The Last Day of the Year

I'm going to spend the last day of the year playing Mah Jongg with my girlfriends. Not a bad way to say goodbye to 2010. Tonight, Mark and I will continue our "old fogey" tradition of watching TV until the ball drops, sipping a little champagne, and going to bed. We haven't gone out on New Year's Eve in years and years. We used to go to parties, but over the years we just didn't want to be driving home on the road with people that were probably drunk. It's safer in the house.

2010 has been an incredible year for me and Mark. I thought I would take a few moments to reflect on all the changes.

Last January there were huge snowstorms, yet we practiced diligently on our Cabaret show. Despite the snow, our out of town guests made it in, so the show went on with only half the number of people who had bought tickets. We also had only half the band since the two guitarists couldn't make the drive in the snow. Sadly, Lowell was one of those guitarists, so our opportunity to have all four Silversteins on the stage singing "Piano Man" at the same time didn't happen. During the show, Mark suffered his cardiomyopathy and spent several days at Johns Hopkins Hospital cardiac unit. It took months of being careful about what he did, but he recovered completely from his rare takutsubo event.

In February we had Kip and crew load the storage POD of half our belongings. Our house would be up for sale, and we had to stage it to get it ready. We hired a contractor to paint and update the entire house. Wow! It was very disruptive. There were two more blizzards to deal with; we spent 8 nights in a motel because of the contractor's work; I worked only 6 days out of the entire month. The last day of February 2010 was my last day of work. EVER!

On March 2 we took off on the cross-country train to begin our 7 week trip to Hawaii and through the Panama Canal. That was just simply amazing!! Unfortunately I left on the train at 208 pounds and came back weighing 216 pounds. Hm...for that much travel and that many buffets, maybe 8 pounds wasn't so bad! This morning I weigh 244.

In early May, Evey and Eric graduated from Northeastern University. We had a great time attending the graduation. Then, Evey had only about three weeks at home before it was time for her to head to Santa Clara, CA with her fiance Eric to begin their new life together as he began his new career with Apple Computer.

In June, Mark and I went down to Solivita, a gated over-55 community in Poinciana, Florida, to look at homes. We found our dream home and put a contingency contract on it. We had three months to sell our house and close the deal. We also had a couple of back to back trips to Pennsylvania resorts. Sadly, I found the lump in my breast while we were there. That was the beginning of my breast cancer adventure. In the meantime, we had the opportunity to drive Evey's car across country for her, see her apartment, visit some old friends, and sell our house. Yes, we actually got the call that our house had an offer while we were visiting our friends Laverne and Kelly in Sonoma, CA. I'll always remember that day!

We flew home from California with excitement to close on our house in less than three weeks. We still had a lot of work to get the basement cleared out, and I had the lump removed under local anaesthetic. The doctors were still sure it was benign, but I got the call from the surgeon the day before we went to settlement to sell our house that it was invasive lobular cancer and that he had not gotten it all. My heart sunk. The next day we sold our house. I also visited the surgeon and heard my options. I was living in a motel, committed to buying a house in Florida, had no insurance that worked in Florida, and was scared to death.

My sister Cindy offered her house to us to stay in through treatments, so we gratefully took her up on that offer. We drove to Florida, bought the house on August 6 (my 60th birthday), and spent a few days trying to unpack as much as possible. We had to drive up and down the east coast three times for doctor's appointments and tests, and then back to Florida for more unpacking. Finally, after Labor Day weekend, we were up here in Maryland for the duration of my treatment.

Since September, I have had the partial mastectomy and chemotherapy. I cried; I denied; I ranted and raved. I did what I had to do, but I didn't have to like it. October and November found me in the hospital twice from chemo complications, but I'm still doing what I have to do.

Now it's the last day of the year 2010. I only have one more chemo infusion to do. I have new insurance in effect tomorrow that will work in Florida. We will be in our dream home on February 1 of 2011. The end of this dark tunnel is starting to appear.

It's been an incredible journey this year. Every year is an adventure, but I have to say that 2010 might be the most adventurous one of my life.

I wish everyone a happy, healthy New Year. May everyone's adventures in 2011 be good ones!