Minoring in Chocolate

Now this was a beautiful day. The temperature was at least 68°, perhaps higher, with clouds - no rain - sunny and breezy. Jim decided to put in the stairs up the slope in the back yard, and got the project nearly completed. All the steps are in, but they still need to be anchored with ree-bar. I think they look great, and they will be much safer for both of us. He spent several hours working on it, using a pick and a level and getting each step in exactly where it was supposed to be. I came outside and did some more raking. It's a little discouraging. There are so many leaves out there, and they all get caught in the juniper ground cover and the periwinkle and the flowers that are trying to come up. I worked for a while, raking and clipping vines, but couldn't do as much as I wanted to. I ran out of energy. It was nice afterwards to sit out there together with a beer, imagining how it will look once it's finally cleaned up.

Went out again tonight to our monthly crafting party at Carolyn's. Tonight we made some fantasy flower vases. They were cute, but not really my thing. One of the women brought a large bottle of wine. Hooray! Lots of gossiping and catching up on what's going on with everyone. Sue has a 17-year old daughter who will be going to college in the fall. A couple of months ago Sue brought in the most delicious pastry horns stuffed with whipped cream. They were amazing. She said they had been made by her daughter, who was practicing for her entrance exams into Culinary School. Tonight I asked her how that turned out. Well, she's been admitted into Johnson and Wales Culinary School. She will be majoring in Baking and Pastry Arts, with a minor in Chocolate. Who knew! I never knew anyone could take courses in Chocolate! And get a minor in it no less! Johnson and Wales is a wonderful school for culinary arts, and I'm sure, after sampling her pastry before she's even begun, that she will do wonderfully. She wants to go to Switzerland or Belgium or somewhere else in Europe to study as well, and it all sounds very exciting. I asked Sue what her daughter's long term goals were, and she says she wants to work in a 5-star restaurant or hotel, and eventually have her own 5-star bakery. Did I mention that she's 17? I truly wish her all the best.

I'm down to my last 5 radiation treatments. I was given new markings after today's treatment, because the last 5 are concentrating on the mastectomy scar instead of the whole chest wall. I have black magic marker encircling the area that the doctor wants to treat. The good news is that all the clear tape that was put on me everywhere over the past 5 1/2 weeks is now gone - including the blue cross that was just under my chin on my chest. No matter what I wore, if it had a normal neckline, it showed, and I hated that. I always felt that people thought I belonged to a weird cult.

One of the women in the craft group is Claudia. She's also now undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She was diagnosed right around Christmas, had a lumpectomy, no chemo, and is a week into radiation. She has the same radiation oncology doctor I do, Dr. Salinger, and goes to the same facility I do every day at 4:30. She's a teacher, and she says getting the treatments at that time of day means she can't prepare her classroom/materials for the next day's class, since she has to leave right away to get to her appointment, and then she can't go back. I believe she teaches art. I told her I only have 5 left, and mine's at 8:30 am. Perhaps they can give her my time slot when I'm through. It is a Sorority, you know, and we have to look out for each other.

Claudia said today, April 1st, was the 5th anniversary of her husband's diagnosis of kidney cancer, and there she was, in the same room, sitting in the same chair, all alone, waiting for the doctor to come in. It really affected her, and brought back the whole impact of that shocking diagnosis. He didn't survive, and died 3 years ago.

And now she's going through her own cancer story.

PHOTO: Jim working on the new steps today.