Just back from Myrtle Beach and though I had a great time in both Europe and at the beach, I'm happy to be staying put for a little while. It helps when making vacation plans to figure out both when you go and come back from trips. Last Sunday (10 days ago) after landing from Paris the night before and deciding that I wasn't in fact going to services for Yom Kippur, I realized I was leaving for Myrtle Beach in less than a week.
Visiting with Tal & Paul was fun, if not filled with sun-drenched days. It rained on Monday and was cloudy Tuesday but the hanging out and relaxing time was terrific. We sat around, they cooked and we did go see a local garden that had a lovely collection of sculpture, beautiful flowers, butterflies and some of the most amazing Oak trees you could imagine. They also have a zoo and some animals, that we didn't get to see too much of. Lots of good food, some sun time and shopping - I'm not sure I could ask for much more in terms of R&R.
I also felt less guilty about not being more active. It was harder being kind of a slug in Europe. The trip to Brussels was fun, though I'm not sure I really needed to go via Paris. There was a car holiday going on (no cars allowed downtown) on Sunday and it was interesting to see everyone out. I puttered around, ate waffles, tons of chocolate and ridiculous amount of shellfish at the Belga Queen. The conference on Tuesday was interesting and people seemed to like my presentation. I even got to drink some sparkling wine at lunch.
I was then off to Berlin to see Andres and Jose, Berlin was terrific in an industrial kind of way. We wandered around, saw lots of new art and generally hung out. Andres was subletting an apartment in the old East Berlin, concrete square, not much decoration on the walls and it was somehow appropriate when the electricity went out. Also probably fitting that the hot water went out afterward, but it was more exciting when the shower worked again the following day.
Berlin definitely seems like a city I'd want to go back to and have more time and energy to poke around. I then went to Paris for 24 hours which was great if short. I ate foie gras (twice), had a kir royale and enjoyed wandering around. Though the Musee d'Orsay was less exciting for me now than the last time I was there. I was somewhat pooped, my feet hurt and was actually pretty happy to be heading home.
I also managed to get a cold on the flight back, but it hasn't been terrible. I was sneezy and then coughing - and I'm guessing those around me this past week weren't totally thrilled but it was reassuring to have a cold and be okay. My immune system seems to be working and I'm optimistic that the cough won't last a good two months. I'm taking these all to be good omens. I did also start taking tamoxifen last week and knock wood that has been without side effects thus far.
In other news, its been about a year since I was first diagnosed. I'm sad I'm still dealing with things, and did totally breakdown when having a mammogram on Wednesday. Not really sure why I need to keep getting tests that have shown themselves to be ineffective. I really didn't like being in the space, partly because the last time I was there I was getting fitted with a wire before the first lumpectomy. I kept thinking that if that had worked, I'd be done now and moving on with my life.
Instead, I'm going to need to start reconstruction and not totally happy about it. It will be fine and I'm optimistic that this coming year will be better than the last but I still would rather be done. Otherwise, I need to clean up and organize the random stuff that seems to be all over the place both at work and home. And there is a stack of projects I need to finish.
Sorry, I've been so AWOL - in part this is a good sign - I post less when I have other things going on. But it also is related to my caving and going on facebook. Updating in multiple places, apparently is hard, and typing on my iphone seems more conducive to posts that are supposed to be short. I'd hate to imagine what my reliability would be if I started twittering too.
Thank you all for your support through this past year. I promise to try and write more regularly now that both my laptop and arms seem to work.
Kim
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