Vera, oy vey

This past year has been chocked full of physical, psychological, emotional and intellectual challenges. I can't say that it was all pretty, nor can I claim that I handled it all with grace, but who the hell could keep it all together all the time under these circumstances. I'm kind of proud that I don't have a custom fit white coat waiting for me in my own personal rubber room. Writing my thesis was a little like torture. I've never personally been water boarded, but there's no way any more information could have been retrieved from my brain regardless of the extraction method. Throughout the balancing game I played with the thesis writing, the family raising, the angiosarcoma fundraising and scientific development on one hand, and the feeling of standing helpless as I watched too many friends suffer and die from this god awful disease on the other, the resounding thought that I could NOT shake from my brain was, why , WHY did we get a puppy?