Moving forward

Today is my 61^st birthday. Sixty was a very long year, and I feel like I missed so much of it. So I’m looking forward to really living this next year!

I apologize for not posting in over a week (other than the brief medical update). So I will go back to where I left off and try to fill in some gaps.

Last weekend we had a nice visit up in Sharon. Friday night we had Ella over for dinner and a sleep-over. We went together to synagogue on Saturday morning, and then the whole family had lunch at Dina and Aaron’s house to celebrate my birthday, which is actually today. We had a very yummy dairy/vegetarian lunch followed by an ice cream cake from a wonderful ice cream parlor called JP Licks (http://www.jplicks.com/) with my two favorite flavors, mint chip and chocolate fudge. Saturday night Joshua came to our apartment for a sleep-over after Sabbath and ended up staying through lunch on Sunday, playing games and just hanging out with us. We drove back to New York first thing Monday morning.

Tuesday morning was spent at MSKCC for the MRI and visit with Dr. DeAngelis. As mentioned in my previous, brief posting, the news was good. We talked for a bit about the cognitive therapy I am doing with Heidi. I have to admit she seemed a bit skeptical, I think she just doesn’t want me to expect too much and then be disappointed. But she certainly agreed that even something that helps a little bit is a good thing. She feels we can wait a little longer until the next scan, so my next appointment has now been set up for the end of July, about 4½ months from now.

I wanted to send a note to everyone immediately after the visit, but for some reason I could not seem to access my distribution list on my Galaxy Note II (still need to figure that out). But I finally sent the short note that evening, and I was truly moved by the overwhelming response – within just a few hours there were over 40 messages in my inbox, and they continue to come. I tried to respond to each of you separately and do apologize if I may have missed some. I am still trying to get the hang of how gmail stores the messages.

On Tuesday afternoon I had my music class. We took a slight diversion from the usual focus and listened to excerpts from a recording of Bruno Walter conducting the first rehearsal of a specially selected orchestra in Mozart’s Symphony #36, The Linz Symphony. In the first twenty minutes they got through just two bars of music until he achieved what he wanted from the orchestra! I have never played in an orchestra so it was quite fascinating to have a glimpse into the process. The class itself focused on Symphony #38, The Prague Symphony.

Later that day we went to see a documentary called “Hava Nagila” that traces in a lighthearted way the history of that quintessential Jewish celebratory song and dance. Somehow the filmmakers managed to find footage of people from all over the world doing this dance to this music: from Africa, the Far East, the former Soviet Union. It was really fascinating and just the lighthearted end we needed to further help ease the stress of the previous few days of waiting for the MRI.

Now that I am taking classes at the 92^nd Street Y and the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, I receive notices of their other upcoming activities. One caught my eye:

With Janet R. Kirchheimer
Publlished Author and Teaching Fellow at CLAL
Have you ever wanted to write your life story for yourself, your children, or your grandchildren? Then this is the workshop for you! Through a wide variety of innovative writing exercises and discussions in each class, you'll create the memoir you’ve always wanted. No experience in writing is necessary, just the desire to express yourself.

So many of you have suggested that I consider writing a book, and although I certainly appreciate the compliment I had never really seriously considered this. But then this fell into my lap via my inbox, and I signed up. The course starts in a few weeks, on the last day of my film class. I will definitely let you all know how that goes.

As I mentioned, today is my birthday, and before I can tell you about the gift that Barry gave me, I have to tell you about something that happened some months ago, while I was still actively undergoing chemotherapy. When I first came home from the hospital after the initial stay, we moved to a guest bedroom on the first floor of our house so that I would not have to walk up and down the stairs to the main living area (which my fall two weeks ago shows is still something of a challenge). Since this move was temporary we never really settled in there, and some of our things were sitting on bookshelves we had quickly emptied to make some space. One of the things sitting on a shelf was a small box containing a pair of diamond stud earrings that Barry had bought me some years ago. I usually wore those most of the time but I took them out before going to the hospital for each cycle of chemotherapy, and put them on the bookshelf along with some other items. And one day I noticed they were gone. At some point Barry convinced me that I had to stop beating myself up about them. So I never wrote about this here, and tried not to think about it too much. Well, by now you can see where this is going…..Barry bought me a new pair of diamond earrings for my birthday! And I am reminded of the words of Simmie’s first grade teacher, Mrs. Bunny (you can’t make this stuff up, really, “Bunny” was her nickname) who said “Barry is a prince of a guy.”

So I enter now into my 62^nd year with beautiful earrings, a loving family, and stable health. You can’t really ask for more.

Love,

Rebecca