This was going to be my programming and professional blog. A place to put technical thoughts, store my references to talks I’ve given and places I’ve traveled, and then pontificate on the tech landscape and the things that I keep learning along the way.
A lot has changed since I last wrote here and I debated writing about it elsewhere, but in truth, I need to write about it in order to move on and to get back to the tech stuff, so it might as well be here.
My wife Michelle Petruzzi was diagnosed with, and died from, sporadic pancreatic cancer entirely within the past six months. She was thirty-six and probably the healthiest person I knew. She was active in many volunteer efforts in our community, she ran operations for a non-profit encouraging girls in tech, and she was a kind and generous soul.
I’ve had some difficulty figuring out what to write next regarding this phase of my life, despite only a month passing since I laid out intentions to do just that. This is mostly because I feel like my healing has actually been going pretty well, or at least rapidly. Life is still very hard in some ways (keeping perspective relative to the rest of the world, of course), but I notice changes day by day in the way that I’m able to handle things and think about them, and especially how much less I’m getting upset or sad. Bittersweet is an apt word here, I think.
I haven’t felt moved to write in a little while, but I sat at the counter next to someone at brunch today, someone a fair bit younger than me (easier and easier these days), who was handwriting in a journal. I mentioned to her that it was nice to see someone writing, with a pen and paper, in this day and age. We chatted about the pace of writing, and how the medium could affect your choice of words. It was a nice little chat.
And so for the rest of today, I’ve been sort of primed to think about the power of writing—even if it is typing.
The following is a post that I drafted back in October, then let sit for months, planning to eventually get back to it. I decided to publish it mostly as-is in order to move on and to get to some other writing soon. As ever, things are moving fast and life is changing rapidly for me these days. Here’s a snapshot in time from a few months ago.
It is shocking to me how quickly a year has passed since I was on Capitol Hill, just seven weeks after my wife’s death from pancreatic cancer—itself the most shocking event of my life.
Update: My band is doing a little fundraising debut show & open mic at my house the night before the run. Check out the show poster for more details. If you’re near Portland, I’d love to have you come by or even perform a little something! Get in touch and I can get you the details.
Update 2: Thanks to your support, I was the third-highest individual fundraiser for the whole event. This really meant a lot to me!
Since the loss of my wife Michelle last year, I’ve been involved with an organization called the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN). Each year, many cities in the US hold a fundraising run called PurpleStride. This year Portland’s is on September 23 and you can help by donating to my team or even running with us.
