Rapid fire!

Good morning! I woke up at 4:45 am to take the pre-meds I have to take exactly four hours before this chemo, and for the life of me, I could not go back to sleep. So, before chemo number 7 (!) in a few short hours, I figured I would do a rapid fire recount of the past week.

The aches and pains after chemo are no joke, but I was lucky to have Jon around to force me to move a bit. We would try and go on a walk each day for at least 2 or 3 miles. It's a far stretch from the half marathon that I ran back in March, but every step counts:

On Friday after chemo, we celebrated my parents' 39th (!) wedding anniversary at Balthazar. But first, I finally took them to the exhibit that I worked on at the Center for Architecture: 

They enjoyed it, and my mom now has tons of pictures of me standing in front of various objects from the exhibit, despite my resistance. The weekend was relaxed, which was good, because the subsequent week was pretty busy. I received a WONDERFUL gift in the mail from Anna Laura, Mrs. Grant, Martina, Katie, Bekah, Sami, Elana, Lauren, Nicole, and Marilu- tickets to go see a Broadway show I've been wanting to see called "What the Constitution Means to Me":

In spite of the heat, Greg and I got ramen before the show, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We then went over to the theater, and the play was moving, funny, and very relevant. So wonderful. I would say go check it out if you're in NYC, but it's closing any day now! It is going on tour, so if you can catch it in your city, I would highly recommend it. Thank you so much ladies, you really gave us a beautiful and much needed date night. 

On Wednesday, Elana and I had plans to get breakfast at Tom's Diner. We debriefed on the show*, caught up, and ate some MONSTER pancakes: 

Then we headed to Brooklyn Public Library to do a bit of work together. On Wednesday night, Greg and I headed to Franklin Park to celebrate the legal nuptials of my PhD friend Rosalie to her also PhD wife, Kate. It was nice to catch up with school friends, though I regrettably did not take any photos. 

On Thursday, my mom and I went to our family friend Elena's** daughter's 11th birthday party. It was nice to see them, and Olivia even offered me part of her beautiful red hair when we were talking about me getting a shaytl***😭😂. It was SO sweet. Here's a photo of my mom helping Olivia's little sister Naomi put on a headband: 

On Thursday night, I had plans to hang out with Emily, and we decided to head over to BK Bridge Park for their outdoor showing of Selma. It started off as a lovely night– we got some food from some food trucks, watched the sun set over Manhattan, and geared up for a night of powerful storytelling: 

About twenty minutes in to the movie, the organizers cut the film off and were like– "sorry, we've got to call this." We were disappointed, and to be honest, a little skeptical about their decision, especially considering that we did not see rain forecasted in the weather report. Well, little did we know that in approximately 10 minutes, the skies would open up. We got SOAKED. It was kind of hilarious seeing hundreds of folks exile themselves out of the park. Many of them, including us, took shelter in a nearby Ample Hills Ice Cream shop: 

As I said to Emily, sometimes the lack of preparedness that we see in this city in the face of natural events can be downright comical. 

On Friday night, we had my friend Anna over for dinner. Anna is a teacher and spent the last two weeks of July in Europe, so it was nice to catch up after not having seen each other for awhile. We also came up with a genius idea for a dating app exclusively for educators.****

Over the weekend, G and I headed upstate with my parents to take care of a few things at the house. But first, we stopped and ate excellent pizza at Westwind Orchard: 

We also stopped by Arrowood Farms across the street, where Greg picked up some brews.At the house, we took care of a bunch of stuff we had been somewhat neglecting. Check out Greg working on power washing the entire back of the house: 

That thing is out of control! On Saturday night, we invited Viky, Kevin, and their kiddo Layla over for an apero. They are both teachers and spend the summer upstate, about 15-20 minutes away from us. They came over with Viky's parents, who, knowing Viky, were just as lovely as I'd expect. We ate things with lots of tomatoes, cheese, and bread. We hadn't seen them in awhile, and apparently Layla, who had been at the house last year for our nuptials, asked if there was going to be a wedding. There wasn't, but it was still so nice to catch up. Yet again, I regrettably forgot to take pics. 

On our way home on Sunday, we stopped in Central Park to head to a going away picnic for Greg's dance/music friends, Eyal and Ronit. Ronit got a fellowship in Paris for the next year, so they're moving across the pond. Audrey, Manu, whoever other friends/cousins in lovely Paris- if you're reading this, let me know, I have to introduce you to some nice Israelis! 

In other news, my blog readership is way down from the beginning of the summer, so I'm thinking about seeking out some sponsored partnerships to boost my clicks. Monster juice has got to be interested in partnering with a PhD cancer patient, right? JK, but a big hug to Bekah and Viky, who said some nice, encouraging things about this old blog these past two weeks. And to Anna Laura, who after almost every post, texts me, "I LOVE YOUR BLOG!" Levy also gets serious cred for being just about the only person who comments on these things. So if you're out there, thanks for making me feel like I'm not typing into an ether. Thanks for acknowledging me even when what I'm writing can be dark/bleak/not positive. I love you. Now LFG do my second to last chemo. 

*For those of you who don't know, Elana is a badass theater producer, so she sees (and often takes me) to tons of great shows. 

**Lots of Ela/ena's last week! 

***Yiddish word for wig. 

****Patent pending.