Authoring this damn blog comes with a decent amount of obligation. I am not sure if I am grateful for that or annoyed by it. Having one of those nights. But I think I am grateful for this forum because tonight I need to get some stuff off my chest.
Just heard about a Bloomington Lincoln HS alum - roughly my age - that lost a shockingly short battle with bile duct cancer. Her name was Lynne Engfer Sater. Two years from diagnosis til death. And in the process of sharing a connection to her death with a friend in the TV industry (Lynne's husband is a TV anchor in Milwaukee) I was forced to break the news of Shannon's illness to said friend who is also a TV anchor in Milwaukee.
The Sater's have three young daughters. I am not surprised to hear she was a great mom, wife, school volunteer.
Tonight, Jen attended a district team manager's meeting to set up our game schedule for Shannon's hockey team, the Rochester Rebels. (Of course, Jen is the team manager...the Rebels love and need her OCD!). I stayed home with the girls and we did our own obsessing on some good books all three of us are into. Jen returned from the meeting all pumped about our game schedule (31 games including scrimmages) and Shannon went from nearly asleep in her chair to completely jacked about her upcoming hockey season.
One of the things we were waiting on was to see that schedule and if it worked out to take a trip to Florida or somewhere warm around the holidays. Since, we no longer make decisions based on what makes sense financially (which is completely whacked) we were just going to go for it.
But the week we would have gone - between Christmas and New Years - the Rebels have a game at Northfield. When I asked Shannon if she'd rather go to Florida or Northfield on December 28 she looked at me like I was an idiot. Needless to say we will go somewhere warm at a later date. God willing.
Also, this week I spent some time in the field making sales calls in Iowa and connecting with some really good folks I hadn't called on in awhile. They are reading this blog too. They knew what was going on in my life which was a little jarring. Sometimes I think we lay stuff out here on this blog with no return on the investment. But it's not really about an investment - it's just about sharing a journey. A good reminder that what we do needs to be about what is good for us and nothing external.
So what does it all mean? I sure as hell don't know. I just know that I can't believe how much I love my family and I need to stay focused on all the good out there. Because there is a ton of it.
