Waking up those neurons....

Barry reported for jury duty on Monday morning at the Bronx County Courthouse. The first case for he was called as part of a group of potential jurors involved medical malpractice. As soon as he said that he is a radiation biologist who has provided expert testimony in lawsuits relating to injuries from radiation therapy, they excluded him, but told him he had to come back on Tuesday. On Tuesday he was considered for a dispute involving an automobile accident and again, when they found out what he does, they excluded him. At the end of the day they gave him his walking papers and sent him on his way. Yeah! There is a part of me that feels a bit guilty about celebrating this. But, from a perfectly selfish perspective, having sat here with limited communication for two whole days, I was ready to have him back!

The music class I am taking this term is primarily focused on the works of Beethoven. Typically, the instructor, Louis Rosen, first lectures on the structure of the piece, sometimes playing brief segments to demonstrate his points, before having us listen to the entire piece. Sometimes he will do this one movement at a time, alternating lecture with listening.

This semester the focus is on Beethoven, and yesterday the topic was Symphony No. 6 in F major, known as the Pastoral Symphony. He presented his commentaries before playing the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd movements; the 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th run together without real breaks. As soon as he started playing the recording of the first movement, I knew this one was very familiar, but for the life of me I could not remember why. Even his explanations sounded vaguely familiar, and I was beginning to wonder if somehow he had discussed this in another class during the past year. But that seemed unlikely because last spring and summer focused on Haydn and Mozart.

When Barry picked me up, he asked, as he always does, what we studied. And I started humming the beginning of the first movement of Symphony No. 6. He immediately said “we heard that at Tanglewood this summer!” And lo and behold, he was correct, I wrote about it on the 12^th of August:

On Sunday….Barry and I had tickets for a concert at Tanglewood. The weather was just amazing – bright sunshine and comfortably warm with low humidity. It was an all-Beethoven program:

The Boston Symphony Association of Volunteers Concert

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Christian Zacharias, conductor and piano

ALL-BEETHOVEN PROGRAM

Coriolan Overture

Piano Concerto No. 2

Symphony No. 6, Pastoral

Why did last night’s lecture sound somewhat familiar? Because we had arrived early at the Tanglewood concert and I spent some of that time sitting on the Great Lawn trying to read the program notes. 

I must have managed to absorb a bit of the notes that day, because a number of things Louis said sounded quite familiar. In any case, one or both of the following are true:

1.  My memory is improving

2. The memory of music is in a different part of the brain than the memory of today’s date or how many teaspoons of basil are called for or where I left some important document

Either way, it was very reassuring to see this small glimmer of improvement.

I spent a good part of yesterday with the Pulmonary Rehabilitation group at Mt. Sinai. They have only so much space in their facility and there is a waiting list, so this may not start for a few months. It is a rather demanding program but I hope it will help me to regain some strength and balance.

We had been planning to go up to Sharon this weekend but I woke up this morning with a bit of a sore throat so we are going to stay put here in New York. It is just as well that the friends we had tried to invite (at the last minute because of the uncertainty around Barry’s jury duty) were not free this week. We will be here next weekend as well, because we have tickets for The Eagles “History of the Eagles” concert at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

Enjoy your week!

Love,

Rebecca

Kit joins the family

We had a nice weekend in Sharon: We pitched in together to make the meals, and Barry and I had Friday night at Simmie and Ronen’s house and Saturday at Dina and Aaron’s.

Unfortunately we were not able to stay until Monday because Barry received a summons for jury duty, and found out over the weekend that he did, in fact, need to appear first thing this morning. But we did have a chance to do something really fun before we left yesterday, something we had done a couple of years ago with Eliana and Gabriella: we took Maya on her first trip to the American Girl store.

American Girl dolls were apparently around back in the 1980s when our daughters were young girls, but I have no recollection of hearing of them; there were no stores, they were sold through mail-order only.  I suspect they were then, as they are now, quite expensive. But someone at that company figured out that all of us baby boomer grandparents would jump at the chance to spend an outrageous amount of money not only on the dolls but on accoutrements. The chain has now expanded to include stores all over the country. It is an extravaganza of all things American Girl, including all the products (dolls, clothes, and accessories), a beauty salon (for the dolls) and a restaurant in which you can dine with your dolls: there is a picture of Ella with her two dolls at the New York store on the main page of this blog.

We just wanted to buy Maya a doll, and to pick up some items Eliana and Ella had put on their Chanukah gift lists. Although the web site said the store would open at 11:00 am on Sunday, apparently they opened somewhat earlier, because when we arrived at 11:00 it was already quite crowded. Looking at the early morning crowd, you would think they were giving this merchandise away (they’re not).

Maya had spent some time studying the newest catalogue and had picked out a doll she liked, but we wanted to allow her to take some time looking at the dolls and making sure that was still her choice. And it was: she bought Kit, the one she had picked from the catalogue. The crowd was a bit overwhelming for all three of us, so after finding the other items we wanted we checked out and left. The greeters at the door looked at our two enormous shopping bags (I have never seen shopping bags that large) filled with merchandise and our one little Maya, and you could see they were thinking, “these grandparents are really out of control.” So I felt compelled to stop and explain that the gifts were not just for this little five year old but for her big sister and her cousin as well. I guess we baby boomers are developing quite the reputation as grandparents.

We had in mind that we would bring the doll back to Sharon and keep it in our apartment until Chanukah. But when we checked out and the cashier asked if Maya wanted to take the doll out of the box….so attached here are some pictures of one very happy little girl. And that, as they say, is priceless.

I have also attached a picture of Eliana and Ella buying their dolls two years ago. What can we do for Joshua that will match that? Tickets to a sporting event!

Love,

Rebecca

10K

Well, it’s not quite like running a 10K race, but I just hit the 10K pageviews mark!

Pageviews today

49

Pageviews yesterday

10

Pageviews last month

1,403

Pageviews all time history

10,000

I know that in website or blog views that is a miniscule number, but it feels pretty big to me.

Thank you all!

Love,

Rebecca

Memory

I want to share a sample of an exercise from my writing class, still a work in progress. The assignment was to write something about telephone numbers, but Janet intends the topics she provides to act as springboards to get people thinking rather than as specific instructions.

For most of my life, I have been something of a math wiz. In junior high school, I won the 9th grade award for best mathematics student. I went on to major in mathematics as an undergraduate and earned a PhD in statistics when I returned to school at age 30.

Memorizing numbers was always easy for me. A new acquaintance made on Sabbath morning could tell me a phone number, and I would remember it until after Sabbath when I could write it down and call.

That strength has made its loss over this past year and a half particularly frustrating. Dr. DeAngelis told me some time ago that she was not surprised by this problem because the tumor was located in a section of the brain that controls short term memory. Simple activities like paying bills have become arduous tasks. Between the time I look at the bill and the time I start to write the check, I have already forgotten the amount due. Often I copy the number incorrectly. In truth, frustrating does not even begin to describe it. Barry is happy to do these tasks, but I persevere because I know that many months of working with Heidi have done all that they can do. Additional improvements will require continuous work.

I am 61 years old, and when I speak of (perhaps bemoan is better) this, everyone I know over 60 says the same thing: “I also have trouble remembering things.”  Even Barry, my husband of 40 years and a truly wonderful guy, says this.

But believe me, it is not the same. What happened to me is as if I went from zero to sixty (or perhaps from sixty to zero) in a few seconds. This is not the slow decline of aging but the rapid decline of illness. It is simply not the same.

I appreciate that people want to be reassuring, not in the Bill Clinton sappy “I feel your pain” sort of way but in a sincere and real way. At the same time, they want to believe that a mass in their own brains would not be so bad. I can’t blame them for that. I just wish I could believe it, too.

We are up in Sharon and have plans with one daughter’s family tonight and the other’s tomorrow. I do not need all my faculties in full gear to know how fortunate I am to have that.

Love,

Rebecca

Old Tennessee

As I took care of the monthly bills, a wonderful song came to mind: Dan Fogelberg’s “Old Tennessee.”

Dan Fogelberg was a prolific singer-songwriter who, sadly, died of prostate cancer at the age of 56 in December 2007. We had a number of opportunities to see him perform. No matter how large the venue, fans would shout out requests for favorite songs. At one concert, now many years ago, requests were coming right and left but Dan was largely ignoring them. Then someone yelled out “Dancing Shoes," a song from his 1977 album, “Netherlands.” Without missing a beat, he looked up and said “’Dancing Shoes’? I wrote a song called ‘Dancing Shoes’?” He had written so many wonderful songs that even he could not remember them all!

But now the song that comes to mind is one called “Old Tennessee” from his 1975 album, “Captured Angel,” with the opening lyric

End of October, the sleepy brown woods

Seem to nod down their heads to the winter.

Yellows and grays paint a sad skies today

And I wonder when you’re coming home.

  

I guess you could say that Dan has gone home, but we do still miss him.

Love,

Rebecca

If you can’t fly…

Earlier today I wrote about seeing David Roth on Sunday. We have been fans of David’s music for many years, and got to know him personally when Barry threw me a surprise party for my 50^th birthday with David as the entertainment.

I attached to the e-mail notice of this posting a Windows audio file of one of David’s classics, “If You Can’t Fly” from his 1996 album of the same name. (Original post: I would have posted it on the blog but cannot for the life of me figure out how to do that. Update: I finally figured out how to do it so it is now attached below!) We’ve been listening to this song for years, and we have seen him perform it countless times, including the other night. But suddenly today a light bulb went on up there, making the meaning even more poignant for me:

If you can’t fly, you can run,
If you can’t run, you can walk,
If you can’t walk, you can crawl,
That’s the beauty of it all.
If you can’t crawl, you can roll,
Keep your eyes upon your goal.
You have your place in the flock -
If you can’t roll, then you can rock!

For years I wondered what he meant when he said “if you can’t crawl, you can roll”. And now, as I hobble around with my rollator (aka a walker with wheels) or in my wheelchair, I finally know what it means to roll!

Now I would only change that last line to say

If you can roll, then you can (still) rock!

So rock on, all! Even if you have to roll.

Love,

Rebecca

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2iIonzFMTqGalp1NDJqWmtFUU0/edit?usp=sharing

Another milestone

Although the predictions are that the cold weather is finally on its way, we have continued to have fabulous weather in the Northeast. Barry was unable to return from Cambridge until Sunday, so I spent Sabbath in Sharon with our daughters and their families. Friday night I had dinner with Dina, Aaron, Joshua, and Ella. Dina made eggplant parmesan, something I haven’t made in year. She somehow made it without frying the eggplant, so rather than being greasy and heavy, it was lighter and did not result in the upset my aging digestive system sometimes develops when eating heavy or fried foods. And it tasted terrific! On Sabbath day the ten of us gathered at Simmie’s house along with her father-in-law, who came up for the weekend to do some work in their house (he did home remodeling professionally for many years). Besides all the yummy food (Simmie makes some kugels I especially enjoy), we were entertained by the three older children. Eliana and Gabriella did dance/gymnastic routines, one while they recited a Shel Silverstein poem, while Joshua served as the master of ceremonies. I am not sure who enjoyed this more – the children, presenting it, or me, watching.

On Sunday there was clean-up and errands, so I had some quiet time in the morning. After lunch, Maya came over and we played games for a couple of hours. For a snack we cut up one of those delicious apples the children had picked last week. It was simply a delightful time.

Meanwhile, I also had plans for later in the afternoon. Singer/songwriter David Roth was giving a concert as part of a fund-raiser that was being held at a local synagogue. Dina and Aaron are also David fans, so they and the children went along with me. Of course since I cannot drive I would not have been able to go without their willingness to join me, but I think the grown-ups, at least, did enjoy it. The children are a little too young to really appreciate David’s mixture of storytelling and music, but I was really proud of how well they both did, and Joshua may be willing to admit he enjoyed it a bit.

Although I have been in touch with David over the past year and a half, I had not seen him for at least a couple of years, well before my diagnosis and treatment. Like so many things that I had last done more than a year and a half ago, seeing him was very emotional for me. We managed to have a couple of minutes to chat during the intermission, and it was wonderful to be able to see him again, hopefully not for the last time!

After the concert we headed over to the newly opened kosher restaurant in Canton, the next town over from Sharon, called Chubby Chickpea. It was very crowded so we decided pick up the food and eat back at home. We knew almost everyone there, because it has been a long time since there has been a kosher eatery anywhere near Sharon, so people were very excited to try it out. The food was tasty and I have to say much less expensive than a similar meal in New York. I guess the rents in Canton are not quite the rents in Manhattan or even the outer boroughs.

Take-off for Barry’s flight had been delayed, then there was a very long line through customs, then there was some sort of accident on the highway from the airport to Sharon, but he finally made it back at about 9:30 pm, having left his hotel in Cambridge at 3:30 am our time. A very long journey of 18 hours, but it’s good to have him home safe and sound. I had even picked up some dinner for him and he really enjoyed it after all the time on a crowded plane.

One last note: as of this morning, there have been 9774 page views of the blog. Ten thousand cannot be far behind. I know that in blog terms that is a miniscule number, but it sounds pretty amazing to me to think that people have read my ramblings that many times!

I’m off to my music class now. Enjoy this last bit of warm weather!

Love,

Rebecca

The Chubby Chickpea | Mediterranean Food | Canton, MA - Restaurant