A new look

I mentioned in my last post that I had done some shopping at Talbots the other day. A couple of you wrote and asked what I bought.

The trip was prompted by an upcoming dinner for the MSKCC radiation oncology residents. In past years, spouses were routinely included in these events, but more recently budgetary limitations have made them faculty-only evenings. However, Barry is being recognized this year for his teaching, so I am invited to attend along with him.

Although I am sure Barry can testify that I have said this many times over the years, for the first time I can say in all honesty that I truly do not have anything to wear to the dinner! Having raised two daughters, particularly the younger one, I fully appreciate that "need" when it comes to clothing is a somewhat subjective term. But any appropriate clothing I may have owned for such an occasion is simply too large. I also remembered that the son of one of our friends is getting married in August. Realizing I would need something for that as well, I decided to go for it.

My beloved LL Bean and Lands End serve my every day needs, and I have bought some nice things on J Jill and Travel Smith, but none of these fit the bill. I saw a couple of items on the Talbots web page but I felt it would be easiest to go to a local store and try them on. I had shopped at Talbots quite a bit during my early years at Pfizer, the days before “business casual” became the norm and when I was going into my office every day. While I know the looks have changed, I still imagined it would be a good place to start.

As it turned out, the store had completely different items than shown on the web page, so I was essentially starting from scratch. I figured the worst that would happen was I could determine what size I needed and go back and order through the catalogue. The first item I tried, and I was really surprised that it was Barry who saw this and suggested I try it on, is a suit: a sheath dress with a long-sleeved jacket, in a yellow tweed that is somewhat shiny. It reminds me of Lisa DeAngelis (neuro-oncology head at MSKCC), who often wears these sorts of outfits (maybe that's what struck Barry as well). I have a pair of bone shoes from Dina and Aaron’s wedding that are barely worn and still seem to fit, so I'm all set. 

The other outfit is more vintage me: a long khaki-colored linen skirt with eyelet trim on the bottom, and a very cool white linen tunic.

I am 100% convinced that women's clothing manufacturers are making clothes larger than they used to. In other words, a 2013 size 8 is not what a 1980 size 8 was. I NEVER in my life bought a size 8 anything!  I have always said that I was born a size 12!!!! I know I have lost a lot of weight, but size 8? Really?

It's funny, because Barry has been on a campaign over all these months to get me to eat. Perhaps it has satisfied his need to do something: if he could not make the cancer go away, he could at least feed me. But for the first time in that dressing room, I think he really enjoyed seeing the thinner me. As I have been saying all along, although it is not a weight loss regimen I would recommend, there's nothing wrong with making lemonade when life gives you a lemon.

To complete the transformation, and hopefully to help improve my vision and functioning, I took my new eyeglass prescription to the optician. I had in mind to simply replace the lenses in my current glasses. But he looked up my file and it turns out I have had those glasses for quite a few years, so he enticed me to try on something new. I guess the frameless look went out of style a while ago. So I am making a rather radical leap to a dark reddish plastic frame. I will have to post a photograph when I get the new glasses.

It is a beautiful day here in New York, although they say the rain will return by tomorrow. Fortunately the weekend looks good.

Be well, all.

Love,

Rebecca 

Way too nice a day for a movie

The weather in New York was beautiful today – far too nice to spend time indoors. We spent most of the morning at the Botanical Gardens, and for the first couple of hours we had the place largely to ourselves. You can see on the NYBG web page that the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is fully in bloom. I attach some pictures here.

After our visit, we stopped to do a little shopping, and had a late lunch at a restaurant with outdoor seating. All in all, a wonderful day!

It sounds like the good weather will be short lived, so I am glad we were able to take in a large dose today before the rain returns.

Love,

Rebecca 

No small miracles

We had a lovely Sabbath. The rain ended overnight and we were able to go to synagogue this morning. Friends joined us for lunch, and we had a lively and enjoyable time with them.

Our first daughter, Simmie, was born 12 weeks prematurely. After spending those months in the neonatal intensive care unit surrounded by sick and premature infants, the idea of a healthy full-term pregnancy seemed nothing less than a miracle to me. There is a part of me that has never lost the feelings of awe and wonder at a nine month gestation followed by the birth of a healthy child.

This morning I realized that I am having a similar experience at the other end of the spectrum. Barry was pushing me in my wheel chair, and along the way we ran into a couple we know walking to synagogue, fellow members who are quite a bit older than we are. She told us that she had hip replacement surgery about a year ago. I was left with that familiar feeling of how little we tend to recognize and appreciate the everyday miracles in our lives. These days, whenever I see anyone older than I am who is healthy and functioning well and able to get around on their own, I am simply amazed.  And perhaps we should all be.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day, so we hope to spend some time outdoors. The Botanical Garden opens early for members, so we thought we might pop over for a quick visit before we have various errands to run. We are also hoping to work in a movie tomorrow. So I will have plenty to write in my next post!

Love,

Rebecca 

More rain

It has been chilly and raining all day, with no sign of an end. That got me to thinking of a beautiful old Simon and Garfunkel song.

We have a quiet Sabbath planned. We are hoping that the rain will let up so we can make it to synagogue, and we have some friends joining us for lunch. Among other things, we made “Sri Wasano’s Infamous Indonesian Rice Salad,” a recipe from the original Moosewood Cookbook that we haven’t made in many years. On our stop atTrader Joe’s the other day we picked up some of those fabulous dry-roasted cashews and yummy raisins.

We discovered that the Botanical Garden opens early for members, which should enable us to go on the Sunday mornings we happen to be in New York before the usual weekend crowds. I am not sure if my Pfizer ID would have allowed for this, but now we have joined on our own (since I am no longer a Pfizer colleague) and the early entry is one of the perks of membership.

I am quite frustrated at the moment because earlier today, or perhaps last evening, I had a very good idea for something I wanted to write here. I shared it with Barry and he agreed. And now, neither of us can remember what in the world it was that I wanted to share! I know I should just force myself to find a piece of paper when ideas come along, but I usually tell myself “that is so good, I will surely remember it.” And then, of course, it goes floating away. So if it does come back around maybe next time I will in fact write it down!

Meanwhile, have a nice weekend.

Love,

Rebecca 

Our budding scientists

Unfortunately, obligations in New York prevented us from staying up in Sharon for the First Grade Science Fair at our grandchildrens’ school. But I was thrilled to see pictures posted on the school’s web page this morning.

Although we cannot be sure that any of our grandchildren will actually follow in the footsteps of their maternal grandparents and pursue careers in science or medicine, it is heartwarming to see the joy they are clearly feeling here.

And speaking of budding, the seeds Maya planted last week are now little plants about 2 inches tall!

Love,

Rebecca

A fun morning at the zoo

Yesterday (Sunday) was a beautiful day, and Eliana and Maya had no specific plans for the morning, so we took two cars and met Simmie at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence. The zoo recently opened a brand new children’s section that is really quite nice. It includes some water play, and it was warm enough by late morning that the girls were able to play in the sprinklers they have there. We saw about half of the zoo before the temperature became a bit too high and we had to leave to head back to New York. But we had a wonderful time.

We had an uneventful drive back to New York, and are busy playing catch-up from the wonderful five days with our family. Our car went in for routine maintenance, the air conditioning folks came to check out the system, and all went well.

The only annoyance was that we had received a checking account statement from the bank. Now I know many of you younger folk, and even the older ones, are thinking, “why in the world are they still having to reconcile their checking account?” Well, we just never got around to setting up the process on line, and in any case, old habits die hard. But the trouble is that I am not completely reliable at these tasks. We’re still not quite sure what happened, but I simply could not get the account to reconcile. We don’t drive ourselves crazy about small discrepancies, but this one was on the order of $300. Finally Barry convinced me to abandon this activity and turn in for the night. This morning, he discovered that I had made a mistake last month that explained the discrepancy. I don’t know how I managed to “balance” the last statement, but somehow I did. Bottom line: I guess I am not really quite ready for prime time. As I am typing this, Barry is looking over the checks I wrote for the bills that accumulated while we were up in Sharon. Yes, I know, we should have all that done automatically, but those old habits….

The rain seems to have moved out and it sounds like this will be a very nice week. Try to take in a bit of June if you can.

Love,

Rebecca 

Seeing ourselves

For most of my life beyond early childhood, like so many other people, I have struggled with controlling my weight. Although I never became morbidly obese, it was always clear that I weighed more than ideal for my height.

Despite all the downsides, this cancer has been a highly effective weight loss program for me. I now weigh less than I ever have during my adult life, even a bit less than I weighed when Barry and I were married almost forty years ago. I have had to buy an entirely new wardrobe in sizes I never dreamed I would wear. But still, when I look at myself in the mirror, I see the same person as before, and, odd as this may sound, she continues to look a bit chunky to me. My doctors keep telling me not to lose more weight, and I keep making jokes about how that is about the last thing I would have ever expected to hear from a physician.

A few months ago we had an opportunity to see a dear long-time friend who lives far from us. It was clear that he was quite taken aback when he first saw me. But I didn’t really think much about it at the time. So it was quite a shock to see pictures of me from the Grandparents’ Day events last week posted on the school’s website. The weather has grown warmer and I had on a short-sleeved crew-neck shirt. I keep staring at the pictures and wondering if I really do look that thin.

It has been enlightening to see myself a bit more the way that Barry sees me, and to better understand why he is on a mission to make sure I eat. Lucky for me he is a terrific cook and spends a lot of energy making sure we have things I enjoy eating. The new wardrobes I purchased for winter and now for summer are motivation to stay at this weight. But I promise to try not to lose more.

Love,

Rebecca