Skipping Town

Saturday was a big day for Lucia: she got her driver's permit! She and Andrew went to the DMV first thing in the morning, and she passed her test. She has not yet had a chance to practice, but she has taken a big step forward.  While they did that, I took Greta to Steel City so she could participate in a fund-raising Erg-A-Thon. She erg'd the distance of a half marathon and was very pleased. (I spent the time reading at the Oakmont Bakery, then grocery shopping.) Lucia babysat on Saturday night, while Andrew watched sports and Greta and I watched Stranger Things.  Sunday, Greta and I went out early to check out the Carnegie Library book sale, which we'd never been to before. Though the long line out the door boded well, the sale turned out to be quite small. Andrew and I had brunch with the Clarks at Cafe Margaux. Later in the afternoon, Andrew, the kids, and I went thrifting at the Red, White, & Blue in Sewickley. We all got some fun things. It's a great thrift sto...

It was a long, busy, cold week. Greta is between winter and spring sports seasons, so it was a little bit of a juggle to figure out her 3pm pickup each day (luckily Andrew had lots of flexibility this week to get her). Lucia is between seasons too but is going to musical rehearsal every day and then running by herself afterward. Greta went to her first Science Bowl meet on Friday. Andrew somehow got a 24-hour stomach bug late this week, so we cranked up the air purifier, I grudgingly wore a mask around the house, and I slept in the attic. Having a battered immune system is such a hassle. However, knock on wood, I'm otherwise feeling completely fine, except for some minor swelling of my fingers (I checked with the nurse; nothing to be concerned about)--and finished the first cycle of meds on Friday. Now I have a week off (the four-week schedule is three weeks of pills and one week of no pills), and then the next cycle begins with another fulvestrant injection and a new round of kisq...

After the extreme busyness of Saturday, it was nice to head down to Connellsville for the day to celebrate Dad's birthday (which was yesterday). Mom made scrippelles (!!!), the most celebratory meal of all, as well as creme brulee for dessert. Dad got out his mini blowtorch and we all carmelized the sugar on our own creme brulees. Delicious and restorative.  Mom practiced piano with the kids; Mom, Lucia, Greta, and I played Sorry; Andrew went for a run; Andrew helped Dad fix a problem with their kitchen faucet. I dug around in my bedroom closet and found the box of journals I'd been looking for (after pushing aside my old violin shoulder rest and a stack of paper wrappers from our wedding invitations, because that's just how Connellsville is--you can't take a step without tripping over a relic of personal history).  Then Dad pulled out a box holding two of my sequined dresses from high school and the girls put them on--Lucia put on my junior-year prom dress, The Flame; ...

This weekend was an exceptionally busy sideshow.  Friday: 3:00 - 5:30: Lucia had musical rehearsal 3:00 - 10:30pm: Greta went to a friend's house directly after school for a birthday party 7:30 - 9:30: Margo and Andrew to a neighbor's party 10:30: Pickup Greta In the very constricted time slot I had to make dinner, I was almost done preparing linguini with clams when I asked Lucia to unload the dishwasher. The pasta was boiling in its pot; the clams were simmering in their pan. A one-cup Pyrex measuring cup was standing by to scoop up some pasta water when the time came. Lucia carried a (in retrospect, obviously too-heavy) stack of plates over to the cupboard, which is next to the stove. She somehow miscalculated where the shelf was (?) and dropped the entire stack straight down onto the measuring cup. None of the plates broke. The measuring cup, however, exploded into pieces that flew all over the stove, floor, and even onto the table. By "pieces," I mean "shard...

We are tired of living in the basement, shrouded in dust. But progress is being made every day. The old windows are out; new windows will be in by the end of the week. As usual, there is a new temporary wall to hold up the house while work is being done. I'm glad these construction guys know what they're doing.  I'm behind this week on blogging, for no reason other than the house is chaos, evenings are chaotic, and there's always a lil' piece of extra chaos each day to make things interesting.  For example, on Tuesday the cleaners came, at the exact moment a dumpster arrived and the street construction settled directly in front of our house for the day.  For example, last night Farrah managed to find, steal, and eat an entire chocolate bar Andrew had brought back from Germany. Fortunately, it was milk chocolate with a lot of peanuts, so she wasn't in too much danger. But there was a tense half hour of finding chocolate toxicity calculators online and using Googl...

The kids and Andrew had no school/work on Monday, but, alas, I did not have the day off. At least I was able to work from home. Andrew took the kids ice skating in Schenley in the afternoon, which they seemed to enjoy. And we all played Splendor.  We've been watching the Olympics each night, mostly figure skating. Lucia observed that the next time the Winter Olympics are on, she will be in college. I feel like the next two years are going to be a series of realizations like that. I've been trying to put together our schedule for the summer and it's almost complete. I registered Lucia for an SAT class, and Greta for a summer geometry class. Lucia will be applying for a job. Greta will do some summer rowing. We have our NH and Cape May plans in place. It is going to be a very full but fun summer.

Today, Skipping Town turns twenty. I have a lot of feelings about this. And so, a few words: "The past is never dead. It's not even past." --Faulkner On February 15, 2006, I sat down at my small desk by the window of my apartment on 5th Avenue in Brooklyn and created an account on a blogging platform called Blogger. After some thought, I titled my new blog Skipping Town. It made sense: I was just a few months away from moving from New York City to Barcelona, and “skipping town” was exactly what I was doing. The phrase was light, breezy, confident; a little reckless. Though this was unquestionably a major life move--it involved quitting my job as an editor at an office in Union Square, breaking my lease on a beautiful Park Slope one-bedroom, selling all my furniture, and closing a chapter on the city I loved most in the world, where I’d been building a life since 1999--“skipping town” left little room for what I was leaving behind. I was twenty-nine, moving abroad, chasing...

Lucia tested negative for covid on Friday so we have removed isolation and masking from the chaos of our household. There is still a lot of other chaos ("I'm just gonna rip up this whole floor" is not something one generally wants a plumber to announce) and our house is beyond filthy with dust. Are we halfway through the reno? Perhaps. Perhaps. Friday night the girls and I watched This Is Us while Andrew went to a rodeo downtown--it was a work event. He had a bit of difficulty deciding what to wear, truly uncomfortable with any deviation from his typical put-together ensembles of a tucked-in button-down shirt. He still wore a tucked-in button-down shirt, but it was flannel. He tried to wear a wool blazer. Greta and I said no. Saturday Lucia had a track meet in Youngstown, and Andrew, Greta, and I went to watch--my first track meet. She did well despite having been sick and not doing intense workouts this week. We stayed for her two events (a relay and the mile) and then w...

Lucia stayed home from school on Wednesday, though she's feeling mostly fine--a very mild Covid case. I'm still masking in the house which is a HUGE pain, but unavoidable. The week's renovation work is focused on plumbing and electrical. Sometimes the water is turned off; sometimes, after everyone leaves, we realize Greta's room has no electricity and she lights twenty candles so she can see while she gets ready for bed. One positive step forward is that the plumber is getting closer to solving The Mystery of No Cold Water. And I'm not going to make too bold a claim, but it's very possible that I provided the clue that unlocked the whole case. No, I haven't "examined the plumbing" or "tested any pipes" or "identified any crossed valves," but I did provide a logical path forward by pointing out to the plumber that the people we bought the house from had renovated all the bathrooms using very unskilled contractors, and that had to...

As though we don't have enough chaos, Lucia tested positive for covid this morning and stayed home from school. She's mostly fine--no fever or cough; just a sore throat--but still. Covid? She's isolating in her bedroom and I'm masking in the house, which is the worst but necessary. Sigh. Our house continues to be chaotic. Having a basement kitchen is great...until the work moves to the basement. The electricians and plumbers both need to be down there this week, which has made things like preparing lunch or getting a glass of water a challenge. 

Behind on these posts. In a nutshell:  Andrew was supposed to come home from Germany on Friday but didn't get back until Sunday because of an ice storm in Berlin. We also had bad weather and I chickened out on taking Lucia for her permit test on Saturday morning. The girls and I hunkered down to play games and watch This Is Us. The basement is inconvenient...but also pretty cozy. Sunday was the Big Game. We usually host a Super Bowl party but, obviously, there is no hosting this year. So we went to the Clarks'. The girls and I brought our 'analog bags' and busied ourselves with various crafts while others watched the game. (We had some crafting company, too.) I did a Valentine's zentangle; Greta colored and worked on a puzzle; Lucia started bedazzling a book cover. We did watch the halftime show. Monday, Lucia came home from school saying she didn't feel well, so that's not great.  The house continues to be chaotic. Random areas of ceiling have been cut into...

Lucia is selecting classes for junior year. She is supposed to start choosing classes that create kind of 'narrative' for what she wants to study. We are trying to help (not that she wants our help), but she truly has no idea what she is interested in.  I can relate. I recently came across a bio I wrote during my summer at the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts, which was the summer of 1994, when I'd just finished my junior year of high school. I was seventeen. This bio was to be included in a collection of pieces written by the other students in my poetry class:           Besides writing poetry, Margo "Violet" Orlando also enjoys writing in her journal, playing the violin, and acting. This year, she will be a senior at Geibel High School in Connellsville, PA. Margo's future plans are completely made--where she wants to go, what she wants to do, who she wants to be--and she's waiting for just the right moment to reveal these plans to the world...

I won't bury the lede: our insurance claim for ribociclib (kisqali) was APPROVED on Tuesday afternoon! I am, frankly, surprised. But so happy. The other medication choice was absolutely valid, and I'll likely be on it at some point; but the side effects are more intense, so I'm glad to be able to choose this fulvestrant + kisqali protocol right now. There are also side effects from this one, of course. But different. (A compromised/decimated immune system is one of them, so I'll be back to masking in public.)  After the peer-to-peer discussion failed to happen again on Monday, I'd pretty much assumed it would never happen. However, it actually did happen on Tuesday, and I was told I'd have an answer within 24-48 hours. But within one hour, I got a notification that the insurance has approved the treatment, and I was able to call the speciality pharmacy to arrange delivery of the pills for Thursday.  Glad to have this in place. The eighteen-wheeler is revving its...

We had a busy Sunday: Costco in the morning (I wanted a round of prepared/frozen foods to get me through this week since Andrew will be in Germany), brunch at the Clarks', and then a visit to the Center for Creative Reuse, which is basically a permanent rummage sale of craft supplies. Andrew escaped to get a coffee but the girls and I were in our element.  On our way there, knowing from a photo I found online that there would be a card catalog full of junk that you could purchase by the bag, Lucia said, "I'm going straight to the junk drawers," and my heart filled with pride, both in her for being a creative child and in myself for successfully parenting her into that child. I feel like there's a college application just waiting in that line--I can't articulate it yet, and she didn't buy it, but I think there's something to it.  Tonight, I went upstairs and found that the salad Greta had made for Nutmeg was sitting on her bedroom floor, untouched. This...

Friday evening we went to dinner at the club as a break from our cobbled-together "cooking" from the week, and then Greta met a friend at school to see the Upper School play.  Saturday Lucia was gone all day--from 6:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m.--for a track meet in Spirer, Ohio. She got a new PR for the mile--5:57!--and was exhausted but excited about her events. Greta went to Saturday crew practice in the morning, and Andrew and I went to the Oakmont Bakery after dropping her off. Afterward, we went to Panera for lunch then browsed in Anthropologie. Greta found a cute skirt sale-on-sale and Andrew bought a cute casserole dish, also sale-on-sale. I admired a swan tray that will, at some point, be mine. Later Greta and I watched an episode of Stranger Things.  I forgot to write earlier in the week that Greta won two awards for her short stories! Her teacher had encouraged her to submit two of her stories for the Scholastic Writing Awards, and this week she found out she was awarde...

The workers fixed the heat when the arrived on Tuesday. I guess I should say "fixed," because the only thing they had to do was TURN THE THERMOSTAT UP. They'd turned it down when they worked on Friday so dust wouldn't fly around everywhere. We had no idea the thermostat was still there. "Ha ha, I guess that was an easy fix, we had no idea," I blathered when I saw the guys on my way to the basement. They gave me withering looks (at least they did in my imagination). Tuesday the girls had a two-hour delay and their piano lessons were virtual. Wednesday they were back at school at regular time. It's still not easy getting around, and there are mountains of snow in front of our house, but the roads are somewhat / kind of cleared. Fun New Winter Twist: it's so cold outside that we now have drips of water coming down our chandelier in the stairwell. This, in addition to the drips of water near the window in our bathroom. There must be some kind of ice dam....

We are all excited about the snow. It's been too long since we've had a decent snowstorm, and we were happy to just stay home all day Sunday and Monday. The kids had remote school and Andrew and I worked from home. We played Blokus and Rummikub. Greta and I read some winter picture books in front of the fire in the Long Room. We watched This Is Us. Greta and I worked on a puzzle. The kids went sledding down Wightman on Sunday; on Monday they had a snowball fight in the backyard. Farrah loves bounding around in the snow. When we took her for a walk on Monday, Andrew ended up helping to push a stuck car out of the snow; three people had unwisely ventured out, trying to get to the airport. It took a few neighbors to push the car and dig them out, but they were successful. The only bad thing about these snowy days is that somehow the heat in the basement completely stopped working over the weekend. Saturday was chilly, but by Sunday it was absolutely freezing. Lucia had the good id...

The week flew by rather chaotically. With Andrew in Brazil I had to manage the crazy mornings of trying to get the car out of the driveway so the workers could park there, but also then arrange with the street crew who are tearing up the street right in front of our house, prohibiting parking on our block, then get the kids to school, then park again, then go to work.  There was also a winter storm to prepare for. We have a generator and lots of food, so I went out Thursday just to get some milk and jugs of water.  The insurance approval process continues with a denial of the appeal. Now it goes to a peer-to-peer stage where my doctor has to present evidence and argument to justify giving me this drug. From what I've read in the LGSOC group I belong to on Facebook, some doctors won't even go through this process. So I'm lucky that my care team is doing everything they can to make this happen, but it's still extremely frustrating and nerve-wracking. Andrew got home Frida...

It was so cold today that the kids' school switched to remote learning. Since this is the very beginning of the semester, there wasn't a lot of work to do, so after completing what they were assigned they spent the rest of the day sewing clothes (Greta) and bedazzling things while listening to a Percy Jackson audiobook (Lucia).  My sewing machine may be on its last legs--Greta was having all kinds of problems with it today--and when I looked back on old emails I realized I got it for my birthday from Mom and Dad in 2012. It's 14 years old! I got it that year because I wanted to sew a sleep sack for Lucia's baby doll, which, at 3, she carried everywhere. *sob* It may be time for an upgrade, especially if Greta wants to keep sewing. There were piano lessons and Lucia's tutoring in the evening, and then we heated up a few Trader Joe's meals and watched This Is Us. The house was quiet, a lull between electircal work and continued demo. 

Today was a day off for me and the kids. It was also the day the electricians were here to move an electrical box from the kitchen to the basement. This meant power to a large portion of the house would be shut off, and the entire basement kitchen would be emptied so the new box could go into the closet with the HVAC. Greta was valiantly trying to hand-sew since the sewing machine was not working, and I was trying to clean up my office in uncomfortable dimness. Once Lucia woke up, we decided to just leave the house. We started off with pastries and coffees at Paris Baguette in Shadyside, finding some seats by the front window, and hung out there for a while. After a quick browse at Kards Unlimited, we drove to Target, where the kids were struck by the weird cuteness (?) of mini Fuggler backpack charms. They are strange little plush creatures with realistic human teeth. I bought them each one since the day had the feeling of a snow day--cozy togetherness. Everyone was chatty and in a go...

A relaxing day. The girls and I went to Trader Joe's this morning for some groceries. Since Andrew will be in Brazil all week for work, we picked out a bunch of frozen meals for our dinners. I'm giving myself the grace of pre-made meals this week instead of doing the labor of prepping, cooking, and cleaning up while also going to work every day and doing all the chauffering. Something has to give and what is going to give is cooking. Pad thai! Orange chicken! Pork shumai! Lasagna! Trader Joe's has no shortage of options. There will come a day when I will happily undertake elaborate recipes in an enormous, sparkling new kitchen. That day is not today.  We were home for the rest of the day. Greta continued her intense crafting, turning her attention to upcycling some old jeans. She sewed fabric panels into one pair and wore them the rest of the day, and also made a tote bag out of another pair.  Lucia worked on some homework as well as editing a video she and a friend made at...

Wednesday I got my first fulvestrant injections--two shots, one at the top of each glute. I was a little nervous but they weren't anywhere as bad as I'd feared. It was a relief to finally get this part of the new treatment started. Do your work, powerful meds. Next dose is in two weeks. Thursday, the electricians were here and told me when they arrived that the power would likely be off intermittently. So instead of working from home like I'd planned, I went into the office for the morning. (Andrew played with fire and worked from home.) Andrew picked me up at lunchtime and we had lunch at the club, sitting in front of the fire. Very pleasant. Then I worked from home all afternoon, and the power stayed on.  Thursday evening was the Middle School and Upper School winter chorus concert. Mom and Dad drove in for it and we gathered in the basement afterward to have dessert for Mom's birthday (which is Friday).  Friday was Greta's Middle School dance. She wore a beautifu...

The waiting is the hardest part. Waiting for test results is always excruciating (so excruciating that I've stopped looking at them) but the waiting I'm doing now, for my new treatment to start, is also difficult. I want the new meds IN MY SYSTEM, doing their powerful work. This is known to be a powerful combo, and I just need it to get going. But, good news, on Monday, on my way to a lunch meeting, the gyn-onc nurse called me and said I can start the fulvestrant injections on Wednesday while we wait for insurance approval for the ribociclib. That's great. Glad I can get started with this part.  Tuesday just felt like more waiting. I told Andrew I felt like my eighteen-wheeler was incrementally making its corner turn and he looked at me like I was crazy--he does not really keep up with the daily brilliance of my blog. "I'M the eighteen-wheeler," I said, trying to clarify.  The demo continues. Dust is absolutely everywhere. The cleaners came Tuesday morning (to...

A day of errands and catching up. Greta and I took Nutmeg to her grooming appointment in Bethel Park this morning. We are always amazed at how expertly and easily the volunteers handle the bunnies--for us, trying to pick Nutmeg up is like trying to hold onto a handful of water. After that, the kids and I went to Target, Tous Les Jours, and Giant Eagle. Later in the afternoon, Greta, Farrah, and I went for a walk in Schenley, in the snow. It was very pretty, and very cold--so cold that pebbles had become encased in ice and attached themselves to Farrah's paws. We had to stop a few times and then run her paws under warm water at home to melt them off.   The kids did homework and piano practicing in the evening, and I finally finished Gilmore Girls. I'll watch the reboot next, though I like where the series proper ended, with everyone just on the other side of the cusp of happiness. It was a good finale. 

A day of sports for my sports-loving family. Andrew left the house at 4:00 a.m. to get a flight to Florida to see a football game (and to see his sister, since he didn't get to see her at Christmas). He was excited about this "playoff" football game so I'm glad he got to go. I'm not sure if it's related, but the other day he forced me and the girls to "choose" a football team for some kind of pool. After Andrew read off the team names, most of which we'd never heard of, Greta, deadpan, announced that she'd take the Seahorses, and she's referred to them this way ever since. (I think the actual team name is "Seahawks," which makes even less sense than Seahorses, because at least seahorses are real animals. Is a seahawk just a blustery, masculine, watch-out-or-I'll-tackle-you way of saying "seagull"? Or maybe it's a real creature? I could Google it, but I prefer the uncertainty and the ongoing irritation we can br...