Conversations with Esther, January 3 - January 9

Monday Jan. 3
Mickey says to savor each days as they come up.  Many days are very good, and you can accomplish a lot.  Some are much harder, but I'm glad for the struggles too, not just the good stuff.  For example, I used to keep my jacket on all the time, even when it was hot, because I knew how hard it would be to put it on again. But now I just take it off when I get hot, or if it's inconvenient to what I'm doing, and then put it back on later.  Same way with the cell phone.  Mickey got me a new one, a little different than the one I had before because it takes headphones instead of bluetooth.  But I've learned how to use it.  And same with the Nano, I had problems, but I can listen to my books.


Tuesday Jan. 4
Dr. Johnson says chemo will continue for now, until I see him on Monday the 17th, when my chemo week is done.


Sleepy day yesterday, probably because I stayed up late talking with Mickey, I don't think it's good to get too tied into a schedule. Usually Mickey and I play a game, but not always.  Last night we talked about when we heard the news of the major assassinations, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King.  Mickey and I remember the Robert Kennedy assassination differently.  I thought Mickey told me the news by the washing machine, but Mickey thinks I was sleeping.  I remember they sent kids home from school and cancelled TV programs when President Kennedy was shot.


I'll get my visitor from the temple today.  We just talk, sometimes about me, sometimes about her, and that makes it interesting.  She doesn't have a job, but she does a lot of volunteer stuff for the temple. She says that once they know you're available, they start calling you for all sorts of stuff.


She has two sons, one at Davis, another going to school in the Mid-west.  The one in the Mid-West went all the way down to the tip of South America last year, and for his summer vacation this year he's going to bicycle across the U.S., collecting money for disabled children. When I hear stuff like that, I think how wonderful it is to have the money the money to afford to do stuff like that.  I don't envy people who fly off to ski resorts, but that kid seems like he has a great life.


Wednesday Jan. 5
My tongue feels much better.  When I see Dr. Johnson on the 17th he'll talk to me about a lot of numbers that I won't really understand, but I'll get the general drift, improving or not.


Thursday Jan 6
Pearlita is taking the bandages off my legs tomorrow.  I'm feeling much better, so I expect good news.


Tomorrow is also the current events group, and I wonder what we're going to talk about.  Perhaps the Pollard case, although I don't really think there's much chance he'll be pardoned.  Saw something interesting in the paper last Sunday.  Uncle Sam was visiting a fortune teller, who was gazing into her crystal ball.  The fortune teller said I could tell you about your future, except I can't read Chinese.  They say stuff like that over and again in the current events group.  But for all that, the dollar remains strong, it's still the currency of international trade.


Friday, January 7
Pearlita took of my bandages, and just like I expected my legs are much better.  I don't think they're not swollen any more, I must have lost a lot of water because of the treatment


Saturday, January 8 
My other visitor Denise comes today.  We usually just talk, which is OK because our interests are similar.  Some of our problems are the same too, like with her Nano.  She works at a school for the learning disabled, teaching life skills like how to go to the store, how to clean up your kitchen.  She's been doing this for 10 years, but this is her first year at that school.  She has a daughter who works in the prison system, doing intake on new prisoners.


Sunday January 9
Mickey said I should go out once a day.  I usually go out once a day, and we usually do.  Today we're going to Target, and I'm hoping to get some self-adhesive tape to fix the curtains on the picture window in the living room.  Mickey's going to get some clothes.


Yesterday for lunch all I had to do was just take out the meal Pearlita had made for me and heat it up in the microwave. But last passover, when I just got home from Tiffany Court and I was really weak, I had a craving for fried matzoh. It was a lot of work, I grated the onion & did everything else and made it for myself.  I haven't cooked as much since.