Looong time, no see

I find it a bit hard to believe,  but I stumbled across my own blog. I guess you could say that my mind has been elsewhere. The least I can do, while I'm here, is a quickie update.

As far as the diagnosis of CLL, that seems to be right, but in the nine years since the diagnosis I have remained symptom-free and stuck in Stage ZERO. Thanks be to God!

The bungalow. sigh. Well, my mother died a day or two before my daughter graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. My sister wanted to have Mom's service right away, meaning we'd have to skip her graduation ceremonies. Yes, that's a plural. I'm putting on my Proud Mama hat: she graduated with an A. B. in physics (A. B. is the abbreviation for the Latin "Artis Baccalaureus", which is the same as "Batchelor of Arts," only snootier. The older universities tend to use the Latin form.), with the departmental prize, Phi Beta Kappa, and Summa cum Laude. We learned about the Phi Beta Kappa in April. Mom was still alive, so I called her to let her know that her only grandchild had made Phi Beta Kappa. Mom was always about grades, etc. So what does Mom say? "That's nice. I got my Phi Beta Kappa my junior year." I'm still boggled by that, 8 years later. Well, I do have to say that it was a gift - I now have a short story to tell people that explains my mother quite well.

Getting back to Sabetta's graduation in May 2007, she also got an MS in theoretical physics, at the same time, in four years. She was one of four recipients of a new scholarship which paid tuition and fees for 2 years, if the student did a double major or got an MS. She stayed on at Penn, because she already had a fantastic graduate advisor. She got her PhD in four more years.

So, what was my point about the bungalow? Well, when Mom died, I inherited her half share of the bungalow, along with the contents of her house. Bottom line? Plain and simple - I didn't have the money to buy out the cousins, so it was sold. Who bought it? My late cousin Lynne's widower. I still get depressed thinking about it.