13 Cheers
1. This post began when I was with my sister Kathy for her last chemo treatment and she said ‘why don’t you take a picture of the #13 chemo station for your 13 Thursday?’
2. The photos posted here sum up the reasons why I traveled 800 miles to Massachusetts in November (and missed THIS Floyd event among others). One photo shows my niece Heather being walked down the aisle by her brother Andrew.
3. The other is a toast, celebrating my sister Kathy’s last chemo treatment and how great she’s come through it.
4. While she was getting set up for the chemo drip something technical started beeping. “Did you forget to buckle you seat belt?” I asked her.
5. Because the treatment is so toxic, the nurses who administer it wear gloves, gowns and sometimes goggles.
6. Another celebration followed a day later when I learned that President Obama won re-election. I couldn’t stay up late to watch all the results come in because I had to travel back to Virginia the next morning, but I stayed up long enough to feel confident that he would win. The next day Joe and I watched his acceptance speech on my iPhone at a restaurant near the airport.
7. Best election night tweet: NBC just declared The Cayman Islands for Mitt Romney.
8. Posted on Facebook about the election by my Dharmacratic friend Will: “Katrina sunk Bush and Sandy demolished Romney. Gaia, evidently, has a blue bias.”
9. There’s a bar in Boston’s Logan Airport called Cheers Bar and Grill that’s designed to look like the TV sitcom Cheers. The bar in the show was actually fashioned after one on Beacon Hill, called the Bull and Finch Pub.
10. Television series set in Boston: Cheers, Ally McBeal, Banacek, Boston Common, Boston Legal, Boston Public, Crossing Jordan, The Practice, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, St. Elsewhere, and Spenser: For Hire.
11. Movies set in Boston: Knight & Day, Good Will Hunting, Blown Away, The Bostonians, The Brink’s Job, Charly, 
A Civil Action, Coma, The Departed, The Town, Fever Pitch, Field of Dreams, Fuzz, Gone Baby Gone, Housesitter, Johnny Tremain, The Last Hurrah, Legally Blonde, Malcolm X, Mystic River, Next Stop Wonderland, Now Voyager, The Paper Chase, The Thomas Crown Affair and The Verdict.
12. There’s a bathroom attendant in the Charlotte airport that puts on a show like a lounge singer. I wish I could remember the song she was singing. All I can remember is the word “blessed,” rhymed with the word “guests.”
13. Sometimes you want to go where everyone knows your name and they’re always glad you came. Listen HERE.
November 8th, 2012 5:03 am
Wonderful T13 Colleen—As Always….!
Bless your sister and I pray she will be well!
Very scary to think that chemo stuff is sooo toxic….!
Great pictures, too, my dear.
Obama’s win is a WIN for America!!!
Another Boston based film is “THE TOWN” directed by and starring Ben Affleck….Interesting film and very well done.
November 8th, 2012 6:31 am
This regular reader, possibly your most recent subscriber, wishes you and your sister well. No more hopeful words than “her last chemo treatment.” I’m generating positive vibes, sending them her way…
November 8th, 2012 7:38 am
I feel like I was there and needed to buckle my seatbelt. Blessings to you and yours.
November 8th, 2012 8:10 am
#8 is great. Gaia indeed!
Best wishes to your family – your sister for her triumph over her illness and your niece for a nice happy new life.
November 8th, 2012 8:46 am
Your sister looks great–so happy. It’s cause for celebration! Thanks for sharing.
http://otherworlddiner.blogspot.com/2012/11/hitting-brick-wall-in-national-novel.html
November 8th, 2012 9:03 am
Thanks to all for you feedback!
Naomi, I got the list of Boston based movies online. I can’t believe they forgot The Town. I’m going to add it. Some of the ones that had listed I had not known were filmed in Boston.
November 8th, 2012 9:54 am
Many celebrations in such a short time! I am so glad you came!!
November 8th, 2012 9:59 am
No better words than “the last chemo treatment,” except maybe, a year later, hearing “free and clear.”
Lovely list, as always. The Cayman Islands tweet made me grin.
I DID stay up for the speeches – I couldn’t trust the call until there was a concession.
November 8th, 2012 11:47 am
an outpouring of relief about Obama swept Canadian poets.
11, neat. beautiful voices are gifts that should be shared whenever, whereever.
November 8th, 2012 12:03 pm
Numbers seven and eight made me chuckle, but I’m especially pleased for your sister. Best wishes to you and yours.
November 8th, 2012 12:11 pm
Love 7 and 8, and thank you for putting the “Cheers” theme song in my head. I was so relieved to hear Obama had won, and did stay up to hear his speech, despite how late it was.
November 8th, 2012 2:03 pm
ahhh, the last treatment! She looks great 🙂 Was it at MGH? The nurse I had at the infusion center was SO wonderful!
Blown Away came out when I lived in Japan, and it was a great touch of home. I remember the opening, the Charles river, the bridges…sigh…
November 8th, 2012 2:08 pm
So wonderful that you could be together for this. It also helped me understand what a friend is going through who has just had her last treatment.
November 8th, 2012 2:35 pm
Kathy is being taken care of at the Dana Faber Cancer Center in the South Shore Hospital. She has had a good experience and loves the nurses etc.
November 9th, 2012 2:16 pm
Colleen!
I loved all of your 13’s.
What a great visit you had with so many eventful experiences.
Thanks to everyone for all your kind comments.
To have had my sister Colleen here with me at the Dana Faber Cancer Center, to celebrate my last chemo treatment, was such a treat.
I AM seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
November 15th, 2015 8:05 pm
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