Arthur: Plantagenet King of England

The quick catch-up for today.

1. Ladies -- well, and men -- if you or someone you know ever gets breast cancer, move heaven and earth to get accepted to the (very selective) Breast Cancer Team Research Center at the Cancer Care Alliance in Seattle. Did I say that loud enough -- it's a TEAM! Okay, that's not quite their real name, but I'll get it for you. You know how much I believe in teams. Well, when you get 3 docs -- a medical oncologist, an oncological radiologist and an oncological surgeon, it's just home. It was just like Yale Drama School, except for medicine. The docs teach at UW, so they're up on all the research. It's fantastic. 45 liesurely minutes with this doc... an hour with that one... silences while they wait for you to digest, and then ask, "Do you have any questions?" It's the first time medicine has felt like computer science or physics to me -- a big knowledge base, that you all sit around and discuss together.

2. My mom is a health-care stud. Seriously. The goddess of managing your health care. I came away inspired.

3. The outlook is basically -- do a test, do surgery, then we'll know. Either surgery will fix it or it won't.

4. Under all that -- this is just stuff. The important thing is that, after a lifetime of warfare, my mother and I had grown up, made up, and become friends before this happened. She spent the break between doctors giving me a very precise detailed medical lecture called Breast Cancer: An Overview Of The Two Relevant Types. I took notes the whole way. I loved it. It's exactly like what she'd do when I was little ("Arthur: Plantagenet King of England." "The Dogwood: Mutant Deciduous Tree"). Her lectures always have a lot of Latin in them.

5. I took a break a couple days ago and spent 10 hours researching business schools. Specifically, biz schools a) in Europe, b) with 10-month MBA programs, c) taught in English but which required you learn another language, d) highly ranked in the US, 3) with as tailorable a curriculum as possible. The good news -- there's one in Paris and one in Lausanne, Switzerland. The bad news -- average age is 30 at both. Anyway, a pleasant way to spend a day.

6. Had a great art sesh -- or should I say life sesh? -- with MomBrain a couple days ago. That's what kick-started the biz school search.

7. Off to see Andrew, one of my oldest theatre friends, to catch up on life.

Cheers, duckies.