We had a terrific but short w-e in Asheville. We met Miriam and Alex for dinner downtown Friday night since they were in town for a conference. We met up at our favorite Indian place, Mela, on Lexington Ave, where the curried prawn dish and chicken kebobs were just excellent.
Sat Holly and I did our Beaver lake run, drenched in sweat from the unusually warm April weather. We had planned to spread the wood chips/mulch that the tree guys had left us last week, but it was too warm after we finished all the mowing and other yardwork that needed to be done. Fortunately, the Asheville house only needs to be mowed every 2 weeks, and we can usually get to it easily in 45 mins or so. But neither of us is used to the heat yet, and we had made plans to meet up with friends for a chicken liver potluck at 5pm. We had concoted this elaborate schedule of meet ups and carpooling so that we could get 9 different people to Donna W's house w/o overloading her small driveway. Part of the goal was to save gas and see Jo's new condo, which turned out to be quite an open, sun-bathed place facing the mtns. It made me think of that T shirt I've seen a time or two in Asheville that says, "If you're lucky enough to live in the mtns, you're lucky enough." Jo is lucky for sure with that great view and light filled space right down from the VA hospital and I-40. She moved out of her Black Mtn, perched on the edge of the cliff, cabin and now lives where she can actually negotiate the roads if we have bad weather. Good move.
And yes, we really did go to a party where the main dish was fried chicken livers, Maggi, who is from Mississippi, and Donna W, who is from Arkansas, made them as well as Johnny cakes. Brought me back to childhood for sure. I don't like chicken livers, fried or otherwise, but I did try them again just to make sure. I liked the quiche alot, and the famous salad with homemade dressing that Donna Z was kind enough to make for me. Donna W let me have some of her sweet bubba plant (it suckers..), and we viewed the photos from their recent trip to the Swamp-lest anyone think that all we do is eat. It is almost true, of course, but we do try to canoe or hike or camp while we're out enjoying the food together.
Sunday Holly and I got that big mulch pile of wood chips spread in front of the driveway. Holly found a deal on small azaleas so we planted those near the rock wall. Voila, a new garden and less grass to mow.
Today (Monday) was one of those procedure days for me. This afternoon, I had my quarterly bone marrow biopsy & blood tests with Tanya and Dr Long at the bone marrow transplant clinic. I'll know those results in a few days, though my blood counts were fine. First thing in the morning, I had a colonoscopy and fortunately that came back normal too. We had returned from Asheville early on Sunday because I had to drink that liquid prep that cleans out your bowels. Happy to have all of that unpleasantness over for another 10 yrs. Yuck!
At the clinic today, everyone kept asking me how it is to be back at work. Well let me tell you, it is so nice to be back at work and to be preoccupied (or occupied) with the flow of the day and other people's problems. I feel like my cancer time was a kind of retirement preview. I got to experiment with my time to see what I'd enjoy doing but also got to return to all of the meaningful and rewarding aspects of my work. Unlike most people, I know how special it is to wake up and enjoy all the spring trees in bloom, how fortunate I am to work with good colleagues, and how unusual it is to have not one but two great communities of friends with whom to share good food & laughter. To that end, I've had my retirement "lite" but I'm thrilled to be able to work at something equally fun. We should all be so lucky!
Photos: the chicken liver dinner at Donna & Maggi's house
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