Long Weekend in NYC: Mary, Maggie, and R'el, and Peter, Xiomara, and Andrew

            For Christmas R’el gave me a long weekend in New York City. (I’m very proud of the bus tickets: roundtrip Boston to NYC for $12, reserved seat right above the driver on the double-decker for an additional $14. Love the view! I spent Thursday through Tuesday, 18 June to 23 June, in Manhattan with R’el; my sister Maggie flew in from L.A. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

            We went to STOMP, an Off-Broadway show that starts with a dust broom skit and goes from there. It’s wordless and expressive, percussively creative and energetic, funny and fun. Many years ago, back when I was lifeguard for our church Girls Camp, my friend Shelley taught some campers the dust broom skit for a talent show. I’ve always remembered that. We got half-price tickets when we didn’t win the ticket lottery for Wicked and headed downtown. Before the show we had hot dogs and delicious tropical fruit drinks at the Papaya King near the theater. (Maggie is the Hot Dog Queen of the West; I’m the Hot Dog Queen of the East. We prefer hot dogs to steak.)

After the show Maggie took my picture standing with two cast members, which I texted to my family. We also spent time with Peter, Xiomara, and Andrew, including a picnic under the pergola at the Conservatory in Central Park, where they took wedding pictures. There we spied a family of six raccoons climb up the thick vines and traverse overhead.

            I did a lot of walking, clocking over 18,000 steps (6 miles and more) on three different days. I walked from R’els apartment down to the 59^th St. Bridge (“Got no deeds to do, no promises to keep… all is groovy!”). The morning of Maggie’s return flight, she and I walked to Randall’s Island and to the top of the pedestrian bridge alongside I-278 that Matt told us about and enjoyed great views of the NYC skyline to the southwest and Long Island to the northeast.

Low platelets and hematocrit, Citizen Kane

            Back at Cox for our semi-weekly appointment: platelets down from 11 to 6 and hematocrit continuing low, at 20, despite semi-weekly infusions of both. White blood cell count is steady, in the low 30s, but the percentage of blasts (the leukemic white blood cells) has not been below 65% since April 8^th and we’re entering the third week of blast percentages in the mid-90s. The hydroxyurea dosage will stay at 5.5 grams/day.

            David continues to have little energy to move around, but does enjoy some activities, including reading, and watching movies with Matt and us. On Saturday a client of Jim’s invited us on a boat trip, leaving from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We were unsuccessful in our quest for whales, but saw a seal in open water as well as a shark. We moored in the Isle of Shoals harbor and enjoyed a barbeque on the boat.

            Before our 1 p.m. appointment, David watched Citizen Kane. He was not impressed. Of course the identity of Rosebud came as no surprise. Does anyone in America not know about Rosebud? Soon we’ll watch it with commentary. Our film major son, Matt, is encouraging us to expand our film-watching horizons, including viewing the Deanna Durbin movies he gave us for Christmas.