01 April 2009

Life, Death, and a Stalker

It's funny how life works. Just as I found out that my uncle passed away, I also found out that my friend Kristen had a beautiful, healthy baby boy. A new life starts as another ends...

In the hopes of not making anyone depressed, I will just quickly mention that my uncle passed away late Monday night... on my nephew, Ben's birthday. He had cancer for 10 years and has continuously beaten it year after year. Sadly, it all finally caught up to him, as cancer usually does. My aunt is like is my second mom and I feel so horrible for her. She doesn't have any children {she considers my 2 sisters and I her children} so when we heard the news, we quickly left work and took her to the funeral home to start making arrangements. The funeral will be held on Friday and our entire family is just so sad. I want to thank everyone that I am Facebook friends with for their thoughts and prayers yesterday. They were/are greatly appreciated.

Now on to happier news... you may remember me posting about my friend Kristen before. Just a quick recap, she has been on bed rest since she was 12 weeks pregnant. On January 1st things got worse and she was taken to the hospital. She never left. Kristen has been in the same hospital room and in the same hospital bed since New Year's Day. Can you imagine? I am SO HAPPY to announce that Kristen delivered a healthy baby BOY yesterday morning!! The baby was taken, via c-section, at exactly 37 weeks. I can not express to you just how truely happy I am for Kristen and her husband, Steve. It's such a miracle that Kristen was able to carry to FULL TERM and deliver a healthy baby!!! And I have no idea how she waited til birth to find out the sex. I couldn't do it... especially under those circumstances.

Now for the stats:
Dominic Stephen L.
March 31, 2009 @ 7:28am
6lbs 2oz and 19 in

I'm heading up to the hospital tonight to take some a ton of pictures of Carter's new BFF :) I'll be sure to post them!

Now onto the 3rd topic of this getting to be too long post. My sister and I commute into Philly together everyday. We work at the same University and our offices are 2 blocks away from each other. Those that commute to work know that you see the same people day in and day out. We have names for our regulars... "mom" "dad" "greyhound" {who got pulled over last week... bad girl Greyhound} and "stick fam"... just to name a few. And then there's "Dale." Oh, Dale... he is in a class all his own. Dale drives around in a red Monte Carlo and has the #3 all over his car. He clearly thinks that he is a real race car driver. Anyway, Dale is the type of driver that drives slow in the fast lane, won't get over into the slow lane for any reason, and then- when he gets passed- will start driving 85mph down the interstate. On any given day, my sister and I will entertain Dale... at least for a little bit. We'll "play" his silly games and watch him get pissed off at us. It actually makes for an interesting trip.

This morning, when I saw Dale pass our housing development as we were leaving for work, I knew it wasn't going to be a good day. In light of recent news, we were not in the mood for Dale. As soon as we get to the interstate, he gets right into the face lane like there is a magnet in his car and goes 65mph. We pass a few cars in the slow lane, then Dale randomly slams on his breaks!! I quickly get over to the slow lane and pass him. Dale then speeds up and tailgates me for 10 miles. No matter how fast or slow I went, he would do the same. I finally got off an exit just to lose him. I thought he was going to get off the exit with us. What a loon!

Because we just so happened to get off the same exit that has a Dunkin Donuts right there {coincidence?} we got coffee, then got back on 295 to continue our lovely commute into the city. At the next exit we caught up to a red car and I almost had a heart attack. Luckily it wasn't him. Whew. We thought he waited for us!! He is totally the type of stalker that would do something like that. Ugh.

Can't wait til we drive in tomorrow. Good times.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

#1 - I'm sorry about your uncle Jenni. As I said before, you and your family are in my prayers.

#2 - It truly is a miracle that she was able to carry the baby to term and both he and mom are healthy. What an ordeal! I can't imagine how freaking excited she is to GO HOME with her new baby boy. Can't wait to see some pics. :)

#3 - You see the same people everyday? Maybe I don't pay enough attention or maybe my commute is too short (20 minutes) but I've never noticed the same people popping up on the highway...

Toni said...

So sorry about your uncle.

Olivia's Mommy said...

Jenni,
I am sorry about your Uncle. My Aunt passed away in March and it's like the same situation...sick for 10 years, her and my uncle didn't have kids, so my siblings and me are it. I have dealt with death suddenly and after a long fight and I don't think either one is either, they are equally as hard. Just remember the fond memories and keep their spirit alive. I will be thinking of you this week...I am still having a hard time with our loss.

The Dale story cracked me up...now I understand your FB status.

And congrats to your friend, I remember you mentioning her, and for someone that was on bedrest and delivered at 37 weeks I am sure she's relieved!

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry for the loss of your uncle. But congrats to your friend on a healthy baby boy! I thought I knew what a miracle life was when I had my son. But I am learning (with my new job) how much more of a miracle term babies really are.

jenni from the blog said...

Thanks everyone... I really appreciate it :)

Kris- YES! We have a 45 minute drive to work and that's without traffic. Good times. So we see the same people over and over and over!

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