An Ode to Nurse Beefcake and Other Things That Make Us Happy

Nurse Beefcake, thank you for your cool-cat beefy ways. Thank you for sauntering into our room tonight and bringing a smile to my daughter’s face.  Your distracting ways take her mind off the nausea and chemo and cancer for a few precious moments.  Do you know what makes me happy?  Your sweet, kind, steamy presence allows my daughter to be a regular girl who crushes on a regular guy like the rest of her regular friends back home.

A new Kindle Fire makes us happy because it makes you happy, my daughter.  How could I say no to a piece of technology after you sold me on it: “I’ll be able to read books on it, Mom.  I could listen to music and watch movies and check FaceBook when we’re in the hospital.”  How could your dad and I say no to you after all of the things you’ve been through these past nine months?  I’ll continue to love and read my paper books like the old-school girl I am.  I’ll continue to love the way a book feels in my hands, the whole sensory experience—the smell of books old and new, the way the paper feels under my finger’s caress.  I’ll continue to be a hedonist and bibliophile with physical tendencies and I’ll continue to love the techie in you.



And the other things that make us happy?  Dancing to music and feeling the beat, no matter who might be watching.  A bag of bunnies.  Pillowcases made with love.  Cards and care packages and loving posts on FaceBook, including YouTube videos of dogs that talk.  Honestly speaking, quality toilet paper makes us happy.  Rainbow beads make us happy too, as do our favorite rainbow bead people: Sonia and our Child Life heroes Austin and Ashley. School, reading, good movies that make us laugh or cry, and sunshiny days.  And driving down 1-5 towards Portland makes us happy.

Dad’s mashed potatoes.  Fuzzy blankets and PJ pants.  Friends who love us with or without hair.  A single room for chemo when we were expecting a triple.  Roller derby love and our derby sisters make us super-duper happy.  Bubble bath that smells like Hawaii and dreams of summer.  Family.  Friends.