my car. 

So that’s what’s going on not too much. I’ll try and write later.