Cheer the F**k Up!

I just got back from a four day trip to New York City. I visited with friends who live there and two friends who'd flown in from Australia for a month-long holiday (man, foreigners have it good with that vacation time) and my husband has cousins who live there. We did a lot of walking, had an amazing gastro molecular meal at Atera, saw Drunk Shakespeare, Imbible and had 10th row centrestage seats to see Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce in Hello, Dolly! I'm turning 50 in a couple weeks, so this was a bit of a birthday treat.

I was a little worried about this trip due to my gimpy arm and the hip pain, but I really managed well. I have to say that the dexamethasone that I took on Friday certainly gave me a little boost. Still, while I was worried, I wasn't sad. There was so much that I wanted to do, see and enjoy because I should.

I see a lot of people online and in the analogue who are constantly lamenting their situation and not taking advantage of the days they have. They spend time grousing about how they don't feel well or that they just don't feel motivated to do anything because they are depressed. To those people I say, "cheer the fuck up!"

It seems a bit harsh and bit simplistic to say such a thing to someone who is suffering so, but I too am suffering. Now, of course, this doesn't apply at all if you have clinical depression. Those people have special needs that require other medications, treatments and psychiatric attention. If you are just resigned to sitting in a funk, that's all on you. But you know... I realise that am still going to feel rotten whether I sit disengaged from the world in a dark room or if I go out and enjoy the things I can still do and be with the people whom I love. Personally, I would rather be doing something that just wallowing in grief.

My dear late mother-in-law was the perfect example of this attitude. She had a less-than-sexy colostomy bag, legs and feet that were always swollen and a whole host of other issues, but she just kept trucking along. She had lunch with her friends, went to church, baked and made candy for her church's women's auxiliary, played cards and even travelled a little bit! Oh, how she inspired me and so many others to just get on with it and live!

In reality, we're all like milk. Unfortunately, some of us caught a glimpse of the sell-by date on the carton. You know that sell-by date? There are a lot of variables that factor into that. I've had milk go bad days before the sell-by date. I've had milk last 10 days beyond! I've had milk that went a day after the date. You just never really know and that's a lot like life. None of us ever know when our time's up until it just simply is. Those of us who have been diagnosed with something like Multiple Myeloma have seen the sell-by date, but it doesn't mean that date is written in rock. For the rest of the world, they are milk too and just haven't seen the sell-by date. 

Ignore the sell-by date!

I'm not kidding... get out there and live your life. Spend every moment you can being in charge of things because there's only so much that stupid alien living inside you can control. You still have a lot of life left in you and you'd better not waste it.