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I Won! I Won!

The gods are surely smiling down on me. I've just learned that I am again a winner in one of Marvo's Marvelous Sweepstakes! This time I have won, and I quote, "a month's supply of something." (Oh please oh please oh please let it be premium vodka!) I'll let you know when I receive my bounty.

And they say lightning never strikes twice!

The Quick Brown Fox

I just might be the fastest typist in the blogosphere. I scored 97 wpm, and that's with nearly all the errors caused solely by the keys that are still a little sticky from a renegade splash of limoncello the other night....

Some Other Guys Who Died

Something to think about today, courtesy of Salon's Tim Grieve:

When we turned on the television this morning, we saw another round of stories about the Sago mine disaster. It's a big, gripping news story, and we can understand why the networks have thrown so many resources at it.

That said, we couldn't help noticing something this morning. Twelve miners were killed in West Virginia this week. Eleven U.S. troops were killed in Iraq Thursday. Will we see long TV interviews with each and every one of the troops' family members? Live press conferences in which the officials responsible are grilled for answers? Touching reports on their last letters home? Updates from doctors reporting on the condition of soldiers who managed to survive?

We all know who Randal McCloy is. Can anyone name a soldier who was injured in Iraq this week?

We don't mean to take anything away from the importance of what happened in West Virginia. Still, we think it's fair to ask: If the media started covering the deaths of Americans in Iraq like it covered the deaths of Americans in West Virginia, how much longer would the public tolerate the president's war?

Book Group

We met at Claire's on Wednesday to discuss journalist Alma Guillermoprieto's memoir, Dancing with Cuba. She wrote the book some thirty years after spending six months in Cuba teaching modern dance at the state-run school there. I was grateful for the opportunity to learn about the history of the revolution in Cuba; of course I know about Che and Fidel, but this memoir comes from someone who was there when it was just getting started (albeit as an outsider—she's Mexican, but she'd lived most of her life in the U.S.). Of course, being a memoir and not a history textbook, the revolution is presented through the prism of her own experience there—or, more importantly perhaps, through the prism of her memories of her experience there. I loved this passage from the prologue:

With nothing to go on but this fistful of tatters [a few letters, a notebook, a few mementos from her students], it would be absurd to claim that the following pages are a reliable historical account of the events that took place in my life during those six months. Yet this is not a novel. It is a faithful transcription of my memories, some of them hazy, others riddled with holes left by the passage of the years, others patched up by time and the filters of experience and distance, and still others, no doubt, completely invented by the stubborn narrator we all have within us, who wants things to be the way they sound best to us now, and not the way they were.

I had some complaints with the book: I didn't understand exactly how and when she got swept up in the revolution; I never fully accepted how she could accept the revolution and be an artist; I expected some outrage at the inequities that already existed in that burgeoning socialist nation. But, for the most part, it was an eye-opening book and in some ways a remarkable story of a very brief but important time in a young woman's life, when she went through both a radical political awakening and also a realization that dance could never constitute her whole existence as she'd thought.

Next up is Francine Prose's latest novel, A Changed Man.

Friday iPod Random Ten

1. Gangsters - The Specials
2. Tripe Face Boogie (live) - Little Feat
3. Lanterns on the Levee - Kate Campbell
4. Bad Love - Eric Clapton
5. Seamless Life - Vance Gilbert
6. Kodachrome - Paul Simon
7. Gulf Coast Highway - Emmylou Harris & Willie Nelson
8. Can't Let Go (live) - Lucinda Williams
9. I Wish It Would Rain - Nanci Griffith
10. Rebel Music - Bob Marley & The Wailers

Friday's Feast

Appetizer: Have you ever seen a ghost or an angel?
No.

Soup: What is your favorite board game?
Oh, please don't make me pick! Lately I'm heavy into Sorry, but that may be because it's all I get to play these days. I can rarely scare up a good Scrabble game anymore.

Salad: What was the last movie you saw that made you cry?
I cry at most movies. I might have gotten a little teary-eyed at the end of "Dirty Pretty Things."

Main Course: What would you do if you had 3 months off from your job?
Not applicable for this stay-home mom.

Dessert: What kind of shoes are you wearing today?
First I took the kids to school and ran a few errands in my snow boots. Then I had to go to a funeral,* so I wore my boots to the cemetery for the service and then changed into my cute little pink flats to go back to the house. Now I'm wearing furry slippers.

*Our friend Steve, who lost his dad a little over a year ago, just lost his mom to ALS, the worst of all diseases.

Counting Our Blessings

Yesterday was a day that found lots of people in our family weeping with joy and relief. I have to back up a bit to tell you why. A few weeks ago Andy went for his yearly physical and learned that his PSA was higher than expected. This had happened a few years ago and he got checked out by a urologist, so he made an appointment to go back there. Our internist's feeling is that although the PSA test is not the most reliable of indicators, it's all that's currently available, so it's wise to pay attention to it. Also, Andy's biological father had prostate cancer, which pretty much doubles his chance of getting it.

Well, the urologist did not like what he saw felt, so he scheduled Andy for a biopsy ten days later. This was the first time we'd ever even considered the word biopsy with regard to someone in our family, so we really went into shock a little bit. It's quite an invasive procedure, so it's not something that's recommended lightly. The procedure itself was extremely unpleasant and uncomfortable (I know that all my male readers are wincing and squirming right now), not to mention the heavy-duty antibiotics he took the day before, of, and after, which thoroughly nauseated him. Then came the worst part: waiting for the results, which were expected to take "about a week." Whatever that means. So that was last Tuesday, and when Andy called Friday and was told the results weren't back, we knew were in for a very long weekend indeed. Then this past Tuesday, we had fully geared ourselves up for the results, only to learn that the pathology office was backed up from the holiday weekend, so we got to have yet another night of fitful sleep. Finally, yesterday, Andy got the word that he is OK. Completely clear. Cancer-free. He made the doctor say it over and over again just to be sure. They took 12 different samples, and all came back negative, with no qualifications.

It's hard to explain the gamut of emotions we've all been experiencing these last few weeks. There were days when I actually practiced saying aloud, "Well, my husband was just diagnosed with cancer, so...." I tried to focus solely on the good parts: He's young (46), he's in (otherwise) great health, this was likely early detection, Boston has world-class medical care, etc. I didn't really let myself entertain the idea that he was fine; all I kept thinking was that he's high-risk and that his manual exam had turned up physical abnormalities in addition to the high PSA, which could only mean one thing. What a wonderful feeling to be wrong!

So we're feeling very much like we dodged a bullet, and really still taking some time to process all the different emotions and thoughts that were swirling around. I find that I want to just stop people on the street and say, "Hey, my husband doesn't have cancer!" I guess that's what I'm doing right here.

Four You

This meme came to me by way of Pam.

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: vegetable washer at a farm, waitress, camp counselor, "Kelly Girl" (temporary secretary)

Four movies you could watch over and over: Jaws, My Neighbor Totoro, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, The Sting

Four places you’ve lived: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, London

Four TV shows you love to watch: The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Sex in and the City, Deadwood (You will note that these are all HBO shows; we don't have HBO so we watch 'em on DVD.)

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Spain, England, Italy, Costa Rica

Four websites you visit daily: Bloglines, SET puzzle, CooksTalk, Web Sudoku

Four of your favorite foods: dark chocolate, cashews, potato chips, most medium-hard cheeses

Four places you’d rather be right this minute: on a massage table, in a luxury hotel suite, in a first-class airline seat headed somewhere wonderful, back in bed

Four albums you can’t live without: John Prine, Souvenirs; John Hiatt, Stolen Moments; Martin Sexton, Black Sheep; Peter Keane, Walkin' Around

Four to pass this meme along to: Mark, Leah, Scott, Chris 

It Better Snow!

Huh? The roads are black. It's 37° and raining. Lauren says we're supposed to have a storm this afternoon, and they want to avoid a dangerous after-school situation like last time. So, we'll have yet another day of vacation. Home with three kids. Sigh.

Movies

Two thumbs up on both of these:

"Dirty Pretty Things" - This was a terrific little movie about the huge contingent of forgotten people in every major city: the illegal aliens who do all the menial jobs for cash under the table. It's also a very clever thriller—no real violence but a rather grisly premise—that keeps the suspense level high. Audrey Tautou is wonderful as always, but Chiwetel Ejiofor in the lead role stole the show.

"Nine Queens" - Andy and I love-love-love grifter movies. It's such fun to try to figure out who's grifting who, and this movie really keeps you guessing. The acting and script were good enough that it wasn't obvious what was going on, although I pretty much had pieced it together by the end.

Timing Is Everything

Last year Hanukkah came very early, right after Thanksgiving, so it was over before Stephanie's eighth birthday (December 21). This year it came extra-late, so she had already turned 9 before it started. So she never got to have Hanukkah as an eight-year-old! Isn't that strange?!

Uncle Kenny once said, "Why are the Jewish holidays always early or late? We're always saying, 'Hanukkah is so early this year' or 'The High Holidays come awfully late this year' but we never say 'Gee, Passover is right on schedule this year!'" He's right. It's because of the lunar calendar, obviously, but it's still funny to think about.

2006!

Happy New Year, and Happy Last Night of Hanukkah, all rolled into one! I think the kids were very happy with their gifts, and I don't think I went too overboard on them. The mini Tamagotchis were a total bust, so I will be returning them. Otherwise, we've got three happy campers.

Last night I slept better than I expected and woke up still red but less bumpy. The rash appears to be gravity-fed: It never was on my face, this morning my shoulders and upper back were clear, and now it's mostly my legs and ankles that are afflicted.

Today we went to Rebecca and Mihai's for brunch and then just hung around, which was fine with me. They're predicting snow for tomorrow night; if school is cancelled on Tuesday, someone's going to pay!