Apr. 16: IDCEAYWTPFriday

Time again for I Don’t Care Enough About You to Write in Transitioning Paragraphs Friday.

• I felt like you-know-what most of this week, but yesterday things improved a bit. I don’t hurt when people hug me anymore. I don’t hurt when my back touches the pillow. I still feel low on energy, but at least the constant screaming has stopped.
• My mom came up Wednesday. She was on her way to visit friends in Walla Walla, and she left her giant dog, Gilly, with us until she gets back on Sunday. He’s a great dog—super sweet and well-behaved—but our critters hate him and it changes EVERYTHING about our house when he’s here. The only thing I really mind, though, is the increased toxicity of our home’s air. The dog farts are absolutely intolerable now.
• Last night we saw Dreamgirls. I didn’t watch the movie before we went, but I’m watching it right now and it’s surprisingly similar—not as many plot changes as you often see in the movie version of a stage musical. I thought the stage show was good, and Victor did too, but we agreed that it’s not one of our favorites. One really disappointing part last night was when Effie’s microphone went all wonky during And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going. Couldn’t have happened at a worse time.
• I’m hope-hope-hoping that my chemo on April 27 will be my last one, but we won’t know for sure until we see the results of my scan on May 4. I wish I could really truly celebrate being done, but I know that even if it is my last chemo, I’ll still have to go in for IV meds for a while. My last day in the chemo chair will probably end up being a bit anti-climactic, as it sounds like I’ll taper off over some time. Either way, we’re planning to do some celebrating on the day we’re calling April 27 is Jen’s Last Chemo. To add to the excitement, my sister is going to be there—she’s flying in from Denver that morning, and flying back in the afternoon. Fortunately, my doctor’s office is five minutes from the airport. I’m thrilled that she’ll be here! You should probably drop by too, y’know. Jus’ sayin’…
• The season premiere of The Deadliest Catch was this week. Knowing Captain Phil’s fate makes his scenes so sad! I don’t know how long it’ll be until they cover his hospital stay, but I’m sure they’ll dedicate at least one episode to his death. It’s gonna be a bummer of a season. I remember bawling over last season’s episode when that one deckhand’s little sister died, and we didn’t even know her. Captain Phil was my favorite of all those grizzled dudes.
• Speaking of The Deadliest Catch, here’s Mike Rowe (the narrator) performing a dramatic reading of Tiger Woods’ texts. Ha.
  
  
  
• Darlene is taking Katie and Abby (Katie’s cousin, Ted’s daughter) to the American Girl Fashion Show in Bellevue this weekend. Katie’s been eagerly preparing; this involves putting together the perfect ensemble in which to outfit her American Girl doll, not to mention herself. She even got up early one morning this week to work on it. Oh, the horror if either of them are not properly attired!
• Have you read the Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin? I’ve mentioned the books many times in the history of my blog because I enjoy them so much. I was thrilled to read the latest, Michael Tolliver Lives, when it came out ‘07, and to hear Maupin announce at his reading that he was working on another book that would mostly be about Mary Ann. This new novel, Mary Ann in Autumn, just popped up on Amazon and is available for pre-order before its release in November. Hooray! Here’s the quickie review I wrote of Michael Tolliver Lives, and this is what I posted after attending Maupin’s reading on his last tour. Love that guy.
• It’s sunny and warm outside right now, but the weekend weather is supposed to be so-so. We’ll see. I’d love some sunbathing time to get some color on my noggin, but it’d probably just burn anyway. I think my wig’s uncomfortable anyway; I can’t imagine if my scalp was peeling underneath it! Itchy itchy itchy. That’d make me bitchy bitchy bitchy.

That’s enough for now.