Big Day Shopping

Back when we were staying at the Hope Lodge near Penn Station there was an indoor mall across the street. It had a few dinky shops inside and a 2-story JCPenney. Jimmy has been needing clothes since we arrived in New York. We didn't pack him a lot thinking he wouldn't need much because he was supposed to have been admitted to the hospital shortly after arriving. So it was decided we would walk to MSK and take the shuttle back to the Hope Lodge and walk across the street to JCPenney. We bundled up and hurried to catch the 10:00 shuttle. The shuttle is actually for patients of the Hope Lodge and technically we were not patients but we didn't think too much of it until the shuttle driver asked us for our identification. Jim whips out his Virginia drivers license and we were supposed to show our Hope Lodge identification. We explained our situation to the driver and he told us it would be no problem to transport us.

During the 15 minute wait for the shuttle to leave MSK we learned a lifetime about the driver, Louie. His name is Louie Bascetta and he comes from a large family of Italian Catholics. He's a native New Yorker and his father used to own a dance night club. Louie is married and bought a fixer upper in Brooklyn, I believe. He said he fixed it up nicely. He used to be a stunt man in the 90's and showed us pictures of himself with Johnny Depp and Kate Moss. He has a morning appointment tomorrow with a cardiologist and he hopes to bring his dad with him so he can get a good meal out of him afterwards. What a character. Jim and I just sat on the shuttle listening to him and waiting patiently for it to leave.

Our trip to midtown was unsuccessful. We walked around JCPenny and then to several neighboring shoe stores but Jim couldn't find anything to his liking. Eventually we took a bus back to the Upper East Side. It is so much nicer up here and it feels safer to me. Midtown around Penn Station is filthy and a lot of the people are seedy looking.

Jim picked up a pastrami sandwich for lunch and I braved it at Chipotle and ordered a burrito bowl. We took the food back to the apartment to eat. The rest of the afternoon was spent on emails, paying bills and we started a new series on Netflix called Bloodline. Sara told us about it and it is very addicting. Nothing like watching dysfunctional families on TV.

The little car in the picture caught my eye for many reasons. It was so colorful and cute plus before I noticed what it was advertising I took a picture of it for Sara because she loves anchors.

The most important thing that happened today is Jim got a call this morning to see Dr. Horwitz tomorrow. We can only assume the biopsy results are in and that Dr. H will be laying out the next plan of treatment. Deep breath Riddle's. We are ready to kick this cancer into remission.