A few years ago I was in the car with Lori. As we listened to a radio ad for the local "MS Challenge Walk", I remarked, "You know, that really isn't the MS Challenge Walk. The MS Challenge Walk is me getting to the grocery store and back." That was still in my mind this year when I decided that next year, for my 5th MS anniversary, I'd like to participate in my local MS ride, biking 50 miles a day for 3 days. (I can currently do a 10-mile loop in the morning and still get through the day; 15 and I have to take a nap later). This summer I'm in training.

Goals are good. They keep me from being a couch potato. Sometimes I give myself an "impossible" goal (such as last year's goal of playing the 1st violin part to the Nutcracker, which I still kind of can't believe I accomplished), just to give myself a kick in the pants.

I really need some boundaries, though. Last weekend my dad delivered the "ugly table" (my grandmother's, and less ugly than I remembered) to my house. I set it up in the kitchen, where it made the window look so good that I had to immediately take down the ugly blinds which made me think that now I need to sew a curtain. And then the kitchen looked so nice that I needed to completely clean the bathroom and pressure-wash the front porch and repaint it and...you see the problem. Somebody stop me! If I hadn't had to go help E. move to Cape Elizabeth, (now I have a nice sunburn on one arm), I would have been sucked into the Black Hole of Home Improvement.

Boundaries. Yeah, I need more of those.

Back in the day, I remember talking with Dr. P. about disclosure. I was recently out of the hospital, (barely walking with a cane, propping my arm on a table to see if I could hold my violin), my dear grandmother had just died, and D. had just broken up with me. Dr. P. reassured me that I would meet someone else in time. In his typical low-key way (disguising a humor so dry he should be from Maine), Dr. P. discussed the fine art of notifying a guy that I have MS: "not on the first date."

For several years I didn't date, so it wasn't an issue, but given my recent foray into the world of online dating, it's been in my mind a lot. So far I've abided by the "not on the first date" rule, (though I just realized that C. knows where my blog is, so he probably found out from my blog, which was incredibly tacky on my part. Hi, C.! Sorry!)

What I realized was: I do a lot of things differently in my life, from diet and exercise to the way I plan my activities, in order to manage my health. I've taken my experience with MS and used it to improve so many areas of my life that not talking about it is pretty tough. When B. (a pianist) said on our second date, "at some age, there are just some technical things I'll never be able to do, you know?" I guess I had some look on my face because he said, "no, you don't know..." :-) I didn't take the opening. But I thought I'd better 'fess up to this guy pretty soon.

After 5 hours sailing on Casco Bay with this Bastion of Wonderfulness (in his 2-man racing boat--SO MUCH FUN!), and then another several hours disassembling the boat, changing, eating dinner, etc., I took my opening when he asked whether I'd ever changed my violin technique. (How do you nonchalantly say, "yes, actually I did change my technique rather a lot because I had to teach myself to play the violin from scratch after I was paralyzed 4 years ago"??) I did my best. He took it well. If he didn't already have way too many points in my book, I would have given him bonus points for that one. I then told him about the "not on the first date" rule. We decided that we were probably already on our 3rd date since by that time we had been hanging out for something like 10 hours.

Whew.

I just hosted the First Annual Chick Weekend. Guests included E., S., and A., who converged on my house from East and West coasts. What a lovely extended weekend of quilting, knitting, sewing, walking along the bay and in the Old Port, eating delicious meals, dancing a bit of Tango, and gossiping. I feel that all is right with the world. :-) My first houseguests since I moved into my new place!

E. brought along her cat, since she will shortly move in with her allergic boyfriend. "Scary Cat" spent 3 days in the bathroom hissing at all of us and trying to bite my feet. She doesn't like groups of people. As soon as A. & S. left for New York on Tuesday morning, she suddenly became "Dream Cat" and now curls up in my lap while I code. She's extremely fluffy and warm, and now I have long, silky hair...in my food. Yup. Oh well, it's nice to have her around and she makes cute chirping noises when I come home.

Name of cat: "Bonita". That one definitely failed the Back Porch Test. Good thing she's an indoor cat and I don't have to call her in for dinner...

As I mentioned in my previous post, my new cat's name, "Bonita", certainly failed the Back Porch Test. This test (from Dave Barry, I think?) is highly effective when choosing a name for your new pet (or child). Procedure:

1. Pick a name.
2. Yell it very loudly off the back porch.
3. Evaluate how silly you feel.

So, I've been telling people about my new cat, a veritable font of nose-biting-in-middle-of-night, can't-see-very-well, throws-up-on-my-white-carpet, flings-litter-everywhere, bottomless-pit-of-cat-hair. The usual response when I mention her age (5) is, "hmmmm...so you could have this cat for quite a while". I've been joking, "well, maybe she'll fall off the deck."

Now I'm feeling kind of bad because today she did fall off the [second floor] deck. I was hanging laundry all over the place and she got herself through the railing, at which point I sneezed and startled her enough to take a flying leap. She landed on the driveway, looked confused (of course, she always looks confused) but no worse for the wear except for an elevated heart rate. At least now the mystique of the deck is gone; she just wanders in and out the deck door with no more affinity for the outside of the railing. Hope this lasts.

Went down to E.'s place in NYC this past weekend. We walked 46 blocks from Port Authority up to her apartment, then saw the Chanel exhibit at the Met, (which is making me dig out all of my old costume jewelry), took a walk around the reservoir, and finally collapsed after eating a delicious dinner at home. My contribution was a chinese cabbage salad, based on one found in "Vegetarian Nights", a cookbook that is sadly out of print. I had made it during the Chick Weekend, to rave reviews, so the basic ingredients/ratios were still in my head. Here's my version:

Chinese Cabbage Salad (serves 4)

5 c. shredded napa or bok choy
4 green onions, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
3 Tbsp. rice vinegar
1 Tbsp. honey
1 1/2 Tbsp. light sesame oil or other mild oil
1 1/2 tsp. toasted sesame oil (the dark stuff)
1/2 tsp. white pepper, ground
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. toasted cashews, coarsely chopped
1/4 c. chopped cilantro

On Sunday we made a birthday cake for S., who came over from Brooklyn. Since E., S. and I are all from Maine, E. and I made a Maine Cake. These pictures are too small to get the full effect, but it was pretty topographical, and though we didn't have time to get in all of Maine's rivers and lakes, we did manage to note some of our favorite childhood attractions. :-)