Wonderful Week

What a fine week, ending yesterday with the birthday season finale, a brunch with biking friends hosted by Diane Lauver--in the picture, from left to right: Gail Van Haren, Maureen Armstrong, Margaret Peterson, Tracy Lewis (standing), Kathy Waack, Diane, Angie Mayr, me, Susan Riley. Although I describe these as my biking friends, they are, of course, much more than that, and I realized during the brunch that one of the wonderful things about their friendship is that they've kept me part of the group, in the loop, even as my annual biking mileage has dipped well below 100. Thanks!

The week included other wonderful events, too. On Friday evening, I participated in the local gallery walk--something I usually shun, because hanging out at noisy receptions trying to make small talk has never been fun for me. And now I can't even hang out at the food table, stuffing my face to avoid mingling. But both my publisher, Richard Quinney, and my book designer, Ken Crocker, had shows of their art work opening on Friday, so I wanted to go to those galleries. Seeing their work (Richard's photographs and Ken's paintings) would have been treat enough, but at each gallery, there was a bonus. Richard's gallery is connected to a coffee house next door and Caroline Hoffman, a friend from starting-the-Children's-Museum days (early 1980s) was showing her photographs of poppies there. I didn't know about the show, but Caroline saw me at Richard's gallery and told me about it. Wonderful work; in fact, I ordered a t-shirt with one of her poppy prints on it.

The bonus at Ken's show was meeting two psychologists (a couple) who were very interested in Facing Fear. Linda Roberts, in fact, does research on the effects of a cancer diagnosis on couples' relationships. We had a long and interesting conversation, not at all "small talk." Fortunately, it was quiet enough for me to be heard!

Ken told me I'd just missed seeing Carol Bjerke, the artist whose image of a boat is on the cover of Facing Fear. I was disappointed, because I hadn't yet met her. But later in the evening, by amazing coincidence, we did meet. I had such a good time gallery hopping that I decided to stop at one more gallery on the way home, to see photographs by Jim Barnard, another Children's Museum friend whom I haven't seen in about 25 years. I was catching up (more or less) with Jim and his wife Barbara, when Carol walked into the room, looked at me, and asked, "Are you Judith Strasser?" (Later she said she recognized me from my blog picture.) We had a good conversation, and I'm really looking forward to our presentation together (with Richard Quinney, too) at the Wisconsin Book Festival on Sunday, October 19. (Main public library downtown, 4 PM--come see us!)

All this took place at Ma Cha, a tea house/gallery, where the proprietor has a truly amazing memory for his customers. I've been there four or five times, always in the afternoon, so when he saw me leaving on Friday about 9 PM, he said, "You're out late tonight!" A young guy who was buying tea looked at me and said, "Of course. It's Friday night. She's partying down!"

And I was. It was really a great evening, one I never expected would, or could, be so wonderful!

This entry has gone on long enough, so I'll just mention a few other of the week's activities: counting and assembling Obama/Biden lawn signs for three or four hours; celebrating my birthday (yet again!) with Janet Zimmerman, Susan Riley, and Diane Lauver at a nice restaurant before going to a play Wednesday evening; sending off the final cover proof for Facing Fear, the last bit the printer needs to make the book happen; receiving all sorts of wonderful gifts, including a gorgeous bouquet of Farmers Market flowers from my friend Sandy; and signing the consent form to participate in the sunitinib trial. I still don't know when that will start--a nurse was supposed to call on Friday with the schedule for the CT/PET scan that has to happen first, but I still haven't heard from her. I gather this requires coordination with the nuclear medicine physicists involved in the trial, so I won't get too impatient until tomorrow.

And the wonderfulness of the past week has already spilled over into this week. If you get a chance, check out this blog about the Great Lakes, which I just learned about today:

http://www.greatlakestownhall.org/opinion/issueview.php?forumid=2&topicid=1166&postid=2399&topicsubject=%22Island%20Eyes%22&dontscroll=