War of the Wings VIII

This may be boring for others but it's too long for a Facebook status update. It's my blog and I'll ramble if I want to. If you just want to look at a few random photos, you can browse the set on Flickr. This weekend was War of the Wings in Boonville, NC. We didn't go last year since we were prepping for Rich's surgery so this was our first WoW camping with Marinus. It was also my third event fighting rapier.

We had a rough start getting to site. We expected to get up Thursday morning, pack the car and be on the road by 10. Losing power over and over starting Wednesday night, torrential rain the entire time we packed the van and a hole in one of the tires really slowed us down. We left at 2:30pm and headed to a hotel versus site. My husband should have a giant silk banner that says "I HATE SETTING UP IN THE DARK." French or Latin would make that sound better, I'm sure. Ian was stoked to jump on a hotel bed and I was stoked to finally shower for the day by 9pm.

Friday was my day to fight rapier while Rich braved Walmart and caring for Ian. Since it was my only chance to fight all weekend I was unapologetically pushy about rallying folks for the melee tourney. Everyone seemed content to sit and talk and do an occasional pick up fight and I was all "GO TEAM!!" and "Hooray, Benjamin! Let's do a clinic!" I am pleased that a three man melee bear pit with four teams is enough to raise my heart rate. I think endurance and cardio may be my two finest fighting skills at the moment. It must be hard to kill someone when you're gasping for breath.

After spending the afternoon being that little dog that hops all over the bulldog saying, "c'mon Spike!" I retired to our camp for dinner. Oda had spent the entire day crafting a feast in period fashion. As Kit said walking by, we had a high table set up in our camp which was pretty classy. We were able to invite Adilina and Alexandria to dine with us as they are soon moving to Florida. And as a special treat we had Ross and Shrew (Master Snaeulf and Mistress Rosatrude the Shrew) join us! I stopped by their merchant booth and asked Ross what they were doing for dinner and he said, "enh, we'll probably heat up some hot dogs." Dinner at our place was a much better plan.

Oda made chickens on the spit, beet and cheese pie, turnips with cheese, greens over "sops", meatballs, fresh bread, fresh churned butter (made by Adilina that day!), pears in red wine and applesauce that had a fancier name I can't remember. As the sun set across from us, it cut through the pavilions like a laser but within a few minutes we had a lovely sunset to view.

Saturday was Rich's turn to fight. Ian and I wandered around and went shopping for a bit. He was hilarious in the fabric merchant picking out the fabrics he wanted for his new clothes. He of course grabbed everything remotely orange.

After lunch Ian was getting tired but he said he wanted to shower at the bath house. I should have known better because it was very hard to get him to walk down there. Once we got clean he insisted on putting on the ninja turtle undies he'd already been wearing for two days. I have low parenting standards but I just couldn't do that. So I carried a naked sobbing 52lb child a mile up the hill back to camp. I may have burned more calories than if I had actually fought that day. If any other rapier fighters would like to use my training techniques, I can loan Ian to you around 2pm on the second day of any event. BYO-turtle undies.

He sobbed in the pavilion while his eyes rolled back in fatigue. And then he slept from 3-6:45pm. He slept through evening court (so Rich stayed with him while I went solo). He slept through trick or treating. He almost missed dinner. But Catalina saved the day and took our son out to dinner at the merchants while we attended a grown up state dinner with Their Majesties and our cousins. She also took him back to the fabric merchant and acquired more green linen to make him ninja turtle garb. He is STOKED!

My excitement for the evening was finding a little girl crying because she had lost her mom when she made a wrong turn out of the porta potty. After her initial tears, she was great as we trekked across site looking for a walkie talkie or herald. I asked her what her mom's name was and she said, "I call her Mom but I think her name is Danielle." Haley and I finally found a radio but all the words were worn off so we had no idea how to work it. When we found a radio operator, Gise was describing the girl and said her mom's name is Danielle. The girl whispered in my ear, "She's really skinny too." When I told her we were going to announce over the radio that we had found the best little girl at the event she said, "I don't think that's true. I think you're exaggerating." I reminded her that her mom must think so, so it would help her know we had the right little girl. She then told me, "my mom will probably like that I said she was skinny."

I was happy to reunite with my own clever kid after all that too. After his Nap of Doom that afternoon, I assumed he would be up until 1am but we all happily turned in around 11pm. Sunday was rain (curses!) and packing out. We were able to have a brief visit with my brother Doug on our way home. Ian was convinced Doug's basement was a ninja turtle lair and was very impressed that Doug has a pet turtle named Mr. T. Also, Doug's dog Cider does a circus trick of balancing on the weight bench.

So it's been an incredibly long few days. I'm on the fence as to the work fun ratio but overall I call it a success. I'm looking forward to using Monday to recover.

Just keep swimming

Rich has been heading to Nashville and the Sarah Cannon Cancer Center since June 1. I went on that first trip for the several days it took to biopsy and verify his dosages would not cause him to sprout a second head. After that, his trips were just for a day at a time every three weeks and he's gone alone. I had started to notice his mood change over the course of those three week cycles, though. Much like chemo treatments have a cyclical effect on the patient, Rich would get better immediately after a check up but as the next visit loomed closer, he would get more and more sour. The night before his flight he could be almost unbearable as his worry caused him to be a Great Big Weirdo.

After Rich's last appointment, I decided he needed a buddy to go along. Specifically, he needed the Chancellor of Optimism at his side for the day.

Today was our day. But the story starts last night. I was trying to get Ian's lunch packed and Ian was going potty and all of a sudden Rich was super worried about his appointment. I was then dealing with "healthy snacks" and coaching Ian through folding toilet paper and the countdown to bedtime and my husband looking at me with panic in his eyes because the CT scan is not at the office it normally is.

Those of you who are lucky enough to never have been plagued with anxiety may not be familiar with how it gets in you and won't let go. It's like drowning while having the flu. The stomach knots combined with the tight chest and the feeling of isolation from being underwater. There may be people in boats around you telling you that it's not a big deal. They will try to yell to you as you sink under the water that all you have to do is X and everything will be fine or that the water is not that bad. And you look at their shapes up above and squint as if what they said is so crazy you gave to try to refocus your eyes to make sense of it.

I know anxiety. But Rich is normally that guy in the boat yelling down at me through the water. This slime has been a real role reversal for us, one neither of us is very comfortable with.

I sent Rich upstairs to put Ian to bed. Then I sat down and mapped the imaging center's address with detailed directions. I rented us a car for $30 so we wouldn't have to navigate cabs across the various locations. I packed Ian's lunch. And honestly, I went to bed a little irritated, though not necessarily at Rich, just at everything. Some day off. Hmph.

Rich slept horribly and woke up right where we left off. He worried about Ian getting to school on time. He worried about us getting to the airport. He worried if our car would fit in the garage with the car top carrier still on it. We were off to a rough start. I walked to the security gate blinking back tears, mostly because there wasn't time for crying quite yet.

But we made it to Tennessee. He got his CT scan and we got to his appointment. It was fine that we were late because they were all running behind from the holiday weekend.

We talked with Dr. Bendell and she was very reassuring. Rich's scan continues to show no growth or fluid. This is good because we had seen some growth between November and April. The clinical trial is going so well that they're adding many more patients, going from eight to 70 nationwide. They also are comfortable raising his dosage from 40mg daily to 80mg daily. We are hopeful this will provide some shrinkage versus just lack of growth.

We talked about how he will most likely be a patient of Dr. Bendell's for a long time. We will continue to play things by ear when it comes to growing our family versus shrinking Rich's slime. But it's good to know even taking a hiatus does not kick us out of the Sarah Cannon family.

After all that, I got my husband back. He came up out of the water. Maybe not completely in the boat but at least above water. He's lounging on me while we wait for our plane home, teasing me over the noise of my typing so close to his head.

I am glad I came today. I'm glad I could help him tread water through a rough day. And I'm looking forward to going home with him.

Getting stronger

I ran yesterday and it was fun. And today, I had Rich take this picture of my arm.

I'm no Linda Hamilton by any means, but there is certainly more definition there than there has been in ... well, ever.

I took a "Step and Sculpt" class today at the JCC after work. Ian went to the playground for a bit and then played basketball with Rich and then they came up to see if I was done yet. He informed me that I was gone "forever" and then was full of questions. "Mommy, why are you so sweaty? Mommy, you looked like you were dancing in there! Mommy, why did you go to that class?"

I told Ian that I went to that class because it was fun. But also because it makes me stronger. And just like we tell him that he needs to eat good food to get strong, he also needs to use his muscles to get strong. I told him that since he keeps getting heavier, I need to exercise so I can stay strong enough to lift him. I'm actually very proud of myself that my answer for him had nothing to do with weight.

After we went to dinner and Home Depot (seriously, we've been there almost daily for the last two weeks), he ran into my arms as we headed to the parking lot. He shouted out, "Mommy! You exercised today so you can carry me!" And as much as my knees wanted to buckle at first and my arms burned from his 45 pounds, I grinned.