Post B-Day Update

I suspected something because Begem and Shahid were acting weird at FMIG. Shahid asked me "when are you going to bed?" What? Come on Shahid, I'm not stupid. As I pulled up to the apartment after the Family Med Interest Group, it was entirely dark. As I parked, though, I could see a strange orange glow coming from the living room. When I opened the door Shahid, Begem, and Kolene burst out and yelled "Surprise!". They had made me a beautiful pineapple-coconut cake. Pictures to come. What wonderful friends I have here. I couldn't help but think back to my birthday a year ago at that terrible house. Its hard for me to even imagine Leo helping out with my birthday. Thinking about everything that has happened to me over the past year, I can't believe that I've come out where I am now. I have a wonderful place with a wonderful support system. Thank you Begem, Kolene, and Shahid. You guys are the best!

I had a dermatologist follow-up on Fri afternoon. Severe thunderstorms cancelled the usual team recovery ride earlier. Still, the rain had settled to a gentle warm drizzle by 6 pm. After emailing the listserv, I had a taker. Elle and I headed out in the rain. I wore the white purple cow spandex just to keep things interesting in the wet. It ended up being a very nice ride up Beaver Meadow and down Tigertown just as the rain began to break. As we pulled up to Dirt Cowboy for the requisite post-ride iced chai, a rainbow appeared. What could have been a crappy, rainy Friday night ended up being quite awesome.

Saturday was consumed, in large part, by another blown coilpack on the GTI. This was the worst one yet. Begem had to come rescue me. The only place to have any coilpacks on a saturday was autozone. I couldn't believe it. So, after about 50 trips back and forth to the car, it was fixed. Thanks a lot VW engineer. I hope that your pacemaker fails. This is #3 for those of you keeping track. What a stupid design.

Once the coilpacks were fixed, I moved onto the next project: getting the new Easton fork installed on the Serotta. Pics to come, but needless to say, its breathtaking. While at the bike shop getting a shorter caliper nut, guess who I saw in Dirt Rag!?! Spencer! Kate's Spencer! He wrote a big article on bike patrolling. Check it out. Here he is below showing off his mad skills. Nice work Spencer. You're a baller.





Saturday night was the official b-day get together. It turned out to be a food overload. Menu:

-Ben: Chicken Fry/"Fry Goscht", Basmati rice
-Begem/Kolene: South Indian Eggplant
-Shahid: Aloo (Indian Potatoes)
-Karl: Fresh blueberry tart
-Liz/Emily: Big spinach salad, three different types of zucchini bread, homemade fresh blueberry ice cream, surprise lemon-strawberry cake.

Just FYI...we also had leftover coconut-pineapple cake too. I've never seen so much dessert. Begem and Kolene had to take off to study, but the rest of us enjoyed a rousing game of Balderdash...my favorite. Thank you so much to everyone who made it such a special night.







Sunday morning, I rode the 28 miles of Hell with one of my new classmates, Mike. He's a Dartmouth alum, both undergrad and the school of public health. I stuck it to him pretty good and continued on to ride another 35 or so miles. I was chased by, not one, but a *pack* of german shepherds. I was screaming and riding towards the one that was leading the charge. I knew that if I showed any weakness, I was dead. Literally, there were 15 dogs chasing me. And of course, it had to be on an uphill. I think that I finally convinced them that I was crazy enough to not be worth it.



Today's the big day. The 6 month surveillance check. The bloodwork. The CT scans. The exam. I'm surprised; maybe I'm just emotional lately, but it is having more of an effect on me than I expected. Karl and I talked for a while last night. I still can't believe everything that I've been through in the past year. I guess that I'm also starting to realize that I'm not over Teresa. I thought that I had moved on. I thought that I had separated. I wonder if revisiting the cancer and Dr. Seigne brings her back to prominence in my mind. She also had lunch with Begem a couple of weeks ago. The discussion about that was not easy.

And with everything that I've been through, the craziest part is that there are people on this earth whose entire lives are more screwed than we could ever imagine. In the scheme of things, I'm so blessed.