A Wonderful Life, continued

Life just keeps getting better and better.  You'd think I'd run out of news, but I don't.  Every day seems to bring new adventures, fun times, challenges, surprises, delights, unexpected turns in the road.  Where do I start?

I'll start with the Alexander Technique.  Dana, the teacher I found, gave a presentation at our monthly MS lecture at Stanford this past Wednesday.  She hadn't seen me since my initial half hour appointment in October and she was thrilled at the difference - in my posture, bearing and walking ability.  I still have not used the cane since mid November.  That doesn't mean there aren't some days when my right leg drags or my two legs are stiff and heavy.  But I still manage without the cane.  I had become dependent on it, and I didn't like that.  I do still bring it with me, just in case, but it's been folded up in its pouch for over two months now.  My MS doctor is going to write me a prescription for the series of 24 classes of the technique and hopefully Medicare will cover it.  There has already been such a difference without my having even taken one full class!  Dana said she thinks I picked it up so easily because I am so open to it.

I've had another day at a museum - this time the Post Impressionist exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.  Carla and I drove into San Francisco to Andy Jacoby's house (one of my roommates from Cornell and a partner in crime from my first trip ever to Europe, summer of '65 - we first saw the Impressionists together at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris that summer) for a delicious lunch lovingly prepared by her master chef husband Robert, and then the 4 of us went to the museum.  There were 4 cardboard cutouts leading up the museum where you could stick your head through it for a Kodak instant photo op - I chose the one by Renoir, as you can see at the left.  I wore my brace and I did have the cane with me for this occasion - I'm optimistic and positive, but not stupid.  I wouldn't have made it through the exhibit without it.  It was wonderful.  Afterwards Carla and I went over to Michael and Francine's house for wine and cheese and a tour of their beautiful house for Carla.  What was intended to be a brief visit turned into over 3 hours!  It was a great end to a wonderful day.

I'm on a roll with contacting old friends on Facebook.  Some of you will recognize the name Andy Vlady.  We met when I was 14 and he was 16 in Great Neck and he's been in and out of my life ever since.  It's because of him that I ended up going to Europe in the first place (he spent his junior year of college in Florence and came back with wondrous tales that filled my head and my heart), and also because of him that I went to Brazil (he introduced me to the Brazilian movie Black Orpheus back when we were in high school and I've been hooked on all things Brazilian ever since).  He also introduced me to jazz (in addition to being an artist, he was also a jazz drummer).  So he's played an important part in my life.  He was passing through San Francisco for Russian Christmas with his Russian cousins on his way to Greece where he was going to show his latest collection of lithographs and we got together for lunch on January 6th.  We hadn't seen each other since 1988, but we just picked up where we'd left off and talked nonstop for 5 hours until he had to return to his hotel to get ready for that evening's festivities.  It was wonderful.  As always, he regaled me with fascinating and wondrous tales.

I also found one of my closest friends from junior and senior high school, Judy Evans, although not on Facebook.  Since Lyn Lederman had first discovered me and put me in touch with all these other classmates from Great Neck, I'd been wanting to find Judy.  But she wasn't on Facebook.  I tried all the search engines I could think of, but to no avail, since I didn't know her married name.  However, miracle of miracles, I found a letter I'd received from her in 1989 with her married name, and then easily found her in Texas.  We've been emailing each other regularly ever since and hope to actually see each other one of these days.  I used to go over to her house after school and have fond memories of her parents and brother, and she knew my family, too.  Other than my relatives, there aren't very many people in my life who knew my parents, so this is especially important to me.  When I happened to mention my father's second wife, she hooted "Oh THAT woman!"  I loved it.

And finally, one night when I couldn't sleep, I did a search for Paul Jaqua and easily found him on Facebook.  We'd originally met in 1972 when I was living in Munich and he was part of a group of Californians tooling around Europe.  We stayed in touch here in California when we both settled here, but I'd lost touch with him and hadn't spoken to him since the late 1990s.  I emailed him and we spoke on the phone for 2 hours the next day.  The amazing part is that he lives very close to my sister and Stan, so we will definitely be getting together soon.

There was another potluck lunch with my chronic illness support group up in the Redwoods.  What a special group of people.  Brian again played the bagpipes, Rob played the violin, and Marlene read one of her poems.  I felt like I was part of a salon in Paris.  I liked Marlene's poem so much that I asked her to email it to me.  She sent me the link to a YouTube slide show with music that she'd created for this and 9 other of her poems.  She has Parkinson's and her passion is skiing - which she still manages to do - and her poem is entitled Unbound Rapture.  She gave me permission to post the link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DYTf8asHhU  I highly recommend that you take a look.  It's filled with hope and beauty.

Liza gave me a birdfeeder for Christmas along with a huge sack of birdfeed.  I've never had one before.  She came over and hung it on my deck so I could see it from my bed.  At first there was no activity, but then suddenly one day there were 4 birds at once, each one at a different opening, plus several squirrels on the deck scooping up the seed that fell.  It's now two weeks later and I've already had to refill the feeder.  I love lying in bed watching them fly to and fro, chirping happily as they munch away.

I had a dream about Wayne and Arlene last night, but it was a good dream.  I dreamt that I ran into them somewhere and they were as friendly and warm as they used to be.  I don't remember the details, but I remember the good feeling I had when I woke up.  I've thought about it since then, and I think the meaning of the dream is that I'm finally ready to let go of the anger and the hurt that I've felt concerning them and to move on.  Whenever I've been at the movies downtown or at Trader Joe's or anywhere public around here where I might run into them, I've worried what I might do or say, and whether they would just ignore me and move away.  I'm not worried about it anymore.  I only wish them the best and I choose just to concentrate on the good memories I have of them and all the wonderful things they did for me during that terrible time.

And finally, I have rejoined the world of Macdom!  I am so excited.  I found a used Macbook on Craigslist that is practically brand new.  Now that I'm no longer a mortgage broker and thus no longer in need of real estate software, I can go back to my first love - the Mac.  My Dell PC is over 7 years old and on its last legs, so it was time to start looking for a new computer and thus the perfect time to make the switch.  I already have an iPod and an iPhone so I may as well make the family complete.  I need to become proficient on the Mac anyway, since I've decided one of my new professions will be as a professional consultant helping people with their computers, specifically iTunes and music.  I'm very good at it, most probably because it involves one of my passions - music - so why not make money at it.  I spent 3 hours today helping my friend Judith and she agreed that I should pursue this.  I'm going to get some business cards made up and she will help me pass them out.  She's a professional and has many contacts.  There's a whole community of people around my age who are just beginning to use iPads, iPhones, iPods and iTunes and they have never used a computer before except for emails.  I still plan to also do freelance bookkeeping.  I am in the process of brushing up my resume and will start looking in earnest once I return from New York.

Speaking of New York, this trip is fast approaching!  I leave on February 10th and return on the 25th.  I have been shopping for thermal underwear, plastic boots, hand and foot warmers in preparation for the cold and snow.  Vickie at work even gave me a muff and is going to lend me her ultra warm coat (I didn't keep very much of my winter clothing, never dreaming I would ever go to New York in the winter).  Little did I know.

Well, I think that's enough news for now.  I will post again once I return from New York.  This is my first big trip since my trip to Florida and Texas in April 2008.  I'm very excited, in case you couldn't tell.  Land of bagels and lox, here I come!