Alison!

My niece Alison and her husband Jesse are in California for the holidays. They live near Washington DC now, and were lucky enough to leave town before the big snowfall. I had a nice leisurely lunch with them before they hit the road for Fresno. As you can see from the first photo (taken when Alison was 3), she and I have always been fond of one another. I'm so proud of her. She just completed her first post-grad semester at George Washington University with straight As. And this is a good time to give a shout out to her older sister Stephanie, who as of a few days ago, is officially DOCTOR Stephanie, MD. If I myself had actually gotten at the very least, an undergrad degree, I'd claim some genetic credit. As it is, I think it might have more to do with the self-discipline and good study habits they both developed for themselves over the years.

I think I've made the most of this period of the chemo-go-round. Got the tree up, got all my Christmas shopping done and wrapped, socialized over the weekend with my near neighbors Jason and Marc, my former coworker Claudia (another knitter, one of extremely advanced skills) and the lovely McKeown family who had Robert, Kevin, the Garcias and me over for dinner last night. Della showed off her new skills: signing the word "more" (she also knows the sign for "all done"), and walking with only one hand being held. She's still a little too tippy-toe to walk unaccompanied.

My former boss, Ben, came and took me to lunch on Friday and then took me to my appointment with Dr. Liu. The normal pre-chemo checkup. The lymph swelling is now almost flat. We discussed the radiation schedule and, if I am a candidate, he would probably schedule the radiation to commence after my trip to NYC in mid-March. So here's the known schedule: My last chemo infusion is 1/15. 2 weeks later I'll have a CT scan. If the cancer cells have not spread to other quadrants of my body, I'm a candidate for radiation. I go to NYC mid-March for about a week or so, and maybe a quick visit to Washington to visit Alison and Jesse. By the beginning of April, I should be ready to begin radiation. I don't know yet how many days it will be, but it would be every day, Mon-Fri, for the duration. And then... well, frankly, I don't know and I try not to think too far ahead. Letting it be terra incognito works best for me.

My cousin, who lives in Seattle, and I have recently reconnected cybernetically. Her father was my mother's brother, and when her family still lived in California, our respective families alternated hosting the holidays. She reminded me of the excitement we used to have anticipating opening our Christmas gifts. We always opened the presents under the tree on Christmas Eve after some delicious Italian meal made by my cousin's second-generation Italian mother, my sainted Aunt Gloria. These, the "good" gifts, were always openly acknowledged as coming from our parents. What we got on Christmas morning was just our stockings filled with small toys, and useful things like underwear and socks, and, every year, a Lifesaver book (ie a book-like box that would open to reveal about a dozen rolls of assorted flavors of Lifesavers candies. Do they still make those?) Considering the Christmas Day schedule, it makes sense to me that they did it that way. It was chaotic enough to get the combined households of nine kids (well, we were boomer households on top of being Catholic) dressed and transported to Mass and back, and then to make a turkey dinner for all those people, to want to deal with the pandemonium and the time it took to open the presents on the same day. So that scheme was practical, but when I was very small, and a true believer, it made the communication with department store Santas a little more complicated. I always felt Santa was just a cheap old coot who was only gonna give me some Lifesavers, and my real task at hand was to convince this ersatz Santa, who was palmed off as "Santa's helper", to, in turn, persuade my parents to get me the stuff I really wanted.

Don't worry. I subsequently had years of therapy, and Santa and I have healed our dysfunctional relationship. There are already a couple of really good gifts from him to me under the tree. :)