hob-knobbing with superstars
i actually wanted these photos to appear in the reverse order when i posted them to the site, but since this is the way they came up, i guess i have to run with it, because i'm feeling lazy and not so into cutting and pasting tonight. so we'll see where this goes. i mean, not that nutella wontons and decaf cappuccino is a bad place to start. and really, chronologically speaking, this is the way to begin. because this was my dessert, more than a week ago. last friday night we went to dinner to celebrate my two years of cancer excitement. the family shared a hand-picked antipasta assortment of meats, cheeses, and vegetables. my favorite was the goat cheese and salami on a fresh crouton, followed closely by an italian aged cheddar cheese with a fig jam on another little piece of bread. i thought those two items were enough to win me over, and i could have been finished with indulgence right then and there. but when the dessert menu arrived after my pasta carbanara (you begin to see the "indulgence" theme playing out. i really don't eat this way on a regular basis, as both my weight and my heart health can attest) and i saw "nutella wonton" in bold letters, i could not say no. sure, it came with homemade goat's milk ice cream and american cherries. blah blah blah. nu-tell-a. i think a piece of my heart melted away in the bowl. it was heavenly. so you can see why celebrating can be fun from time to time.
following the dessert, and a weekend of generally good food and a really big penn state win, i worked my other job and scored me some toxic chemicals. for a pretty good price, i must add. frizz-ee. or so it appears to you and i, since i didn't see the doc i didn't have to ante up the copay. i have paid at least one copay every three weeks since january 4, 2008. some weeks i have paid three or four. so saving a small chunk of change was exciting for me. that's at least five nutella wontons i'm talking there. as has become familiar to everyone around, i spent a couple of days sleeping and eating mostly cereal. the dog drooled as she begged, i drooled as i slept, and on friday evening i could finally feel like i had shaken myself out of it a bit, just in time for halloween. so, i carved a vicious nittany lion and plopped back on the couch, exhausted from the effort, both physical (i need to sharpen the knives) and creative (can you see the detail of those whiskers?). besides, i needed to save energy for my big lung cancer 5k.
this morning the same family of celebrating fame woke to sunny skies at 6:30 or so (thank you time change!) and made our way to boathouse row for the annual "free to breathe" lung cancer 5k run and walk. this year it meant a lot to me that ashley and ruth made an appearance and joined the rest of us to run. it is amazing to see the numbers of people who show up for this event, because it serves as such a striking reminder that there are way too many people who can't be there doing it themselves, because of the nature of lung cancer. it makes me feel fortunate to have friends and family to lean on, makes me feel like maybe i will be able to keep going even when i have a harder time with it. the weather was perfect for a run and the course is nice and flat, so i had a pretty good run, despite carrying the extra pounds from celebrating so hard a week ago, and the lack of energy from the chemo this week. last year i think i finished around 28 minutes, and this year it was around 32. if i really put my head down and didn't enjoy myself the whole way, i could have gone faster, but it just really isn't worth it. i could still barely talk at the end and was a little out of breath. that's good enough for me. i'm really not much of a racer these days. i stand by my victory in the "28 year old with lung cancer" category vehemently, however.
after the race rotten, ashley, ruth, and i went out to breakfast, beating the rush (oh, did i just say i am not much of a racer anymore? not when it comes to my eggs...) just barely.
and of all the happenings of the past week, of everything that has come and gone, that was the icing on my cake, the best part of it all. sitting there, warm, slightly tired, well fed, with old friends and a pretty nice guy (have you seen his legs?), everything was exactly as it should be, without effort. it was the highlight of it all. some celebrating is always good, the drugs are keeping me alive, and all the work is so i can have more moments like that with people like these.
nutella wontons aside, just for now, i wouldn't trade my people for anything.
following the dessert, and a weekend of generally good food and a really big penn state win, i worked my other job and scored me some toxic chemicals. for a pretty good price, i must add. frizz-ee. or so it appears to you and i, since i didn't see the doc i didn't have to ante up the copay. i have paid at least one copay every three weeks since january 4, 2008. some weeks i have paid three or four. so saving a small chunk of change was exciting for me. that's at least five nutella wontons i'm talking there. as has become familiar to everyone around, i spent a couple of days sleeping and eating mostly cereal. the dog drooled as she begged, i drooled as i slept, and on friday evening i could finally feel like i had shaken myself out of it a bit, just in time for halloween. so, i carved a vicious nittany lion and plopped back on the couch, exhausted from the effort, both physical (i need to sharpen the knives) and creative (can you see the detail of those whiskers?). besides, i needed to save energy for my big lung cancer 5k. 
this morning the same family of celebrating fame woke to sunny skies at 6:30 or so (thank you time change!) and made our way to boathouse row for the annual "free to breathe" lung cancer 5k run and walk. this year it meant a lot to me that ashley and ruth made an appearance and joined the rest of us to run. it is amazing to see the numbers of people who show up for this event, because it serves as such a striking reminder that there are way too many people who can't be there doing it themselves, because of the nature of lung cancer. it makes me feel fortunate to have friends and family to lean on, makes me feel like maybe i will be able to keep going even when i have a harder time with it. the weather was perfect for a run and the course is nice and flat, so i had a pretty good run, despite carrying the extra pounds from celebrating so hard a week ago, and the lack of energy from the chemo this week. last year i think i finished around 28 minutes, and this year it was around 32. if i really put my head down and didn't enjoy myself the whole way, i could have gone faster, but it just really isn't worth it. i could still barely talk at the end and was a little out of breath. that's good enough for me. i'm really not much of a racer these days. i stand by my victory in the "28 year old with lung cancer" category vehemently, however.
after the race rotten, ashley, ruth, and i went out to breakfast, beating the rush (oh, did i just say i am not much of a racer anymore? not when it comes to my eggs...) just barely. and of all the happenings of the past week, of everything that has come and gone, that was the icing on my cake, the best part of it all. sitting there, warm, slightly tired, well fed, with old friends and a pretty nice guy (have you seen his legs?), everything was exactly as it should be, without effort. it was the highlight of it all. some celebrating is always good, the drugs are keeping me alive, and all the work is so i can have more moments like that with people like these.
nutella wontons aside, just for now, i wouldn't trade my people for anything.
Comments
Go Obama! :)))