I met Sarah Hughes and Michael Kent on New Year’s Eve, and they were the first people I spent time with the next day, in the early hours of 2012. They felt like old friends by the time I said goodbye Sunday evening, but I probably won’t hear from them again until summer. At least […] Read more
It’s Thanksgiving, and where I lack in gratitude the other 364 days of the year, I certainly try to make up for on this day. All morning, I have been thinking about the things I am grateful for. I am grateful for Tilly, curled up on the bed with me. She and I have come […] Read more
I was laying in my bed; it was 2 a.m.; I was awake. About two hours earlier, my one-year-old black Labrador Retriever, Tilly, crawled out from under the covers where she was sleeping with me, and vomited right on top of the quilt. I was initially disgusted, then I was frustrated, then I realized she […] Read more
The very night I finished radiation, I joined a gym. It was on my list, right before, “Get Pizza for Dinner.” When I mentioned the pizza to the guy who was registering my gym membership, he said lots of people do that. Go hog wild the night they join a gym. But it wasn’t like […] Read more
One of these days, I’d like to climb up on the radiation table and lay down in the right position all on my own. But from the moment I lay my head back on the hard rubber cradle, the lights dim, the green laser beams illuminate, and the radiation technicians start adjusting. “I need a […] Read more
From the minute I heard about the Cody Center art studios, I knew I would be spending at least some of my free time at the Laity Lodge Writer’s Retreat drawing or painting. With my surgery just five weeks behind me, hiking and biking and swimming would be out. Even walking around the grounds from […] Read more
On Monday, I had this thought, “I’m going to die of cancer.” It wasn’t a premonition; it wasn’t a revelation. I didn’t get new information from the doctor that I’m just now sharing. In fact, it wasn’t even a new thought. If I had a nickle for every time I thought I might die of […] Read more
I’m not at work today. I wasn’t at work the day before that, or the day before that, either. In fact, the last time I showed my face at the office was last Wednesday, the day before my surgery. I’ve been gone for more than a week now. And the way it’s looking, it may […] Read more
Wednesday, I showed up at the hospital for my 6:30 a.m. appointment praying they would be on time. I was coming for my pre-surgery screening, and the scheduler had warned me that the appointment would take about two hours. But everyone knows that a two-hour appointment in the medical world could easily end up […] Read more
I’ve been swimming three times in the past week. Big deal, you might be saying. It IS summer after all. But it’s just Thursday, I’ve been working 10 hour days, and I don’t actually belong to a neighborhood pool. And did I mention that I sunburn easily? For me to go swimming three times in […] Read more
