good news, bad news, really bad news

I hardly know where to start, so I'll do the good news first.  G'daughter Emily had five colleges/universities to choose from for her next scholarly endeavor.  She visited campuses in the Northwest and on the east coast.  And the winner is:  Univeristy of Southern California. 

She went to the Open House for prospective students and was blown away by the campus, the research opportunities, the chance to row, and the overall "feel" of the place.  She's now part of the Trojan Family and we are delighted that she will be (a) in California, and (b) so close to LAX that she can come up to the valley or down to Mexico without much trouble.  Congratulations Em!

The bad news has to do with this blog.  The host, Blogger.com has completely changed its preparation format, and NOT for the better.  In addition, in order to post a comment on another's blog you have to navigate through an unintelligible word ID puzzle.  The capper came a few days ago when I tried ~ SEVENTEEN TIMES ~ unsuccessfully to type in the correct mystery words so I could post a comment over at No More Commas Period, located on the list to the left.  I finally corralled Mr. C for help.  He couldn't do it, either.  I am ready to dump the whole thing and find a different blog server.  I've been on this site for over 6 years and I hate to leave it but it's just too damned inconvenient.  With all these unannounced changes I get the feeling Blogger, too, is tired of the whole thing and wants to sell kites and beach balls instead.  I'm looking around for somewhere else to park this blog.  If you hear of anyplace, let me know.

Now for the really bad news.  As I write this my best beach pal, Marie, is recovering from surgery to remove a malignant tumor from her brain.  She had not been  100% during her stay this year, having headaches and nausea, dizzy spells, and blurred vision.  So she went to the doc when she returned to Arkansas on April 1.  Tests, exams, etc.  But the surgery is over, she is awake and talking and that's a good sign.  Chemo and radiation will follow after recovery.

My other long-time friend and former colleague at the Big U, Fran, is going through treatment for esophageal cancer in Arizona.  She was, at one time, a heavy smoker but quit many years ago.  She is having radiation and chemo (I think) but no surgery.

This whole thing stinks.  But the older we get ~ and we are getting older ~ the more of this kind of news we are likely to hear.  My best energies and thoughts and prayers are with them both for a return to health and their own individual vivacity and spunk!

The other bad news is that we're leaving in 3 days but that really pales, doesn't it!