Nightglow Window

Thorns Of The Rosebush

I took a few days off the ol' Blogger treadmill. It doesn't look like I was missed.

It's been a drama-filled week and I decided to self edit myself until I had a clearer perspective on things.

We shut down BBN and one of my employees, James, was unfortunately let go. It was absolutely a miserable experience -- especially since he did his job well and was a pleasure to work with.

Then there was the whole skate hardgoods issue. This turned out better, where I get to help those guys (which I want) while keeping my sanity and a semblance of my editorial integrity. I'm sure in twenty years I'll reread this post and laugh about the faux drama of the entire thing, but it was no fun at the time.

So I was keeping this and a lot of other stuff close to heart this week. I felt like crap, like a bottle of warm coke shaken up. I was worried that I would explode if anyone cared to pry off the lid. Nicole looked at me on Thursday morning: "God, Sean, you just look so beaten down."

I guess I was.

But yesterday afternoon outside events came into play that put things in better perspective.

Back on September 15 I made a very oblique reference that Christy was having a tough couple of days. What I didn't say was how her grandmother Cleo had just been diagnosed with lung cancer and it didn't look good. She's 80 and not in good health and refuses to come down to L.A. for treatment. Surgery is out of the question.

Yesterday she had to be airlifted up to Reno from Lone Pine after the chemotherapy gave her Sepsis. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. In this instance it certainly feels that way.

Christy was obviously very concerned and we tried to figure out whether she needed to hop on a plane. The severity of the situation made it easier for me to set aside all the other worries and bullshit of the past week. Nothing like a real life and death struggle to make you see how puny your problems really are.

Plus, the news is more hopeful today. Sounds like Cleo is doing better and it's unclear when (or if) Christy will be flying up to Reno. So the mood is a bit lighter around the house.

It also helped that we had a fun night last night.

We went over to Mike and Heather's for burgers and beer and a game of Mexican dominoes. It was great. And although I absolutely love all our friends who are now stretched all over the globe, there was something about saying goodnight to them and being home two minutes later that just seemed so right. No epic multi-hour drive, no fuss.

So now Christy is working and the girls are downstairs having a very quiet morning after being up until 11:00 p.m.

I should have gone to church this morning but it would have been a huge battle to motivate the girls to get dressed. They're as surly as wet cats right now. I just want to chill and get back on track.



Swiss roses.