I would like to extend a gigantic thank you hug to James's fellow teachers at the 92nd Street Y who organized the silent art auction benefit to support James's recovery and hosted the closing reception this evening. I was moved by the quotes from his students that were pinned up next to the artwork and the obvious love present in the room for James as a teacher and friend.

Nancy Johnson painted this sweet portrait of James looking rather like another red headed painter we all know and admire.

I was told that Wennie Huang used her super powers to move the auction forward--blowing more kisses her way.

I wanted to bid on all the pieces wonderfully presented in the exhibit but that would sort of defeat the purpose of the entire enterprise!

Shout out to my colleague Paul E. Van Horn for stopping by and listening to my worries and silly story about James's self-portrait photograph taken in the wild redwoods of Northern California.

James received a new bed today.  The rehab team noticed that James has been waking up tired from his restless nights.  His bed was rather uncomfortable and he was arriving to therapy exhausted before even beginning the session. I have a tendency to blame the side effects of medications for everything but it does appear that one of the meds he is taking causes insomnia. I am hoping that the step-down in the meds which the doctor mentioned he had plans to do will occur and that the switch out of beds will make a difference.  James did seem especially tired today when I arrived later in the afternoon.

I caught his final session of the day with his occupational therapist, Aura.  She gave him a cognition test that I would have failed!  One of the tasks that James had to complete was to subtract 7 from 100, then 7 again from that number and so on, until he was told to stop. I could not do it!  James also had to memorize five words after being told twice and then, asked again at the end of the session. I could recall only one!  James did much better than me. She also asked him what the relationship was between an ear and eye--he replied, "They are sense organs."  She took a step back and looked at me slightly astonished and commented, "I was thinking he would say 'body parts'--sense organs is rather sophisticated!"  James was asked to name words beginning with the letter "f" and he said nothing but positive things: fun, friend, fantastic, fabulous--so sweet.  None of those words came to my mind.....

Aura was curious about the type of art that James makes so I shared his website with her.  We clicked around at the various pieces and discussed his use of scale, the influence of the architecture and sensibility of Baroque space in Rome where James spent a year in graduate school, his large collage project, and then, she wanted to see one particular oil painting entitled, "The United States of America" which is a portrait of the actor Christopher Reeves after his accident.  She was very moved and inspired by this painting (detail below).

Aura wants to discuss James for a presentation she is giving (she immediately said, "I will not use his name!") regarding spinal cord injury research and recovery. She was so moved that he painted Christopher Reeves and that James would have an interest in him as a subject.  I love that she has this extra dimension regarding James and that she found a connection with him through his painting of who she considers an icon of spinal cord research.

I must get to bed. It was a very long day today and Imogen is exhausted too. She was assigned far too much math homework and did not have enough time in her day to complete it. She was in tears!  I told her it was all my fault--arriving home late and eating supper.

James would have loved seeing the exhibit tonight. I will show him photos of the show again and the portrait by Nancy. I wonder what he will think about it all!