Belated New Year entry

Happy New Year! I meant to write something last weekend, but of course got caught up instead in last minute preparations for the start of a new term - it started on Monday January 4th, which I suppose is still vastly better than two years ago when it started on January 2nd.

I wasted a few weeks at the end of the year fretting and trying not to fret over whether I might have lymphoma, after a CT scan that showed enlarged lymph glands through my chest. I'm relieved to say I don't. Between Christmas and New Year, I had a lymph node removed from just above my clavicle (the swelling that had made me visit the doctor in the first place) for biopsy, and was told on New Year's Eve that it wasn't anything cancerous. It made for much better celebrations that evening. I'd contemplated the possible need to change my blog over the next few months into a lengthy account of cancer care in the U.S. health care system. I'm sure it would have been a good topic, but I'll be quite happy not to have to discover for myself how good that care is, or whether my insurance would save me from being one of the alarming number of people in this country who end up declaring bankruptcy because of medical bills.

We went on a week's trip to Asheville, North Carolina, in the first half of December. It's the second time I've been to the "South," and as on my brief trip to Atlanta, I was delighted by how lovely it all was. Before I came to the States, my imaginary South was like Texas in the movies - dry and dusty, with sinister white police officers in reflective sunglasses cruising around the deserted roads and passing long and searching looks over strangers in town. In fact, the south-eastern states are (at least in my brief acquaintance with them) lush and green, with woodlands and rolling hills and fields or yards with black and white cows, donkeys, sheep, goats, ducks, chickens - somewhat like lowland Scotland, but less miserable. They feel familiar and well-worn, like the big green bath robe I wrap myself in every morning and evening.


Of course, my experiences are entirely superficial, and people who know better than me tell me of the problems with racism and narrow mindedness that lie just under this beautiful exterior, so maybe it's not so different from Scotland after all; but for the moment I will cling to my first impressions. Colorado is so dry and brown most of the time, and the mountains are impressive but they're definitely not conducive to life; to go from here to somewhere that drips green from every branch makes me feel mentally like a shrivelled old sponge suddenly plunged back into water. And they had good food there too, which is more than can be said for Denver.