family matters

It's been hard to post the last few days. Wedding plans are in a holding pattern as I'm in the middle of tough negotiations with a couple of banquet halls. My dad's footing a large part of the bill and I knew he'd want to have a big Italian wedding reception and they're THE best place to throw one of those. (Watch the Wedding Singer if you need some reference material Anyway, I'm hoping that by Tuesday I'll have the place booked, nail down a date, AND then find someone to officiate. Kirk and I are still a little fuzzy on the whole spiritual/god/religion/faith thing so we're definitely going with a civil service.

Today was my grandmother's 82nd birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NONNA MARIA!

We stopped in and visited with my family for a while. It seems that the appearance of babies in the last few years has definitely made it easier for everyone to get along. We're too busy marvelling at all the cuteness to be bothered by the usual irrirants. I ate way too much pizza and cake (standard italian canadian birthday party menu) and baby hands and cheeks.

I didn't think that my aunt Deb and uncle Vic we're going to make it. Deb's been fighthing a very agressive brain tumor for the last couple of months. Her neurosurgeon managed to remove a small portion of it last November and then intensive radiation treatments, five days a week for five weeks. Halfway through the treatments she started having seizures every few days. They did end up making it after all and I was shocked to see how her condition had so deteriorated since I saw her last at the beginning of December. She has lost most of her hair, is unrecognizably swollen and is losing muscle control in her right arm. There's been some talk of more surgery and chemo, but after seeing her, I wonder if she'd survive such an ordeal.

She told me she so hopes to be there on my wedding day. Even with everything she's gone through she still told me to call on her if I needed anything. All I could do to not start bawling was to hug her and tell her that I love her.