#like we’d been offered 8 tickets to a warriors game so she didn’t show up to class | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mrsronan · 5 years

Text

Mustard Seed Hope

In March I was pulled off a clinical trial and saw growth in my tumors. I began losing hope. My thoughts were focused on how I needed to prepare for dying. I felt most things are in order for the worst case scenario of if I die. But, there were a few loose ends to tie together. I wanted to make sure my daughter was enrolled in pre-school and she had someone set up to take her to ballet classes. I’ve been talking to a few family members about what I hope Catica’s long term care will look like if I’m ever not able to be a part of that. I’ve told a few really really close family members hopes for my funeral arrangements.

My silent thoughts often began with “when I die…” Rarely was I having any thoughts that I might live to see the future (I’m not sure how far in the future it needs to be to be considered the future, but that’s a whole nother topic). I had been keeping my dismal, doom and gloom thoughts to myself. I figured there was no need to drag anyone down into this hopeless pit with me. I was depending on the hope and faith of others to get me through this time.

Then, one Friday morning I decided to let my husband in on the level of discouragement I’d been feeling. Right away he began praying God would do something to encourage me. That night we went to a worship and prayer meeting at my church. The Holy Spirit moved. It wasn’t a powerful passionate prayer, it wasn’t a worship song that touched me deeply. It was the Warriors (dubnation!) I was journaling and pulled out my phone to look up a scripture. At the same time I got a message from a friend offering me her tickets to game 1 of the first round of playoffs (Warriors vs. Clippers), the next day! I text all Catica’s babysitters immediately and came up with someone to watch her.

So, we went to the game. We sat court side. 😄 We ate caramel corn and drank soda (don’t judge me).

Before the game started we saw our friend Walter. Walter’s wife Lori is the Primary Inputter Statistician for the Warriors. She is the first woman to ever hold her position. She’s a world class, world changing woman.(https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/History-making-ground-breaker-is-the-one-who-12771482.php. ) (https://www.nba.com/warriors/video/teams/warriors/2019/05/03/2593738/1556916805436-people-lori-2593738)

Walter is one of the chaplains for the Warriors. We let our friends Walter and Lori know we’d be at the game. About 10 minutes before tip off Walter was walking around the court and waved to us. He walked deliberately toward us and placed a small glass jar in my hand. “Chastidy, what I’m giving you is very special. Only the players and coaches have been given this, and now I’m giving it to you.” In the jar were four mustard seeds. Walter told me the legend of the mustard seed jar. In 2015, he gave them to all the players at chapel before the first playoff game and reminded them that it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains. That was the first year this team won the finals. In 2016, he did not give them a mustard seed jar, in an unexpected and hardly explainable twist the Warriors did not win finals that year. In 2017, the players went to Walter and said, “Hey, we need those mustard seeds this year Walter!” So the chapel before the first playoff game they were given a jar with 2 mustard seeds and they won the finals. In 2018, the chapel before the first playoff game they were given a jar with three mustard seeds and they won the finals. And this year, in 2019 they were given a jar with 4 mustard seeds. I’m assuming they’ll win the finals. Walter told me the players need to have faith to accomplish the mission they are working toward. And, he knows I need to have faith right now, too. But he reminded me it only takes a little. Place my mustard seed size faith in God, knowing He is able move mountains and remove tumors.

The half time show was a group of kids that looked to be 8-10 years old doing this amazing hip-hop dance to music from my high school years. They were awesome!

The Warriors not only won that first play off game, but they dominated!

On our way out of Oracle there were fireworks, people dancing, good cheer and hope every where.

Yes, hope everywhere. Even in my heart.

As we walked out of Oracle I found myself thinking hopeful thoughts; thoughts that I might live a long life. I was thinking I can’t wait to see Catica* dance at a Warriors half time. Maybe I don’t need to find someone to take her to ballet, instead, I need to find out what dance school was performing today.

It was the first time in over six weeks I had hopeful thoughts about the future, and that I might be here to see it. Going to the Warriors game and receiving that little jar of mustard seeds restored my hope.

GENERAL HEALTH UPDATE:

On paper, things aren’t looking so good. But I’ve got a jar of mustard seeds and God is still in the business of miracles. I’ll start with what’s good and you can read as far into the bad as you’d like.

I got a spot on a clinical trial in San Francisco. More info on the trial can be found with this link (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03634982?term=rmc4630&rank=1). I started the trial on Tuesday. So far I haven’t had any noteworthy side affects.

I went to three hospitals in Ohio for second opinions and to discuss treatment options in case we decided to move back to be close to family. I saw Dr. Olugbenga at the University of Cincinnati. He referred to UCSF as “the Mecca of trials” and recommended I continue receiving treatment here, saying UC wouldn't have any trials to offer me at this time. He was the first doctor who has offered to pray with me during a visit, and it wasn’t a half hearted run of the mill prayer, but a fervent, passionate, and heartfelt petition! This was very encouraging! I saw Dr. Krishnamurthi at the Cleveland Clinic. She said with the level of disease I have throughout my body I wouldn’t be a candidate for the hepatic pump or a liver transplant. She also inferred they don’t have any trials right now that she’d recommend. She made it seem as if the best thing for me is to stay at UCSF for now. I saw Dr. Laith at the James Center at Ohio State University. He informed me of a car-t-cell (I might be spelling that wrong) therapy trial they will have sometime in the next year. He recommended going ahead with the trial I just started at UCSF, but contacting him if/when I finish that trial to see if they have openings on car-t-cell trial.

I had MRI’s on both legs which showed tumors in both femurs. This means the pain I had been believing was a side effect of one of my medications is actually tumors. The pain is sometimes livable, and sometimes so extreme I can’t stand up. The pain increases with the amount of activity I do. I’ll be getting radiation to both femurs which is supposed to stop the tumor growth and the pain. However, I can’t get the radiation until after I have been on this trial for over a month, so sometime in early July I’ll be getting radiation. Until then, I just have to deal with the pain. My doctor suggested using a cane, but I have purchased one yet. Some days I feel like I need one, some days I can hobble along with out one. When staying with my brother-n-law’s family recently I had to go up and down stairs a few times a day. I couldn’t do it; I’d sit down and scoot like a baby, but it got me where I needed to go. The pain has prevented me from exercising like I would like to, but I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to move around normally after the radiation in July.

I continue to have a very persistent cough from the lung tumors. The cough is worse the more I move. When I’ve been sedentary for about 20+ minutes, my cough subsides. Sometimes, the cough becomes so severe I’m gasping for air and it can induce vomiting.

There is a new tumor on my right ovary. It doesn’t cause any noteworthy pain.

OTHER NEWS:

We have been given the great opportunity to sublease a beautiful two bedroom apartment. Some friends are moving to Africa for a year and we get the blessing of renting their apartment while they are gone. The apartment is on the same block as our church and there are about 15 friends, couples, or families we know from church who also live on that block (all in properties owned by our church). Moving here will not only be a blessing because of the space (Catica will finally have her own room and there is an amazing back yard), and location (it’s near a park, an organic grocery store, and several great restaurants), but also because of the community (we’ll be surrounded by friends from church who’ve offered to help us).

We also made a short trip to Ohio at the end of May for a friends wedding and to visit those hospitals. For a variety of reasons related to my medical care we didn’t know for sure until the day before the trip that we’d be going. We bought tickets and left with in 24 hours. We didn’t get to see many people because of the wedding and spending 4 days at hospitals, but it was great to see the few family and friends we did get to see. If we missed seeing you on this trip, it’s not or lack of love, just lack of time.

*Catica is pronounced KAH-tee-tsa. It rhymes with pizza.

June 6, 2019

2 notes · View notes

400legends · 7 years

Text

New Act in Town Fails to Impress

Special to The New Gilead Tribune

“I was at the bar getting another tankard when I heard the baby speak.” ~ Unnamed eyewitness

If denizens of the Drunken Web are to be believed, there’s a new ventriloquist act in town, and do they need practice! Several people, who claim to have first-hand knowledge of last night’s events, have told this reporter the details.

“I was at the bar getting another tankard when I heard the baby speak,” said one man who refused to reveal his name. “I called out from my shift, didn’t I? Can’t be letting the boss know I wasn’t sick in my bed.”

He went on to tell us his sensational tale. “Like I said, I was getting another ale when right over my shoulder - close as you’re standing to me now - I hear this baby’s voice. But it weren’t a normal baby voice. I got kids - three of them. Don’t put that in! I don’t want anyone to guess who I am. Anyway, I know what kids are supposed to sound like.” He leaned forward and held this reporter’s eye. “That baby - couldn’t been more than two - that baby said, like I’m saying to you, “Where do you score the good stuff around here?”

At this point the man slapped his dirty hand to the table and smiled. “So I turn around - ‘cause I’m wondering what sort of idiot is asking Fenny for drugs! And there’s this skinny elf with a baby on her back. Behind her looms this just massive, hulking barbarian. You know the kind, wrists as thick as this table leg. Huge hammer on her back. Now, I’ve been around a few barbar--”

A friend interrupted the man. “Piss off, Mack!” To this reporter he said, “Barbarian my left cheek. She was a tall girl, I’ll give her that. Clothes - and weapons - don’t make the man, right? Er woman. Warrior. You know what I mean! Dress up all you like, but the proving is in the doing. And she didn’t do nothing.”

“That’s part of the act, though!” A dwarven woman slid into a chair at the table. “You writin’ for the paper? I was there. Saw it all. Is there a reward?”

Those three and many more offered up their version of last night’s events. The Tribune’s job is to tell the full story, but as of press time, the two actors were not available for comment. What follows is the best effort of a tireless reporter, bent on the truth.

At approximately 8:20 last night an elf dressed as a cleric (although there are some reports that she was only half elven) with some sort of moveable dummy strapped to her back entered the great room of the Drunken Web. A second person - dressed like a warrior - entered on the first one’s heels.

Seemingly at random the elf approached a group of five humans at a table. She bent low, asked them something and then moved on. She approached another table but they barely looked up from their dice game. Several witnesses say that she then stood near the center of the room for a moment and looked around. She barely glanced at the tall girl at her elbow.

She approached the bar, which was the first time anyone noticed that the dummy was speaking. The bartender, a crowd favorite half-elf called Fenny, waved the elven girl away and went back to pulling tankards of ale. Several of the patrons, hearing the lightly veiled request for drugs, began to chuckle. The girl turned in a circle, and everyone got a good look at the child-sized dummy strapped to her back.

Alleged baby heard saying “It was a sign!”

The dummy seemed to look a tall dwarf in the eye and say, “Do you know where I can get drugs?”

Instead of answering the dwarf roared with laughter. “Clever!” he managed to say between guffaws. “Well done, that!” said another dwarf. “Clever workmanship.”

“What do you mean?” the girl allegedly asked. In the silence everyone clearly heard her say, “The baby really wants some drugs.” When no one responded, she added, “You don’t know the day we’ve had.”

After an awkward silence the first dwarf began to clap. “Very good! Where’s your show?”

At that point both the girl and the dummy began to speak at the same time. “No fair,” one patron called out. “No fair using magics! Boo! Boo!” Another voice chimed in, “Yeah! A real ventriloquist doesn’t need magic. You some kind of skeezy bard?”

“Everyone just needs to calm down,” the elven girl reportedly yelled while turning in a circle. “Don’t upset Globnar. She didn’t even want to come down, but the baby said she’d buy. And we’d be here all night if she had to crawl on her own.” She paused. “Plus, how would she see over the bar?”

“You see,” the dummy began to talk over the elf girl, “as we approached the city, I looked into the sky and saw a red star winking and at that moment, the town guard said, ‘enlighten.’ It was a sign! I need to be enlightened. And so I knew what I had to do next.”

“I told her it was a bad idea.” The tall warrior woman spoke for the first time. “Usually the baby has good ideas.”

“These hands can hurt just as well as they heal.” ~ unknown elf performer

The growing crowd reportedly laughed. And that’s when things took a turn. The elf turned to the warrior woman and said, “Hold the baby.” A moment later she climbed on the bar and opened her mouth. Before she could speak someone in the crowd yelled, “Save it for the show!”

Onlookers report that the warrior leaned over and put her ear to the dummy’s mouth. After a nod, she straightened up. “Tickets to the show are five copper - what? Uh, I mean five silver, but this preview is by donation.” She bent to the dummy for a moment and then said loudly, “Coin or drugs are acceptable payment.” At that the toddler-sized dummy held out a small bag.

“How do you do that?” Someone in the crowd yelled as a few people shrugged and put a few coins into the bag.

“I’m not doing anything. That’s Arthrysha and that’s Globnar. My name’s Bannick and--”

At that moment the bartender Fenny grabbed the performer known as Bannick by the robe and tried to pull her down.

“Hey now!” the elf girl reportedly said, “these hands can hurt just as well as they heal.”

Above the ensuing din several people heard a voice near the warrior woman say, “My money’s on the cleric! Five gold says the cleric wins!”

More than one person told this reporter that the rush toward the warrior woman was the cause of the riot. One woman said, “When my friend heard that bet, she fairly leaped at that barbarian with her coins in hand. If someone’s going to bet against Fenny, you can be sure us regulars are gonna put up coin. Sure money!”

As people rushed at the warrior, she seemed to panic, dropping her hold on the dummy, which began to tip off the table. The elf performer dove off the bar and crashed into the table, scattering glasses everywhere. The din of breaking glass was the loudest noise in the tavern for a moment.

Popular bartender vows revenge

And then, a bellow came from Fenny. “My beer! What did you do?”

Several people say that as she leaped from the bar, the elf performer’s alleged cleric robe caught one of the taps, pulling it clear of the keg. The geyser of Drunken Web beer might have been the true cause of the riot as patrons close by lunged forward with any available containers to catch the free ale.

It wasn’t until the warrior woman bellowed at the top of her lungs that the two crowds settled down. Although it makes no sense to this reporter, several sources agree that the warrior’s cry was “I can’t think with all you people around!”

That by itself, while odd would not have been alarming, but when she punctuated her words by swinging her war hammer over her head, more than one of the more clear headed patrons ran for the city guard.

Two guards soon waded through the crowd toward the knot of people around the performers. Eyewitnesses swear that the dummy could be seen scooping up coppers and silvers from the floor as more rained down. One source told this reporter, “I haven’t seen a performance like since I left Walkton. You don’t usually get avante garde art like this in the provinces. I look forward to the real show, if this was any indication of their artistic vision. Simply brilliant.”

Another witness rolled his eyes. “My granny peeling potatoes is more entertaining!”

“I don’t know,” a third witness mused. “I don’t think they were playing. I think it was real.”

“If it was real,” her friend countered, “that barbarian woulda smashed everything in sight.”

“But that’s what I mean. It was too strange not to be real. And the guards? They were real! They sure enough cuffed that warrior and took her away. That was real. I know. I was right there. Heard the zip of the cuffs shutting tight.”

Her friend huffed a sigh of disbelief. “Artifice. Smoke and mirrors.”

“Ask the guards, why dontcha!” She turned to this reporter. “Ask the city guards. That weren’t no stage play.”

A spokes-elf for the city guard declined to comment on the incident.

In the end, all that’s left of last night’s happenings is an ale stain on the ceiling, a few bits of broken glass still stuck in the cracks of the floorboards, and one angry bartender. According to sources close to the popular bartender, Fenny is considering hiring a detective to investigate the pair of travelling performers. “No one,” she reportedly said, “trashes my bar and gets away with it.”

#news #arrests #riots #theater #new gilead #Bannick #Globnar #Arthysha

0 notes