On Monday, we gave Sony back to Dr. Isacoff. It was sad seeing him go but Eva and I stayed strong and managed to get on with our lives. The apartment just seemed so empty without him. Even after he was gone, he was still prominently featured in our dinner conversation. On Monday, Eva and I went for a run/bike ride during her lunch break. As always, it was good to get out and move around a bit. After she was finished with work, we watched “The Brother’s Grimm.” It looked like it might be too scary for me but I just held Eva’s hand tighter and made it through.
On Tuesday, I hung around the apartment in the morning and then went off to a little political event. Eva and I have been pretty into current events and we had heard that Barrack Obama was going to have a rally in Los Angeles. I got my little e-ticket and then cruised down to the Baldwin Hills to catch his afternoon address. I had never been to one of these rallies before and it was pretty interesting. It was a pretty diverse crowd, from the hippied out young white people to cute little old couples to young men and women in suits to normal looking everyday people. I liked what he had to say. He has actually taken stances on a number of issues and I tend to agree with his views on almost all of those key issues. They included getting out of Iraq, getting everyone covered with health insurance, increasing educational funding, looking at alternative fuels and addressing global warming. One provocative idea was that, currently, we are funding both sides of the war on terror. It will be interesting to see how the race for the White house shapes up over the next 2 years.
After the rally, I went down to Long Beach for my first flying lesson in about a month. The plan was for a night flight to Camarillo. It was a pretty night and the flight was pretty smooth. It still amuses me how much you use the freeways when flying. To get to Camarillo, we took the 405 to LAX, then kept flying north until we hit the 101, then we took the 101 to Camarillo. On the way back we flew over the Santa Monica Mountains to the coast, followed PCH back to LAX, and then the 405 back to Long Beach. The freeways just end up being really readily identifiable landmarks and easy navigation aids.
On Wednesday, Eva and I went out for another bike/run during lunch and then ended up watching “Who Killed the Electric Car?” at night. It was a very provocative movie and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who drives a car.
My dad came up on Thursday and he joined Eva and I on another bike/run. Our usual course starts at our apartment, goes through the neighborhood to Santa Monica Blvd, takes the dirt path along Santa Monica Blvd. to the fountain at Wilshire, and then returns to the apartment the same way. It is a good little run and is about 5 miles total. I usually ride my bike until the dirt path and then decide if I want to keep riding or if I am up for running the dirt part. It is some good bonding time for Eva and I. She has gotten into great shape and can totally carry on a conversation while running at a pretty good clip. I can maintain a conversation on the bike but generally need her to talk while I am running. Sometimes, they are quite the little political discussions as we go over the topics of the news hour, “Left, Right, and Center,” or “The McLaughlin Group.” She has come a long ways in her knowledge about American history and politics. Somehow the history has not enchanted her into getting excited about becoming an American citizen. Oh-well, I guess I will just have to keep working on her. Maybe I should make her say the Pledge of Allegiance when we get up in the morning. I am sure that would go over real well.
It was a supposed to rain on Thursday, and it was pretty cloudy, but after a dry run we threw caution to the wind and decided to go golfing. It started drizzling on our way over to the course and by the time we got there it was raining pretty steadily. We killed a half hour in the little diner and got ourselves a good afternoon snack/meal waiting for the rain to stop but no luck. We weren’t really that well prepared as we had left one umbrella in my dad’s car, the other umbrella in the apartment, and both of our jackets were far from waterproof. Who knew it actually rained in LA? We put on the inadequate clothes we had and decided that we would play until it was too miserable to continue. The course was the Los Feliz par 3 over by Griffith park. It was the golf course featured in “Swingers” which made it that much more exciting to play. The only other players on the course were a couple of seven year olds and their instructor. We decided to hop in front of them and played the 9 hole course starting at hole 3 and ending at hole 2. Both of our first shots were actually pretty good and we started out wondering if our rounds were going to be reminiscent of Caddy Shack. We agreed that, at the first lightning, we would call it, no matter how well we were doing. We played a decent round, we got a couple pars, some bogeys and a few double and triple bogeys. The triple bogeys were probably caused by the conditions of the course. I am sure it had nothing to do with our skill level. My dad summed it up pretty well when he said, “I am glad that we don’t do this so often that we would actually care about how well we played.” Amongst the rollers and shanks, there were moments of glory. Luckily the course was pretty much free of other golfers who might have inhibited our celebratory dances after key moments like 2 putting or just avoiding the trees. By the end we were pretty soaked but both of us thought it was well worth it.
After we got back and dried off a bit, we went out to dinner with Eva to a place called Orso, just a couple blocks away. It is still so cool to be able to walk to all these really nice restaurants. This place was pretty classy and complete with Hollywood wannabes and Beverly Hills monsters. If you do not know what a Beverly Hills Monster is, just ask Eva, and make sure that you have a few minutes.
Today I went for another flying lesson. We just cruised out to the practice area over the Long Beach Harbor, reviewed some maneuvers and did a little flying by instruments, and then practiced some landings. After the lesson, I went up to UCLA and had lunch with Mike, a friend from high school. After circling around Westwood a bit, we miraculously found a parking spot and, though we had seen some other restaurants during the search for a spot, decided to choose from the 3 that were right in front of us. We ended up going with a vegetarian place and had a really nice lunch. It is pretty amazing all the various meat substitutes they have these days. I was almost hoping that they had a little sampler platter so that I could compare and try to determine which ones were actually like the meat they claimed to emulate. Mike is a pretty hilarious guy and I had a pretty fun time hearing about the good and the frustrating aspects of being a PhD student. I told him that he still looks pretty normal for a math grad student and that if he ever wants to get anywhere that he should really think about dressing more eccentrically. We will see if he heads my advice.
As usual, I am still doing well. It has been nice taking a week off even though the chemo has remained mellow. I still feel normal. Looks like a busy couple weeks coming up with a few little adventures planned. I hope all of you are doing well and wish you all the best in whatever endeavors you are undertaking.
Take Care and Live Strong,
Tyler
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment