Do you want the good or the bad news...

I guess I am making the decision so here goes... I choose to tell the bad news first.

So... you all know that my dad spent some time in the hospital a couple weeks ago and has been getting tested ever since to try to figure out what happened. He has his diagnosis... he has Multiple Sclerosis. Not the happiest news in the world but at least he has a name and starting point. I have very few details (and so does he) on how his treatment will actually go. He has an appointment with a specialist in a couple weeks and they want him to wait on treatment so they get an accurate reading of his disease. Looking back dad remembers an episode that occurred just as he and my mom were moving into the house where his legs were very numb and tingly and his energy levels were nil... he told the doctor and he seemed pretty certain that was a symptom. That was 8 years ago so at the very least we know he can go 8 years without experiencing many symptoms. As far as emotionally, dad is doing well (or at least that is what he will have me believe). He is very positive about the situation and more focused on doing what he can to fix/maintain/treat the disease. Stacie has been very supportive... coming home early from a trip so she can take care of him. I am doing my best to keep the attitude that I have worked on since the year after my moms death... God is in control and there is no reason for me to blame, hate or whine about the situation. Don't get me wrong, I cried after I got off the phone with dad (come on dad, you knew that would happen ;~) and I have made the sarcastic comment or 2 about how many more people in my immediate family are going to be stricken with disease.... but I have decided to stop.... at least the sarcastic comments. I don't want to tempt fate with that one. As for the crying... I will do that when I want (can't stop me dad!) but I won't dwell in it. I cry and I am done. Life is about living and although I could whine that my life sucks because my parents have had these troubles, the truth is, we all have troubles and there is nothing special about me that means stuff like this shouldn't befall our family. The only thing we can do is live life to the fullest and enjoy what we have.

Which leads me to the good news... Dad was offered a job at Google. That's right folks... my dad is the coolest dad ever and is going to work for what could be the coolest company in the world! He has been interviewing for at least the past month, if not more. He started with 2 phone interviews and then went out to Mountain View, CA for a face to face interview. 4 hours with 4 different people... and they drilled him. It sounded like no interview I would want to be going through but naturally dad wow'd them and they called him mid to late last week and offered him a job package. Now let me interject here a few stats that I learned along his journey to Google. They receive approximately 10,000 resumes a day... yes, a day! The HR woman said she makes about 1 job offer per week. So theoretically we are dealing with a 70,000 to 1 shot... but what makes this even better, dad was recruited. Yeah, they came looking for him... they found him on Linkedin (the myspace of the sophisticated networking world) and asked him to interview. So not only does my dad beat out those other people, he did it without trying. Yeah, I am going to use my bragging rights all over the place here!

He will be packing up and moving to to the heart of Silicon Valley sometime around mid September. It truly is an opportunity of a lifetime and I am so excited for him (and Stacie!). It really is a well deserved opportunity!

So congrats dad and lookout Google!