Red-Eye from Hotlanta

Annie
Originally uploaded by thegreatplotnik.

It wasn't exactly a red-eye, but Plotnik's and Ducknik's flight left Atlanta at 7AM, which meant getting to the airport by 6AM, which meant getting into a taxi by 5:15AM, which meant turning off the alarm in the Hermitage at 4:50AM, which meant Plotnik and Ducknik rolling over and checking their watches at 4AM and 3AM and 2AM because that's what happens to both of them when they have to get up early the next morning to catch a plane, and since they didn't get into bed until 1AM, due to an advanced round of saying goodbye to Annie, it may as well have been a red-eye.

And anyway, Plotnik and Ducknik always have red-eyes when they say good-bye to Annie. Annie is family. She and Ducknik have known each other since they were babies, decades before her widowed Mom married Ducknik's widower Dad.

Annie gave a speech on Friday in Atlanta before a packed house at the National Ovarian Cancer Association. People laughed, cried, hooted, howled and snarfled their kleenexes. At the end, everyone bought at least one copy of 'Bearing Up With Cancer,' which Annie wrote in the midst of the most heinous bouts of radiation, chemo and nausea, to say nothing of clinical trials, hospital screw-ups, incomplete diagnoses, Doctors who were clueless and infinite questions about her treatment for which there were no available answers.

Her speech and her book are told by teddy bears. Believe it or not, these bears are very, very funny. When you're done listening to Annie, you're convinced she and her bears will outlast all the gremlins that have been trying to get her, quite unsuccessfully, for the last 25 years. Hers is a wonderful story, and her book should be required reading for anyone facing odds they're not sure they can overcome.

As in all great stories, in the end the good girl wins. She's winning right now, despite almost nonstop chemo these days. She looks great, sounds great, drinks lots of scotch and makes everyone around her feel alive. When you say good-bye, your eyes are red, and you've got a bunch of great new jokes.

In his previous entry, Plotnik quoted the last line of Annie's speech, and her book: "Cancer Will Never Get Me, Not While I'm Alive!" She leaves the stage to thunderous applause.