11.1.09 - Paris

paris photos

dream list:

go back to paris with james - check
be open to the unexpected - check
walk for hours every day until i drop - check
take thousands of photos - check
spend memorable time with mona and magali and frederique - check
eat incredibly delicious food, especially thai and vietnamese - check
meet lots of interesting people - check
speak french for hours at a time - check
have the trip of a lifetime - check

we had an incredible surprise when we arrived at our hotel. kevin o'malley and his co-worker tricia luedtke, who work at tomotherapy, the company that made the radiation machine that i used and wrote about on this blog, and who have followed my blog for a long time and we have e-mailed off and on, paid for our first night at the hotel in paris. i could not have been more surprised. kevin and tricia - THANK YOU!

now i'm home and exhausted. i wasn't really strong enough yet for all the walking i did every day. thank goodness for the terrific bus system in paris. i'd get on at 8 a.m. and hop on and off all day while i explored. my entire body is completely sore, even my ribs, and of course in the back of my mind i think it's the return of cancer. i've learned to accept the ghost.

being with james in paris again was, of course, wonderful. the last time we were in paris together was 2001. since then i kept postponing going back until our schedules would mesh, and they never did - until cancer. this is something i've learned from cancer - don't postpone joy. just don't.