Put your tulips together...

I didn't have a new plate carved and ready for printing last night in time for the last session of "Luminous Linocut", as the class is called, so I used the studio time to do viscosity prints of my existing plates. This is the parrot tulip I carved on the first night of class. I'm going to miss the weekly routine of the print studio. Being there is both stimulating and soothing. We bring snacks and music to share with each other and we help each other print (when you do double drops, someone has to lift your paper for you while you slip out the monotype plate inked with the solid color and replace it with your inked lino plate). Everyone is very courteous and methodical, so we don't get much in each others' way and we don't misplace tools, don't create unnecessary messes, etc. Then we do cleanup together, which can take up to 30 minutes. Then, my favorite part, we sit down together at the clean work table and go through everything that was printed that night and discuss the various effects achieved and techniques used. It's extremely satisfying, on an artistic as well as on a social level.

My teacher, Katie, was very excited to have done shrinkydinks all Easter weekend with friends and family. (Last week I brought a bunch of the blank sheets to class for her.) She made me this tiny little representation of a linocut carving tool and my print from last week. :) I was very touched.


I'm well established in my new routine of daily radiation treatment. (6 down, 26 to go!) Using ZipCar has been very easy, and I haven't run into bad traffic. Unfortunately, I'm already feeling a little fatigued, and had to forgo some planned socializing over the weekend. The cold and rain we had here over the weekend certainly didn't help. It's a little easier to rouse myself now that we have sunshine again, and I've been trying to stick to my other new daily routine of lunching out and walking.

As it was Wednesday, I saw Dr. Gillis after my zap yesterday. Nothing much to report. She was unsurprised about the fatigue. My skin is normal so far, but she said to expect some redness by the end of next week. I'm prepared with unguents of aloe and such. So far, the axillary mass has not started growing again.

If you're interested, this is the routine for radiation: The receptionist at the front desk buzzes me in, and I go to the men's dressing room and change into a gown and put my clothes (top half only) into a locker. Then I sit and wait for a few minutes until one of my radiation therapists (either Ann or Barbette) comes and gets me and takes me to "Tahoe", as my particular radiation machine is called. Tahoe lives in its own huge room, with an l-shaped hallway and thick doors between it and the control room area where Barbette and Ann make it do its thing. I sit down on Tahoe's platform, untie my gown and lie down on the little sheet covered form they've arranged for me to maintain my position during the treatment. (If I were standing, it would look like I had my hand on my hip.) Either Ann or Barbette pulls my gown down below my waist and then they both use a light grid emitted by Tahoe over my torso to line me up, using those little tattoos I got. They tug on the sheet I'm lying on, tell me to relax my shoulders, say things like "And there I'm at 91" and "91 check" to each other. When they're happy with my position, they disappear down the hallway, and I hear the thick door close, and then Tahoe starts to whir and click and twirl, letting out with a sustained beep every so often as it zaps me. It positions itself at different degrees around my body for a series of 7 beeped zaps, and then it stops making noise and stops moving and Ann and Barbette come back and help me sit up and tie my gown back up for me, and one of them walks me back to the men's dressing room. On my best day so far, I was in and out in just about 10 minutes.

Lunches so far this week:
Starbelly - crab salad (duh)
Chilango - duck flautas and a surprisingly complementary merlot
Monk's Kettle - really good burger and fries and a nice bitter Rye IPA