First Date

Today I went on a date with Wonderful Wife!

We went to a movie ("Closed Circuit") late morning, in time to be home to walk to school to retrieve The Progeny.

I haven't really been out in public since a few weeks into treatment. Other then trips to Dana Farber, I've really only been out for neighborhood walks and some brief errands. I've been getting cabin fever lately and it felt really good to go on a "normal" outing.

I've felt pretty limited by the fact that I have to spit every few minutes. I have a Starbucks cup that I turned into a smaller spit cup than the cocktail shaker I normally use, but it still feels awkward to carry both a bottle of rinse and a spit cup.

On some days, now, the mucous is decreased enough that I can go 10-15 minutes without spitting. And I figured a daytime movie on Thursday would not be crowded. And the theater is dark, so people probably wouldn't notice. I was right. I felt comfortable.

Don't tell my boss, though!

Actually, my recent improvements do have me thinking about returning to work and wondering when might be the right time. Things still change from day to day, but I think I might be able to show my face at work within a couple of weeks, at least for brief periods.

Spitting and eating are the two main obstacles. Eating I can take care of - I can easily feed in one of the small rooms we use for conference calls. The spitting is more of a problem since I work in an open plan office.

I have already started to re-engage via email. I'll continue to ramp that up in the near term. There are some new technologies that my team was starting to use when I vanished in early summer. I can start to spend time learning about those, too.

Today was a good day. The good days are definitely starting to outnumber the bad.

Oh, the movie was pretty good. Although strangely titled and marketed with ads that show lots of surveillance camera footage. Because while there are a few surveillance camera shots used in the movie, video surveillance plays absolutely no part in the plot.