Birthday celebration

Connecticut stone wall

This is week 11 in Connecticut. And my birthday week! I turned 59 on May 28. One of my dear friends, Claude, is also a May baby and she celebrates all month long. I have a preponderance of Gemini friends. Jeff and I share the same day. My mother always had joint birthday parties for me and my brother Mark who is May 25. It's in our blood to celebrate. Jeff... Merri... Bernd... Indu...Chris... Elisabeth...  Eden...Irene (today - 80 - God bless!).

On Thursday I worked a very long private practice day - 9 people - and still squeezed in a lot of birthday. These days I always start the day with an hour hike with Acadia. Sasha is hanging in there - another Gemini - her 10th birthday will be June 2. Love the old stone walls, the burbling brooks, the wetlands and forest which opens into a huge field of tall grass.

Glenn got up early to bake a birthday cake. It's worth looking up. Nutty Cardamom Bundt cake with bourbon glaze. Wow. We both worked... and worked.. and worked... then he came home with a huge bouquet of flowers. We went to our friends Cynthia and Alan's for the first time to have cocktails under a big open-sided tent. Tuesday as well. We sat far apart and it was so moving to be with people again. It made me tearful with gratitude. And from there Glenn and I went on to have dinner at the oldest inn in Connecticut. It was late by then so we were the only guests. Busting out!

And I have to mention the nectarine tree. This is my 3rd birthday in our house and each year he buys me a fruit tree. We have quite a nice little orchard although it has yet to bear much. This year we hope to keep ahead of the raiding squirrels which have striped the peach trees. Our weapon this year will be fox urine and the vicious dogs who mostly like to lie around in the sun.

Cancer: cycle 6. Feeling excellent other than some fatigue and nausea at times but I run pretty hard so it may not even be the chemo. I'll get a blood draw locally next Friday, and consult w The Vix that Wednesday. My sister is kind of an intuitive and she feels I'm going to be fine. Do chemo for a few years and live a long healthy life. I think so too.

Week 10

Wild Ramps

Week 10. Status quo.
We're both still working from home which is working pretty well. Wearing masks whenever we venture out. Zoom cocktails with friends.

Now and then I/we see someone but it's very limited. Has anyone commented that social distance is an oxymoron? How I yearn to hug and kiss everyone! There's Glenn and now 2 dogs... but I need more!

Yesterday I met up with Cynthia and we went forging in the woods behind her house for ramps. Because it's been a cool and rainy spring, there are still huge patches of them. At this point the poison ivy is obvious but it's always a little dicey and I have a high sensitivity to poison ivy. A few years ago I stood on the road as Gayle got off her bike when she spied a bunch in the woods. She went back later and dug... and got herself a severe case of poison ivy that landed her in the ER. So I'm really careful to avoid that stuff.

What do you do with all those ramps? Last night I made sourdough greek yogurt flatbreads on a cast iron griddle - folded in finely chopped ramps (and used homemade Greek yogurt). Foodie heaven.

I go in waves of crippling anxiety/sadness/despair/hopefulness about both the epidemic and the financial impact. Glenn's company provides logistic support for all kinds of materials (food, chemicals, all kinds of stuff) so is facing the macro world. I am a therapist and am facing the micro world. At my hospital job I work almost exclusively with Portuguese-speakers, most of whom are undocumented. This is a desperate population. They are working if they can to avoid losing their apartments and going hungry... and much more vulnerable to exposure to the virus. Many are/have been sick, none of them have died (on my caseload). Plenty have died.

I write this in the early morning, listening to the dogs wrestle. Drinking coffee and surrounded by my houseplants and guitars. It's a soft May morning. Overcast, trees starting to leaf out. From the perch, life is so amazing and I'm so blessed. Yet driving through the city last weekend felt post-apocalyptic.

It's my birthday next Thursday(59!) and Cynthia and Alan have agreed to come over for a cocktail on the patio. At last! He also agreed to play music w me - outside. Huge steps towards "normal". He's a mandolin player in a local bluegrass band. I'm taking an online class from Passim School of Music in Cambridge - Traditional Folk and Rad Americana. It's a good option but nothing like playing and singing with friends. Soon?!?!

Day Trip home

Vintage Martini glasses
Gift from Alex

This photo captures a lot of what we have been doing - enjoying cocktails! We have an impressive liquor cabinet(s). We Zoomed with Julie over the weekend and besides asking to see the dogs, she asked for a virtual tour of our expansive collection. Like most of us, we have turned to cooking in a big way. And drinks are kind of an extension of food. We limit how many nights we indulge (typically not on "school" nights) but are taking a deep dive into creative mixology. Bon Appetit magazine is my own category of porn and I also get their emails so there's no end to new ideas and ingredients. We ask the local liquor store to order. The most recent was Cocchi Ameriano and there is both red and white. So we say - both.

This morning marks the start of 9 weeks here in Connecticut. Our own situation is very privileged. We get food from the local 1960's grocery store - curbside pickup only. So we are eating a lot of weird things like French onion dip and fried onions in the can. Comfort food, returning to rural Iowa of my youth. A local farm does a produce box delivery once a week. They are not providing their own produce yet but from other vendors. It's a mystery what turns up each week but I like to cook that way anyway. And there's a tiny self-serve farm stand with frozen meat, dairy an random things. Sometimes homemade soap, honey, maple syrup.

So food is no worry (now). We have acres of hiking trails out back And in Connecticut the golf courses are open (no touching anything other than your own gear, club house and restaurant closed). That's about the sum of our activities. Working in the garden, painting sheds, lots of discussion about cutting down dead trees for firewood.

All good. Chemo is perfect. I continue to feel really good on it although some days there's some nausea and tiredness but considering.. it's fine. No bone ache. No scary/deadly side effects.

On Saturday we drove back to Brookline. Day trip. I needed warm weather clothes and we met with a kitchen designer to finalize plans for the renovation which will start soon. (Masks, SD.) We both felt anxious about being in the city again. I actually felt panicky - looking at the shuttered businesses, lots of "for rent" signs. Felt very scary. Post-Apocalyptic. Lots of abandoned shopping carts - homeless people? Everyone in masks. It did feel kind of good to be in my house after a few months. I've never been away so long. We saw Amy and Scott briefly for a dog walk through Charlestown. Trying to figure out how to drink coffee with masks on - takeout Starbucks.

But I was very relieved to get back to Connecticut and enjoy a few drinks.
The future?