Boulder Words & Old Friends

I told you Turn Around Tuesday would come and it would be pedal to the metal. I don't look back. Sorry I left you all in the dust back there. Here's a recap.

On Wednesday last week I went on my first photo shoot since treatment started. The weather was super balmy for this time of year and offered a nice window of opportunity for an outside job. Sara and I traveled to Gloucester, MA to hike around Dogtown for a couple of days. It's suggested to have guides here because the trails are unmarked and numerous, plus we had a job to do and no time to get lost. So, we met our guides at 10:30 am. They told us Dogtown was originally a community built in pre-Revolutionary War era as a safe-haven. The people of Rockport, MA moved inland to Dogtown to escape the pirates. From Dogtown, they could still walk to Rockport to fish and work. When the coast was safe once again, they moved back and rented their Dogtown homes to "second-class" citizens. It was kinda the slums and became known as Dogtown. Now, it is protected land, owned by the town of Gloucester, open to the public for hiking, mountain biking, and skiing. The featured attraction here are the boulders with words carved on them. During the depression, a rich man owned the land and hired otherwise out-of-work stone carvers to carve words on 23 boulders strewn about Dogtown. They are words to live by like "truth", "work", "prosperity follows service", "help your mother", "save", and "spiritual power". Sara took my picture next to a rock with "courage" on it. I'll post those here as soon as she sends them to me. Anyway, if this intrigues you, check out the November issue of Yankee Magazine 2008 for more info and to see the pictures.

So, I survived the photo shoot. It was difficult and tiring hiking for hours at a time with heavy equipment and getting up at the crack of dawn, but I did it. Then my old friend from 5th grade Jenea came for a long weekend. Miraculously her flights were all on time even though she came in a wintery mix and left the morning after a snow storm. She saw the gamut of Maine weather while she was here. We had dinner with my parents Saturday evening. They hadn't seen each other in 15 years. I took her to LL Bean to get that experience and to pick up weatherproof boots (good thing, too, because she used them in the snow storm). I even shopped and bought a pair of jeans! This is exciting because I am very picky about jeans since they started making them stretchy. I have spent four years trying on jeans and cursing this fashion trend. These were okay, and Jenea convinced me that was good enough. She traveled thousands of miles to help me do something I haven't been able to do for 4 years! Thanks Jenea. We had a snow day on Monday, made chocolate chip cookies, drank tea, talked, and watched a movie. It was really great to have her here and to catch up, but she was on West Coast time which meant sleeping in and staying up late. My corresponding schedule was get up at my normal time and stay up late with my guest. Eh, it was worth it for a few days.

Monday was my radiation oncologist appointment, but I cancelled it due to weather and rescheduled it for Friday. Ironically, we are expecting another storm for Friday. I can't catch a break. If not Friday, than Tuesday. Chemo is Friday and I will make that come hell or high water. If I don't, my whole recovery schedule is out of whack.

I am still tired and recovering from back to back excitement. I love having a helper with work so that I am not go-go-go! all the time. I can actually nap some afternoons:) I'm going to relax with a movie now as a matter of fact. Tomorrow I will start thinking about my strategy for anticipatory nausea this time.