Six Years

I'm sitting in the atrium waiting room with my mom and sister, the sun streaming down. We are waiting, anxiously, for the surgeon to tell us the news. Suddenly they perk up and look at the back of a doctor. She's wearing a white coat, and her fluffy hair is pulled back into a barely-contained ponytail.

"I think that's her," my mom says.
"Dr. K.?" my sister asks.
"Don't you think?"

I look over. I have no recollection of what Dr. K. looks like. None at all. I remember her having a youthful face, but that's about it. That time period is so blurry to me now, although the anxious feelings are not.

My sister starts to say something about how she thinks it would be nice to go over and say hello, thank her for the surgery she successfully completed six years ago, when she removed the cancerous half of my dad's lung. Then she gets that look on her face, and I know she's going to cry.

"You go do it," my mom says. I start to get choked up as I watch her talk to another grave-faced family. Those feelings come rushing back and I hope she is not telling them the opposite of what we heard that day. I hope they are hearing "It all went well; he is in recovery; we got everything." But none of them smile, no waves of relief pass over their faces.

I try to divorce myself from the profound gratitude I have, because if I don't, I won't be able to talk to her. She turns toward us, and I know I have just a small window of time to reach her. I get up.

"Excuse me, are you Dr. K.?"
She looks surprised.
"I am."
"Um, hi. I'm K. D., and--" I used my maiden name.
"D? I recognize that name," she says, looking upward as she scans her memory for the patient. I fill in the blanks.
"Mr. D. is my dad, and six years ago you took out half his lung."
"Oh?" Then she looks around, nervously. "Why are you here?"
I laugh. She laughs.
I point over to my mom and my sister. "We're here waiting for him to come out of a hip replacement surgery."
She is visibly relieved, putting a hand to her heart.
"We just wanted you to know how grateful we are to you for the surgery that day, and what it did for our family. We just wanted to say thank you."
She has a wide grin that lights up her whole face, hand still to her heart.
"Wow, that makes me feel so good," she says. "When was his lung surgery, again?"
"Six years ago this month," I tell her, and that is when I start to feel like I might cry, but I hang on.
"Six years? Well, you know what they say about that, don't you?"
"No..."
"They call that a cure."

And just like that, six years later, she delivers one of the most powerful gifts I have ever received, just five small words. Thank you, Dr. K. Again.

Celebrating the Blues

I hope I'm celebrating the blues tonight!!!!

Story about voting to come...busy night though, and it might get late, and wanted to make sure I posted for NaBloPoMo.

I just have to say that I'm thrilled to be a part of the process today. There is an energy today that hasn't been there for the last elections (that I was also thrilled to participate in those, too).

It's like Christmas!!!

Humanity

I forgot. I saw something today that made me cry happy tears at my desk at work. This seriously restores my faith in humanity. I want to scoop up these children and take them home with me and feed them cookies.

Please watch this. If you click on on the "More Info" link in the top right-hand box you can see the lyrics--on the video they are sometimes hard to make out, and they are brilliant.

It won't let me embed... but here's the link: You Can Vote However You Like.

Weekend Update

Despite my feeling very crappy for the last, oh, seven or so days, I did have a few highs this weekend.

Friday night: eating spectacular tom yum soup from our favorite Thai place and not getting sick. Watching movies—yes, you can rent them for $1 a night at McDonald's and some grocery stores, for those of you who asked the last time—with my honey, on the couch. (Saw: Sex and the City, Leatherheads, Forgetting Sarah Marshall).

Saturday: learning the art of bellydancing for an hour and a half with my sister. It's hard! We giggle a lot. Still, I feel I get a good workout, hear fun middle eastern club music, and I think I do feel better afterward. Hips are so sore.

A beautiful wedding of some friends. So sophisticated with champagne and cream colors everywhere. A fun couple with great taste. Outside on the Mississippi just a few blocks from our home. I was so happy for them. And it was a little reminder of where I was four months ago.

Then, a be-still-my-heart moment: A night with Liz Phair...where she performed the entirety of Exile in Guyville in order, plus an encore of a new song, Chopsticks, May Queen, Polyester Bride. I know I've written about how I've met Liz before, and how much I love her, but this was like the concert of my life. Exile in Guyville is my favorite album of all time. I can listen to it in any mood. It understands me. When I'm feeling lonely, sad, happy, frustrated, elated, angry, moody, thoughtful, or content, it speaks to me. Fatty and I had great sightlines, very close. It makes my heart so big that she decided to do this tour, 15 years after the album was being released. I'm still having trouble putting it into words. I had a big dumb smile on my face all night, I rocked out. After a long, shitty week, it was a welcome, needed, and loved couple of hours.

Today: running errands with a friend, having a gift card to the bookstore (bought: The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz), Simply Orange and waffles with my honey, making a "real" dinner, as William called it: meatloaf, roasted potatoes, and squash. And it tasted like the best thing ever. And it agreed with me.

Bonus: fall clothes, getting rolled out! I was hoping that there would be some things packed away I'd forgotten about, but was a little bummed to find that's not the case. Sad day! But hooray for scarves and skinny jeans with tall boots.

Keep Going

I love politics. I love Hillary. I'm a little sad that she's not making the acceptance speech.

But damn, that was a good speech. She knocked it out.

If you hear the dogs, keep going.

Our Favorite Things

Inspired by WeeMo's request and Found Out About Me's post, here is a list of a few of my favorite things:

Cupcakes
Being married to William
The smell (and taste) of oranges
Molly's paws
Babies laughing
Fun snail mail
Fake eyelashes
The smell of line-dried sheets
Rock and roll
Protesters
Old photos
Trivial Pursuit
Big sunglasses
Sleeping in
Hawaii
Long conversations
Lilacs
Caffeine
Vintage dresses
Correct punctuation
Afternoons at Ikea
Thunderstorms
Blank books
Purple
Not using plastic bags
Mounds bars
Calvin Klein sheets
Target
Laughing so hard I cry; making someone laugh so hard they cry
Fresh lemonade
Letterpress stationery
Peonies
Bookstores
Play-Doh
smell of suntan lotion
making lists
The Bill of Rights
Nerds
Glitter (the art supply, not the Mariah Carey movie)
Feeling useful
Arguing politics with my dad
Driving with the windows down and the heat on in my car in the fall
Goat cheese
Home decorating
Tennis
Project Runway
J. Crew
Trees
Dr Pepper
Fishing
Simply Orange
Blog Friends
Hot days, cold lakes
Getting off airplanes
Listening to Liz Phair, Tom Petty, R.E.M., etc.
Chocolate mousse
Pineapple
William's egg sandwiches on weekend mornings
New socks (especially knee-highs)
Massages
The New Yorker
Good questions
Pretty paper
The scratchy sound on records
Animal prints

William's favorite things:
Laying in bed after a hard day
Pale Ale
Chips and salsa
Sound of blow dryers (hair dryers)
Warm laundry
Crisp fall days
Milk and cookies
All things Dutch
Snuggling with Katie and Molly on a do-nothing Saturday
First snowfall of the year (extra props if it happens at night)
Football
When my Katie sings
A new magazine
Good deals
Being in a boat
Sunflower seeds and fishing
Waking up second
Good graphic design
Riding my bike
RadioLab (New York Public Radio show)
Deep-fried turkey
Bacon
NewsRadio and Seinfeld
Tetris
Researching stuff online (esp. potential purchases)
Traveling: seafood in Santorini, paella in Barcelona, pomme frites in Amsterdam, mousse in Paris, naan in India
Right when the wheels leave the ground on the airplane
Doing Molly's voice
Saying "Caaaaats!!!" extra props if they are in "paaaants".
Robots
Legos
Chocolate
Chocolate again
Art supplies (all the hidden potential which may never come to be)
Seeing a sunrise (much better than a sunset)
Jumping on pillows
Jumping into water
Smelling Katie's hair
Smell of Molly's paws
When Molly huffs and puffs
Playing catch with a baseball or football
Playing basketball
Flipping Out (both the show, and just flipping out)

Our favorite things:
Thai food on Friday nights
Eating at The Sample Room
Weekend mornings at the Farmer's Market
Hawaii
Decorating
Vintage shops
Making each other laugh
Dogs
Teak furniture
The color pink
Corn on the cob and BLT's
The Bulldog bar
Setting goals
The Office
Arrested Development
Art fairs, especially Art-a-Whirl
Etsy
Each other