Five weeks ago, everything was normal. I was working, and crying my eyes out over cheesy movies, and eating giant plates of Zoe’s goodness. The usual.

 

Of course, I’d been having headaches all the time…and on the way home from that cheesy movie, I was on the phone with my best friend and got angry with her — yelling, screaming angry — for no reason at all. When I hung up the phone, I could barely remember anything I’d said.

But those things happen, right? People get headaches, and they get angry.

You might know what happened next, because I’ve already told the story here, but to summarize, the headaches got worse, I started throwing up in embarrassing places, and the haze in my brain eventually crowded out everything else. I went to the ER, clenched my claustrophobic fists in an MRI machine, and found out I had a brain tumor — which was, not long after, cut out of my brain.

I got to spend some precious time with family, including my Aunt Lisa (aka Sasa), one of my favorite people in the world…

…and my funny, kind brother, who charmed a roomful of hairstylists when he got his head shaved in the shape of my scar…

…and I emerged with less hair than before, but still enough to make do.

 

 

 

My parents and I went back to my apartment for a few days. We were tripping all over each other in my one-bedroom…but less than we would have if I hadn’t been taking a nap every three hours or so. While we were there, my best friends came to visit…and graciously opted to stay in a hotel in my neighborhood. After that, I headed home with my parents for about a week, where I buried my face in every fresh bouquet that arrived, spent time with family at the lake, and begged my dad to let me go out on the boat (he did, it was just a very, very slow trip). 

 

So then…we loaded up the car with my 6,000 new medicines and the cutest puppy alive (aka my family’s shi tsu/chihuahua mix, Sadie) and headed back to Atlanta through a heartbreaker of a blue-and-gold sunset.And life gradually got back to normal. There were kind words…

…and, be still my heart, even more flowers… …and laughs.

And now I’m easing back into real life, with my job and my church and my home and everything that entails. (The photo below kills me, by the way. Isn’t Atlanta beautiful?)

Here’s to whatever comes next.