Celebrating the Privilege of Choice

Brain cancer is...

 ...celebrating.

When we headed to Thai tonight (above), we thought we were celebrating the completion of Fall 2019 Semester, Week One.  (Taking note of the great contrasts in that bouquet, by the way.)

But as we reflected over the past few days, we realized that the story isn't "Week One."  The story is the the privilege to have Week One, or to not have it.

Things started getting rocky yesterday afternoon.  I kept losing things, forgetting things, and not having things.  (Side note:  My colleagues express similar concerns.  There is so much executive function involved in day-to-day success.  Kristine will tell you:  "You can't do the lesson without the lemons!")

We were still on campus, hunting down keys, sand dollar books, acrylic paint, and meter sticks at 8 p.m.  Darrell's array change didn't start until 9:08 p.m.  Nonetheless, today we were up at 5:45 a.m. because we were excited to start the day.

Now we realize that we are celebrating not the end of the week but the privilege of choice...big time.  We had the choice of setting up on campus last night.  Of hunting down the keys.  Of grabbing the butcher paper for the ocean mural.  Of continuing to show up at California State University, Fullerton for another semester.

When I was hired, LuAnn joined me on campus to sign up for benefits and to pick up those blasted keys for the first time.  That was in 1991.  Last night (28 years later) we saw new sights.

The Promenade

Who put a fountain by my library?

On the way home tonight from Thai we saw this:

Titan Hall?  Where did the law school go?

We end Thursday, August 29 (Birthday Month Day 29), truly appreciative of the privileges we have been granted in life.  Prominent among our privileges:  The privilege of choice.