Mother knew best about Hillary Clinton and more

My mother wore a Hillary hat.

This was a long time ago.

One day, also a long time ago, I passed Hillary on the street in New York — it might have been Madison Avenue, but I'm not sure — and she said, "Hi, how are you?"

Frankly, I wasn't as sure about Hillary Clinton as I am now, but my mother always loved Hillary. I can see her like it was yesterday walking into our New York apartment in that hat.

She was also certain about a lot of other things that came true.

For example, I wasn't going to watch the 2004 Democratic National Convention, but my mother said I should because the young state senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, would be president some day. I went ahead and watched it.

When I used to drive along dark Route 2 more than an hour and a half  from my home in South Hadley, Mass., to review plays at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, she said to get a new thing called a car phone. I said, "Who uses a phone in the car?" But I relented and got this boxy thing that ran on the car's battery.

She also said to get a suitcase with wheels. I said, "Who does that?" Now, of course, everyone does.

She died in 2006 and missed all of the excitement that is happening now.

But as I was texting with my high school friends from Friends Seminary last night while we watched Hillary Clinton's historic victory speech,  we all said that our mothers were watching together in Heaven. Possibly in the section for the New York mothers who knew best.

Fatigue and fear

If you're getting better, you can't be getting worse.

These are the words of wisdom I've repeated to myself in the past few days after Mike at physical therapy told me how much better I am doing.

"When you first came in here, I was afraid of you driving home," he said.

My time at PT is almost done, but Mike said he'd get me some extra sessions to work on my balance and strength. My fractured collarbone has healed, my banged-up knee is better, I've played tennis a few times and felt fine, and today I returned to the gym, riding a bike and doing some leg exercises.

On some days I feel like myself, but mostly after exercise I hit the couch. Occasionally I feel lightheaded, which worries me even more. My rational mind knows that this period of recovery is normal, but somewhere it got in my mind that I might be relapsing.

Of course if I just stayed on the couch I might not get as tired, but that's just not something I do (unless I'm watching the U.S. Open or the Democratic convention).

I don't think the fear ever goes away. It recedes to the back of your mind – you'd go crazy if you thought of it all the time – but certain things like fatigue can bring it to the forefront.

I'm on a two-month checkup schedule, so my next  Dana-Farber appointment isn't until October. But I moved my appointment ahead to next Thursday. Luckily the process of getting checked just involves a blood test. Hopefully (OK, probably) my blood counts will be fine, and I can put the printout on the fridge to remind myself not to worry.