!!

[Guest guest]

Hello all.

Sara and I took a nice vacation (we have not had one in many years

since my Pancreatitis) and went to Las Vegas! Since we live in

Sacramento and it is a 9-10 hour drive and we just bough a new Scion

xB (the sort of a van that looks like a box on wheels), we drove

there. I actually drove most of the way there myself! I have not

driven in almost 2 years! I was happy to see that my skills have not

diminished. I was terribly ill before we went, only having a bit of

fruit once for two days as my food and throwing up and having

terrible pain and BS problems.

We went there because the Venetian casino was having at their

Guggenheim affiliated museum a show of Russian artifacts from the

16th and 17th centuries. Remember that I studied Russian language,

literature and culture at university for many years along with my

Humanities degrees (BA and MA). It was so nice that they had

wheelchairs for people like myself so that they could enjoy the

exhibition. It was to die for! I won't go into the details of the

show as I am sure most all of you are not interested in this sort of

thing. However, I met a Russian couple who had immigrated to Israel

and also were visiting the exhibition as part of their stay at Vegas.

We rattled on in Russian for a while (fortunately, she corrected me

on one awful error that I should not have made!) but, otherwise my

Russian was good and they felt so happy to meet an American who

actually knew Russian at all! They were so sweet and when we parted

with the words " Da svidaniya, ma-ee dru-zya " (Good bye my friends) it

was wonderful. I wish that I had asked for their address, darn!

After that, we had some coffee and a rest and then went to the

Bellagio casino as they were having an exhibition of 34 paintings

from the collection at Boston Art Museum which represented the works

from what is called the " Barbizon " school all the way through

impressionism and a few post impressionists (van Gogh, Cezanne, and

Gaughan). I actually go out of my wheelchair there to get up close to

the two van Goghs that they had to look from the top, bottom, left

and right sides to see the brush strokes and to feel the great

humanity of each stroke and the feeling of euphoria that one can only

get through such an experience and inquisitiveness. It was a lovely

show. I have the catalogs of BOTH shows that we saw.

After going to the shows, we went to the buffet at the Bellagio which

is said to be the best in all of Vegas. We ate there and the food was

terrific! When we were done eating, I wanted to drink a few cups of

hot tea, so Sara went off to buy me a book of the works of Vermeer.

Well, while she was gone, I started feeling very strange (remember,

this was our first day of wandering around Vegas and we kept it

pretty limited). I cleared off the table quickly so that I could lie

my head down on the table on my arms and promptly passed out! There

was no way to reach or find Sara at this point and I was grateful

that I did not fall to the floor or they would have called an

ambulance or something. So, they got someone to take me to another

part of the casino, the car valet pick up place where I was able to

call security and have Sara paged. Well, after a while she was found

and she came to meet me there and we got the car and went to our room

right away. That was scary. What if I were alone? What if they did

call an ambulance?

Well, the second day was dedicated to less stressful activity. We met

an old friend at her house and had a wonderful salad that was PERFECT

and the conversation was nice and easy. After that, THIS IS THE BEST

PART!!!, we went to meet Dave (BravDave63@...) and he is the

nicest guy you would ever want to meet. We talked about all sorts of

things and even exchanged gifts. He wished that I had felt better as

he would have shown me and Sara more of Vegas and all that. He even

offered to push my wheelchair for me for the duration of the tour.

However, I was not feeling well enough to do anything like that at

that time (If I ever go back there, I will certainly take advantage

of his offer!). So, Dave turned out to be a really neat person and is

every bit as nice and sincere as he puts himself across on his posts

to the group. I am so glad that I made sure to see him. He has wanted

to meet another panc person to talk about all of the stuff that he

has gone through and to toss around ideas about his health and all

that. Gee, what a nice fellow. If you ever go to Vegas, look him up

and maybe he can show you things about Vegas that you never would

have seen or learned.

There was one thing that I WANTED to do and that was to go to a bar

where, if you wore only your underwear, the drinks were free! Did not

do it though because Sara thought it was kind of lurid and sleazy to

do so. Hell, I told her that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. As

you can tell from my post, this is not always true!

I admit that I did drink Porter while there. I am a real fan of

English, Irish, and ish beers, which, I know, is a no-no for us

panc people. It will be a long time before I have another drink of

anything of that sort again. I can't give it up altogether. I love

the different flavors, no matter how bitter others may see them. You

see, I sing and play guitar and banjo and mandolin and fiddle and so

many of the songs have to do with drinking and, along with the

drinking in the songs, there is usually some sort of heartfelt

goodbye as if the person were on his/her way to America from Ireland

never to return to the " Holy Ground " once more. Unfortunately, I feel

that way myself. I will never return to the " Holy Ground " of my

health ever again in my life and it saddens me so much and I even get

so teary-eyed just thinking about it. If I could just take a drug

that would make me forget all about that or make me numb to this

longing, I would take it. However, it is only the " temporary " feel of

a good ale or porter that does this for me and, fortunately, it is

rare that I do so. I am now teary-eyed as I write this myself right now.

The trip back from Vegas was also very nice as we stayed with a woman

I have known since I was about 2! (I am 2 years older than she is and

used to take baths with her as well when we were such wee kinders)

Her mother help our family by taking care of all four of us kids

while my mother went to school to learn to be a nurse as she and my

father were preparing for his soon to be retirement due to Multiple

Sclerosis. So, was very close to me as we grew up together and

only live about 5 houses apart. We had such a nice visit and a

restful one at that. The next day, we went to breakfast and then

returned home to Sacramento.

I made it through a trip that I felt I never could. I felt that those

days were now long gone. I know that I will have to go places that

are not overly stimulating but have something to offer me and my

intellectual curiosity. It will take me a couple of weeks to recover

from this trip as my bowels, blood sugar, and pain are way out of

synch right now and I have to take more neurontin for the horrible

breakthrough pain that I am experiencing and need to do something to

" un-loosen " my bowels. The physical stress of the trip has been more

than I could have imagined.

Sorry that this post has been so long, but I just had to share this

good news/bad news of my life as I have mostly posted privately over

the past number of weeks.

Take good care and you don't know how important all of you really are

to my life and my own sanity!

Love to you all.

Anyse (CA, where else?)

[Guest guest]

This was so interesting to read. I'm also a fan of art, and am lucky

enough to live close to NYC, where I'd go in to see the collections

when I used to feel well.

Your truly a person of many talents!

Eileen