Oct. 31: Month in review

Later today, October will end. Here’s how I spent this month.

special days i celebrated this month and how:

• Today is Halloween, and in our house, this year marks a bit of a change: Katie is going to the varsity football game instead of trick-or-treating. Is it possible that 2013 was her last year of traditional Halloween activities? It bums me out a little, but not a lot.
• My favorite part of Halloween is answering the door to trick-or-treaters. Occasionally I’ll dress up (for my own enjoyment, because the kids never care—whatevs). Today my Timehop app reminded me of one of those times when I posted helpful advice on Facebook:

• I went shopping for tonight’s costume components this week, and when I purchased leopard print pants the clerk held them up and said, “Oh! These are exactly the kind of thing I would buy.” I said, “I probably shouldn’t tell you they’re for my Crazy Cat Lady costume then, huh?” She grimaced. It was shitty of me to ruin her day, but I figure I was doing society a service—right? (I know. Still shitty.)
• Our dogs are three years old! We keep waiting for giant Lucy to calm down, but so far she’s as crazy and puppy-like as ever. Since we don’t know Maya’s actual birth date, but her estimated age is about the same as Lucy’s, we decided to make them have the same birthday.

• On the dogs’ birthday, the humans in the house got cupcakes, and the pups got Doggie Paella (treats, hot dogs, cheese, and peanut butter). (Yep, we’re dorks.)
• Other October birthdays: Ted, Cristina, Erin, Jim, Alex F’n, Sherilee, and today, Uncle Paul and Chris Eff.

i saw things with my eyes:

Many, many movies:

• Nerd alert! Victor and I had our very own Avengers movie-fest. While this movie genre is definitely not my favorite, it was pretty cool to watch them all in a row. Over several days we watched, in order: Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, Marvel’s The Avengers, Phase Two: Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Still left to see: Guardians of the Galaxy. In May, there’s another Avengers movie coming out (I love the first part of this trailer), and in July, Phase Two ends with Ant-Man (starring Paul Rudd—rawr). Phase Three starts up in 2016 with more sequels and movies about other Marvel characters. The Iron Man movies are definitely my favorites. I enjoyed the Thor stuff least, since sci-fi is ridiculous to me.
• Whatever other movies I watched are obviously not worth mentioning, cuz I can’t remember any of ‘em.

Television:

• I started watching Call the Midwife (Netflix) a year or so ago, but I couldn’t get into it—it was like A Baby Story to me, which lost its appeal really fast; I mean, why would I repeatedly watch a show that ends with me inconsolable from watching strangers have babies??? I recently gave CTM another try, and really am loving it now. I hate getting hooked on stuff that ends. That can really be said about most things in my life.
• New shows this season seem mostly disappointing. Mysteries of Laura seemed like it had so much going for it, but it’s truly terrible. John Mulaney, a comedian I adore, has a show that’s also quite bad. Gotham’s premise and cast is good, but after five episodes, I think I’m done with it. 
• I’m happy to have my old favorites back: SVU, The Mindy Project, Modern Family, The Middle, CSI, The Blacklist, The Simpsons, and Grimm (it’s set in Portland, so the sci-fi-ness of it is tolerated).
• Where is Parks & Rec? I will definitely miss this show after it ends this season. Sad face.
• This clip from The Tonight Show is so much funnier than it should be. You must watch.

Other stuff:

• We saw Portland Center Stage’s production of Dreamgirls. I thought it was incredibly well done, so much so that I went twice.
• Still. So. Much. Football. The regular season ended last weekend, and playoffs start tomorrow. We started in September attending games in 100° weather, and last weekend watched in rain, wind, and a wind chill factor of something like -43°. We are some dedicated parents. And kinda dumb.

this month’s good and bad:

• Apologies to my friends who have dedicated their lives to physical therapy, but I really hate physical therapy. It’s very ouchie. They say my ankle’s range of motion is slowly improving, but I think they’re lying and just enjoy hurting me. Also, the sign outside their office looks like this:

• We got to see Daryl when he visited from Florida for a few days. Hoping we’ll see him again (with Sally and Presley) at Thanksgiving.
• My nephew’s band’s new album just came out. Check out Tetherball here.

i likes to share pics I’ve found on the ‘net:

These seem familiar, and I apologize if I’ve posted them before. Enjoy anyway:

I’ll close with this good news: Every day that passes now is one day closer to the end of all the psycho-level of pumpkin spice latte hype.

Apr. 7: Chemo #7, rock star edition

Yesterday was the treatment I’d hoped I wouldn’t need. I’m not ready to call #8 my last one, because I don’t know what Dr. O will want to do if O.J. is still  hanging around after #8. Will I have more chemo? Radiation? Surgery? A spinectomy? I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the spinectomy.

I was borderline on my blood counts again yesterday, but Dr. O still wanted me to do chemo. She said if the counts are in the same area before #8 that they’ll give me a shot that stimulates my immune system. I bet it’ll hurt. Besides that, we talked about my continuing back pain—it’s nowhere near as bad as it was before my diagnosis, but it’s still a good six on the pain scale sometimes—and she gave me suggestions for pain relief. I’m supposed to continue with physical therapy (I’m on a home program now) and also try eating more nutritiously to lose some weight. Pffft. I mean, um, WHATEVER IT TAKES!

We discussed my current sinus infection, and rather than go on antibiotics, Dr. O suggested I keep my sinuses moist and get them unclogged. She likened a sinus infection to an abscess—you don’t use antibiotics for an abscess; you drain it because that’s what works best to make it go away. Besides, antibiotics at this point would cause a host of additional side effects she promised me I wouldn’t want to deal with. I’m taking her word for it. Today I got Afrin and saline and am using them as directed because I’m a good, attentive patient.

Lastly, we asked when another test will be done on my heart, and she said “soon.” It sounds like it’ll be one of the many tests done near the end of this whole process. That makes sense—it’ll tell me what shape my heart is in as I move forward into the next phase of GOOD health. (Right?)

Now for the good stuff.

We made ourselves comfy in the infusion room after talking with Dr. O, and Sherilee unloaded her many, many bags. That girl brought so much stuff for me! It was AWESOME. First, there was a box of amazing rainbow cupcakes topped with thick frosting, to which she added Pop Rocks. Here they are in all their deliciousness:

As if that wasn’t a lovely enough treat, she brought them in a really cool cupcake carrier. Here’s a picture:

…and since I know you’ll ask (because everyone who saw it yesterday did), she ordered it from RSH, a catalog boutique.

Sher also brought candy necklaces for the two of us, a very tall stack of trashy magazines, and a CD case full of amazing music and comedy mixes—perfect accoutrement for a day of chemo! (You can punch me for using that fancy word right now. Right in the face. Please. I deserve it.) And look at this treat she got for Victor—bacon and chocolate; can you imagine a more perfect combination?

He tried it last night and said it was surprisingly really, really good. I don’t have the stomach for it yet, but I’m hoping there will be some left next week when my appetite is back.

Kim F’n surprised us with a visit too. I got to rub her butt—specifically, the tattoo on her butt, which she had done partly for me, so I kind of OWN part of her butt now so I can totally rub it whenever and wherever I want don’t judge me do NOT judge me I said.

After giving Sherilee the basics of IV pole-dancing—Kim did invent it, after all—we got a good pic of her with the Pop Rocks and candy necklace. You can see part of the cupcake carrier there on the chair behind her.

Notice also that there’s no stack of recycling viewable in this area of the infusion room—we sat in a different place than normal, where the chairs are much more comfortable and the view is a bit nicer. Still lots of old snarly people, but the windows and a little bit of sunshine made it better than the dark, dank corner in which we usually set up.

As if Sherilee’s companionship wasn’t enough for chemo #7, Kathy announced to our friends and family that it was Rock Star Chemo day. She had people texting and Facebooking me all day long with links to headbanger music videos, band photos, and lots of other fun things. I even got personalized messages from The Rouge:

 Jack (bass) and Adam (guitars, keyboards)

 Steve (drums)

Stephen has called me “Hey Lady” ever since he was about four years old, when I had just flown in for a visit and he was so excited to tell me something, he forgot what my name was. Sometimes I’m even “Auntie Hey Lady.” I love it. And him. And I haven’t met those other guys yet, but I think I kinda love them too.

Always one to play along, here’s Kathy’s doing her best impersonation of a rock star too:

My uncle Paul and Claire recorded a video of him performing a song about rocks—he’s waaay into literal interpretations!—and I would post it here if I could figure out how to steal it off Facebook because it was hilarious.

Thanks to everyone who sent all the good vibes in their varied forms yesterday—it made an otherwise icky procedure as close to being fun as it could be. (We’ll just not ever, ever speak of yesterday’s bad IV start experience, OK? Just trust us—it was awful awful awful.) And huge thanks also go to Sherilee, for driving down and back from Walla Walla yesterday to be with me, cupcakes and music and magazines and candy goodies and speeding ticket and all. You’re wonderful and I love you as big as the sky.

P.S. Just checked Sherilee’s blog—she’s got her chemo day story up too. Read it here, and leave a comment to tell her what a good friend she is!

Jul. 3: Wow. Just. Wow.

So this is just a teensy bit exciting for the fam:

Gotta encourage you, yet again, to check out this band called The Rouge. Here’s their web site, where you can hear a bunch of recorded songs, which can be purchased on iTunes and max3.

Unfortunately, The Rouge won’t be playing Portland this summer, but dates and venues of their other tour stops are listed on their site. And yeah, then there’s Red Rocks. Could that be any cooler? I think not.

Color me the proudest auntie ever. Lovin’ that drummer boy!

Apr. 22: Be a rock star

So you want to be a rock star, but you don't know how to start? Here's some help. Go to...

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result as a comment in this post. [Or just list them like this and include a link to the photo:]

My band name: Deception of Zeus
My album title: Your Mistakes Seem Worthwhile
My album cover pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24367079@N04/2429202145/

I love my band name and album title, but the cover pic... I don't know. Tagging Kath, April, Lori, Chris, Sheila and whoever else wants to play along.