Tuesday, April 13, 2004

I'm losing my tita to cancer.

And while that's not earth-shattering news to some, it sure is to me.

Until now I've taken the disease for granted. It always seemed distant to me since i've never personally known anyone who had been afflicted.

And then when it did happen; when the doctor diagnosed her to have cancer; it came from nowhere and hit us like a speeding truck on an open highway.

Stage 4 colon cancer. We never saw it coming.

That was 19 months ago. For 19 months I was in denial.

I always thought she'd pull through, that she'd give this disease that all-too-famous "taray" look she's always brandished and frighten it away.

But not this time.

She's fighting. God, she's fighting with all she's got. But she can only go so far and now the battle's taking its toll. The signs point towards that dark place we'd rather not go.

And because of that we're praying for a miracle. At this point, it's all we have left.

Inspite of that my tita's not giving up, and by George, i am not either.

posted by Grace @ 4/13/2004 01:50:00 AM

Thursday, April 01, 2004

Of coffee, tummy aches and pretensions

My tummy's disagreeing with me lately.

It all started with a megadose of caffeine in the form of an espresso-based iced coffee concoction. How megadosed? In addition to the caffeine from the espresso, the drink was full of real roasted coffee beans, BOTH whole and crushed. So wired, i actually can pick up AM radio.

I suppose that's because my digestive system suddenly went into high gear. Ergo the flipflop acrobatics my stomach has been performing for the past 6 hours. Apprently, my tolerance for coffee has gone to an all time low - which is actually a good thing since I am cutting down on the stuff. Regrettably, the appeal of coffee is now lost to me. Maybe that's primarilly because I'm sick of the intellectual posturing that comes with hanging out at coffee places - i.e. being at Starbucks, or any other shop of its kind, makes you look smarter.

Am I wrong? Maybe I am. Then again, I maybe right.

posted by Grace @ 4/01/2004 11:29:00 AM