Musings

The platelet count and Dr. Herzog agreed, Â 6 cycles of the modified BEACOPP were all that my bone marrow was going to stomach (I hope platelets have stomachs, that would make me very happy). As such, I flew home, had another PET scan (which showed just one spot which we will radiate), met with all sorts of MDs, had my infected port removed, blah blah data data.

It is nice to be home, it is nice to be able to cook what I want when I want to, it is nice to sleep in my own bed, scratch my own kitty, kiss my husband's nose.

I will miss the sauna, the amazing peeps I met from all over the world, the kindness of the nurses and the MDs, and the relaxed attitude the clinic held towards certain things (like eating salad while severely neutropenic). Aufedersein Bad Salzhausen.

I spent 92 days in Germany (two days thankfully were not counted by the German government - otherwise I would have overstayed my visa and Germany may have gotten annoyed).

I am working on our new life in New York - get the house built, planning what kind of animals (chickens and ducks AND goats?) and planting and growing goodies again...I miss having a garden.

As a very wise woman told me - "If you stop planning you are surrendering." - not an option. So, planning I am.

A beautiful dear friend of mine (you can read her blog!) shared with me this quote from Gilda Radner - it is the perfect pause at the end of this particular chapter.

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.

Thank you for being with me on this story of mine. Delicious Ambiguity indeed.

This was not with trains, this was with a rented car and a SatNav (thank you British shorthand for a new word for a Tom-Tom). We went to Weisbaden, "the Nice of Germany" according to our guidebook, the Hildegard of Bingen's abbey, and a beautiful Gothic monastery - Eberbach.

Weisbaden feels like Nice to me because the buildings were very fin de siecle, with the balconies and whatnot.

Well, except for the Rathaus of course. (City Hall)

Hildegard's original abbey was lost in the 30 years war (or the 100 years war, one of those). So her current abbey was built about 100 years ago in the Romanesque style.

They also make their own wine from the vineyards around, which cracks me up.

On the way back to Bad Salzhausen we found the monastery - Kloster Eberbach - where they filmed the Name of the Rose...(which reminds me I need to watch it again.) They also make their own wine.