As One Does...

Ah, Mondays... Or--as I like to call them; The Day of The Doctor...
Schlepp to Asheville today to meet with my Oncologist (still can't get my head around THAT sentence).  The numbers are all good.  Platelets up, which means I won't go all Queen Victoria's Grandchildren if nicked... look it up...
White count almost TOO low.  We are heading toward Remission folks, I would do an Uptown Funky Walk, but it's unseemly in a man of my years.

My doc visits have been curtailed from four a month to twice a month, which is bloody marvelous as I'd like at least ONE day in my life where I can sleep in and loll with Dawg.

Annoyingly enough, I still have to have another biopsy.  This is a matter of routine, but I take umbrage at feeling like a badly stored Barollo--i.e., having a doc go at my rear pelvis with a 22 gauge needle to yank out a piece of bone with marrow attached.  Yeah... YOU do it and see what kind of mood you're in for the next two weeks.  It HURTS, people.  You feel that mess all the way down your femur like the aftermath of touching a non-grounded wire when installing a ceiling fan (Yes... that's specific.  Why?  Because I've done it.)  The drive home is ... eventful.

Still, things are looking good and tomorrow we begin rehearsals for Gypsy.  I'm the Assistant Director and assisting a Director and friend I love and respect on possibly my favourite show on this earth.  It's a love letter to theatre and to relationships.  Lots of experience with the former... still looking askance at the latter.

The Kiss My Ass, Cancer Garden is growing, although rain felled a 5'4", burgundy, "Chocolate" Dahlia.  I've staked it, but it's not looking happy.  Also, I backed over my Cherokee Heirloom tomato--as I continually moved it around to find sun, and re-potted what was left along with organic fertilizer and a cage to keep it standing tall.  It looks suprised and irritated.

Utterly thrilled with SCOTUS (I'm sorry, that still sounds rather odd)'s decision on marriage equality.  Enough dithering with bigotry... get it done.  Marry whom you love and leave archaic nonsense out of it.  I don't wanna hear biblical quotes on it any longer as that book also regulated what a man does with his MANY wives... and slaves.  Forgive me if I do not take marriage counseling from a tome that demands I be stoned to death for wearing contrasting material or planting different crops next to one another.  I tend to think that THAT particular deity had a bit of a Personality Disorder.

At any rate...

Much love to all and to all a goodnight.

Step Ball Change

Monday numbers are all good.  Fighting fatigue and dizziness like a champ.  It could be so much worse; bone pain, nausea, headaches, etc... I seem to be, thank Goddess, one of the lucky ones.
I began rehearsals for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and we are now in Technical Rehearsals... or, as a favourite director of mine once said, When We See Who People REALLY Are.  Does separate the wheat from the chaff. 

My role is small, which suits me just fine as I come back to life after a very strange six months of insolvency, being a maid, being a caterer, being a waiter and essentially being terrified of where the next dollar is coming from.  Two paycheques have rolled in and rolled right back out again as the bills are paid.  Three car payments in one months.  Oh myyyy.

I have to dance in the eleven o'clock number and reigniting that twenty year dormant part of my brain is ... new.  All I hope for is to remember the steps, not to fall, not to fart, not to break anything of mine--or the man next to me and to SING OUT LOUISE.

It's amazing what goes through my mind as I'm step-ball changing away.  The poker face is plastered on, but it's been a LOOONG time since I broke that kind of a sweat onstage that wasn't nerve or costume induced.  Good old-fashioned activity.  It's fun, but I DO see occasional, "Oh my God, that old guy is gonna keel over", looks on colleagues faces.

The cast is excellent and brilliantly talented and the set/costumes are gorgeous.  Jewel Tone-apalooza.  Aquas... oranges (makes me miss Howard Johnsons in Times Square), greens, golds, etc... 
Reunions of actors who have been here in previous years and brand new ones.

Doctor-wise, things seem fine.  Numbers all in the manageable area.  Here's hoping this continues.

I'm hungry.

Boring, but Good

I had a doc appointment Monday.  Apparently, all is going swimmingly well.  Great news indeed.  Still existential to think this is going on, when I feel better than I have in years.  An occasional dizzy spell or a fatigued moment and then right back on form.

The interesting thing is how some folks relate to me.  I get pulled aside from time to time, with the obligatory hand on my shoulder and intent gaze.... "How are you... REALLY????".  I mean, I appreciate the concern, but it gets a bit tiresome repeating the same initial shocking, then good, news 84.000 time a day.

I do seem to care a lot less about the daily nonsense.  In reality, I just go to work, learn my lines, figure it out, come home... Dawg.

Sort of a simpler life, doing exactly what I want to do.  Heh... Could be worse, I suppose.