Hello Fellow Travelers!
I hope everybody across the world found something to be thankful for this particular Thanksgiving assuming you are with loved ones and are still above ground. I'm thankful that Patient Spouse can understand me (even if he's quite possibly the only person on the planet who can.) Thanksgiving used to be a mixed bag if I thought about it too hard! Why a turkey? Why is the food all off-white?
My mother-in-law spoiled me (Your Fearless Traveler), her son,(Patient Spouse), and our thirteen year old son (her grandson).My sister-in-law, Denise, and her wonderful men hosted Thanksgiving! Which was awesome! Regular readers of the Rant know that I'm pretty thankful to be able show up any place these days.
One of the greatest gifts I ever received was one from my sister-in-law, Francesca, And, it was totally by accident! Like in 2000 when I was in this awful hospital, waiting for them to prep an operating room in a hospital they grabbed poor Fran! She held my hand until the room was ready! In a hospital! The only place I'm aware of where operating rooms are fairly common, no? Well not at THIS hospital! They even had ER waiting rooms! I was out in the friggin' hallway! Waiting! With Francesca!
One of the things nobody warns you about following cancer treatment is the "Seabiscuit" effect: Your vision is really messed up. Nothing as simple as correcting. Everything is floating and spinning. Applying makeup by myself to myself has become unmanageable. Lipstick? Impossible. (Remember in "Seabiscuit" the wise trainer, played wisely by Chris Cooper, snarling about jockey Red (played by Tobey Maguire, "He's blind in one eye!"), Patient Spouse does his best to help me deal with my makeup. In spite of repeated chemotherapy and radiation treatments that caused irreversible loss, my hair simply refused to give up the ghost and continues to thrive unabated.
When you are legally blind someone else deals with your hair and make up. And like everything else, all amusements cease to be amusing when just being awake is painful. But I digress: Thursday, Patient Spouse and I were in San Bruno at my mother-in-law's. Patient Spouse was attempting to insert five giant hot rollers into my unruly hair! Fran Poked her head in to say "Hello!" and she sets aside an entire day of mini blind issues to train me and Patient Spouse on how to "do" hair. Fran borrowed a pair of tiny scissors from Rose and she proceeded to go Edward Scissorhands on my ass! She has mad skills! It was a Christmas miracle! It was a Thanksgiving miracle. It was a bleedin' miracle! OK?
Francesca has many talents that she has honed to fine points, if she's really good at something, she has a tool-belt and/or kit. Francesca's makeup skills are epic, her mastery of hair is just that masterful. Fran's skill with hair is nothing short of surgical. She has her hair done by a salon owner who's one of her best friends once every two weeks. Francesca knows hair. My hair (big deal) is the proverbial Timex Watch of body parts, it will pretty much do anything you want it to and you know what happened? The most amazing thing in almost three years! I saw myself in the mirror and I sort of recognized that person and I was so glad to see her again, I was just so relieved I was alive! THAT'S WHAT I SAW!!!
Needless to say, for both hair and cosmetics, Fran has all kinds of gizmos, tools, kits, bags, samples, doodads, thingamajigs. (See? Who else born before 1980 is going to throw out "Doodads"? It's gold I tell you comedy gold!) Girlfriend hooked me up! Put another way: I stopped avoiding mirrors, and was finally able to take a little comfort in my daily sojourns to the gym and my Bataan death marches. Well, fo
r one night anyway. Being blind, immobilized and unable to speak has made me profoundly grateful for kindnesses especially when they work out so well.
I watched "Homeland" with Patient Spouse last night, (his show, not mine, I think it's hilarious! The best spoof of this show is SNL last year with Anne Hathaway, but only if you don't think that pretend CIA drama is compelling and entertaining and not stressful, pointless and ridiculous (not to mention everyone on the program looks like they really need or just had brain trauma! Or a shower. Or both.)
What has had me really taking a long hard, look at "Homeland" is one of the characters: In spite of how horrible I feel and how impaired I continue to be, I have every expectation I will be walking. If everything happens for a reason and all my priorities are different and clear since 2011, a new and disturbing possibility has been nipping at my heels. But, just having "me","recovered", in the same sentence as 2014 is a huge milestone and I'll be forever grateful to Francesca. So if I eventually discover I'm part of some "sleeper" cell, that would explain a lot (hey, stranger things have happened! The last one was Brain Cancer! Really!!)
Being empowered to look in the mirror instead of avoiding them like a vampire, I thank Franny for that power. It's more important than you think too! It means the world to me. I will improve. I keep telling you guys - it's all about setting the bar low and keeping it there!
BTW- You know who else looks amazing? After chemo? Mike & Mary's "boy", Boomer!
Francesca has many talents that she has honed to fine points, if she's really good at something, she has a tool-belt and/or kit. Francesca's makeup skills are epic, her mastery of hair is just that masterful. Fran's skill with hair is nothing short of surgical. She has her hair done by a salon owner who's one of her best friends once every two weeks. Francesca knows hair. My hair (big deal) is the proverbial Timex Watch of body parts, it will pretty much do anything you want it to and you know what happened? The most amazing thing in almost three years! I saw myself in the mirror and I sort of recognized that person and I was so glad to see her again, I was just so relieved I was alive! THAT'S WHAT I SAW!!!
Needless to say, for both hair and cosmetics, Fran has all kinds of gizmos, tools, kits, bags, samples, doodads, thingamajigs. (See? Who else born before 1980 is going to throw out "Doodads"? It's gold I tell you comedy gold!) Girlfriend hooked me up! Put another way: I stopped avoiding mirrors, and was finally able to take a little comfort in my daily sojourns to the gym and my Bataan death marches. Well, fo
r one night anyway. Being blind, immobilized and unable to speak has made me profoundly grateful for kindnesses especially when they work out so well.
I watched "Homeland" with Patient Spouse last night, (his show, not mine, I think it's hilarious! The best spoof of this show is SNL last year with Anne Hathaway, but only if you don't think that pretend CIA drama is compelling and entertaining and not stressful, pointless and ridiculous (not to mention everyone on the program looks like they really need or just had brain trauma! Or a shower. Or both.)
What has had me really taking a long hard, look at "Homeland" is one of the characters: In spite of how horrible I feel and how impaired I continue to be, I have every expectation I will be walking. If everything happens for a reason and all my priorities are different and clear since 2011, a new and disturbing possibility has been nipping at my heels. But, just having "me","recovered", in the same sentence as 2014 is a huge milestone and I'll be forever grateful to Francesca. So if I eventually discover I'm part of some "sleeper" cell, that would explain a lot (hey, stranger things have happened! The last one was Brain Cancer! Really!!)
Being empowered to look in the mirror instead of avoiding them like a vampire, I thank Franny for that power. It's more important than you think too! It means the world to me. I will improve. I keep telling you guys - it's all about setting the bar low and keeping it there!
BTW- You know who else looks amazing? After chemo? Mike & Mary's "boy", Boomer! 
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