What I'm thankful for

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we've recently moved apartments, while packing and unpacking, I've found myself discovering forgotten things and re-reading old journals, which led me to reread old blog posts, too. I'm thankful for these journals and blogs, because I love remembering who I was and what I've done--and seeing how far I've come (and yet, how I'm still the same person). In one old journal entry, I commented on how my boyfriend at the time called me a "one trick pony" because all I ever did was work, and all I could talk about was work. And in that entry I said that the busy work time was only temporary. Ha! Little did I know...

But I'm thankful that I have a job that I still love, no matter how busy and stressful it gets.

Other things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving:

-That G is alive and relatively well, that we have this lovely life together
-For my health
-For health insurance and great doctors
-For our new, spacious apartment with a working elevator
-For friends and family, there for us in so many different ways
-For our cats, even though they've been waking me up in the middle of the night
-For good food and drink (especially brunch!)
-For leisurely walks
-For Zumba
-For escapist books, blogs, television shows (I've been especially addicted to The Good Wife this year), and social networking
-For my monthly Karaoke club, and music in general
-For my brilliant authors, illustrators, and coworkers

-For the little pleasures of life

-For the great pleasures of life!

Now I'm off to make an apple pie. Enjoy your day, all!

***Re-posted from the Blue Rose Girls ***

I've been a very bad blogger this year, mainly because of this, of course. But G's treatments are now done, and we're working toward getting our life back to our "new normal." But first, we're moving apartments this week and packing is exhausting!

As always happens, while packing I've been finding forgotten things, like this letter Grace had sent me back when we were both seniors in high school. I had brought this with me from my parents' house in California a while back because I wanted to quote some of the letter in a talk I was giving, I think.

In it, we talked about boys, of course. I had asked her to send me a boyfriend, so she sent me this guy:

Cute, huh? She named him Roger.

And here are a few snippets from the letter:

"I'm going to illustrate children's books, y'know. That would be so cool. One day when we're all grown up, you'll see in a book store: Illustrated by Grace P. Lin. That would be excellent."

and:

"I wish I could show you my portfolio. Then you could tell me if you think I'm talented. Or then you could lie to me and tell me you think I'm the bestest artist in the world and of course I will make it into RISD."

I wonder if Grace has the letter I wrote back to her. But I'm sure I said something like:

I think you're talented, Grace! You are the bestest artist in the world, you will make it into RISD, and you will become a famous children's book author and illustrator.

See, I can predict the future!

**edited to add**
For those of you who don't know the story of how Grace and I met, you can read more about it here.

In memory of James Sing

parasailing in Bali

I was shocked to hear the news that my friend James Sing passed away a few weeks ago on September 12. 

His "Celebration of Life" was held in San Francisco today, and although I was not able to attend, I wanted to honor him in my way.

James was my best friend for many years, many years ago, in the late 1990s. We met in 1996 while both studying at the Mandarin Training Center in Taipei, Taiwan. We lived nearby, and soon were hanging out all the time. We had an intense, intimate friendship, and although it was never romantic, sometimes we fought like a couple might. But he was the type of friend I could call at any hour of the night, and knew that he wouldn't mind--and vice versa. When I was sad, he'd bend over backwards to make me laugh. I can still hear his laugh echo in my head today. I have so many wonderful memories of our time together in Taiwan--late nights eating xi fan near his apartment, his singing "Yi Qian Ge Xiang Xin de Li You" at Karaoke, dancing at various night clubs, eating guo tie after class, studying at Jamaica Cafe or the student lounge, riding around on his motorcycle or my scooter. During our time there, we traveled together to Bali, Indonesia, and to Hong Kong and Canton. We stayed close after we both returned to the States, and we overlapped living in NYC for a little while, but he moved back to CA a year or so after I arrived there from Boston.

He was probably the smartest person I knew, and because of that, I still remember my delight at schooling him in the difference between nauseous and nauseated. (Of course, correcting him while he was feeling nauseated was probably not the ideal time.) 

Most of all, James valued loyalty--he was the truest, most loyal friend.

We'd drifted in recent years, as friends often do, and in the last few years our interactions were limited to random g-chats about skateboarding, and mice for his lizard Opus; and some random Facebook comments about Lin-sanity. His last comment was just a few days before his death.

This is selfish of me, but I take some small comfort knowing that, in the days before his death, I at least crossed his mind in a small way, even if it was for killing a fly. And I hope that he knew that, no matter how we drifted, he was often in my thoughts.

My heart goes out to his family and friends. His loss leaves a huge hole, but I hope they can take some small comfort with how loved James was, and how influential he was to so many people. 

Please do take a look at this fund that has been created in James's honor, and if you're able, please make a contribution:

The James Sing Memorial Fund

http://www.crowdrise.com/JamesSingMemorialFund/fundraiser/allensing

Why I've been (relatively) quiet this year

I've been meaning for a while to write this post to let everyone know what's been going on with me (with us)--perhaps some of you have seen on Facebook or Twitter some updates or have heard bits and pieces from me or others, but I thought it would easiest to give an update all at once.

So, here's the deal:

Basically, soon after our wedding, Greg hurt his back and ribs (or so he thought) fairly severely while playing golf. After about two months, when he wasn't getting better, he went to the doctor who took an X-Ray and said that he was fine, that it was a muscle injury, and that he could try physical therapy, which he did for a few more months. Nothing was quite working, and at the end of January a large bruise showed up under his ribs on the left side. He went back to the doctor who ordered a CT scan, and they discovered what they thought at the time was a large kidney mass.

He went through surgery on February 12 to have the mass and a kidney removed. The surgery was successful, although he ended up losing his spleen as well (silver lining--you can live a relatively normal life without a spleen and just one kidney). The mass was extremely large--it was described by the surgeon as being the size of a football. (!!) Another said it was the size of Greg's head, another said it was the size of a small watermelon! No doubt it had been growing without him knowing for many years.

The pathology report came back a few weeks later, and we were told it was a rare form of cancer, a type of sarcoma. His type is diagnosed for just 1-3 people per million each year. Nobody knows what causes it. (I always knew Greg was one in a million!)

Again, the surgery was successful in that as far as we can all tell, they got it all out (thank you Dr. Birns)--so far, there is no sign of remaining cancer cells, nor that it's spread. But sarcomas tend to come back, so he's going through 4-5 months of chemo to try to lower the chances of recurrence. He started his third round today--in fact, I'm posting this from his treatment room.

We've definitely had some complications and set-backs along the way--a long recovery from the initial surgery, plus an ER visit and multiple hospital stays in-between. But we've been staying in overall good spirits, all things considered. Greg has been amazingly strong through this, and we've had wonderful support from friends and family and colleagues.

I don't plan to blog about this much if at all beyond this post, but because everything that's happened has caused such changes and upheaval in our lives, I wanted to post this update. Life has slowly been settling into what we're calling our "new normal"--I'm getting back to a somewhat regular work schedule again after a very erratic few months, although of course I still have a lot of catching up to do and am working from home as needed. Is it really June already?!

I want to thank everyone (both belatedly and in advance) for being understanding about my late or unreturned emails, phone calls, missed deadlines, canceled plans, etc. And I want to give a huge shout-out to my assistant Bethany who has kept all of my projects (and her own) moving forward, at the expense of her work-life balance and emotional well-being! And thanks to everyone who has pitched in to help in any way they could, to friends and family and even acquaintances who have sent gifts, spent time, for good wishes, prayers, and positive thoughts.

We're hanging in there. It's been a rocky road and certainly not how we expected to spend our first year of marriage, but we'll get through this together (in sickness and in health, right?). Right now, I'm looking forward to August when Greg's last round of chemo (we hope) will be behind us. And may I add, thank goodness we have health insurance?

People have asked how they can help: please make a donation towards sarcoma research at the National Cancer Institute, or make a gift to Mt. Sinai where Greg is being treated.