Houston, Day 3?

As if Houston, and our reason for being here, weren't surreal enough--it's snowing.
Yesterday was a day full of waiting rooms and blood taken and prodding and more waiting rooms, getting records to doctors, recounting the scene. We didn't learn anything new, really, except that these people know cancer and have a lot of resources, which is exactly why we came.
But, today, the docs are making their plans and getting organized, and the remaining scan I have to take isn't happening until tomorrow, so we had a full day to just recover from what was emotionally sort of an intense day yesterday.
So, we pretended to be here on vacation (took a lot of imagination, let me tell you) and took in the part of Houston that seemed most interesting to us: the Mark Rothko chapel & the adjoining Menil Collection. It turned out that some incredible art in two very different but beautiful buildings was exactly what I needed. The Rothko chapel is sort of dark and minimalist, but once you stay there a while it feels like the paintings just open up and the light is brighter and more like dawn than anything--a metaphor that speaks to my heart just now. After that, a wander through the bright and modern Menil Collection, that has a surprisingly cool population of surreallist and modern art. Watching a Calder mobile slowly swinging over my head was a wonderful experience.
We also had a really nice breakfast with my step-cousin-to-be (long story, but a large part of the reason we were able to get through the MDACC maze so quickly) which was a good dose of sociable, normal life. Later in the day, we stocked up on fancy cheese & snacks & movies, and are staying in tonight.
Now I'm feeling like the kind of person who makes you watch slideshows of boring vacations, so I'll stop the travelogue.
Anyway, we've got a full day tomorrow of planning meetings & appointments, so hopefully a plan of attack will be formed soon.

Again, thanks for the encouragement & warm thoughts,
JMB & Team Ninja