New sense of myself

During times like these it is always an amazing shot in the arm to spend time with people that honestly care about you and aren't afraid to say it. It just goes to show the character of my friends. As everyone knows I went back down to Madison this past weekend to celebrate the Badgers victory over the Akron Zips. I went to Eau Claire and picked Andy up on Friday and we headed on into town. I also had a few other friends from Eau Claire who came on down to Madison to party as well. Naturally, I wanted to hang out with them as much as possible. When we all met up at Gennas up by the Capitol we had a few and decided to go and bar hop all the way down State Street. It was quite the adventure since it was Andy, myself, Bowden, Kara, Steph, and about 8 other of their friends that live in Madison. I had a really good time. So after bar close Andy and I take the drunk bus back to the house and met up with the other guys. A few of us sat out on the porch and hung out and just shot the shit for a while. I had a nice talk with my old roomie Dave and it was quite an uplifting talk about my entire situation and just life in general. Dave is always good for those talks and motivating moments. For the most part most part everyone that I have meet and interacted with while living in Madison have been really good people. I can't really saw many bad things about all of the folks that I still talk to and deal with regularly from that area. I also saw Joe Litchfield and his new girlfriend at Gennas earlier that evening after him and Jay went out for diner for his birthday. Joe is a super nice guy as well. I guess that the moral of the story here is I never really appreciated or realized how nice and awesome my friends are. Obviously, my Eau Claire and Minneapolis friends mean the world to me as well but coming back to Madison and hear the way people were expressing their concerns over my health and life was a lot more that I normally get from people. I guess I just wasn't expecting what I got. There were also quite a few things that I did hear from people and they were about how I should keep the mustache instead of growing back the beard or chin hair and the other was about how good I look physically. I haven't lost much weight at all since I started working out and eating a lot more healthier maybe 10-15lbs, but my waist has shrunk a bit and my beer gut, nuoffer chin, and chest have tightened up quite a bit. If I can notice it when I look in the mirror then I am sure everyone else can to. I heard those things so often on Friday and Saturday that it made me pretty happy about my personal decision to get into shape and feel better about my health and physique.

Saturday was a totaly riot. The morning started off pretty slow and it wasn't from a hang over but because it was so hot and there really is no shade infront of the house. I did get sunburn from it and that was going to happen regaurdless because of my sensitivity to light....thank you chemo double dose. Jay bought an 8ft inflatable Bucky and had it up next to the porch and it was hilarious to see all of the families that would walk off of the street to get their pictures infront of it. It was funny because these kids were so happy to see a big ol Bucky infront of them and then you had a bunch of drunk people everywhere. There was one guy who had his wife and two kids pose with jay who was wearing his polka lovers vest. Crazy stuff I am telling you. I spent most of the game hanging out with my friend Michelle who is an absolute sweet heart and I get along with her quite well. Her and I get along because we both have health issues (she has diabetes type1) and it is easy for us to relate and talk about our situations. I must say though that I have never in my life met someone besides myself that is more determined to accomplish their goals. It was nice to have that conversation with her and calm myself down about everything going on in my world. I can say that she is by far one of the best people that I met in Madison over my two years there. There were so many cool people I know personally or just from gameday parties. So here is a small list of people that I am going to say hey it was good to see you again. Timmy, Jess and Josh, Kenny and Danielle, Brodie and the pooch Porter, Brent, Julia, Margie, Kate(Michelles roomie), The former W house 3rd floor and company, Ryan next door, and finally Dave and Dani. If I forgot anyone...sorry. So if you haven't heard yet the Badgers rolled over the Akron Zips as well on Saturday for their first victory of the year. So far so good, but it is a non-conference game the are supposed to win. As I also predicted at the bars the night before that the Badgers were not going to cover the vegas spread and they didn't. I wish I put some cash down on it now. hahaha. Well what can I say besides the fact that another Super Saturday is in the books.

I do have to come clean about something from this weekend. I played a pretty good game face Friday and Saturday until the evening. I was in a lot of pain in my shoulder, hands, and now my feet. The doctors told me that I am going to have quite a bit more reaction to the chemo since I recieved twice the dosage. Saturday night was my breaking point though. I left the house party we were at and walked back to the house because it felt like my entire shoulder locked up. Almost like it was one big cramp, but very sharp. I pretty much slammed a ton of water trying to dilute any alcohol in my system and popped a 5mg oxycodone. Luckily Jennifer came over to see me and say hi since I was in town and rubbed my shoulder down for quite a while and it helped out tremendously. I wonder what is going on with that area. I mean it is a constant ache and sharp pain that does not go away. The doctors think it is the nerves being messed with because of the action happening in my chest. I guess that is all I can hope for.

Well party people I am calling it a night and I will write more tomorrow. I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend. Don't labor yourself! muahahaha!