Days Seventy Two to Seventy Five - Exhaustion

Isaiah 35:3-4

Encourage the exhausted, 

    and strengthen the feeble. 

Say to those with anxious heart,
"Take courage, fear not 

Behold, your God will come with vengeance;

The recompense of God will come,

But He will save you."

Started out okay on Friday. They give me steroids on Thursday, so that must be what gets me back to the cancer center on Friday. In the morning, after taking Riley to work, I went to Goodwill, which of course is a terrible indulgence. While there I found four really lovely French dishes, the kind that are sold at Willlams and Sonoma or at my favorite dishes shop in Paris on Alasea. They are called round eared dishes, and they typically sell for about $18 each, but I got four of them for $7. When I can eat food again I want to make coquilles St. Jacques in the dishes, made very simply with mushrooms and white wine. That's one of my favorite dishes.

I also bought a French cookbook that I've always passed up because I thought I already owned it. But this time I said to myself, If I already own it I will give it to Annie. Well it turns out I didn't own it, and it is a very good book. It's called Roger Verge's entertaining in the French Style. He's a very famous chef from the south of France. My copy is the first edition, which could explain some of the confusion as the later editions have a different picture on the front. The author said that this is the cuisine he cooks for his family and friends, not the food from his restaurant.

Lastly I bought two books by Frank McCourt, who died this week at the age of 79.  I had always I might be interested in reading his books, but I was worried that they would be too sad.  But because he died they aired interviews with him on PBS and I could tell his books were sad, but they could be funny also.  So when I spotted two of them on display at Goodwill (they were on display because he died), I bought them, and got right into reading the first on.  'Tis no doubt they're sad, but very engaging.  The two books are Angela's Ashes and 'Tis.  He received the Pulitzer Prize for Angela's Ashes.

I went home and took a nap, and then I ate some lunch, and went to get my white blood cell shot. Then I called Annie, who had called me and wanted to do something. Well of all things she was in a Korean grocery store, which had taken her a very long time to find because she got very lost. So I headed out to 82nd to get her. She was hungry, so we eventually decided to go to MacDonald's, and I had some french fries and spicy mustard sauce and a bit of coke. It didn't taste as good as it did last week. I think that every week the chemo brings my taste buds down a notch. Then we went over to North Portland so that Annie could show me some very interesting shops she had found. That kid really wanders around. And then we went to Sellwood to wander through the antique stores a bit. We also shared a frappoccino from Starbucks. This was probably a big no-no, but it tasted so good.

Somewhere in all of this I had arranged to have dinner with my parents. So I dropped off Annie and headed down town to get Riley and we headed out to my parents place. When we got there my brother George was there. I hadn't seen him in quite a while, and it was pleasant chatting with him. He didn't go to dinner with us, as he wanted to go home. For dinner we went to TeeBows, by Dad's favorite restaurant. I had a little bit of tenderloin steak and a little bit of baked potato with butter and sour cream, and some melon. After eating I was very very tired. We dropped my parents off and went home and I laid down. I think it was too much for my system to digest steak, or should I say beef.

I could not get to sleep Friday night. I finally got up at 3 in the morning and read my book. But when all was said and done I had only about 4 hours of real sleep, if that. I think it was because of all the things I ate on Friday.

On Saturday we walked over to Pete's with Ken and Marilyn and I had a Pelegrino, which Riley bought for me at Starbucks across the street. We had a pleasant time, but Riley realized that I was probably too tired to walk back home, and it was getting very hot. So he and Ken walked home to get the car, and Marilyn and I stayed and did all the puzzles in the paper, and we had a very good time indeed.

When we got home Sarah and Zac and Caleb were there. It seems that Caleb needed a nap, and so did I. But I had only a short nap, maybe 40 minutes, and then I got up to visit. Sarah and Zac ate some food from ChaChaCha, which looked yucky to me. I can't remember what I ate. But I know that Riley went down town to work. Eventually the Enochs left and I decided that I really needed to sleep, so I took an Atavan, and I slept for quite a while.

Saturday night I did sleep better, and I didn't wake up in time for church at 9:15. But we decided we'd go at 11 and Riley made blueberry muffins and I made my buttered scrambled eggs, so we had a nice breakfast. We did make it to church on time. But that was kind of it for me for most of the day. I was tired, tired, tired. We did stop over at Heidi and Stephane's for a while, and they did come over to our house to go swimming in the evening. But even while they were still here I had to lay down. I don't think they really understood. I hope they weren't offended.

We did watch a Miss Marple Mystery before going to bed, and then I slept like a rock. And when morning came it took some effort on Riley's part to get me up. I ate my breakfast and went back to sleep. I slept all morning. Then I got up and made myself a fruit smoothy, and then I went back to sleep again. It's mind-boggling to be that sleepy. And even when I wasn't out I could only lay on the couch and stare out at things, feeling all the while as if I were asleep.

Riley made me some baked custard, but when he decided he needed to go to the pool store the custard was still baking.  So I said I'd take care of it some how.  By about 3 o'clock I woke up enough to get off the couch and come in to the back room and blog. And here I am. I just finished a custard, and it was so good.  But now Riley thinks I should get out just a bit. Never mind that the temperature outside is 100 degrees.

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."  Matthew 11:28