When life imitates art and you just have to laugh....

Take it in stride.  Roll with the punches.  Find humor in the challenges of life and all will be ok.  You always hear these phrases yet sometimes it's easier said than done.  Life throws you a curve ball and you want to smash your bat (or head) against the proverbial brick wall.  Sometimes, you meet the rare person who actually can make the lemonade from the lemon.  In this case, it's Don.  I mentioned his way to share the PD diagnosis was to make a joke.  This was far from the first time he showed us that regardless of the situation the world doesn't actually end (seriously, he made a joke about a Parkinson's diagnosis).  Ironically this laid back attitude sometimes drove my mother crazy but hey, what can you do?  Take for example a comparison of Don MacDonald and Clark W. Griswald.  ( If you are reading this and don't know who Clark W. Griswald is do yourself a favor and rent National Lampoon's.  You can thank me later).  These two men, one fictional and quite well played by Chevy Chase, the other, my dear dad, really defined their lives by one thing:  their families. 

In a case of life imitating art a long, long time ago there was a dad (mine) who decided to take his two cherub children on a special father/child road trip to Busch Gardens in Virginia for spring break.  He took the time off from work, methodically packed the family sedan and before the sun rose (actually several hours before the sun rose because he likes to "beat the traffic") he piled his son (Jim) and daughter (me) into the car and off we went.  My mother waved goodbye and secretly was jumping up and down inside to have the house to herself for a week.  It was a long journey but we knew the end result would be well worth it.  After what seemed like days in the car we finally arrived at our hotel.  My dad was so happy and upon checking in asked the clerk the best way to purchase tickets for entry to The Park.  Solemnly, the women glanced at the eager faces of two blonde haired children and said quietly to my father " Busch Gardens is closed for renovations and repairs, it will reopen next week".  His eyes widened to the size of saucers and he responded "Yourekiddingme".   And there you have it.  Wally World in real life. So we did the next best thing, one week at Colonial Williamsburg.  I remember looking for souvenirs and finding replica lead musket balls from the revolution- no neon tee shirts here!  Yet, the main memory, the most distinct wasn't the closure of Busch Gardens or the constant sounds of cannons that caused temporary hearing loss at Williamsburg.  It was the fact that my dad laughed, smiled and made the best of it.  It was also that his buddies started calling him Clark Griswald for weeks to come when he returned to work.  He is one hell of a guy and the best father there ever could be.  All the miles that lie ahead are nothing and when things seem like they just aren't going my way, well, I'll just keep laughing and smiling because that's what Don would do!  For those of you that can't remember, when Clark Griswald arrived to a closed Wally World he was arrested for holding park employees hostage.  Score one for Don.

Alice!

My "official" training for the NYC marathon starts on Monday but I'm still trying to log some miles in before that.  Talking about running the  marathon often gets a lot of great feedback but when I share the fact that I am doing it with Team Fox an entirely new conversation happens.  Many people that know me know of my dad's journey with PD.  More often than not is that they don't know he doesn't travel this path alone.  In earlier posts you were introduced to Dot who is married to MacDonald brother #4, Robert.  Alice Kelly is my father's first cousin, her mom and my grandmother Jessie were sisters.  And as it goes with the MacDonalds, family bonds are stronger than steel.  Alice, Dot and my dad are three incredible people that share a lousy thing in common yet despite the setbacks of PD they inspire us all.  Meet Alice!