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nezuko I've had an awesome time in Nashville. It's late at night here and I'm partly packed for my flight tomorrow at 3:35 PM. I should have updated LJ sooner with an accounting of my activities, but I've been sort of busy with said activities. Mostly things like playing hanafuda with Mom, and dominoes with Mom, Sister and Stepdad. Eating many, many fabulous meals. Having awesome conversations. Visiting with Aunt and Uncle and Cousins. Hanging out with Sister and her friends. Drinking sweet tea and working jigsaw puzzles with the family. Watching birds at the backyard feeders. Having heart-to-heart talks with people I love. You know, vacation at home.
GYAAAAAH! We interrupt this LJ post for the super giant palmetto bug that has come into my bedroom and is menacing me. I've chased it under the attic door, but I'm pretty sure that the moment I turn off the light it's going to come back out and crawl on things on the floor, like my suitcase and stuff. And as much as I like animals, I sort of draw the line at giant cockroach-like things. *shudder*
*deep breaths*
Okay... Okay, I can handle this. Really.
The hardest thing I've done (other than flee giant attack bugs) is spend several hours helping Mom with her computers, upgrading software, installing stuff she needs, fixing broken things, answering questions, and giving her a lesson in instant messaging. I do this for her when I visit pretty much every time, and this time she even paid me with an iTunes gift card, so yay!
The second hardest thing—no, maybe this is really the hardest—is seeing my mom looking so frail from her chemo. She's half way through, and she had two weeks off, so she was feeling pretty good, but she has not a lot of hair, and she's lost twenty pounds and tires really easily. Her numbers have been good, though. Before she started chemo, her CA-125 level (a blood marker for ovarian cancer) was 528. This week, after three cycles of chemo, it was down to 92! She has three more cycles to go, and the hope is that the level gets to "normal" range, which is under 30, and that when she gets a CT scan after chemo, there is no detectable cancer. The good thing is she laughs about it. She's not afraid to say the word "cancer" and she believes she can beat it. Her doctor believes she can beat it, too. But... It's hard, and the chemo makes her feel terrible. She finishes chemo in October if all goes well, and she's just gritting her teeth and getting through it until then. Keep her in your prayers if you pray.
But it's not all cancer. Really it's mostly been a pretty typical visit, with a few interesting highlights. This afternoon I went with my aunt to pick up my cousin's son (that would be her grandson, and my first-cousin-once-removed) from daycare. He's three. I went in with her, and was a total rock star. Seriously, I was surrounded by little kids who were in love with my hair. A cute little three-year-old blonde named Rachel was the bravest, and first to approach, but soon I had pretty much every kid in that place in a semi-circle around me, three kids deep. Some wanted to touch my hair. All were adorable. I'm good with kids, so it was a total hoot. I think the teacher was a little nonplussed, but I thought it was great, if slightly overwhelming. I should try that again some time.
When I wasn't busy charming the kindergarten set of Nashville, I've been eating. We've had lots of awesome meals, the world's best pecan pie, much grilling out of steak, fresh produce in abundance, homemade biscuits, lots of Tennessee pulled-pork barbecue, and other delights, but I will only describe two meals in detail, so as to spare you the envy.
Tuesday was Mom's birthday, and we went out to a really nice restaurant in the trendy artsy part of Nashville, Margot Cafe, that uses all organic local produce and organic range-fed meats and so forth. It was completely fantastic. I even liked the blue cheese on the cheese plate, and that's saying something. We started with the cheese plate with plums poached in red wine reduction sauce, mussels in basil sauce, and ricotta cheese-stuffed squash blossoms with heirloom tomatoes (I didn't eat the tomatoes.) The I had pan-roasted chicken with french fries (not MacDonalds' fries, but OMG perfect fresh cut fries the way they should be) and wilted lettuce in pancetta sauce. Sister had lamb chops with chick peas and eggplant, Mom had whole grilled snapper with leeks, and Stepdad had halibut with garden veggies. Desert was blackberry cream cake for me, homemade dulce du leche ice cream for mom, a glass of Grand Marnier for Stepdad, and... Oh shoot, I can't remember what the dessert was that my sister had. It was awesome, whatever it was (though not quite as awesome as my cake.)
Wednesday night I went with Sister to her best friend's house, where we met said best friend and one other very good friend, and had Veggie Dinner. Sister and BFF have gone in together on an organic veggie co-op membership, and once a week get a thirty-plus pound box of fresh organic produce. There were lots of things in the box: corn, cabbages, tomatoes, a bell pepper, blackberries, a giant cantaloupe, basil, red onions, zucchini, and several types of squash. We added some chicken breasts, and grilled everything we ate, mostly in foil packets. Cabbage and onion dressed with olive oil, zucchini and squash dressed with basil and balsamic vinegar, the corn as-is, and the chicken. It was all fantastic, even the squash, which I usually detest. And afterwards we had the best blueberry pie ever. You cook the crust separately, then put half the raw blueberries in the baked crust. The other half of the blueberries you cook in a saucepan with sugar and cornstarch and seasoning, and then pour that over the raw berries and let it set. OMG seriously good!
BFF and Friend are both vets, so I (of course) talked about my rats and showed off pictures of them on my iPhone. They both agreed with my plan about not subjecting Izumo to surgery despite his large eye socket tumor, since he is elderly and doesn't seem to be in any distress. They suggested I try isotonic saline to shrink the growth, and both expressed amazement my rats usually live to over three. Rats were just a small part of the conversation, though, which was wide-ranging and awesome. I felt completely at home and welcomed, and really had a fantastic time. Need to write a thank you note for that one! Also BFF's garden included evening primroses, which open in real-time, like watching a time-lapse movie. They were very, very cool.
So anyway. Now I have to get myself organized to go back to California and resume my real life. The plan is that I will visit again in January. I'm bringing home three pounds of frozen barbecue, an assortment of gifts, a renewed Southern accent, and a full heart.
See y'all soon.
GYAAAAAH! We interrupt this LJ post for the super giant palmetto bug that has come into my bedroom and is menacing me. I've chased it under the attic door, but I'm pretty sure that the moment I turn off the light it's going to come back out and crawl on things on the floor, like my suitcase and stuff. And as much as I like animals, I sort of draw the line at giant cockroach-like things. *shudder*
*deep breaths*
Okay... Okay, I can handle this. Really.
The hardest thing I've done (other than flee giant attack bugs) is spend several hours helping Mom with her computers, upgrading software, installing stuff she needs, fixing broken things, answering questions, and giving her a lesson in instant messaging. I do this for her when I visit pretty much every time, and this time she even paid me with an iTunes gift card, so yay!
The second hardest thing—no, maybe this is really the hardest—is seeing my mom looking so frail from her chemo. She's half way through, and she had two weeks off, so she was feeling pretty good, but she has not a lot of hair, and she's lost twenty pounds and tires really easily. Her numbers have been good, though. Before she started chemo, her CA-125 level (a blood marker for ovarian cancer) was 528. This week, after three cycles of chemo, it was down to 92! She has three more cycles to go, and the hope is that the level gets to "normal" range, which is under 30, and that when she gets a CT scan after chemo, there is no detectable cancer. The good thing is she laughs about it. She's not afraid to say the word "cancer" and she believes she can beat it. Her doctor believes she can beat it, too. But... It's hard, and the chemo makes her feel terrible. She finishes chemo in October if all goes well, and she's just gritting her teeth and getting through it until then. Keep her in your prayers if you pray.
But it's not all cancer. Really it's mostly been a pretty typical visit, with a few interesting highlights. This afternoon I went with my aunt to pick up my cousin's son (that would be her grandson, and my first-cousin-once-removed) from daycare. He's three. I went in with her, and was a total rock star. Seriously, I was surrounded by little kids who were in love with my hair. A cute little three-year-old blonde named Rachel was the bravest, and first to approach, but soon I had pretty much every kid in that place in a semi-circle around me, three kids deep. Some wanted to touch my hair. All were adorable. I'm good with kids, so it was a total hoot. I think the teacher was a little nonplussed, but I thought it was great, if slightly overwhelming. I should try that again some time.
When I wasn't busy charming the kindergarten set of Nashville, I've been eating. We've had lots of awesome meals, the world's best pecan pie, much grilling out of steak, fresh produce in abundance, homemade biscuits, lots of Tennessee pulled-pork barbecue, and other delights, but I will only describe two meals in detail, so as to spare you the envy.
Tuesday was Mom's birthday, and we went out to a really nice restaurant in the trendy artsy part of Nashville, Margot Cafe, that uses all organic local produce and organic range-fed meats and so forth. It was completely fantastic. I even liked the blue cheese on the cheese plate, and that's saying something. We started with the cheese plate with plums poached in red wine reduction sauce, mussels in basil sauce, and ricotta cheese-stuffed squash blossoms with heirloom tomatoes (I didn't eat the tomatoes.) The I had pan-roasted chicken with french fries (not MacDonalds' fries, but OMG perfect fresh cut fries the way they should be) and wilted lettuce in pancetta sauce. Sister had lamb chops with chick peas and eggplant, Mom had whole grilled snapper with leeks, and Stepdad had halibut with garden veggies. Desert was blackberry cream cake for me, homemade dulce du leche ice cream for mom, a glass of Grand Marnier for Stepdad, and... Oh shoot, I can't remember what the dessert was that my sister had. It was awesome, whatever it was (though not quite as awesome as my cake.)
Wednesday night I went with Sister to her best friend's house, where we met said best friend and one other very good friend, and had Veggie Dinner. Sister and BFF have gone in together on an organic veggie co-op membership, and once a week get a thirty-plus pound box of fresh organic produce. There were lots of things in the box: corn, cabbages, tomatoes, a bell pepper, blackberries, a giant cantaloupe, basil, red onions, zucchini, and several types of squash. We added some chicken breasts, and grilled everything we ate, mostly in foil packets. Cabbage and onion dressed with olive oil, zucchini and squash dressed with basil and balsamic vinegar, the corn as-is, and the chicken. It was all fantastic, even the squash, which I usually detest. And afterwards we had the best blueberry pie ever. You cook the crust separately, then put half the raw blueberries in the baked crust. The other half of the blueberries you cook in a saucepan with sugar and cornstarch and seasoning, and then pour that over the raw berries and let it set. OMG seriously good!
BFF and Friend are both vets, so I (of course) talked about my rats and showed off pictures of them on my iPhone. They both agreed with my plan about not subjecting Izumo to surgery despite his large eye socket tumor, since he is elderly and doesn't seem to be in any distress. They suggested I try isotonic saline to shrink the growth, and both expressed amazement my rats usually live to over three. Rats were just a small part of the conversation, though, which was wide-ranging and awesome. I felt completely at home and welcomed, and really had a fantastic time. Need to write a thank you note for that one! Also BFF's garden included evening primroses, which open in real-time, like watching a time-lapse movie. They were very, very cool.
So anyway. Now I have to get myself organized to go back to California and resume my real life. The plan is that I will visit again in January. I'm bringing home three pounds of frozen barbecue, an assortment of gifts, a renewed Southern accent, and a full heart.
See y'all soon.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-24 01:50 pm (UTC)Wrap up the barbecue in plastic then newspaper! XD That's how my parents transported Giant Leg Of Lamb back from Australia. XD