Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Third birthday

Emily, me and Tami
Today is my third birthday, or re-birthday, three years from the bone marrow transplant (my fourth) that saved my life.

By whatever name, I'm very happy to celebrate it by just having a normal day: writing, walking the dog, playing tennis and even paying bills and going to the store.

Thank you, Denise.

I took a little trip over the weekend to mark the occasion. It wasn't specifically planned as a birthday weekend – and we hardly even mentioned it – but it just seemed like a good time to go.

I flew to Pittsburgh and then drove with Emily to her house in the mountains outside of the city. Her husband, Mike, chef extraordinaire, met us there, and Tami and husband John came from Philadelphia.

We took a couple of nice walks but mainly stayed warm inside by the fire, doing a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, reading, talking and eating. Nancy wasn't able to come, but we talked to her on speaker-phone. (I admit to making a very small contribution to the puzzle, putting a few pieces in here and there but leaving the rest to those with greater powers of concentration.)

On Sunday, I drove with Tami back to her house in Cherry Hill, N.J., and the next day took the train back from Philadelphia to Springfield.

There was a lot of travel time, but I didn't mind, because it gave me a chance to put a dent in the absorbing book I'm reading, Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom."

And so here I go, feeling good and toddling off into my fourth year.

11 comments:

Joanna said...

Happy, happy "birthday". You are miraculous. I am glad you had a great celebratory weekend and that today includes tennis!

Diane said...

Happy Birthday and many, many more to come!

susiegb said...

Congratulations Ronni ... and keep on enjoying your 'new' (or new-ish!) life ... :)

susiegb said...

And btw - you are looking just lovely in that photo!!! :)

donna said...

What a great picture!!! Happy special Birthday! I'm so happy for you!!!

Robin said...

Happy Birthiday...that's an awesome update!

Anonymous said...

Dearest Runderful Ronni,

Once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
You all look beautiful!

xop

Nelle said...

Wishing you so many more joyous birthdays to celebrate!

Howard said...

Great post, great to see. Wishing you loads more!

PJ said...

Happy birthday my friend. We are young!!!

Elayne said...

Happy Birthday & Congrats!