It’s been over two weeks since I wrote anything, which, in my world, is pretty good. It means nothing of note has happened, beyond a bit of a strain from doing things too hard at the gym. But that will be fine. Turns out, six months post-surgery, you might not want to try and kill yourself in the sun every day under a barbell… who knew? Clearly, not me.

What I can tell you about treatment is pretty much the same as it was. It’s going pretty easily. I don’t have any side effects, which I guess is good. No one really knows what to expect fully. One of the fun little games you get to play with clinical trials, whether you want to or not. I wouldn’t recommend it, though, because the list they do tell you could occur reads like a horror movie.

I should get some data that might give me insight into the efficacy of things in about three weeks. My second round of treatment ended today, and I have a week-long break before round three starts. On that first day, they’ll take a blood test that should tell me something useful… hopefully. I don’t really think about it that often because there is no real value in dwelling on things I don’t really have any control over.

Honestly, life has been pretty normal, which is nice. It’s strange to write about normality lately, but until things change, it’s refreshing. Life is hard for a lot of us, if not all of us, so these small respites of normalcy are welcome.

The one thing that normal does bring, though, is that life moves on and changes. A lot of people in my life are in a season of change, and as a result, I’m being dragged along with them, for better or worse.

My buddy Dean, who has been one of my closest friends, moved away today, heading up to Minnesota to be closer to his little boy. It didn’t really hit me until today, when we had our last guys’ coffee meetup, our last workout earlier in the week, and one of those goodbyes guys do where it’s, “See you later, dude,” rather than anything more meaningful.

But for six years, he has been one of the most prominent people in my life. We worked out together nearly every day for six years. Drank coffee and a lot of other things… mostly gin and Aperol spritzes together. We traveled together with some other buddies, and I got to see parts of the world I never would have otherwise. We yelled at each other, laughed with each other, drank in excess together, and made memories that I will forever hold dear.

I was with Dean in Montenegro when I first started getting sick. He has been a good friend, and while it sucks to see him go, it’s good to see him prioritize his responsibilities as a dad above anything else.

I start a new job at my current company tomorrow, too. Closing a chapter on working with a group of friends that taught me so, so much about software, management, relationships, how to run a team, and so much more I’ll never be able to put into words.

It’s bittersweet. Change always is.

But for me, like with this battle with cancer, it’s exciting because I don’t know what the future holds. I know I can’t go back to the way things were, but I also have real faith that what is ahead, not just for me, but for all those in my life, will be better tomorrow than it was today, even when today was a great day.

I think that is what I have learned most from all those in my life lately who are going through this change, and that puts a smile on my face during this brief time of normality, like only change can do.

I am probably romanticizing this a lot because I don’t have much else to talk about, the change is very new, and I have no idea what tomorrow brings.

So, like all these posts I usually write, I’ll go to bed soon, reading by lamp light for an hour or so while Tugboat sleeps his fat little butt at the foot of my bed, mad about something I did or didn’t do today.

Normal is pretty good…