Catching up with dear friends
My heart is full to bursting 
​I feel like the luckiest person in the world 

Swimming in the salty water of
Botany Bay
It feels healing and medicinal
Later, sharing cheesecake with Tita Margot and John
Remembering the blueberries from their farm
One for me, one for the bucket!
The outrageously sweet corn
Delicious memories
Reawakening dreams of my organic theatre barn
The moment when we were talking about Miren
And the rainbow lorikeets flew into the tree
And remembering the last time I saw those birds was
​On Miren's balcony 

Being re-intoxicated
By the smell of eucalyptus
In its natural habitat

Technically I don’t have a Jan 31 this year
​It still feels like the 30th when I left
Right now I’m flying over the Pacific
Sydney bound
The joy of airports
The novelty of duty free
And giant Toblerones
And whiskey and gin
And oversized packets of cigarettes 
In Vancouver, it’s
Maple-flavored everything
Maple syrup, maple fudge, maple chocolate, maple short bread, maple tea.
Not hungry? Have a maple leaf on a t-shirt
Thinking about the stories of all the people around me
The humanity of it

This morning I went for a run 
And found myself outside Yankee Stadium
And later I went for a walk 
And found myself outside the Cathedral of St John the Divine 
​My god I love New York! 

Tonight, after a performance of The Connector
A truly wonderful new musical about 
Writing and truth and story-telling and fact checking
(It's so good in fact, that I saw it twice in one week) 
The composer and musical director 
Jason Robert Brown said 
"People like musicals, enough talking about it." 
And I wanted to shout
PREEEEACH! and
​LOUDER FOR THE STUDIO EXECUTIVES IN THE BACK!!! 

Sometimes you get to meet your idols
And they are every bit as lovely
And kind 
As you'd hoped 

Tonight at the show
There was a tech delay
Which delayed opening the house by 17 minutes
Once the house was open 
We sat 950+ people in less than 20 minutes
And the show only started 2 minutes late
It was exhilarating 
And this is why we love live thea-tuh!
​The magic of the unexpected 

Today I got blood work
In prep for my survivorship meeting tomorrow 
2024 marks ten years since I was diagnosed with leukemia
A disease that, when I was diagnosed, had a survival rate beyond 5 years of 25% 
And even though cancerversary isn't until July
And transplant-aversary isn't until October 
Today felt like a VICTORY LAP 
TEN YEARS!!! 
I'm a unicorn! 
After the labs I walked down town
And across town
All the way from 74th and FDR Drive
To 48th and 8th 
And I thought about the myriad of people who got me here
Aaron
The Rabinowii
All the Buck's Rockers 
Anita
Jodi
My fellow young adult survivors 
Dr Stein, Dr P, Kim, Marjorie, and every nurse 
Every clinician 
All the runners on Fred's Team
Everyone who came to cheer along the marathon route
All my friends and family from across the globe
Sydney, London, FoCo, New York
Every soul who has been part of this insane overwhelming exhausting journey 
And feel thankful thankful thankful 
And I think about the giant blue heart 
On the wall

Traipsing around Astoria
With a dear friend
Window shopping in a lovely local store
Chatting about the infuriating decision of the Academy with the shop girls 
Catching up over nutella hot chocolate 
​Soothing and warm and sweet
Later at work
The gift of a box of fresh oranges
The delight of 
Sweet and tangy citrus