Nope, I haven't fallen off the end of the earth . . .

I am in Portland. I'm here for a 1.5 day symposium on Alaska Native corporations and comparing them to their Canadian counterparts. My colleagues, Tom Thornton and Rosita Worl, and I are working on this project together. it's been pretty interesting so far - but I won't go into it tonight. I'm tired. I will give a longer post tomorrow or the next day. But suffice it to say that I am enjoying myself - meeting new folks, getting to know people I've met before a bit better, and hanging out and visiting with friends.

I will also report on what happened with the Wound Care nurse on Tuesday . . .

So, I'm doing okay. I had a bout of loneliness last week - long story there but the gist is that I'm single again (broke up with my partner awhile back, but needed to process through stuff and I didn't want to blog about it). I realized last week (having been too busy with other things) that it really sucks having to negotiate treatments and dealing with cancer by myself. The one thing that I'd like to say about my partner was that he did stick by me through the cancer diagnosis, the surgery, and the news of the skin and bone metastases. We were negotiating all sorts of things related to my cancer relatively well. But in the end, I decided that we should make a permanent break -there was just too much going on in my life and in his life to really concentrate on our relationship - we needed to tend to our own stuff. We broke up more or less amicably and are trying to create a platonic friendship . . . but it's been hard.

But, I'm doing okay again. Good friends help. My work (which I love) helps. My son helps - and helping with stuff at his school. And, I may be meeting a new person next week . . .

Have a good night!