Moving, geeking, & amputating

So my stuff finally got here from Ohio. "Went alright. Dude's car got a little dinged up." I spent this afternoon acquiring a storage hooha in Grover Beach. Now all that's left is finding a place to live and for the admissions people at Cal Poly to admit me. They still need my transcripts from BGSU and proof that I'm signed up to take the CBEST.

On that note, the fine people of the Graduate College of BG may finally be about to take that damn hold off my record. I emailed Dean Bailey (of Cal Poly's COSAM) and asked him to email Dean Lawrence (of BGSU's Graduate College as to my status as a student at Cal Poly. I have it from Dean Bailey himself that

Eric has indeed fulfilled all requirements for his BS degree in Physics..... I can confirm that he is currently considered a Cal Poly graduate.

Rock on Dean Bailey and take that Dean Lawrence.

With summer damn near all upons, I've been undertaking several very important projects. First off, my cousin and her two kids are moving in, and, consequently, Fast Dave and I have been doing a lot of moving, packing, cleaning, patching, and painting up the upstairs. Also, as previously mentioned, I've been doing some moving of my own stuff up to the SLO area in preparations for my upcoming credentialing endeavors. And lastly, and arguably most importantly, I've been playing an awful lot of Guild Wars lately. Geeking out, as Chris calls it, is good. It's a fun game, and plays a lot like the old Diablo, only better. I've spent a lot of time with my friend Ethan, among other friends and family, taking care of those pesky Charr hoards. Playing with people you know, it's a lot easier to convince yourself that you're not actually wasting time, you're socializing. At least, that's what I've been telling myself. And so far, it's been working pretty damn well.

On a final note, my cousin Tim, who's older than my by only a couple weeks, was recently diagnosed with cancer. As I understand it, he'd been going to the doctor for some ten years complaining of foot pain. The doctor had been telling him it was merely a sore tendon, which is apparently common in the family. It got to the point where he could go to work, much less walk, without serious pain. He ended up down at the UCLA Medical Center, where they decided he had a malignant tumor that had wrapped itself around a tendon on the underside of his foot. He went through a PET scan to see if anything had spread, but his kind of cancer can take up to two years before anything spreads noticeably. The doctor decided Tim had to lose his right leg below the knee and take on some seriously intense Chemotherapy. He took a couple weeks to psyche himself up for it, and on Monday he went in for his amputation. The surgery took a little longer than they thought, but I hear he's doing fine now and resting up for his trip home on Friday. He'll be well enough to go to Boston for his brother's wedding in July and then he starts six to nine months of the heaviest Chemo they do the following week.

It's been a pretty crazy trip. This cancer and amputation thing has gotten me thinking about stuff I'd never truly thought about before. Tim's less than a month older than me and his mom told me the survival rates. Pretty intense stuff. At this point, there's one really burning question: what do they do with his leg? I mean, when he went in, it was a nearly perfect leg. A couple hours later, some saw bones is holding a former leg. I mean, you can't just throw that kind of thing out. I imagine they'll cut out the tumor and submit it to various probes, but could he ask to keep his leg? Is that the sort of thing you could get embalmed and keep by the mantle?

It's all so weird.