Last week I finally established a schedule for my music at the cancer center. The previous week I had discussed playing in the radiation center with my oncologist and he thought it was a great idea for me to just play in the waiting room whenever I felt like it, so i've been bringing my banjo in when I go in for treatment, arriving a half hour early and playing until they call me in, and if I feel like it, for another half hour after being zapped. And on Friday, not having heard back from Irene, the director of volunteer services, I asked the receptionist in the radiation center to give her a call and tell her I'd like to see her. She came right down and after a bit of discussion, told me that the best time for me to play in the chemo clinic would be 4 p.m., so I came back at 3:30 and played another 20 minutes in the radiation area for warm-up for the chemo gig.

The staff in the chemo clinic was happy to see me back, got me a chair, and I started playing (again with "This Little Light of Mine," and the same nurse sang along with me. It's a great song for the kind of occasion, and I might start all the gigs up there with it. I got a good hand from staff and patients, and I went on to a few more songs: "The Mountains of Mourne," "Man Piaba," and a couple of others, sandwiched around a slow banjo waltz--as far as I know without words: "The Shepherd's Wife Waltz" I learned from Mary Z. Cox's playing--a year or so ago I'd had her CD in my clock radio and I woke up listening to it for a few days and once after so waking, went into my computer room, picked up my banjo, and played it almost flawlessly (obviously a simple tune), and have been playing it in jams since, teaching it to my co-jammers.

So that's how I'm set up now, playing around my daily radiation treatments, and coming back on Friday afternoons for the chemo gigs. I'll finish my treatments in three more weeks, but I'll continue to come in as much as I can (although I may play in the afternoons at the radiation center, also, except for Thursdays when I play at the brain injury center in Marin County. And maybe I'll talk to Irene about playing in the chemo waiting area as well as the clinic.

Charles