Note from Stacey

Last night I planned a potluck birthday dinner for one of my best friends, Mark Fletcher. After cooking a steamed chicken dish with Myrna for the party, I had a wave of nausea and couldn’t even keep my pills down. So I sent the food up to Eva’s house with Dave, and stayed home to rest. I had been feeling tired all day so it wasn’t too much of a surprise. Later, I called them and they put me on the speaker phone. It was almost like being there. I got a good night’s rest and today was totally different. I woke up, took a shower and went to Belmont to pick up my car from the other apartment. Driving again is such a pleasure, except for the price of gas. It is now $2.61/gallon here in the Bay Area, about 40 cents more than when I went into the hospital 2 months ago. My other big news of the day is that Meredith and I went for a nature walk at the Stanford Dish trail. It is a paved walk up a fairly steep hill, and I was proud to be able to climb the hill without getting too out of breath. We didn’t go all the way to the satellite dish, but spent 35 minutes walking up the hill and did get pretty far–far enough to enjoy the beautiful view of the Bay Area, Stanford campus, and the surrounding community of Palo Alto. It only took us 25 minutes to walk down, and I felt satisfied because it was my hardest walk since I’ve been out of the hospital the second time. I hadn’t seen Meredith for months and we had a lot to catch up on…she is one of the many women in sheclimbs and we talked about the past trips and her plans for this climbing season. She carried my backpack and patiently stayed beside me as I inched my way up the path at a snail’s pace. The slow pace helped us notice tidbits of nature: the perfect 65 degree weather, the gentle breeze, two squirrels playing, and the sound of grasshoppers hiding in the brush. I also loved the way the sunlight hit different patches of trees in the forest to provide an interesting canvas decorated with several shades of green. This added to the panoramic view, with the water and bridge in the background, and the red clay roofs of the campus off on one side. On the way down, the path went through a dark canopy of trees, curving over the walkway and promising light at the end of the tunnel. Stacey, from H.O.M.E. apartments