The Weekend

David took off on Saturday for DC for a few days to see some friends and get a little work done related to the famous Foreign Service bidding process. Maybe he will even succeed at getting his car relicensed and on the road. So -- my family amused me this weekend, which was nice.

On Saturday, I had my first acupuncture session. I really liked it. The doctor pointed out that a lot of good body real estate is not available to us right now because they don't want to stick needles into my head or neck during radiation. In addition, I can't stick needles into my left arm because of the lymphectomy I had on that side for breast cancer treatment six years ago. So he decided to first do 20 minutes on my front and then flip me over and do 30 minutes with needles in my back. We were trying to address a number of things -- nausea, sleep problems, my head and arm numbness, etc. It was interesting because I had a REALLY hard time relaxing for the first part. He put needles into a number of places on my left arm and into both feet, ankles and calves. The first 15 minutes, my legs and arms just couldn't relax -- I am sure it was from the steroids. It was like they were hyper and restless -- I wanted to shake them out! Finally -- five minutes before I needed to turn around I felt my body "give" and begin to relax. Then the second part on my back was very relaxing. He had needles on either side of the spine, up and down. I have had brief feelings this weekend of improvement to the numbness -- but it may be more psychological. At any rate, I have my next session on Wednesday evening and am really looking forward to it.

The rest of the weekend was non-medical. On Saturday I got a chance to see my cousins Mike, Laura and Nick Holt. Nick is a Foreign Service Officer in Baghdad right now and was in town with a delegation of Iraqis for UN activities this week. Mike and Laura (his parents) were visiting him on his first foray out of Baghdad since arriving there in June. It was fun to discover that Nick and I have some common aquaintances in the Middle East. I hope to see him in Amman in the near future (inshallah, as they say).

Then on Saturday evening I went with my family to see a Chorus Line -- yep, it's back on Broadway. Not quite as glitzy as the old version I remember, but still the epitome of a Broadway show! This was KC and Laurel's first time in Times Square at night, so we walked around and checked out the shops and tourists.

On Sunday (wow -- that's today already!) I joined the family for dim sum in Chinatown (Oriental Garden) and we walked a through a street fair in Little Italy and some boutiques in Soho before they had to leave at 3:30. After that I felt a little comatose (perhaps the dim sum) and hung out at my Aunt Mary's with Katy for couple of hours. Of course, the review of my weekend would be remiss without a description of Suzy's dinner tonight. A lite bean and lettuce salad with smoked salmon and tomato reduction on top. Then a baked potato with chives and sour cream and steak that she had slow-cooked all day and had cut up into thin medallions with a simple mustard on the side. Wow -- what a close to the weekend!

Mentally - how I am doing? I am feeling frustrated at that fact that I can't see beyond this week. I would like to be able to answer people's simple questions about what I plan to do on about October 3 when radiation should end. But I can't. I guess I am assuming I will go to DC to work from there a month, which is when we will first be able to see whether the radiation had an effect. I am trying very hard to be okay with this living for the day thing -- and I think, in general, I am. But I miss work. I miss my friends in Jordan. I am completely bummed not to involved in the run up to elections in Jordan or the kick off our local governance program in the provinces or the build up of the new budget office in Parliament. That is life right now however. Everyone knows where my heart is!

I am a little overwhelmed at the feeling that my life is the focal point of so many other people's lives (mainly my family, I mean) right now. I sometimes think this cancer stuff is harder for other people than it is for me. At least I can do something about it -- I suppose the rest of the world just feels powerless to help me. But the moral support is all I really need and that keeps pouring in. I am okay. I don't feel so bad. I am still independent and like to do things on my own. I don't need much help -- and I what I need is right here all around with fabulous relatives in New York and David here most of the time as well. In a way, I just want some down time right now. This week is looking up for that. My first two weeks here were just go, go, go. Finally, this week I plan to breath, rest, read, etc.

That is the end of the weekend. Back to radiation tomorrow -- Power on (Karen -- I can hear you saying this too!!).

I have included a bunch of photos with the family this weekend. Three sisters in Times Square (except missing the fourth in Sweden -- very sad!), my dad with the three girls, pics from dim sum and from the street fair in Little Italy. KC is the older sister (yikes, 16 already!) and Laurel is the little one! They are so much fun!