Andrea Coller
It’s hard to really put words to the myriad of emotions I felt when I learned of Andrea Coller’s passing this past week. Mostly, I was angry as hell. She of all people should have been able to beat this.
In so many ways, to so many people, it’s really hard to appreciate the anger and sadness that comes with having such a terrible illness and continual health issues. You live in a world where everyone you know will never fully understand. It’s not their fault or anything. It’s just that, no matter what, they won’t get that you’ll always feel bitter and angry towards the fact that a large chunk of your life was taken away from you for no apparent reason. The reality is, having cancer will never make sense… you’ll never know why you got it, you’ll never know if the treatment is going to work, and you’ll never know if it’s gone for good. The only thing that you can do is ignore that cynicism as much as possible, and live your life.
Living your life gets difficult, though, when you’re faced with constant reminders that cancer as a disease is never going away. You will know other people with cancer; your loved ones, your friends. You’ll watch the news and someone famous will be diagnosed. You’ll be asked to join a support group, donate, walk, etc. You’ll be asked how you’re feeling, and people will judge what you’ve been doing with your life “since your illness”.
It can be a real drag and can make you isolate yourself a bit.
For me, the only person I think I ever really reached out for any kind of cancer-kinship kind of support was Andrea Coller. And it was only because we both were aware that each other existed, really. I talked with her only a few times about it. I think mostly for me, knowing that she was dealing with all of this stuff too, and with a sense of humor and sarcasm about it, was helpful. Her recent essay article in Glamour magazine really exemplifies her spirit while she’s dealing with some pretty brutal experiences. Anyway, it was the way she didn’t want to really do the things that I also didn’t want to do that made me feel at ease, like the touchy-feely support group kind of stuff. Here’s an excerpt from some email correspondence awhile back:
Hi Matt,
Yes, I’ve also heard that we both are in the big-time at PACE _and_ at Dr. Bowers’ office… How ’bout those stem cell transplants, eh? But thankfully, it seems that so far we both have made it out of that particular hell as all right as anyone could…
…Yeah, sometimes I think it would be fun to sit around and trade war stories with other survivors. But most of the time, I practice the fine art of repression. It works out OK, for the most part.
Andrea
For me, just knowing what another survivor is up to, how they are living life, how they, too, just want everything to be ‘normal’ is enough. I don’t need to recall all the details of treatment, hospitals, medical procedures, and how it felt during treament. I try as hard as possible to not ever think about that stuff. And the further out I get, the more the days just melt into each other, and I’m blissfully not as aware that I am a ‘cancer survivor’.
I’m truly devastated to learn of Andrea Coller’s passing. It’s just a very difficult thing to deal with. At the core of all this is the first-hand knowledge of the hospitals and doctors and many of the ugly things that go along with people trying you fix you. But especially, I just know how much of an imprint Andrea’s life made on my life– and I wasn’t very close to her. To lose someone to similar health issues that I have, so far, survived doesn’t seem fair somehow.
When she was playing open mic nights at Fire and Water back when me and Steve Biegner were playing there too as Smokejumpers, she would light up the crowd. Years later, her performances at P.A.C.E. and her open mic night hosting duties made a different crowd adore her.
These are the types of things that trump everything else. She was just a great kind person living her life, who just happened to be dealing with cancer. And I know is that I will truly miss the calm of knowing that she was ‘around’. What it means in my own life, I haven’t quite figured out yet. We’re a compartmentalized group, just like a lot of groups… ‘people who’ve dealt with cancer’, ‘cancer survivors’. But no-one should ever pretend that we all have the same shit to deal with.
To quote her, I guess “…sometimes I think it would be fun to sit around and trade war stories with other survivors. But most of the time, I practice the fine art of repression. It works out OK, for the most part.”
Everyone will miss what you brought to the world, Andrea.
Where is my mind?
I’ve been very lax about posting to this blog lately, mainly because I’ve been posting in the spiffy (relatively new) songspeak site. Songspeak is something that Jamie and I have been working on since 1997 or so. It’s pretty cool to see it develop into a blog format. It’s been fun for both of us.
We’ve been kind of posting some old stuff and posting some new stuff too… everything from misheard lyrics to songs in tv commercials, 70s music, 80s music, 90s music, 00s music, and of course, videos.
I like the roast beef at Rolando’s
If I’m in the mood for a tasty, quick, and reasonably priced burrito, Bueno Y Sano is an obvious choice. I absolutely love the burritos at El Guanaco in South Hadley Falls, but that place is not always a convenient place to get to.
Similarly, though there’s nothing quite like a roast beef sandwich from places on the north shore of Massachusetts like Nick’s Roast Beef, Kelly’s Roast Beef, etc. I never get there since it’s a few hours away. I’m happy to say that locally, Rolando’s Roast Beef and Falafel in Amherst pays quite a tribute to the “North Shore Roast Beef Sandwich”… the tangy barbecue sauce, the nice round roll, the onions and cheese– all delicious. I had a taste of Kristen’s falafel also and that was great. The fries and onion rings were good too. I just enjoyed that they use fresh stuff to make everything there. I think I spent about $6-7 for a sandwich, basket of fries, and a drink. I think that’s pretty reasonable considering the amount of food I ordered. I still have never solved the mystery of why Arby’s is so expensive. What’s the deal with that?
Anyway, one more thing about Bueno Y Sano. Did you know they did catering?! I didn’t.
My mom went to Jamaica
My Aunt Pat retired a number of years ago, and her and my uncle built this place in Negril, Jamaica. I think it was always their dream to live there, and I’ll be damned if they didn’t actually make it happen. They sold their house on Long Island and now live at Valentine Villas, a four unit private villa on a sandy beach. It sounds quite lovely. My mom went there for a mini-vacation. I think my cousin is going down there too this week.
Meanwhile, we’re supposed to get snow up here in not-Jamaica. Luckily I finally got the tire off the snowblower and it should fixed, inflated and ready in the nick of time. I’m sure the barbershop will be open, no matter what the storm brings. It’s like the USPS that way.
Being a landlord is really something. I’m learning that it’s not necessarily a ‘big’ responsibility… it’s more like a ton of tiny responsibilities. Team Larseam is up to the challenge though. Our place IS pretty awesome, after all. We continue to hang up pictures and things like that and it feels like home more every day. Our friend Brittnie and her husband Kurt got us this wonderful framed scene that we hung above the piano. It’s actually made out of papyrus and was brought back from Brittnie’s recent trip to Egypt. It really blew my mind that she did this for us, not to mention the unbelievable party she coordinated (and cooked for) in our honor.
Both Kristen and I are really lucky to have wonderful people in our lives. It really amazes me every time I stop and think about it.
Lunchtimes
Kristen and I went to Cafe Lebanon today for lunch. It was delicious as it always is. She posted some pictures, in fact. Working in downtown Springfield is often a drag, but there are some pretty good places to eat. We don’t go out to eat for lunch THAT often, but yesterday and today we did. Actually, yesterday she took some pictures of our trip to Rein’s Deli. Those pickles are garlicky. And delicious.
The Taste of P.A.C.E.
On February 29th and March 1st, I’m playing at P.A.C.E. for the 5th Anniversary Celebration Taste of P.A.C.E. I’ll be performing 2 songs each night. It should be a fun show– basically a ‘review’ of all the music, theater, dance, comedy, etc. that’s been on the P.A.C.E. stage for the past 5 years.
I remember walking around the Easthampton Fall Festival with my cousin Steve Biegner and meeting Sonia for the first time. She suggested that we stop in and soon after we booked ourselves a Smokejumpers show. In the very early days of P.A.C.E., the rooms weren’t separated and there were folding chairs only. There were three risers and that was about it. I think we played a few shows with me on piano, Steve Biegner on guitar, and Adam Bach on bass. We each had our own little 4′x5′ riser. It was fun times. We used to document these things in our livejournal, but I haven’t read that in years.
Between Smokejumpers shows, Northernly shows, Steve Biegner shows, and my own performances at P.A.C.E., I really feel like I’ve made a little dent in the P.A.C.E. stage. I’ve seen some really wonderful shows there too– Haunt, Stephen Brodsky, Mark Schwaber, The Low Anthem, David Berkeley, Swing Caravan. So I’m psyched that I’ve been asked to play this event, because I get in for free to see everyone else playing and performing on those nights.
Also, Steve Biegner and Julia Suriano are the leads in the upcoming production of West Side Story, so some sort of tidbit of that will be happening I imagine.
Honda Element Camper Van
It’s always great when someone takes a classic idea and puts a new twist on it. Not in a lame way, but in a creative and intelligent way. Ursa Minor Vehicles sells a kit to convert a Honda Element into a VW Westfalia-type weekender camper for about $4,300.00. The Element is a pretty versatile, ugly-but-charming kind of thing, but this takes it to a whole other level.
I’ve always wanted a VW camper van ever since I was a little kid and my neighbors had an orange one with a white top and brown plaid seat cushions. Between noticing that friends who owned VWs were spending a lot of time and money repairing their VWs and getting older and camping less– I kind of became a Honda fanatic. I’ve had 2 Accords with over 200,000 miles on them and Kristen’s Fit is a pretty good camping car if we do decide to go for a weekend here and there. But the idea that I can revisit my little kid dream and mix it up with my love of Honda’s practicality is pretty intriguing.
Some would argue that they couldn’t imagine an uglier car than an Element. Those people might say that an Element with the camper top tops an Element without.
Steak Frites
This past Wednesday, Kristen and I stayed at the Sheraton in Boston’s Back Bay. My mother was nice enough to let us use her reward points, so we wound up staying in a pretty awesome suite on the 24th floor. For dinner, we went to Brasserie Jo. I had the steak frites. Kristen had the Chicken Coq Au Vin. Absolutely delicious. Seriously. Though I knew I would enjoy it when they brought each of us a baguette. I cannot express how much I love bread. It was nice to be able to chill out in Boston the night before my appointment on Thursday at Dana Farber.
It was a regular checkup of all my Hodgkin’s related stuff. I wasn’t looking forward to it, especially since my recent PET scan showed a slight enlargement of a lymph node in my neck. For weeks before my appointment I was pretty worried that a recurrence may have been on the horizon. Luckily, after they examined the scans at length, they determined that it wasn’t much of a cause for concern. They’re repeating scans in April just to be on the safe side. I could have just had a sore throat that day or something like that when I had my first PET scan. I can’t tell you how relieved I was.
In general, these regular checkups and doctor’s appointments are strangely more difficult for me now since they’re less frequent. I guess it’s the whole ‘out of site– out of mind’ mentality. When I go to these things, I’m reminded of all the difficult things I’ve been through. Now that I am so happy and in such a good place in my life, it’s easy to put those things out of my mind mostly. Anyhow, it was Kristen’s first visit to Dana Farber, so I’m sure it was weird for her but also good to get a new perspective on my health-life.
I’m just glad we got to offset the not-so-fun stuff with the hotel and the fancypants dinner the night before.
Oh, and on our way home, we stopped at the ‘rich people mall’, the Atrium in Chestnut Hill. We strolled around places like Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, J. Crew, Anthroplogie, and other such stores. And of course, there was a Cheesecake Factory, so we wound up eating there for dinner. It was surprisingly delicious.
Oh, and Kristen picked up a TheKnot magazine, which had 800 wedding dress ideas. But what will I wear?!
Electric Sports Cars
I’ve been reading about the Tesla Roadster, an all-electric sports car that’s beginning production on March 17th, 2008.
It gets the equivalent of 135 miles-per gallon and can go up to 220 miles on a single charge. t’s a really amazing blend of technology and design. I’m sure it will be astronomically priced, but that its appeal grows more and more each day is a good sign of the times. Having a ‘dream car’ that’s an electric vehicle is a pretty cool thing I think. When I was younger I just dreamed of Ferraris.
Jersey City, NJ
This week I headed down to the Advance Internet offices, which are in Journal Square in Jersey City, NJ. It was quite nice to meet people who I generally only talk to over IM or on the phone, since I’m sort of a satellite employee working from the MassLive office in Springfield. Jersey City is interesting, because it’s just across the river from NYC. It has its nice areas and its not so nice areas. Journal Square seems like it’s right in the middle of the two. My hotel wasn’t in an awesome area, but I eventually found it on Tuesday after driving around forever.
There were limited food options, but I wound up going to GoldenKrust, which is a very small chain of “Caribbean Bakery and Grill”s. Most of them are in NYC, Queens, Long Island, etc. It’s like a take-out joint. I had the jerk chicken. It was surprisingly delicious.
We wound up going Wednesday night into the city. It’s a pretty quick ride on the PATH train from Journal Square. Times Square is always nuts, and as a NYC tourist I’ve been there plenty of times, but it always seems to have its charm like anything else. We wound up going to Heartland Brewery. It was nice to share a meal with co-workers and get to know them more.
I was homesick of course, missing Kristen like nuts.
Every time I travel it’s bittersweet. I love exploring and seeing a whole different set of people and how they live. I love eating at different places and getting lost and stuff like that. But after about the second day from home I really yearn to be back in familiar surroundings. I never used to feel this way, but maybe it’s a reflection of realizing that I’m getting older. I may not be a spring chicken anymore, but I always strive to live in the moment and seize opportunities as they arise. I also realize that I can’t do everything, and it’s okay to just chill out once in awhile.
That said, I plan to relax a bit this weekend, and go see The Low Anthem and Steve Biegner at PACE on Saturday night probably.
Heather takes photos
Thanks Heather. That was awfully nice of you.
Kristen and I (and Heather) went to Thornes in Northampton after an unsuccessful attempt at going to the Smith College student center. It’s hard to find good lighting in the evening. Here’s one of my favorites:
I think Heather’s direction was the most impressive. A lot of “Okay, kids. Look alive.”s and “Smile like you mean it”s.
We celebrated striking multiple poses by eating pizza. I love Luna.
Moshi Moshi
Kristen and I went to Moshi Moshi last night. Among other things, I had the caterpillar roll. It was delicious. I’m kind of a sushi novice, but I want to eat it all now.
Here it is, my blorg
I was looking at my site one day and began to realize how seemingly quickly things become out of date and never get updated. It happens to everyone, and I suppose I could tell you that it won’t happen here since I have a fancy new blog setup so it makes it easier for me to post things. I suppose I could pledge to keep this updated as frequently as possible, not acknowledging the inevitable slackage that will creep up from time to time.
Instead I’ll just post about how I’m kind of excited about the whole blog setup. Ever since I started working at MassLive, and since meeting my lovely fiancee Kristen, I’ve been keen to the idea of starting one, but just didn’t have the time to explore it. Finally, I did.
So here we are. As I get into the swing of things, I hope some of these posts aren’t total snoozers.