Friday

Well -- the real end of the week came on Friday. Those little trap doors opened to new music, thanks to Dan Martinage. I am still waiting for Andrew Green's top five list of songs too. This weekend, those little guys in my head were dealing with maintenance. I saw them (the good guys) sitting lazily around wooden tables, drinking dos equis, playing slow Mexican songs and sighing a lot. Every time one of the bad guys would start to raise a head, the little white figures (Miffy/Nijntje) would pull out a sledge hammer and slam the bad guy back into oblivion. So - lazy, but still workin' for me.

The big news of the weekend was that my family from Oregon came to visit from Thursday night through Sunday afternoon. So I got some quality time with my dad, stepmother Deb and sisters KC and Laurel. They were also respectful of my need to rest -- so I am feeling quite good at the end of the weekend.

On Friday, my dad and Deb came with me to radiation in the morning (9:15 every morning) just to see what it was all about. We also had a short visit with one of my doctors (Sophia Bennet) to address the burn on my arm. The docs put me on antibiotics for ten days to pre-empt infection. Just another pill. In the following Friday photos, you can see Suzy setting up my pill regimen for me -- she bought a set of daily boxes -- it is SO helpful. I can stop carrying around ten vials of pills with me everywhere!

On Friday night, David and I had dinner with the family, including my cousin Meg, and then returned to Larry and Suzy's to share the AMAZING Louvre cake that Katarina and Fedja ordered for us from the famous Payard bakery on Lexington. That truly was the most sinful cake I have ever eaten in my life. Rich, dark, moist -- and it took three days to get through (with lots of help, thank you very much!). Now I am gauging my ability to get through an amazing Chicago deep dish pizza that arrived this week from Jodi, Stuart and my godson Alexander (I am sure he picked it out!).

The radiation team told me on Friday that I should feel better by Monday with the weekend off. I am feeling okay -- a bit more energy, which is nice. I have not started losing my hair yet, but I expect that to come towards the end of this week. I definitely feel "blown up" by the steroids. My neck is a like a football player's (gee, I hope that is an exaggeration, but it doesn't feel like it). And I am slightly hungry all the time -- mainly because when I don't have something in my stomach it feels very acidic. I am actually very excited about my appointment with the nutritionist tomorrow so that I can feel like I am doing the right things for my body.

The pics from Friday are of Suzy arranging my pills, David and dad having mochas at Pan Quotidien after radiation and David cutting the famous Louvre cake on the balcony overlooking NYC -- oh and the doctor fixing my burn! I will do one more weekend entry after this.