Saturday, February 9, 2008

Life and snoring

I just got off the phone, speaking with my favorite cousin F. Technically she's my mother's first cousin, but when you're from the South, everyone is a 'cousin'. F is pretty much my second mom, considering my actual mother is just this side of a complete nut. No, really, she's actually crazy. It's been diagnosed. Anyhoo, F is married to M, who is just the NICEST guy in the whole world. I've known both of them my whole life. And M has been diagnosed with lung cancer. It's terminal. The oncologists and various other doctors at the preeminent university teaching hospital near where they live are going to treat it with chemo and radiation because they think they can buy him some time. But really his days are much shorter in number than we would like. It makes me very sad. But what makes me even more sad is F. She's completely devastated. M is a lifelong smoker. F keeps saying 'but the doctors said this isn't because of the smoking'. Seriously, you're really clinging to that? But then I realize that right now she needs to cling to whatever she can. Course this has helped in my campaign to help the BF stop smoking. He stopped January 1 and hasn't had a cigarette since. I'm VERY proud of him. Of course, he's felt like total crapola since he quit but hopefully that will go away soon. He has also turned into an eating machine since he quit but we'll get that turned around eventually.

Yesterday the BF and I went to the city to take in a small photography exhibit that a friend of a friend is in. Then we went to Gobo for vegetarian/vegan food. I was sure he would freak out and hate it but I think he actually liked it. Of course, I had to feed him a heaping helping of red meat tonight for dinner but maybe some day I can wean him off the 'meat every meal' concept.

So after I fed him the dead cow and he was snoozing on the couch while I talked to my cousin, she told me a story about M and snoring. Basically, she always made him wait to come to bed until she was already asleep so that his snoring wouldn't wake her up. However, for the last couple of months he's been in so much pain that the only way he could get any sleep at all was to sleep sitting up on the couch. The doctors finally got his pain medication combo to the point where he could sleep in the bed for a full night. She was so excited to hear his snoring for two nights in a row. We had a good chuckle over that. I went out to the living room where BF was snoozing (he's a MAJOR snore-er). I remembered how agitated I was the first month I was here living with him and I wasn't able to sleep because of his snoring. And I realized that while I will probably get annoyed with the snoring many times in the future, I'll always stop for just a second and remember F and M and how happy she was to hear him snore. Just for two nights.

Back to the Shala tomorrow. YAY!!!!!!!

6 comments:

armani said...

That was so nice of you to feed yr bf the dead cow after a vegan meal. All the meat eaters I know would go to a vegetarian/vegan restaurant under great duress. Good that you're also able to get him to quit smoking. It's such a huge risk factor for heart disease. Power to him.

Yoga Chickie said...

Hi fellow New Yorker!!!

Where do you practice?

lauren

LI Ashtangini said...

Hello YC!

I practice at Yoga Sutra right now. And only on Sundays since I had to take a job here in PW. That may change.....but right now it's Christopher and YS. Perhaps I should start driving to Connecticut on Sundays!

LIA

Anonymous said...

Hi! I stumbled upon your journal. I too am an Ashtangi and a vegan.
I am sorry to hear about your friend with lung cancer. Sending kind vibes.
Nice to meet you, my name is Flo.

LI Ashtangini said...

Thank you for your good vibes, Flo, we can use every bit!!!! I'm not actually vegan or vegetarian but I do like to eat at the establishments when I can. Real Food Daily in LA is my favorite.

Yoga Chickie said...

I too am sorry about the lung cancer thing...my dad happened to survive a terminal diagnosis. That was 3 years ago, when he was diagnosed with stage 3B lung cancer, with lymph node metastases all over his torso. After his regimen, the cancer has disappeared. He is still taking Tarceva. It works on some people. I hope your friend becomes one of the exceptions...