Ladies and gentleman, what a week. I officially look like a cancer patient! My hair was falling out in droves, so on Monday, I buzzed it all off. Here is the 'before' shot:
My awesome hairdresser gave Grisha a complementary buzz that same day, and he looks very handsome in solidarity with me with his short hair. Now, I take pause sharing this one, because I can't lie, I truly hate being bald, but in the sake of sharing this cancer 'journey' with you all, here it is, the official hair loss shot:
I don't love not having hair, and I'm frankly just annoyed that I now have an external marker to the world that I have cancer. But hey, before being annoyed, on Monday, I had a really lovely catch up session with my friend and fellow PhDer Jenna. Here's mom and Jenna at lunch:
Jenna brought good vibes, a gorgeous orchid arrangement, and delicious pastries from her local Jackson Heights bakery. She also took note of the fact that I had some sniffles, and sent me the sweetest and most practical gift that I just received in the mail today– an air purifier! Thank you so much, Jenna! In general, it's been a great week for love from my PhD friends. I also got a lovely Canadian, Japanese, and Norwegian (!) candy-filled care package from my dear PhD friend, Adèle:
Her husband Christian also apparently dipped into his secret stash of candy from their trip to Japan especially for me. Thank you, Adèle and Christian! Finally, a THIRD PhD friend, Bernadette, also sent me a lovely care package that included delicious homemade brownies, Syrian soap, homemade jam, and a very kind note– everything was also wrapped in paintings made my her very sweet daughter, Carmen. Thank you so much, Bern and Carmen! And serious thanks to all the PhD friends for the unexpectedly coordinated love this last week!
Besides the whole hair loss thing, health wise, I also had a very annoying cold all week. In spite of that, I actually had a really eventful (as in, full of events!) week. On Tuesday, Elana and I went to go see an excellent play that won the Pulitzer, called Fairview. On Wednesday, Grisha and I had a serious throwback and went to go see Regina Spektor perform on Broadway. Greg's friends from dance Caleb and Evita performed alongside her, and they totally slayed. Caleb even got us backstage passes after the show, which was so sweet of him! College me would never have believed that in 10 years, I would be watching friends of my husband's perform alongside one of my favorite artists while ALSO having cancer. What a life!
After a little rest on Thursday, on Friday, after my pre-chemo doctor's appointment, I had a nice lunch and quick catch-up with Matt, a friend from Sciences Po who is in from Paris for the weekend. After that, I met Brig and Em to go see a female brass band play along the Hudson. We packed a mean picnic and enjoyed a beautiful night and some great music:
As you can see in the above photo, in my new baldness, I've also started to acquire a collection of fun wigs! The green one is my shtetl mermaid parade wig, then I've got what Nicole calls my Jennifer Garner circa Alias pink bob, and last, I've also got my straight up Ariel one:
I figured that if I'm going to be a bald bastard, I might as well have some fun with it! The collection is growing, so stay tuned.
As for the rest of the weekend, yesterday, some friends showed me they were ride or die by going with me to a non-alcoholic cocktail bar. It was charming in a way that I will only enjoy while not being able to drink. We also got Chinese food and had some very interesting ice cream called "booza" that may or may not cause the employees to develop carpal tunnel. OH and Nicole G. made me the most AMAZING gift... crocheted boobs:
How great are those?!? I rounded out the weekend by going to my dear friend Hannah's housewarming today, and topped it all off with pizza for dinner with my parents. Despite that nasty cold, it was a solid week. And tomorrow is chemo number 3. Oy! I'll try my hardest to stay confident and channel Greg in my pink wig vibes:
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