Life Goes Fast

Last Thursday, after a cah-ray-zee couple of weeks, I was perusing Facebook when I saw my friend KT had entered a contest to win tickets to see the Flaming Lips in concert. I quickly texted her, “Just so you know, if you win those tickets, you are so taking me with you!” Her reply, “Haha, totally!”

After some silent wishes for good juju, she got the news. The tickets were hers! So followed an unexpected Friday treat, a night outside listening to amazing tunes, drinking delicious beverages and celebrating all around revelry.

By the last Lips encore, I was dead. So tired from the long day, and drained from the night out. But then Wayne came out an stage and made a speech. And every wall I have spent the past two months building, just came tumbling down.

My dad has cancer.

It feels strange to write that. To say it out loud. To read it.

He’s doing fine, always the optimist. And for the now the prognosis is good, so we all have every reason to be optimistic. We’re lucky to live in an age where cancer isn’t necessarily an immediate death sentence, and being a former cancer researcher himself, my dad has a knowledge of this disease that most people don’t.

But I hadn’t cried about it. It was like I was in a constant state of shock. Through the doctor’s visits and phone calls, it never really sunk in.

Until Friday night, when Wayne dedicated “Do You Realize” to a young band member whose dad had just died of cancer. And I just broke. I cried so hard, poor KT held my hand and hugged me. Crap, even the random guy next to me asked if I was okay.

The weird thing is, finally, I think I am.