When is Spring coming?

What a winter, for once. It's freezing. But for the past few days, we've had beautiful blue skies. We did not get hit with the brunt of that tempest names Xynthia that swept though a week ago. We had strong winds and some rain, but that was it.
I haven't been on any recent walks. I keep having to accept medical appointments on Wednesdays and that screws up my whole day. Back in Dec, when I had such a back ache, the doctor wanted to make sure it was not really my kidneys so I had a sonargram. Nothing is wrong with the kidneys, but the doctor at the xray place saw an enlarged spleen, so I needed to have that checked out. None of that was related to the back ache, which is now back to normal -- achy but definitely bearable and nothing to complain about. So, the GP ordered a blood test and I got an appointment with a hemotologist at the Salpétrière, my hospital of choice, and the doctor there ordered a more thorough blood exam to check for the marker for hairy cell leukemia (that my dad had) and old hepatitis, which could also explain an enlarged spleen. (All clear on those two points!) The spleen is not enlarged enough for her to feel it and I have no obvious symptoms of anything. She also ordered a full CT scan and last Wednesday, I had the upper part of my body done and this coming Wednesday, I get the lower half done because that will require an injection. In the end, I guess we'll have a good baseline of my body, so that we'll have something to compare to. The thing about CT scans is that you can pretty much see a lot, whether you were looking for it or not. I now know that my sore arm, which hurts, but which I never consulted about because I just figured it was age or too much computer stuff, is sore because of tendonitis and calcification in my shoulder socket (and I was never a pitcher, so I don't deserve this)! That sounds like it's just a progression of my osteoarthritis, which is old news to me. I also have odd glands in an odd place ("ce n'est pas banal, madame.") and need to see if they show up in a mammogram, so that exam needed to get pulled forward and is now scheduled in April. I go back to see the doctor at the Salpétrière in May.

In the mean time, we are off to England next week. We have a house/cat sitter, a costume design student staying with us for the whole month while she's doing an internship. She's quite pleasant company and she's inspiring me to sew again. We went to the Marché St. Pierre on Saturday.....

Towards the end of April, right after the STC France and trans-Alpine Chapters Conference, I'm going to the States to participate in the Overseas Americans Week in Washington. I've accepted to join the AARO board. I'll be able to see Tony and Barbara and even stay with them a little. Too bad it doesn't coincide with Terry and Roger's trip. I hope Jon and Tobi and family might be able to come down, but haven't heard from them, yet.
Claire has continued putting up some pictures in the 2010-02 album (see previous post) and we'll probably add a new Spring album once we get up there next week.

Best to all,

We've had a couple of visitors!

Claire and Aurelia are headed home today after a very short visit with us.

Visiting Paris one of these days?

First of all, let me know in advance so I can work in a way to see you.

Secondly, here is my fb update today with a link to an interesting site if you are interested seeing some things you would miss on a regular tour:

"Attended the evening lecture at the American Library last night: "...Monique Wells discusses ‘Black Paris and the Myth of a Colorblind France’ and presents an overview of 200 years of African-American history in Paris." Ms Wells is the co-founder of Discover Paris, and she showed us main points of interest on the African-American itinerary. They have several interesting off-the-beaten-track itineraries."

It was an interesting lecture. I was pleasantly surprised that I did know most of the names she mentioned and not just Richard Wright or Joséphine Baker. I remember reading Sally Hemings by Barbara Chase Riboud (GHS, but I had no idea then!) when it first came out in 1979, so I knew about those two figures. And more. The opening slide of last night's presentation was of that book cover and Ms. Riboud. 

When she showed the picture of the Rosa Parks gym (Rosa Parks did not ever live here, but she is honored in Paris with this gym named after her and there's a Martin Luther King park, too, and a Louis Armstrong square.) I knew exactly where it is because we pass it on our way to our son's place and I remember, when I first noticed it, wondering exactly why it was named after her, in the sense "why a gym?". But if you're a tourist to Paris you would never think to go down to the 14th to the rue Alésia (I think) not near a métro station to find it.

(I'll let you find the info on the names above, if you need to. I have to get to the market...!)

Anyway, I enjoyed listening to Ms. Wells and learning more. The discussion afterwards was also interesting because the audience was such a diverse crowd and expressed lots of points of view on the French colorblind hypocrisy issue.

Jay Gottlieb Concert

What a wonderful evening of piano! Jay plays music that I might easily turn off if I heard it on the radio. I enjoy Copland, Bernstein, and Gershwin, but many of the early 20th century composers either make me cringe or just leave me indifferent. It's not the same in concert. First of all, you can feel the vibrations from the piano in your feet. You can see the intensity in Jay's facial expressions and the tenseness or fluidity of his hands. His program last night was centered around Jewish composers. It was the middle concert of three in honor of Viktor Ullman, a composer who died at Auschwitz and whose music was only recently discovered. Jay's program did not include any of Ullman's compositions though. Of course he was called back to the stage for some encores and played some Sondheim (whose A Little Night Music is coming to Paris, at last, next week) and Gershwin. As usual, the Gershwin at the end reminds me of my mother playing in the living room before dinner -- never misses. We went to one of Jay's concerts a couple of years ago with the kids and they felt it too.
Of course thinking of Jay makes me think of Beth that Jay reconnected me to. That was in 2007, I think, before I got on to facebook and found so many of my high school mates. Jay is a dear high school friend of Rita's; I went to a concert with Rita and she introduced me to Jay; I wrote to Jay to thank him and ask if he might know, or know of, Beth, MY high school friend, and he sent me back her address! On her birthday! Since I remembered it was her birthday, I dug out a picture from an old album of her birthday at my house, scanned it and sent it to her. Now we see each other on facebook mostly. I wouldn't miss a day of her links to art, poetry, and music.
Among other coincidences involving Jay, I met a flutist who knows him when I went to help Céline move in December. Céline is Derek's wife, Derek, my techwriter friend who died in October from the H1N1 flu. Derek and Ashley were both from Chicago, and somehow met here in Paris. I think it was talking about that "small world" coincidence that led me to tell her about my finding Beth through Jay, that she told me she knew Jay! Definitely a small world!
Other news
Well, not news, but just other stuff. I saw a flyer at the American Library for a Don McClean concert in April at the Cigale.  Since his repertoire is enormous and not limited to American Pie (you can listen to it there), I think I'd like to go to it. On the other side of the flyer was the announcement of Kevin Costner (yes, the actor) performing on Feb. 22.
My back is allowing me to go on walks again! On Wednesday, we had a pleasant fast-paced stroll along the Seine from the Ile aux Cygnes, where the mini Statue of Liberty is, to the Jardin des Plantes. I forgot to take my camera :-(