Happy Easter, everyone.

Normal life continues to re-assert itself. For the most part it is a gradual
process that doesn't yield a lot of note-worthy landmarks -- every week Deb
can walk a little bit farther and faster, do a little bit more of the
housework, and pay attention to complicated stuff for longer at a stretch.

For most practical social purposes, it is like she was never sick. Several
people have commented about the mental whiplash of seeing Deb looking like
her old self -- when just a little over two months ago she seemed likely to
die. (They put it much more tactfully.) The Gleevec has no side effects as
far as we can tell. And though it is still too soon to be sure that it is
working, everything we can point to is hopeful. Deb's main health complaint
these days is something I'm sure many of you can identify with -- a twisted
ankle takes a lot longer to heal now than it did ten years ago.

She returned to work at Mitre this week. She's been taking it slowly and
working only a few hours a day. Most days she only needs to be at Mitre's
Nashua site, which is just ten minutes from here. Mitre has been absolutely
fabulous during this whole process, both from an institutional and a personal
point of view. We have not had to argue with the benefits department about
anything, and the company seems content to let Deb pick her own pace as she
comes back. Her coworkers have consistently made her feel appreciated with
flowers and cards, and occasionally people have dropped by with Chinese
take-out at lunchtime.

Deb is taking the attitude that going back to work is something she gets to do
rather than something she's got to do. But all the same we took advantage of
her last week off by going on a theatre binge. On consecutive nights we saw
"The Importance of Being Earnest" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at St.
Anselm College; and then we caught "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" the next
night at a local Nashua theatre a few blocks from here.  The next day it was
time for a movie: "Spirited Away", which is excellent even if you're not
taking children. Today (Easter) we're seeing "Jesus Christ, Superstar" down
in Boston.