Gems

 My boss today told someone I am a gem.

I'll take it. 😀

Edit/Update: I probably should have mentioned that the "someone" is the current president of my alma mater. 

Cancer Sucks

 I thought last year was bad, losing my cousin, GSG and an American hero from World War II who I grew to love. His wife even said they considered me part of their family.

But this year sucks even worse.

Last year, out of my big three losses, only GSG died of cancer.

This year, quite a few didn't have cancer. This one did.

The latest casualty of that f'ing disease was this morning. He had a biospy (brain) last Friday and all his friends were looking forward to the results and his action plan so we could help him get through it. This morning his girlfriend posted on Facebook that he passed. The only good thing is that it happened quickly. The thing he hid from his friends is that he had lung cancer, which metastasized to his brain. We thought it was just the brain. 

Holy crap, I'm sad. We'd only been friends for about 10 years but this hits hard. I do feel lucky that we had a brief chat about music on Sunday. Selfishly, I'm happy that he mentioned me in one of his last Facebook posts.

 Bruce, Betsy, Dan, Harrijane, George (did have cancer), Mike, Jeff, Missy, Jean, Roseanne, Sharon. And this doesn't even include parents and spouses of friends who I wasn't independently friends with. Nor does it include the Sisters who have died since I started working for FSA.

No more, please.

A Hallmark Movie Christmas Senior Style

 If ABC can do "The Golden Bachelor," I can do this. 

It's just going to be a short story. I really do not like Hallmark Christmas movies because they truly do all have the same plot. My plot will be similar, ironically, but with a "senior style" difference. 

The idea came to me as I was thinking about a Christmas scene in another short story I'm writing. I realized the scene I had in my head didn't completely fit into that story. So, aha! I thought of another story for that scene.

We'll see what happens.

And, once again, GSG is my "model" for the male main character. 

I didn't realize until a few months ago how much I needed to write, and how much I needed to write about him. 

Serendipity?

 

Serendipity is not exactly the right word, but it's my favorite word so that's why I'm using it.

As I've said a couple of times recently, GSG is my inspiration for many stories, including "Joe" in my Joe & Gina stories, which I continued last month after taking many years off. On the same day I finished this year's NaNoWriMo project GSG's sister wrote a Facebook post about him. She hasn't posted about him since Christmastime last year.

Coincidence is probably a better word, but serendipity makes me think GSG had something to do with it. I want to believe that he was sending me a message through his sister. Usually it's through dreams or things I see on walks. So, he's changing it up a bit. Fine with me.

Winner, Winner

 

Not only did I figure out whodunnit, I found a way to write it and I finished my NaNoWriMo novel. First time I've hit the 50,000-word goal in almost 20 years. 

The thing about finishing this year is that I haven't written about Joe & Gina since, I believe, 2005 or so. GSG was my inspiration for the Joe character, and he pissed me off so badly that I couldn't write him anymore. But, after a series of events, I wasn't pissed at him anymore and thought maybe I should try to write Joe & Gina again as kind of a little memorial to him. (I'm so glad I didn't kill him off in a tragic golfing accident, which I planned to do when he angered and hurt me so badly.)

Getting started wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but it wasn't all together easy. As I got into it, though, their personalities came back, and it felt as if I was visiting old friends. 

In the dedication for the second book, I thanked GSG and told him he had my undying gratitude. Now, even with his death, I'm still grateful. I couldn't have done it without him.