ROCKMEISHA

Rockmeisha is half a block from my apartment but for a long time I never noticed it and didn't even considering going there. Amy told me they have excellent ramen, so Kim, Phil and I went there last night. It really is good. It's an Izakaya restaurant, lot's of small dishes and things to eat while drinking beer. I loved being there with my friends.

VEGETARIAN POT PIE

Kat and Tracy came over yesterday and we made vegetarian pot pie. We trekked to Lifethyme in the freezing cold and got some vegetables (parsnips, turnips, frozen peas, celery, potatoes and tarragon) I already had some mushrooms and carrots. On the way back we ran into a frozen Bill and Barbara who visited earlier and brought me a selection of jeans to try on from Raleigh Denim. They were visiting NYC to celebrate Bill Ryan's birthday-Happy Birthday Bill! When we got back to my place Ruby was there, she had spilled honey all over her self making "better than sex" tea, that I had gotten as a Christmas gift. (It's a blend of Roobios tea, chocolate and peppermint). We arrived just in time for kickoff of the Giants v. Packers game. Kat and Tracy did all the work: cutting up vegetables, sautéing, and rolling out the dough. The pies turned out great (although I would have liked it a little soupier) and were a perfect thing to eat on a bitter cold day while watching a great football game... and they make for some good leftovers.

CORIAN TABLE

I miss working. I liked creating environments, working with others and changing a space to become something it wasn't before I started. For the past few weeks I've been "working" on my apartment. I've always wanted to have a large table where people could eat, I could work on projects and sit with others and talk. I had this table made. It's big. It's got solid walnut legs and a Corian top (which is usually used for kitchen counters) I found this light at PW Vintage Lighting and today Tony installed it for me. It's sort of like a pulley, it's counter-balanced so you can adjust the height of the light as you desire, and you can pivot it around to where you need light most. I bought two more chairs on Etsy that should arrive in the next few days. They don't match the ones I have but I think they'll look good. They are simple, white, wooden chairs sort of in the Windsor chair style. I really like it, I feel like I've changed the environment in my small apartment pretty drastically.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Ruby, Matt, Myrna, Joe and I enjoyed a quiet New Year's Eve in my apartment. Ruby made lentil soup and we watched Louis C.K.'s new stand up performance from The Beacon Theater. Since it's been so hard to eat, I'm now getting nutrition through TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition). It's like an IV but it has a pump which drips a milky solution through my port. It takes about 12 hours so I start around 7 or 8 and sleep with it through the night. Tonight we had an unusual occurrence. Instead of the milky solution going in the port, blood started coming out. I called the on-call nurse and she said to re-prime the pump. We drained the liquid into a tupperware container and it looked like this:

Which reminded me of the ecko logo.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I came down to North Carolina to celebrate Christmas. Andrea and Mac threw a party for my family and friends. Phil was in charge of decorations. Andrea made my all time favorite, ham biscuits. She also had a giant pile of ham and sausages, and some cheeses she brought home from a recent trip to England. We had Zuppa di pesce, with clams, shrimp and wild striped bass and crusty bread to sop up the broth. Outside, near the wood burning oven, Mac set up a clam and oyster shucking station. We utilized last years gift: Clam Rams, to open the raw clams. My nephew Zach figured out how to use it and tried his first raw clam, he liked it.

CEILING FAN DUST

This is the view from my bed, which I've spent a lot of time in this week. The chemo hit me pretty hard and I've been very nauseous and exhausted. Staring at the dust collecting on my ceiling fan blades was driving me crazy so Ford came over today and took care of it for me. He did a great job, got the tops of the blades and the dust that collected on the ceiling near the fan. I'm able to sleep a lot better now, knowing it's clean up there.

CHEMOTHERAPY PART TWO

After meeting with a number of doctors and other experts following the results of my recent PET scan I decided to get treatment at a private oncology clinic. Most of the doctors I met with recommended the same course of chemotherapy but this one also offered some additional "targeted treatments", the use of amino acids, a concentration on nutrition, supplements, meditation and breathing exercises.

I started yesterday, Phil came with me. It's sort of a high end place, so chatting with the clientele was interesting. We were there most of the day. Early on, I felt nauseous and was gagging into a bucket, just then the doctor walked by and told me to rub a bit of green powder he had in his pocket under my nose. It worked to make me feel better. He had just gotten back from India and was interested in trying out some of his new "alternative" medications.

So far the chemo is OK, a little nausea and my hands feel tingly and numb (it's hard to type). We asked about this weird photograph (there a few like this around the office) but the doctor just said it had to do with offerings and meditation. I look forward to getting to the bottom of this.