We've moved!

I was going to tell you some more of the True and the Real but I will update you and then maybe tell you just a bit more!

Today after radiation I checked in at the housing center not expecting any different message than the ones we have had the last two times we visited there.  But SURPRISE they had housing for us that costs  half the price of the hotel.  So backwe go to pack all our belongings and food stuffs and drive across Baltimore to the hospital hostel.  We arrived in time to get unpacked and be welcomed by a pizza party!  As I have told you before we do not adjust quickly to new surroundings [it generally takes me 5 years to decide how I want furniture and wall hangings to be in my home and then I don't like to change it again.  So this hurry up and change things is difficult.
But I am choosing to be thankful for
...the new housing
...the new people
...the new bed
...the change in medication schedule that was given today to try to relieve Gene of his discomfort from the side effect of the anti nausea medicine
...the fact that we were able to talk to Dr. Sharfman today
...that chemo is planned to start tomorrow
...that we are 1/2 through the radiation
...the weather was cooler.

What can you be thankful for today?

When Gene had Pastor Dick's permission to invite me on some dates we began to share parts of our lives.  I had agreed to babysit for a daycare and when Gene stopped by my apartment on E. William Street and asked if he could take me Christmas shopping I reversed the invitation and asked him if he would like to go with me to babysit the daycare!  Oh, now you have to know the boy was in over his head because he said, "yes!"  We cared for about 8 children that afternoon and Gene held a baby for the first time in his life--at the age of 32!   He had no earthly idea how to get up to answer the phone while holding 4month old Benjamin at the same time!   I was busy with the other 7!  My how I admired his efforts!


Not many weeks later he took me to meet his family [there are stories about personal face make-up and Santa Claus, but I am not going to tell those this time] and soon after he traveled with me to my family home in PA.  While there my mother happily shared that a favorite movie of mine was to be on TV that evening.  A few questions revealed that Gene had never [horrors...never, seen The Sound of Music!]  He didn't sound all that excited to see it, but he does love movies and he could tell I was interested so he cautiously asked what it was about!  Here is where quick thinking comes in handy...I told him it was a war movie.  That perked him up a bit!  I shared how it was about the Nazi occupation of Austria and that there was gunfire in the movie.  He bit and watched a very long time before the one gun came out and the few shots were fired as the family von Trappe escaped into the hills and on toward Switzerland.  It is still a great movie and we still laugh about the war movie.

He survived the meeting of my family though he did make a big mistake and thought the name of my hometown [okay, I agree it is small] was the name of my grandmother's property like when you name your farm!  Nooo.... I told him later, that is the whole town!  [it has three buildings center city and it used to have a horse trough and water pump in the middle of town.  And it had ruins of an old WWII jeans factory! no traffic lights, no sidewalks, but we had a Lord Mayor! [He also ran the campground and was the postmaster!]  Gene survived the manners test by closely following my actions and made an impression on my family that was of a kind of dull, do nothing, have no particular attributes, kind of guy.  That would change come May! but we would be married by then!

More of the True and the Real another time ....I am truly and really thankful!