Sunday Sunday

It isn't often I skip church when I'm in town. Dad and I were still not back up-to-speed from our ailments. I was tired, I felt I had too many things to do, and the pastor was out-of-town. I slept in, my guilty pleasure this weekend. Again, I woke at about 8:00 a.m. I needed to color my hair. I never want to be one of those women who walks around oblivious to the half inch of roots she sports. It's good to take care of coloring first thing in the morning. By 10:00 I was ready to go. This time we were going to make it to Costco to get king crab legs.

Well, we made it to Costco, and they were having their weekend Seafood Festival. The seafood, however, was meager. There were no kiosks of frozen ice laden with giant legs, ceviche and other seafood delicacies. There were just some packages of ahi and tilapia. It was very disappointing. You were not going to get to have your king crab 'fix'. We each found a pair of pants that fit our new bodies. We made a couple of returns, totaling $66 and managed to spend only $67. That means we got out of there for $1. You were exhausted.

I dropped you at the house and embarked on my journey to return the wireless connection and get myself a new cell phone. I went to two stores where I was told they couldn't help me. The last one, a company store, told me I had to go back to the Santa Monica store in order to be able to complete my return. So I made the trek. After driving around the block a couple of times, I was able to get a parking space. Thankfully, it was Sunday and I didn't have to worry about the meter. The Blackberry deal was not going to be in my best interests. I could get two for a total of $40 but my monthly costs would go up by $30. Instead, I got an aptly-named Reclaim, a 40% recycled phone, with internet and email and all the other doo-dads I wanted. It's cute, it's 'green', and it fits in the cell phone holder in my purse. Now I have another owner's manual to read. How I dislike those things!

It was a long time before I got back home. You were in bed. You have spent so much of the last two months in bed. This trip up north is going to take a lot out of you. We will all have to be patient. And you will need to be kind.

My day was energized by phone calls from friends and a dinner at C&O with Suzin, just the two of us. She convinced me to have chianti with her; Larry had sent her with money to pay for our wine, and it was nice to have something I so rarely drink. She said I should be drinking a glass of red wine every evening. I will entertain that idea but don't think I'll do it. I've got to be careful with alcohol. Sometimes Suzin can be so observant. She said something at dinner that struck me so strongly, I wrote it on the butcher paper they had covering the red-and-white checkered tablecloth. "You've got an infirmed father who's losing his mind. You've got an infirmed husband who's losing his life.....possibly. And they hate each other. They're running down the field toward you. And you're the goalie." It's kind of an incomplete metaphor, we couldn't really figure out what's wrong with it. But we had fun talking about it.

At another time, Suzin took the salt shaker, removed the lid and said, "This is how big Bill's tumor is." What? It's the size of a salt shaker lid? Can it be something that small can make you so miserable, can turn our lives upside down. can prevent you from eating? Something that small is going to cause your death?

You decided we are going to drive up north in the Lexus. I love that little car. It sits up off the road, I can see around the cars in front of it, and it's comfortable and roomy. I will be glad to take it. I haven't driven up in it for years. The only problem is that it doesn't have a gps. We better not do any tricky driving on this trip.

Again, we hooked up the J tube to nourish you before I went to bed, and again you unhooked yourself shortly afterward. It either fills you up or causes abdominal pain. Virtually everything you try causes your stomach to cramp up. You start each day feeling great and end each day with stomach pain. Is this because you are recovering from abdominal surgery or is it the cancer?