May 23, 2002|
Living with Billy
Today Billy left for Ohio. After 92 days of supervision, Dr. Perales granted me my freedom to live by myself. I am healthy and competent enough to care for myself. Not that I haven’t been saying this for 91 days. But that’s OK that they are clued in now.
Living with Billy has been quite the adventure and learning experience. I really haven’t lived with the little guy for five years, so to see him in his current adult state was quite peculiar. For example, he is the master of the 30-minute shower. He has special shampoo and conditioner (no sharing, only his). He needs to let the conditioner stay in for at least 10 minutes in order for his hair to reach its peak of softness. He uses two loofas (aka poofs) in the shower. One is for his back, the other for the rest of his body. Special Herbal Essence body wash can only be used.
Now see here. I may wear pink shirts. I may wear baby blue shirts. I may even wear a pink and baby blue shirt, but I will never reach Billy’s standards of (in the words of middle brother Frank) prissiness. Living with him has taught me so. Why do I endure the taunts of being the high maintenance, ‘prissy’ one in the family? There is a much better candidate I discovered.
Light Sabers and Web Slingers
Episode II came out this past week. There was no way in heck I wasn’t going to go see it opening day. The combination of seeing the second prequel plus being in Manhattan plus seeing it with all of the other Star War geeks plus a sold out show was just too much. I brought a mask just in case- no worries moms.
Beforehand, though, I had to get in the mood. This wasn’t just any old movie, this was Star Wars: Episode II. We had grown up on Star Wars. We had all of the toys. We watched all of the movies. I had the Yoda Underroos. I remember having debates with playmates Chris and Preston Wells about the viability of Star Wars actually existing (my argument was that it happened a long, long time ago). I can even recall, at the tender age of five, waiting in line to see ‘The Return of the Jedi’ at the movie theaters. It was more than just a movie series- it was a part of ArtCanning-lore.
So last Thursday Billy and I packed our lunch and set forth to FAO Scwhartz. I needed to buy a light saber. Billy thought I was insane. Considering what I paid for it, I must have been insane. Sure it is just a toy, but I rationed a.) it is a reminder of my childhood, b.) it is symbolic of my current fight and c.) it is a REALLY cool toy. The light blade shoots out. It makes cracking noises when you hit something, like Billy. ‘Whap! Whap!’ And when it is just still it goes ‘wwwwooosh, wwwoosshh’ like a real light saber. Man it rocks.
But I didn’t just stop there. For the past three weeks I have had this (bad) habit of pushing in my two middle fingers and saying ‘Fwwwing! Fwwing!’ in replication of Spider-man’s web-slinging. ‘Man,’ I thought, ‘I would love to be able to shoot out webs like Spider-man!’ Well, dream it and it shall come. Or rather be made, into a toy. Yep, I couldn’t believe my eyes. A Spider-man wrist webslinger. You too could pretend to be Spider-man! You too could fight the evil Green Goblin and win Mary Jane’s heart! Oh man!
It truly is so cool too. You press in your two middle fingers on the plastic trigger and zoom! Silly string (or water, depending the cartridge you insert) flies out. Does life get any better than this -fighting evil with a Jedi light saber in one hand and a Spider-man web-slinger in another? Would anyone dare make fun of me now for wearing a pink shirt? A baby blue shirt? Even a pink and baby blue shirt? Ha!
Oh, Yeah, that Silly Health Thing
While not fighting crime and pastel-hating, non-fashion-knowing individuals, I have been a mild-mannered patient at Sloan Kettering. Rapidly Day 100 approaches. Next week at this time, I will finally be able to get off most of my medications, many of which hinder me on a day-to-day basis (a little nausea, sore throat, headaches, terrible acne). Yesterday, I had the first of many tests and scans to determine the benchmark of how much healing needs to be done. Billy’s cells actually don’t start working until after Day 100. That’s when the cancer cells start getting zapped, IF Billy’s cells aren’t too busy in the shower. (Hehe!) My appetite will also start to increase. I am down 27 pounds from my normal weight. Ugh! That’s a lot to gain back. Thankfully I do have all summer to work out, eat like a horse and get myself prepared to reenter the working world (doing what, when and where- I don’t know just yet- I’ll keep you posted). I will be staying in New York City, though. I am in the process of signing a lease with two other fellas for a house in Brooklyn. Yeah, a real house with garage, driveway, yard and all, can you believe it? That story is for another time though. Regretfully I need to get back to work. The streets of New York are pounding with activity and someone’s got to be there to keep the peace. ‘Wooosh! Whap!’ ‘Fwwing! Fwwing!’