HALF WAY THERE!

My life has been pretty boring over the past couple of weeks. When I wrote my last blog I was about to fly home for the weekend. The main reason for the trip was I needed to attend our company Christmas party. In tough economical times I believe that in any business it's very important to get everyone together and celebrate the holidays together. With a lot of hard work from my mother, Shea and countless others the party went off without a hitch. The afternoon before the party I went over to my parents new house to see the progress. While I was there my father pulled a bright red suede sports coat out of his closet and said "I wore this 20 years ago to all the Christmas parties ........ now it's your turn." Keep in mind this coat has been in his closet or storage for the last 20 years and it looked like it. In the spirit of carrying on tradition I agreed to wear it.

This is a picture of me giving my Emmy winning speech. This years party was especially special because December 16th was my fathers 25th anniversary of being a General Motors dealer. I just hope I can achieve this same accomplishment some day. Although the party didn't last as long as they use to (when I was younger they didn't end till the sun came up) we all had a wonderful time. Once again, in the spirit of tradition my father and I got together to sing Happy Trails to conclude the party. We might as well call it It's Time To Go The Hell Home because that's what we mean.

Here's a picture of my parents and I at the end of the night. (2 a.m)

What's new in Dallas?

Things are still going relatively well in Dallas. I stayed 2 nights at my friend Kallie's mom's house and now I'm currently living at some of Shea's friends home in Southlake while their away at Disney World. I'm pretty much just house hopping. Shea came into town on Friday too hang out with me till Christmas Eve. I would love to tell you that we have been doing a lot of exciting things but ............... we haven't. I'm so tired during the day that I pretty much just sleep most of the day. She got her first chance to go to radiation with me on Sunday. The staff at the cancer center allowed her to come into the room while they strapped me to the table.

She took some pictures before the radiation began. The one on the right is them aligning the machine on my head. Keep in mind this lovely mask is so tight that I can't open my eye lids. Every day I can feel the effects of the treatments more and more. My hair is beginning to fall out and my head is very tender. It's similar to a severe sunburn but worse. I was finally able to speak with my neuro oncologist today and she informed me that we will most likely begin chemotherapy a month after my radiation treatments are complete. My final radiation treatment is scheduled for January 23rd so get ready to celebrate. Thankfully they're giving me a couple of days off for Christmas so I'll be flying home on Wednesday and returning on Monday. I finally started my shopping today which I'm sure is not a surprise to many of you. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. I'm not a big fan of the greedy gift exchanging this holiday brings but it's my favorite holiday because of it's true meaning. If you don't know what the true meaning is you should pick up the book A Charlie Brown Christmas. God Bless you all and have a wonderful Christmas.

Brian