In the Right Place
I am so happy. I feel so lucky - fortunate - blessed - whatever the word you want to use - that we ended up here for this period in our lives.
So, whether my standing half-joke that my mother and brother were YELLING at me from the great beyond to MOVE YOUR FAMILY TO MINNESOTA is true; or whether we just got lucky enough to find a home a mere 81 miles from the pre-eminent research center for Multiple Myeloma, the Mayo Clinic, we're in a good place.
Last night as we were driving home from my book signing at the Textile Center, we took a little detour so we could scoot past downtown and just enjoy the skyline. It was good for both of us.
I could tell that Gerry felt calmer & happier than he has in a long time (well, we had the dog with us) We enjoyed our busy, busy day yesterday!
BTW, I didn't take this great photo, but it's what we saw last night. Catch some other cool images of the Twin Cities from this photographer here!
THIRTEEN MILLION
Gerry was getting a bit of a swelled head with his monumental collections of stem cells, so on Thursday the stem cell gods had to take him down a peg.
Mayo was only able to collect enough cells to bring him up to 10.8 million, so we had to go in again on Friday.
It was a bummer to him that he had to get back in that bed and lay for 5 hours, but at least he got to see the end of Stranger Than Fiction and now we're WAY over the hoped-for goal of 12 million cells.
We are the proud owners of 13,110,000 cells. Life is good. Now we have plenty for future stem cell transplants if/when that need arises.
MARATHON SPRINT
Yesterday was so busy - we were up a little after 5:00, to the hospital at 7:00 for cell collection, me off to mail a package & run some errands.
When Gerry was finished around 1:00 we hugged all the nurses, I passed out some books and signed them (so many of nurses knit!) and we hopped in the car and drove up to pick up Atticus
(WHAT a happy doggie he was - he was very happy and healthy and we feel more balanced to have him here!)
Then we continued up to St. Paul to drop the doggie off to be groomed, drop Gerry off at the house to check mail and look over some stuff, and I rushed over to get my hair cut (and I was only 5 minutes late!)
After the haircut - thank you Meghan! - I rushed back to pick up Gerry, then ran over to pick up Atticus (they were still working on him so I took 5 minutes to put on my makeup) and THEN I defeated the laws of physics by making it from Ford Parkway up to the Textile center in 18 minutes WITHOUT speeding. Touch me.
It was a blast to have Gerry AND Atticus with me for my book-signing talk. Gerry'd never heard me do my "thing" before - neither had Atticus - so it was a little nerve wracking (in a good way!)
Gerry got to see my private pre-teaching / lecturing ritual where I sit in a car with the air conditioner on FULL BLAST to lower my core body temp. No matter WHERE I am, when I'm up in front of people the room is hot, I'm hot and this somehow helps me not turn bright red within the first 5 minutes. Well, that and my green concealer...
It's always a delight to meet knitters, even more special to meet folks in person with whom I've been corresponding. The icing on the cake is meeting folks who are now part of my physical community - what a joy - and how great to have Gerry there, too!
OFF THE CUFF
Perhaps because it's been a few months since I've done a simple lecture, or perhaps because I was given very free rein last night (it was a fundraiser, so I was pretty much able to talk about whatever I wanted to!) I think I was a little ramblier than usual.
My talk was well received, folks laughed and I used the poor guy in the front row (husband of a knitter) as a foil for a lot of jokes. He took it very well, he was a mensch. He laughed a lot, which made me feel exceptionally happy because sometimes I'm afraid a lot of my humorous stuff may be too knitter-specific.
But, even though I scooted around my topic from 14 different directions, I came out at the right place. There's a formula, famously riduculed in Crimes & Misdemeanors; Tragedy + Time = Comedy.
I realized last night that the point of my whole teaching - my whole knitting - career is this formula: Mistakes + Grace = Wisdom.
It's nice when I get something from my lectures, too!
FIBER + WORK = TEXTILE
I cannot say enough nice things about the Textile Center.
First and foremost, when Jennie took me there on my tour of the Twin Cities last April, I realized, "I want to live in a place that has a center like this!" How great to have a location for the guilds to meet, for classes to happen, for exhibits and - best of all - for a LIBRARY of all those books you'd love to look at, but can never seem to find!
I love the Textile Center, and I was so proud to be able to do something for the library to help them raise funds!
But when we got back to Rochester we were TIRED. Just absolutely bushed! What a full day!
TODAY
Today we're taking it easy. We actually have to make it back up to the Twin Cities at some point this weekend to pick up books that I neglected to pack in the car yesterday, and to drop off copies of THE LETTER from the city of St. Paul to the previous home owners (I really hope we can just work this out between ourselves - that would be the best, cheapest, easiest and least anxiety filled way to do so!)
They live sort of near us, so we're hoping for an easy and intelligent resolution. It's a real shocker, though, to get a letter stating that our house may be 'red tagged' in 30 days - which, incidentally, would correspond with Gerry's homecoming!
I took Atticus out for a walk this morning, we finally went up into the park behind St. Mary's (it's as much of an oasis as I'd hoped it would be - and me without my camera!) He looks thin, but healthy. We'll fatten him up a bit! Now all we're missing is the kids...
MAYO
We got a funny email from the family that's watching Max right now - here's what it said;
HERETIC
So, whether my standing half-joke that my mother and brother were YELLING at me from the great beyond to MOVE YOUR FAMILY TO MINNESOTA is true; or whether we just got lucky enough to find a home a mere 81 miles from the pre-eminent research center for Multiple Myeloma, the Mayo Clinic, we're in a good place.
Last night as we were driving home from my book signing at the Textile Center, we took a little detour so we could scoot past downtown and just enjoy the skyline. It was good for both of us.I could tell that Gerry felt calmer & happier than he has in a long time (well, we had the dog with us) We enjoyed our busy, busy day yesterday!
BTW, I didn't take this great photo, but it's what we saw last night. Catch some other cool images of the Twin Cities from this photographer here!
THIRTEEN MILLION
Gerry was getting a bit of a swelled head with his monumental collections of stem cells, so on Thursday the stem cell gods had to take him down a peg.Mayo was only able to collect enough cells to bring him up to 10.8 million, so we had to go in again on Friday.
It was a bummer to him that he had to get back in that bed and lay for 5 hours, but at least he got to see the end of Stranger Than Fiction and now we're WAY over the hoped-for goal of 12 million cells.
We are the proud owners of 13,110,000 cells. Life is good. Now we have plenty for future stem cell transplants if/when that need arises.
MARATHON SPRINT
Yesterday was so busy - we were up a little after 5:00, to the hospital at 7:00 for cell collection, me off to mail a package & run some errands.
When Gerry was finished around 1:00 we hugged all the nurses, I passed out some books and signed them (so many of nurses knit!) and we hopped in the car and drove up to pick up Atticus
(WHAT a happy doggie he was - he was very happy and healthy and we feel more balanced to have him here!)
Then we continued up to St. Paul to drop the doggie off to be groomed, drop Gerry off at the house to check mail and look over some stuff, and I rushed over to get my hair cut (and I was only 5 minutes late!)
After the haircut - thank you Meghan! - I rushed back to pick up Gerry, then ran over to pick up Atticus (they were still working on him so I took 5 minutes to put on my makeup) and THEN I defeated the laws of physics by making it from Ford Parkway up to the Textile center in 18 minutes WITHOUT speeding. Touch me.It was a blast to have Gerry AND Atticus with me for my book-signing talk. Gerry'd never heard me do my "thing" before - neither had Atticus - so it was a little nerve wracking (in a good way!)
Gerry got to see my private pre-teaching / lecturing ritual where I sit in a car with the air conditioner on FULL BLAST to lower my core body temp. No matter WHERE I am, when I'm up in front of people the room is hot, I'm hot and this somehow helps me not turn bright red within the first 5 minutes. Well, that and my green concealer...
It's always a delight to meet knitters, even more special to meet folks in person with whom I've been corresponding. The icing on the cake is meeting folks who are now part of my physical community - what a joy - and how great to have Gerry there, too!
OFF THE CUFF
Perhaps because it's been a few months since I've done a simple lecture, or perhaps because I was given very free rein last night (it was a fundraiser, so I was pretty much able to talk about whatever I wanted to!) I think I was a little ramblier than usual.
My talk was well received, folks laughed and I used the poor guy in the front row (husband of a knitter) as a foil for a lot of jokes. He took it very well, he was a mensch. He laughed a lot, which made me feel exceptionally happy because sometimes I'm afraid a lot of my humorous stuff may be too knitter-specific.
But, even though I scooted around my topic from 14 different directions, I came out at the right place. There's a formula, famously riduculed in Crimes & Misdemeanors; Tragedy + Time = Comedy.
I realized last night that the point of my whole teaching - my whole knitting - career is this formula: Mistakes + Grace = Wisdom.
It's nice when I get something from my lectures, too!
FIBER + WORK = TEXTILE
I cannot say enough nice things about the Textile Center.
First and foremost, when Jennie took me there on my tour of the Twin Cities last April, I realized, "I want to live in a place that has a center like this!" How great to have a location for the guilds to meet, for classes to happen, for exhibits and - best of all - for a LIBRARY of all those books you'd love to look at, but can never seem to find!
I love the Textile Center, and I was so proud to be able to do something for the library to help them raise funds!
But when we got back to Rochester we were TIRED. Just absolutely bushed! What a full day!
TODAY
Today we're taking it easy. We actually have to make it back up to the Twin Cities at some point this weekend to pick up books that I neglected to pack in the car yesterday, and to drop off copies of THE LETTER from the city of St. Paul to the previous home owners (I really hope we can just work this out between ourselves - that would be the best, cheapest, easiest and least anxiety filled way to do so!)
They live sort of near us, so we're hoping for an easy and intelligent resolution. It's a real shocker, though, to get a letter stating that our house may be 'red tagged' in 30 days - which, incidentally, would correspond with Gerry's homecoming!
I took Atticus out for a walk this morning, we finally went up into the park behind St. Mary's (it's as much of an oasis as I'd hoped it would be - and me without my camera!) He looks thin, but healthy. We'll fatten him up a bit! Now all we're missing is the kids...
MAYO
We got a funny email from the family that's watching Max right now - here's what it said;
After I put Max to bed last night with his head covered in mayonnaise, John pointed out that he and his Dad were both at the "Mayo" clinic!Gerry and I laughed and laughed. I hope Max is laughing, too!
HERETIC
And here's something for the heretical amongst us.
While we were waiting for our What To Expect While You're Getting Chemo info session at Methodist / Eisenberg, we were put in a room where the chemo chair faces this framed print of Jesus. So, having Hebrew School for the kids on our minds, we gave Jesus a "Bar Mitzvah Boy" Makeover with the help of a little tape, yarn, paper & scissors;
We removed all evidence before we left...
While we were waiting for our What To Expect While You're Getting Chemo info session at Methodist / Eisenberg, we were put in a room where the chemo chair faces this framed print of Jesus. So, having Hebrew School for the kids on our minds, we gave Jesus a "Bar Mitzvah Boy" Makeover with the help of a little tape, yarn, paper & scissors;
We removed all evidence before we left...
19 Comments:
Annie - so glad to hear that Gerry got more than enough cells. Enjoy these end-of-summer days. I'm so glad you have your dog with you. Animals add so much to life.
Thank-you for feeding knitting to the nurses. It's what we really need.
You're one of my knitting gurus and I send you every blessing and prayer.
I just love to read your blog and still living with my thoughts with you all and i'm glad that you had such a great although tired day and how i do hope that all those harvesting will do it's job and that gerry will be fine.
Take care and you're in my thoughts.
That's great that Gerry has more than enough stem cells. I'm glad that Atticus is back with you. After all, our animals are part of the family!
Have a great weekend.
Heh :) I don't think Jesus would mind. He was a good Jewish boy, after all!
Annie - What a great post!
Ok - I gotta know. What is the green concealer you use?
Susan
(another red faced red head)
I love the Jesus "tagging" -- perfect for all us heretics out here!
Good luck with the transplant!
Susan,
Here's the concealer I use
Regarding your "Bar Mizvah Boy" Makeover, as a Catholic priest said when told his niece was marrying a Jew, "Well, Jesus was a Jew."
I totally agree that things happen for a reason, and that you just might have gotten a push from the great beyond to move to Minnesota. Getting a chill just thinking about it! Why else would you pick Minnesota out of nowhere (except nice cold weather to wear all your sweaters) from NJ!?
Glad Gerry is doing better as well, and got lots of cells.
I loved your thoughtful accessory for Jesus; it made me smile....and I suspect Jesus got a giggle out of it as well! :) I'm so glad Minnesota is the right place for your family. We are blessed to have your bright energy here.
I meant to comment about the L word yesterday and forgot. As a hairdresser, I have to advise, that even if the head is shaved, the scalp would still need to be treated, along with all the bed linens, clothing, etc. Nix is about the easiest to use product on the market. And in my professional opinion, you would be best to trat everyone in the exposed house the same day, and then again seven days later, even if there are no visible signs. L can be a challenge to eradicate and Hannah with her long locks will liekly have a hard go of it. If I were her parent, I would treat her a third time again seven days later.
Good luck Annie!
Annie, I think you crossed the line with publishing your image of "Bar Mitzvah Boy, Jesus". I am a devout Christian and take offense at this. It might seem "cute" to you but it is not.
I don't think I'll be reading your blog anymore.
Hi, Annie. I love your blog, your amazing emotional strength in the face of adversity and the ability to turn even the most difficult challenges into emotional growth -all while keeping your wonderful sense of humor.
As others have said, Jesus was indeed Jewish (and who knows, may have even had a Bar Mitzvah). Beyond that, whatever religious beliefs anyone may have re Christianity, my belief is that He was a compassionate and loving soul with a gentle sense of humor.
Leslie
Love the kippah!
I'm totally cool with your Jesus, except that the image is known as "The Warner Jesus" and it's copyrighted. Careful, Annie -- just sayin' as one artist to another.
I think Jesus would've used a different color for his kippah. ;-) Blue, maybe?
I'm a devout Christian, and I think it's awesome. Jesus was a Jew, and he probably had a Bar Mitzvah, though he was teaching in the Temple as a child. I'm sure the whole Bar Mitzvah experience was interesting for everyone. It's good for all of us to remember that our faiths often intersect and that humor helps with that.
Keep laughing--it'll get you all through this. :-)
I thought I was the only one who did the car AC ritual! Especially in the summer, when I'm running to work before a lecture, I really need that extra cooling down to keep from being blotchy red (and sweaty!) through my whole class. Ah, yes, the joys of fair-skinned-ness (as a total aside, I found your blog when your kids were models for your sweaters in IK, and I was floored to see that Hannah's smile looked a lot like I did when I was young; it's always strange to me to see someone who bears any resemblance to me, since I was adopted and look nothing like my parents!).
Thanks for the snortgiggle I got from the picture at the end, btw :) And congrats on the harvest -- we always knew Gerry was a winner!
Hello!
Wow, touchy people out there. I'm a seminary student, which pretty much means Christian nerd to the max. :)
I chuckled to myself because you're NOT being heretical, but historically anachronistic (yarmulkes didn't happen until later). He probably had a bar-mitzvah--not the flashy party kind of today, but a ceremony of some sort.
FYI, Catherine & anyone else thinking of taking offense, it's more heretical to claim that that particular picture is Jesus (and yet people do!). No one even tried depicting Jesus until 200+ AD--kind of hard to get a portrait from people who never saw his face!
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