Ampersand

Tag: Miami

  • Lucky

    We are so lucky, we all say. My mother, my sister, all our friends, all the radiation techs and nurses and neurologists and social workers and clinical psychologists and registered dieticians and cancer clinic receptionists and schedulers. Everyone: “We are so lucky.” Let us count the ways: She was over 65 when she got this…

  • Waiting In Vain

    After our road trip to Tampa to see what I’m referring to as New Places, because I cannot bring myself to say the words ‘Assisted Living Facility,’ the car is the last place I want to be, yesterday’s mind-numbing drive across Alligator Alley being what it is. Radiation is still at 10:15 five days a…

  • It’s Gone Fast

    Chemo is two pills, taken at home every day. Radiation is a machine, five days a week at the hospital. I have written this information down (along with her contact information, her doctors, her medications) in a little notebook for my mother to keep in her purse for when she forgets. She looks through it…

  • Let Us Know If There’s Anything We Can Do

    You are doing so great. You are doing amazing. She is lucky to have daughters like you girls. I don’t pay attention when someone says something like this, I don’t even hear it. I check my phone and go on to the next thing that needs doing. The side effects will be. You should be…

  • How Was Your Trip?

    I’ve been back from the States a week—I got in off the plane last Thursday morning, paid an exorbitant cab fair home to Mt. Vic from the airport, fell asleep in my clean-sheeted bed, and woke up in time to have buddies over for tea and biscuits before work the next day. “How was your…

  • The First Holiday

    I’m pretty well over my jet lag, now, thanks for asking, and I have very much enjoyed my long Labour Weekend back in Wellington, after only 24 hours in transit from Miami the other day. I’ve clicked right into being here, after the initial weirdness and when people have asked me how it was being…

  • Short Duration

    I meant to go for a beach walk today but the tide was too high and the sand was trashy with sargassum and the wind was too windy. I spent the rest of the day shopping with my mom, eating Sir Pizza, petting the cats and packing for my flight back to New Zealand tomorrow.…

  • As Long As I Stay

    My sister’s wedding was a lot of fun. Her friend made the wedding cake (with an alleged thirty-two pounds of frosting), his brother did all the food, I wore my pinkest and fluffiest dress with my matching pink flip-flops, and we took a walk to the beach as the sun went down, dodging jellyfish as…

  • Home Again

    I’m just waiting for my yoga pants to come out of the dryer and I’ll be all packed up—my huge orange suitcase is only half full (including presents!) because I plan to do a lot of shopping while I’m in the States. My flatmate got me a carrot cake to have after dinner tonight and…

  • One Last Bike Ride

    I went for a last bike ride to the Quiet Gardens yesterday afternoon, after spending most of the afternoon sorting and folding and packing all my stuff. I get on the plane to New York in a few hours but it still seems so unreal. All week people have been asking me if I’m excited…

  • Supposed To Be Packing

    I’m supposed to be packing but I had to make dinner and I had to ride the bike to the Quiet Gardens to take pictures of ibis and sandhill cranes, I had to drink tea, I had to read a book I borrowed from my sister. I’m supposed to be packing but I got a…

  • Not The Same But Similar

    “It’s not going to be the same,” my sweet friend Giulia wrote to me today in chat, “but it will be similar.” Ten days before I leave Miami, sixteen days before I get on the plane to Auckland, and you’d think I’d be consumed by details, you’d think I’d be all about my lists and…

  • What I Learned In 2008

    Long-distance friendship and short-distance friendship are both very good and very different. When dealing with immigration, there’s always a document you forgot, or a form you didn’t sign, or a paper you didn’t copy in triplicate. Just try to space out your heart attacks. Vote! And, you know, give a damn about politics. If you…

  • Its Own Level Of Tiredness

    I took the bike over to the Quiet Gardens today, just to get out of the house for a while, and brought my book and my paper journal with me. I amused myself for a while counting the iguanas (ten) and monitor lizards (three) and sandhill cranes (three) and egrets (three or four) and ibis…

  • Christmas Or Otherwise

    Since it’s been a few years since I had Christmas at home it’s nice to see that all my wee family’s non-tradition traditions have held up so nicely. We don’t make a big deal out of the holidays but it’s still nice to do nice stuff together. This morning my sister and her partner came…

  • A Few More Weeks To Go

    This time next month, with all due consideration of time changes and the International Date Line, I’ll have just got into Wellington from San Francisco. I’ll have a couple of weeks before I start work–a couple of weeks to hug all my friends and to see if I recall how to get around the city,…