I traveled down the road a bit to hide in the home of a friend.

T, I believe, is a nurturer. Even when her life is mass confusion, she will turn away from that which is before her to focus on others. She welcomes me into her home with no expectations, no judgements, and plenty of gourmet food.

A hundred and one office visits, exams, tests, and new prescriptions later, I have the surgery scheduled for the 25th. Being much of a wimp, I am not looking forward to this and have practically begged B to drop everything and come hold my hand. I am praying I will be brave no matter the answer to my plea.

In the midst of all of this, I learned my grandfather has lymphoma. When it rains, it pours. I am confident he will meet this with the grace with which he has walked his entire life. And yet I would not wish the uncertainty, the discomfort, the distress upon anyone, least of whom a man who lost his wife, nearly died of pneumonia, and then was plagued by shingles for months on end.

Tired and overwhelmed, I crawled into the comfort of T's home. She did not disappointment. For example, I now have candy apple red toenails. They got that way after an hour long, surprisingly relaxing pedicure.

T also filled my stomach and my luggage with chocolate. I sort of went half crazy over the thought of sweets, especially chocolates. Candy bars and brownies galore came home with me. along with a few bags of long-sought-after-for Bit-O-Honey. Her refrigerator was filled with Dr. Pepper, although the cinnamon buns somehow did not make it home with me.

In addition to new beauty experiences, I had pastrami for the first time. T made these rather tasty crackers topped with stone ground mustard, Dietz & Watson pastrami, and spinach (I ignored the grape tomato she would have added as well). I think that I chowed down on 12 of them after we had finished our lunch. I chowed down and lost another game.

Despite the fact that she was falling asleep on her feet, T played poker with me. I foolishly bit the dust quite early in the game. She also played Bull Crap, a game she taught me last time, and a new domino's game: chicken feet. I lost both of them, too. Winning is virtually impossible between herself and her husband.

However...really...I was a winner the whole weekend.