Lo Siento

"Lo Siento" means "I am sorry" in Spanish - for those that have not had the pleasure of taking this language in high school. (smile) I am apologizing for not having posted a blog yesterday. To make a long story short - I was very sick. I am a bit better now but still not feeling very well. No, it is not the drastic changes in temperature that we are going through here in Wisconsin but a medical condition that was handed down to me through genetics. I will not bore you with the details but will say that I will be fine. (wink)

As for life - life is life. There is no definition more accurate than that. There is work, family, chores, social events, and then personal space. My work is fine, family still very much insane but fine, chores always exist... but the social events and personal space are lacking. Quite honestly, I have a good number of friends and they are a global entity - the problem is that there are only a handful in our neck of the woods and those friends that Greg had growing up have mostly deserted him because of his disease (he couldn't "party" like them after a while). Are we social outcasts? No - but, the world of diseases does make you "different" then other people and those other people do not understand the complexities of the world of illnesses. We can do almost everything that other people can do but have limits due to medication and situations (we no longer frequent smoky bars to play pool). Our friends do not understand why we cannot attend parties because someone there has a bad cold - they do not understand that Greg cannot have cheesecake between 7pm-9pm because a transplant drug he takes at 8pm cannot be taken around the time he has anything with calcium in it.

Does this mean that we have been outcast into our own little world? No. It just means that friendships and personal space is tested on a frequent basis. It is those friends that truly understand the perils of the illnesses that are your true friends. The ones that come to you when you cannot come to them - the ones that quiz all invitees of a party if they have a cold or not before you show up - those are the true gems.

Alas, I would like to say that my global friends do understand this life but most have never been around the illnesses long enough demonstrate this understanding. For a select few though - we know they are friends for life. Out of Greg's 3 closest childhood friends, only one has withstood the test of time and illness. And, of course, there is the handful of "adult" friends we have that have shown their dedication to our friendship more than once. These are the people that truly matter in life - the ones that even if they do not understand the complexity that is our life - stand by us through acceptance of our lifestyle. These are the people that deserve our love - not those that place conditional terms on friendship.