After the good news of last week, I’ve been celebrating. I haven’t been home to celebrate with my mom, or have her here with me, so I’ve sort of just been enjoying life for a week.

I will admit, though, that the small pessimistic voice in the back of my mind is asking when the other shoe will drop.

The rest of me is determinedly trying to squash that voice. After all, my mom will be a statistic one way or the other (and aren’t we all?), but all signs point to her falling on the “YAY” side of the fence. So there’s no reason to be so pessimistic, right?

Right.

(Right?)

So. The celebrating.

Friday, we went diving with James F and Cara and Nate and Shelly. It was a day that reminded me why I dive in California. We went to a place in Pacific Grove (Monterey area) called Coral Street. It’s a pretty rocky area, with lots of kelp. Both dives were, hands down, amazing. Probably the top two dives I’ve ever done in Monterey, although a dive or two at the Metridium Fields at Breakwater or at Monastery might creep up there too.

It was a beautiful sunny day, so we got the dappled sunlight coming through the kelp, which was nice and think, but not too dense to swim through. Lots of fish, and two kinds of nudibranchs–Monterey Dorids and some little white guy that we’ve seen a number of times but haven’t identified. Tons of crabs, including a decorator crab out in a sand channel where he was didn’t blend in so well. Look like a crab covered in kelp on the sand instead of just kelp on a rock. First dive was 45 minutes, the second was 50 minutes, and I wish we’d been down longer.

The only thing to mar it was that, having sold our BCDs on eBay awhile ago, we haven’t yet bought new ones, so we had to use the store rentals. They’re okay, good for learning, but the BCD wasn’t what I was used to, so I spent a lot of the first dive fighting my buoyancy. Still an awesome dive, though.

We had 3 PADI professionals and 2 PADI professionals-in-training, yet we managed to bring NO FOOD AT ALL!! So about 4pm, when the pancakes from 8am had worn a bit thin, we headed off to the local Pizza My Heart to stuff our faces. Food always tastes better after a hard day’s diving.

Back in the bay area, we hung out at James and Cara’s place–James played computer games, Cara napped, and John and I played Lego Star Wars (AWESOME!!). We were, clearly, a lively bunch.

Eventually, there was BBQin (it was the 4th, c’mon!), but no one moved when we heard the fireworks start, and it was universally decided that hearing the booms was good enough. Still, a fun night.

Saturday, after cleaning the gear and going into work briefly and running some errands, we went to see…Wall-E!!!!

Oh. My. Goodness.

Best Picture, anyone? I’d vote for it.

And the Apple placement, especially with Wall-E’s boot-up sound? Lovely.

Sunday was a family day. We started with brunch in the city at Maverick with a friend. They make their own doughnut holes. How can you resist that? Hands down, John’s Eggs Benedict won “most tasty”. When our bellies were stuffed beyond recognition, we headed up to Santa Rosa to see my family–two aunts and their families, and my grandparents, who were down from Washington to look at retirement homes in the area.

I was a bit worried about seeing my grandparents looking old, but they seem to be doing surprisingly well. My grandfather is using a walker, and I think most of us would like to see my grandmother using one as well, but overall they’re doing well. There was more BBQ, celebration of birthdays and anniversaries, and lots of family stories. My relatives up in Santa Rosa are a blast.

This week has been pretty good, too. Things at work are moving forward (always a good thing), my meetings with the boss have gone well, and I’ve accomplished what I need to do before leaving for home.

Tonight, John and I even got out for a bike ride, which was the first one in about two months, and greatly needed.

However, the pessimistic voice is getting louder and louder.

My mom’s surgery is tomorrow. Yes, I told her about the nipple thing (thanks for the tip!), but she decided that was the least of her worries, especially since she’s not set on reconstruction.

Everything has gone so well so far, that I’m sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it’s surgery. Yes, it’s routine (damn cancer!), and breasts aren’t exactly major organs, and my mom’s had surgery before so she probably won’t react badly to the anesthesia, but still…

It’s my mom. And it’s surgery.

I talked to her for quite awhile last night, and again tonight to tell her I loved her.

She’s gotta be at the hospital at 5am, and is first on the doc’s list, so she should be heading in about 6 or 6:30. It’s two hours, so that means done by 8 or 8:30. Call it 9 or 9:30 just to be on the safe side.

That’s 7am here!

I won’t even be awake!

That means I can call my dad immediately upon waking and ask how it went. And it’ll all be over at that point.

And Saturday, I fly home.

Problem is, I was only vaguely keeping the pessimistic voice below panic level when Amy called.

In tears.

And I promptly had to talk my sister out of the same tree I was about to contemplate climbing.

I fly into Iowa at about 2pm, and Amy follows at about 8:30pm. She’s in San Diego with friends for a week, vaguely pre-planned before the surgery date was scheduled.

Neither of us, I think, is all that comfortable being so far away when our mom is having surgery.

She’ll be okay, right?

AHHHH!!

(Dear God, Please don’t let all the promises I’ve just made to Amy be a lie. Please? Thanks, Sarah)