the good and the bad

So I had this post all sorted, all was well with the world and I was all systems go. Unfortunately, a couple of days go past and everything changes, of course. So here, at the start is the good stuff that's been going on, and it has been quite good. The bad stuff follows it and has kinda been clouding my view of the good stuff. Enjoy

My brain has been working in the last little while. That excites me.
People have been really nice to me in the last week or so, that is also exciting. I knew I loved autumn for a reason. So today, here are some reasons why I'm happy and feeling great:
1. my birthday was a resounding sucess, I turned 26 at 4.32pm on Monday 15th May. My sneaky mother got me a scarf that she bought while visiting me in Canberra. She took it all the way back to Melbourne and then posted it to me for my birthday. My brother sent me an excellent DVD for my entertainment. The boy bought me some 'kateporn' which consists of TV series that I love, including things like, in this case, press gang. But also includes series such as kath and kim, little britain, hamish macbeth, pride and prejudice and coupling. He also wrote the sweetest birthday card I've ever received. This was all topped off by the fact that I was able to wake up next to him. Mmmmm, yum.
2. My midterm review that I've been stressing over and spending inordinate amounts of time on has come and gone. It went well, they're letting me continue with the PhD, I will get a floppy hat eventually.
3. The physio doesn't want to see me for two weeks! How good is that? Much as I adore the amount of evil pain that man inflicts on me once a week, every week. The fact that he doesn't want to see me can only mean my shoulder is getting better. Albeit slowly, but it is getting better. Give me another month and maybe it'll be good again. Here's fingers crossed.
4.I was a replacement dancing teacher on Tuesday a little while ago. One of the students came up to me at the end of class and told me that I was the reason they started dancing. I inspired them. That was pretty cool, I have to admit. Sometimes it's nice to have someone recognise something you do creatively as being rather good.
5. The birthday note I received from my grandma was fabulous, as was the present. She wrote how proud my grandfather would have been of me and how proud she was of me. Really means alot.
6. I'm going to be MC at my cousins wedding on the 17th June. Quite looking forward to it. Especially as I'm going to be wearing 'the' dress. More details on that one later, don't want to spoil the surprise, but photos when it's finished and gorgeous.
7. I heard from lots of friends for my birthday, with cards and phone calls and the like. They've inspired me to do a sock inspired crafty friendship thing, more details on this later too.

I really have a lot to be grateful for, and it's delightful that I have all this goodness around me. However, after seeing my grandma the weekend before last, I've been a bit down. She was having difficulty breathing and was coughing a lot. After examination by the doctor on Monday, she was sent to hospital. Long story short, it's about 99% likely that she has lung cancer. It sucks because I really don't want her to die, but it seems that she might do so sooner than I thought. While it is really sad, I have to look at the bright side. 6 kids, 13 grandkids (at my most recent calculation) and 5 great grandkids. She was married for 55 years to a fabulous man. Grandma is an exceptionally intelligent woman and I'll miss her. But she's given me a lot of memories and skills.

So, to finish up, life is both looking up and down at the moment. I have a lot of things in my life that are great and fabulous, but one thing that is sad. But I'm determined to keep reminding myself of the good stuff. Good friends, good family, good food.