Another Newsy Update

Since we haven't posted since April the 23rd, and since today is Saturday, and since some things have actually happened over the past few months, and since I have done enough work for one day, I have decided to blog a bit. It should be observed, as always, that the things that I choose to blog are not necessarily the same as the things my faithful readers will consider worthy of note. That said, I begin:

Alicia graduated in June, and as you all will remember, I secured an outside funding source to maintain our extremely modest lifestyle in Spain for 9-10 months, beginning in September. Last time I wrote, we were still figuring out how Alicia could justify accompanying me to Spain, given that finding work for her would be extremely difficult, and securing a visa so that she could conduct such work nearly impossible, in the small amount of remaining time. Since then, Alicia has been admitted into Master's program in Nursing, and thus will be able to work toward that degree even while living off in the virtual "boonies" of Spain. By the time we return to the U.S., she will have completed some 3/5 of her degree, and we are both projecting completion dates of our respective degrees for the year 2009 (read "twenty-aught-nine," or simply "aught nine").

For my part, I have spent a good deal of time tracking down the books and articles that will be most difficult to find in Spain, furiously taking notes that I hope will be relevant to the larger project, or in some rare instances buying the books so that they can accompany us to distant lands (via surface mail, no doubt).

The past few postings I have made focused largely on my mom's recovery from oral cancer, and I believe another short update may be appropriate in that vein. From what I understand, her recovery continues to go well, though she does experience quite a bit of stiffness (or did a few weeks ago) in her neck and shoulder due to the surgical interventions in those areas. Her speech has rapidly improved since the second operation, though I suppose that she will continue to struggle with certain sounds, particularly in Portuguese, for some time. Those wondering how she feels about the recovery in general will draw some conclusions from the fact that my parents have been in Angola for the past 10 days, the very initial stages of a four-month visit to their home-away-from-home away-from-home. In other words, whether or not my mom is recovering as she should be, it is back to work as usual for both of them. I must admit that this is not exactly how I envisioned the months after her relatively major operations, but in some ways it's not really my business.

We are looking forward to having my parents visit us in Spain once they have returned from Angola, and after we have settled into whatever apartment we are able to find between now and then. It is perhaps somewhat ironic that the 10-month period of our stay in Spain will only overlap my parents' time in Portugal by 3 or 4 months, as they also have a trip to the U.S. planned during that time.

Some might argue that this is a relatively short post, but I have run out of clever things to write.

Until we write again,

Vamos a España

That's right, you read correctly. We're going to Spain. Not today. Not this month. Not even in the next few months. But we are moving temporarily to Spain this year. Apparently. But enough about me.

My mom's status is as follows: the last operation removed nothing but healthy, cancer-free flesh. This is a blessing in the sense that we know that there is no cancer running around in her system trying to start more problems. On the other hand, I suppose she wishes she still had a couple of those healthy lymph nodes and whatnot, right?! Seriously, though, thanks for your prayers and well-wishings, I'm sure the prayers did more than the other, but they're all always welcome.

So I suppose you're asking, "now what?" From what we know now, there's really nothing more to do except keep an eye on the situation and make sure that we keep a watchful eye on things and go in for the regular checkups to make sure there aren't any new issues. Oh, and pray lots. Pray.

Ok, so that's the big deal stuff that's going on right now. You may wonder why we're going to Spain, and I guess it would be nice for me to clarify that. So here's the deal: I'm working on my dissertation right now, on one of the more important Roman cities of Hispania, which is to say Roman Iberia. I don't really like to use the term "Spain" when talking about the ancient world, because this always suggests to people that Portugal isn't very important, when in fact it is just as important as Spain for many reasons. But we are moving to modern Spain for nearly a year, in order for me to be able to continue my dissertation work right on the site, rather than having to jet back and forth several times a year.

I guess that's all I have to say about any of that. We're still working on exactly what Alicia will be able to do in Spain, because at this point we don't know what sort of visa we're going to be able to arrange for her. But she's being very good about all this, and is looking forward to improving her Spanish (as am I my own!) during this really awesome opportunity. Until later, or hasta luego as we say.

Things That Aren't The Way I Want Them

This started out as just a quick update on my foot and the healing process. So here goes: my foot is probably at 100%, because there's no pain, no annoyance, no discomfort whatsoever. The scar feels kind of weird, but I feel perfectly comfortable getting stomped by 250 pound guys in indoor soccer games on occasion, so it must be all better. I think I might have waited about a month longer before returning to my normal running and kicking activities (I think it was 2 months after the operation that I started some more strenuous activities, like running), but otherwise I feel that the surgery and recovery processes were a complete success.

Now for a brief update on my life over the past 4 months. Sometimes, so I have been told, it's healthy (they probably said "therapeutic" or something like that) to express some of one's frustrations, lest they all bottle up inside and come bubbling out at just the wrong moment. Maybe the opposite is also true. I'm not so sure, but being such a positive person has often caused me to explode in torrents of well-wishings and exuberance. Naturally, one can imagine how this might be a problem in many circumstances, so it's imperative that I work to avoid such embarrassing outbursts in the future.

Since I don't really have an exciting list of complaints and frustrations, my faithful internet readers must assume that I have been bottling in everything since my last post, way back in December. I don't have a list of celebrations and rejoicings either. I suppose it depends entirely on how we look at things, but my personal perspective casts a rather negative light on the past few months. Ironically, having introduced the following with that tone, I will start with a very brief description of the most meaningful and amazing experiences of my life, my brother's Brazilian wedding. The members of my immediate family were all able to be present in Brazil in late December to share in the celebration of my brother's wedding to his dream girl. Our family was so well received and hosted by our soon-to-be in-laws that I, for one, would have loved to stay much longer than the 9 days we had.

The wedding itself was in a smallish town in central Brazil, but we still managed to spend some time in Brasília and then in Rio de Janeiro. Our time in Rio was fantastic, I highly recommend a visit to anyone who is willing to take the extra precautions needed in a city that has it all. We returned from our great escape to Brazil just in time to really take advantage of the Chicago winter. I participated in a professional conference there, and we also got to spend some time with a couple of our closest friends while visiting the upper central midwest.

Having finally returned to Cincinnati, I discovered that I left one of my favorite pairs of shoes in Chicago--an excuse to go back, or at least to force Grant to try to visit us sometime! I also discovered that my dissertation had been stubbornly refusing to write itself while I was away, so I was forced to drive myself back into the writing rut. I spent a brief period (merely a month or so) in Spain, adding to my databases full of pottery and small finds, and conveniently missing out on some of the worst weather Cincinnati has seen in decades. Much to my dismay, however, I found myself quite sick for the weeks on either end of the trip, meaning that the enjoyment that one normally experiences upon visiting his home (that's still Portugal) and workplace (Mérida) was largely absent. Actually, despite this unpleasantness, I was able to spend some time with some old friends and colleagues, and because my dad was currently in Angola, I had some good one-on-one time with my mom.

This last fact brings me to a subject I'd really rather not discuss, but I will anyway. My mom was diagnosed last week with tongue cancer. Usually people blame this particular sort of cancer on tobacco or alcohol use, but my mom hasn't really taken advantage of those particular vices in life, so we are left to speculate as to the actual cause of her condition. Her medical team has removed the cancerous lump from her tongue, but today she underwent a second surgical intervention in order to remove a safety margin around the affected area. I don't know anything about these processes, but there is also the possibility that she will get to have some radiation treatments after the operations are all completed, if any of the lab reports come back positive.

Most of my family is probably still more in shock than anything else. It's not every day that you get the news that your mom's going to have a substantial portion of anything removed. I don't expect that the operations will significantly improve my mom's Portuguese, but an adversely affected accent is probably not a major concern, given the alternatives in this situation. I am told that today's procedure went very well, with no complications or problems, and this is the best we could have expected from all we have been told up to this point, so I'm quite relieved. I'll probably be updating this new topic from time to time, but I don't expect to change the title of my blog.