Updates

Hi gang. Honestly, I started this post to remind you all the Every Day by David Levithan is out today, and to make sure you grab a copy. However, all of this just poured out of me, so I hope you don't mind.

I just wanted to pop on and let you all know that the family problems I've been dealing with since just after Christmas have ended, although new problems are just beginning. The very, very short story is that my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 small cell lung cancer in late December, and yesterday she lost her way-too-short battle, at almost exactly the 8-month mark from her diagnosis. The past 8 months have been filled with taking her back and forth for chemo treatments and then shots to build up her blood counts after the chemo, and then radiation when it was discovered the chemo wasn't working. It's been very taxing, to say the least, on my dad, brothers, and myself. Mom was the glue that held this family together, and there is a void in our lives that can never be fully filled. She was a wonderful woman who gave everything of herself--when I was in 6th grade my best friend was moving, and she arranged for Kim to stay with us for 6 weeks so she could finish the school year. Innumerable friends have called her Mom over the years and she was a mom to anyone who came into her home. She was a beautiful, kind, compassionate woman, one of my dearest friends, and my heart is very heavy.

I apologize for burdening you with this, but perhaps some of you were wondering where I've been and what I've been up to, and so now you know.

Christi