  and update your bookmarks.  Saturday, May 24, 2008   I flew to
Burlington in the rain. I landed in the dark. I grabbed a taxi
to my hotel and then tried to sleep quickly, since I had to be
awake at 5am (2am, according to my exhausted body) to meet my
mother, sister, and aunt at the hospital in the morning.  I
slept restlessly, and felt abused when I woke. I slipped into
some comfortable jeans, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt from Wal-
Mart that read "Massena New York", the town closest to my
mother's house, far upstate.  I walked most of the way to
Fletcher Allen Hospital in the morning haze while rain clouds
moved in over Lake Champlain. My sister, awake since 4am and
driving for two hours picked me up on the side of the road and
drove me the rest of the way to the hospital. It was a nice, but
brief, rest for my legs and racing heart.  We met my mother and
her twin sister in the lobby, and then waited for the pre-
surgery consultations. Eventually we were sent in to the prep
room, where my mother readied herself