“Would you set the table, please?”

Yesterday, he says (in his normal voice), “Would you set the table please?”

He expects me to carry two plates from Elena’s kitchen to her dining room? And – two forks? And – two glasses? Not only am I now expected to go for a daily constitutional of not less than 1.5 miles (preferably 2-3), but, I will now be expected to start acting “normal”, and do something besides show off my shaved head and blog about it. This is the man willing to (literally) give his right arm for me – asking me to WORK. Has he forgotten that I am deathly ill, that I might, in fact, have to die???? No, he just wants me to have some balance in my days. And honestly, he can’t do everything.

I’ve been up since before 2 am. I have swept the downstairs of Elena’s house and washed the dishes. This has been the normal division of duties: Dave cooks, I clean. I’ve left shaking the rugs, washing the sticky kitchen floor and cleaning the bathroom for him and retreated to my computer to write about it, I don’t feel THAT good. Wednesday’s full night of rest must have been an anomaly, ’cause here I am again at 5 am on the computer.

I got the key from Elaine and stopped by our house in the afternoon. I wanted to see the inside and have time to “adjust my expectations” on what needs to be done when we are able to move in. Dave absolutely did not want to set foot in the house until the renters are out. He went to buy grape juice (good for me) and I saw what my house looks like – with a couple of single guys living there. They are our second renters in the year we’ve been gone. In part, because we’re generous and in part because we didn’t have time to get everything packed up, our renters (all have been young singles, fairly fresh out of college), have been using our pots, pans, lamps, ironing board, and even the afghan on the sofa. Our spice jars are still on the shelf, as is our antique kitchen scale. I had forgotten, how big of a mess we had left in our rush to get to India after the basement was done. In a moment of madness, we went ahead with plans to put a basement under our house in the six weeks before we left.

Putting a basement under our house

Madness. But – a place to store our stuff. So much stuff… And, we brought home more?

Last night over dinner with Mike and Cindy, we exchanged cancer stories with Jeannie and Gordon. Jeannie has been able to maintain a holding pattern with her inoperable tumor for several years. Dave teased the cat, he missed the two we left behind in Newton and the one we just left at Woodstock. He is looking for a car – and a job. Today, he will call the Wichita School District to see if their perennial ad for math teachers means anything right now. A job with a school would mean getting on a group health insurance plan – which would cover me too.

I would dearly love to go to Final Friday tonight – at least to a couple of galleries. It’s the monthly art gallery crawl in Wichita for which we were diehard regulars, visiting a broad spectrum of small galleries and introducing everyone we could drag along to the delights of, (among many others) Fiber Studio, Blank Page and finally Tangent Labs as the last stop before heading home close to midnight. Leroy says this weekend is Yoder Days. I would love to see his family, as well as the Amish buggy races (which we participated in two years ago).

We could go chasing trains like we used to, we know where to go in Wichita to find the parked boxcars. Haven’t seen an actual train in Newton yet, but will definitely post any good graffiti photos as soon as. we have thousands of train graffiti photos, these are from 2008 Biking Across Kansas.

BAK train graffiti

My second chemo will be on Monday, the 30th. This may be the best I feel for a while. I don’t, of course, want to over-do it, but… I will – definitely – need a nap this afternoon, just in case.

Art, Artist & Audience: Final Friday

When people ask me “how are you?”. They are often a bit uncomfortable, as am I. What to say? Thursday’s answer:”The sun is shining, it’s not too hot, my husband loves me. What more do I need today?” So, go ahead and ask. I need to be asked and I need to answer.

I hear a different kind of owl and step outside. There’s a faint lightening up of the sky in the east. It’s 5:30 am, but because of daylight savings time, the sun thinks its only 4:30.

Peace,
Cookie

PS Went back to bed at 7 am and slept until almost noon. No nap necessary. Will call for results of blood test to see how vulnerable I am to infection before deciding on Final Friday.