Hello Amorous Congress-Stick

There is a lot about her which inspires me…

This time last year, I was sick…serious kind of ‘sick’. I had to have a surgery just over a year ago today. During a week of laying low, Alisa flew into Boston to help me out- emotionally and with some errands. Though I did not have much of a support system in Boston, I felt guilty she felt like she had to come out. But I had to allow for it, for her and me. I needed someone…I needed to stop pretending I was so tough…I needed to put a facade aside and be weak for a little…and she needed to know I was okay.

I feel united with Alisa in several ways. One of which is ‘how’ we love. It’s emotional, it’s present…and takes on a role of being very material in our lives. We both think and feel…but this area of love is explosive and rocky when paired with a physical element of expression (eg: a hug, a kiss on the cheek, a kind caress of the arm when laying in a hospital bed). But when I am struggling inside and emotional, I avoid the physical touch. Unless it comes when I don’t expect it…I tend to breakdown. It’s hard to wrangle in my emotions. (I admit, it’s a weird window I have to when I can handle it.) Her visit in this particular time in my life helped to teach me, those moments don’t have to mean I am weak…and helped me to realize it’s okay to ask back from relationships I have with people. Upon her departure, I took a serious sit down and addressed and tested this theory with the people present in my life at the time. (I would later be surprised in one specific person…but that is a story for another day to go back and think on.)

When I first met Alisa, I was playing on a softball team with her wife. Alisa was sick, she needed a kidney transplant. Her donor? Her wife. I did not need much past our first conversation (before I knew she was sick) to know there was a deeper connection between the two of us. Over the next year, she had the successful transplant, went on strict lifestyle changes, and even insisted she join the Uhauls when I was starting up the new team. She had never played before…and I turned her into a mean outfielder coupled with an aggressive batting stance.

During the softball season, when I was figuring out what I was going to do post undergrad, she expressed her desire to go back to school. She wanted to be a nurse…I fully supported this idea. It was her dream. She got a little encouragement, and she went out to made it happen.

In the first year I knew Alisa, she had gone through an amazing journey…and she welcomed loved ones around her to join her with it. There is a lot about her which inspires me, but I feel the need to point this one factor out.

(This is what we are referencing in the convo clip). On a sincere note, I find her beautiful- weave, no weave, kidney, no kidney, talking smut, talking love…one world to discribe everything she is would be, ‘beautiful’. Plus, we are open enough I could tell her if something was not flattering for her. Luckily she went for the good Tyra weave and not the 4 for a dollar/Dishwasher safe weave.

Alisa is flying through nursing school at this point. We have a plan to be part of a private practice one day, where I want to make her the head of any nursing staff we have. I am one of her biggest fans. She constantly makes me proud at every stage of her education she sails through.

Currently, I may be reading Hoda Kotb’s new book, ‘How I survived War zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathy Lee,’ right now…but a featured quote, and one I have taken away from the reading thus far reads, ‘Don’t hog your journey, it’s not just for you. You can take your business and shove it deep in your pockets and take it to your grave…or you can help someone, it’s your choice.’ This is a great lesson Alisa taught me to adopt in my life, and I have been recently reminded of it through this book.