I woke up at 5am to hear Mark watching TV. I held out til 5:45 am before wandering out to the living room. Mark was watching The Facts of Life. I remember all the big 80s hair and shoulder pads and what was actually, on second glance, a very progressive show. Mark looked at me and quoted the theme song from the show: “You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and then you have the facts of life…”
Then Bobby the caregiver came, and I drove to work in a beautiful first snowfall. The students were so excited that it was hard during class to distract them away from just gazing out the windows. At lunchtime I drove to Oakland and met up with Mark. We met with the ENT surgeon, and I watched as the doc shoved an alarmingly long scope up Marks nose and then watched on the screen as the tumor that is eating our lives whole came into view. At the neurosurgeon appointment, waiting as he was running three hours late, I leaned my head on Mark’s shoulder because I knew that if I did, he would lay his head on mine and fall asleep. Six hours after arriving at the hospital, we drove home. The city lights shined, and we went through a drive-through and ate hot french fries and held hands. He is asleep sitting on the couch next to me. The facts of life, the facts of life.
