All together

I am still working on getting us all together to pose for a new family picture, but meanwhile we managed to snap this the other night.

Love,

Rebecca

If only she could have done as well against cancer

A few days ago, about 3 games into her winning streak, Barry stumbled on an article about this Jeopardy champion. Last night her final episode was aired. It is quite a story. Even with the adversity of her illness she still managed to win six games, and pledged her winnings to support cancer research.

‘Jeopardy!’ Run Ends for Cindy Stowell, Cancer-Stricken Champion BY DANIEL VICTOR Her six-game streak placed her among the year’s top performers, with more than $123,000 in winnings that she had pledged to donate to cancer research.
Or, copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://nyti.ms/2ichVVE

Here is a short video in which she tells her story.

Love,

Rebecca

La La Land

Our goal this past weekend was to see something to offset the rather morose “Manchester by the Sea,” and we certainly did choose something quite different: “La La Land.”  The opening scene of the movie finds hundreds of cars in a traffic jam in Los Angeles, which becomes an excuse for hundreds of drivers to leave their cars and break into a huge dance routine.

We quickly meet the two main characters, Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling). She is an aspiring actress while he dreams of being a jazz pianist, both of them imagining fame and fortune in their trades, as are nearly every one of the people surrounding them. But meanwhile, she barely makes ends meet as a barista, and he struggles to hold down gigs playing old and tired holiday tunes in a bar. Their relationship starts slowly until they gradually realize that they are, in many ways, kindred spirits. But as their careers begin to take off, they are forced to travel in different directions to pursue their dreams. We eventually catch up with them some five years later, when they accidentally run into each other. This is followed by a wonderful fantasy scene in which they imagine what things might have been had they stayed together.

All in all, this was a fun and colorful movie. With all the horrible things going on in the world right now, and our concerns as we embark upon a very new and different administration in this country, this movie may well be just the break the doctor ordered. So let go, let yourself enjoy for a couple of hours!

Love,

Rebecca

Same Old Lang Syne

Just had to share this wonderful piece from tomorrow’s New York Times Sunday magazine section. This has long been one of my very favorite Dan Fogelberg songs.

I had forgotten that yesterday was the 9^th anniversary of Dan’s untimely death at age 56 from metastatic prostate cancer. But his music remains a beautiful legacy.

Dan talked about this song a few times that we saw him perform over the years.  The legend goes that he had once told a friend that he could write song lyrics to pretty much any tune, and the friend said “well, how about Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture?” and the result was this song, based on a true incident in Dan’s life.

Enjoy!

Love,

Rebecca

Here is the NYT article

 http://nyti.ms/2hEGY3B

White House Chanukah Reception

Our very own Rav Steven Exler at The White House for an early celebration of Chanukah!

So many good wishes

My sincerest thanks to all of you who have reached out to me over the last few days with offers of food, prayers for good health, and lots of love. I am feeling a bit stronger today than yesterday, and hope to stay on that same path during the days ahead.

We took a first step back to normal life yesterday and went to see a movie,

“Manchester by the Sea.” This film received a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and quite a glowing review from A.O. Scott in the New York Times, with whom I usually agree. But I should have been wary by the large amount of advertising for this movie over the past couple of weeks. Maybe I am just still in a bit of a foul mood from the recent events in my life, but I really did not enjoy this movie. First and foremost, it was just too long and too slow. Barry and I have some great suggestions for reworking some of the plot that could significantly shorten and focus the movie, but I am not expecting any phone calls from the filmmaker.

Lee (Casey Affleck) is called back to his hometown northeast of Boston following the death of his brother, long afflicted with congestive heart failure. The movie is about how Lee and his nephew, 16-year-old Patrick (Lucas Hodges), work to carve out a troubled relationship and make plans for Patrick’s continued upbringing. This is a family that has had what in Yiddish we would call far too much tsores. In my mind, it was so far over the top as to seem ridiculous, and was simply a distraction from what could have been a simpler and more believable film about the relationship between this young man and his uncle as they struggle to build a future.

Oh, well, maybe our next pick will go a bit better. Meanwhile, it was good to get out of the house for something other than a medical appointment!

Stay warm!

Love,

Rebecca

A difficult two weeks

The last time I posted on this blog, we had just returned from a wonderful five days at Disney World with our beautiful Ella. I was feeling rather exhausted but just kept telling myself it was a result of the trip, and with a little rest I would feel better.

But things do not always go the way we want them to, and day after day I seemed only to lose rather than gain energy. In hindsight, it is embarrassing to admit the stupidity of those days, and it took waking up early last Tuesday morning with chest pain on breathing that I finally had to admit that I was really sick, and we went to the emergency room at Mount Sinai.

I really should have known better, and really should behaved more appropriately. Once a few days had passed I should have known it was time to get in to see my pulmonologist rather than waiting until I had to be admitted to the hospital with full blown pneumonia, and we certainly have discussed this with her over the past week. But this particular experience was an especially difficult lesson, because I ended up spending far too much time in the emergency room waiting for a bed to be available so that I could be admitted to a regular medical floor, from which I was moved yet again to a pulmonary floor.

Here is the good news. The heavy dose of IV antibiotics worked fairly quickly, and by Thursday evening my chest x-ray looked so good that they said I could go home. I am still exhausted but my voice is finally coming back and I am feeling a little bit stronger every day. Barry is making me all of my favorite foods to try to encourage me to eat, and I am finally now able to sit here and type this post.

My main goal for the future is to stay as far away from the in-patient unit of the hospital as I can. You would think I had learned that five years ago. I guess I needed a reminder.

Love,

Rebecca