A Day in NYC

We skipped FAO Schwarz and Ripley's to save time. We went to the big Toys R Us in Times Square - it was jam packed! And we spent less there than we would have at Ripley's for admission. We took a pedi-cab up to the Mars restaurant, not realizing the fee was >per person<. Luckily Blair had the cash, and we really enjoyed the ride (he zipped around and between cars at stop lights). We all had caffeine with our snack on Mars, and our seats were amazing - the third row of the highest balcony. It was very cool when the dancers were making shapes (a la Ziegfeld) to see them from above.

I'm such a geek. I made a spreadsheet of the places we wanted to go and what time we wanted to get there. In between each stop, I pasted a google map showing the route..The only time we got turned around was when we came up out of the Times Square shuttle station in a different spot than it showed on the map, and we walked a block or so in the wrong direction before finding out we'd been right next to it when we got to the street level.

Jekkyl and Hyde's was cool and lots of fun. We ended up spending about double what we'd have paid to eat something similar at Chilis, but the "show" was fun. Mars 2112 was a little more hokey, but fun. We were still pretty full from lunch so we had dessert and caffeine.

We got home a bit after midnight and all slept like logs. I took some motrin before I went to sleep and my leg muscles feel better this morning than I thought they would. Dan's in a fabulous mood and thought the show was awesome.

Nice Little Surprise

I saw the radiation oncologist today and she told me I have only three more treatments! Tomorrow, Thursday and Monday. I was expecting a few more days next week.

Tomorrow, I'm going to the hospital first thing (8:15) so we can go into the city. We bought tickets for tomorrow night's Xmas Spectacular at Radio City (my Jewish hubby has always wanted to go.)

We may or may not get to everything we want to do but our plans include:

• Madame Tussaud's
• a tour of Grand Central Terminal (we've both always wanted to do that)
• Jekkyl and Hyde's restaurant (like eating in Disney's haunted mansion, the men's room is in a secret passage behind a bookcase, how cool is that?)
• FAO Schwarz
• Ripley's museum
• (we have to pick up our show tickets)
• Mars 2112 restaurant (restaurant "on Mars", tee hee)
• the Rockettes

Snowed In

Well, the weathermen kept going back and forth as to whether our part of CT was going to get walloped or no snow at all. We're getting walloped.

My sister posted on Facebook that the wind moved her dog a half foot to the side wheb she took him out. Dumbledore wouldn't even go near the back door when we opened it and encouraged him to go out. Blair took him down to the garage, and shoveled him a little area just outside the garage door - the snow was taller than he was (at least a foot). 

This is reminding me of the blizzard of '96. The state was shut down for two days and I was convinced I would go into labor and not be able to get to the hospital. At least we never lost power. Today though, the wind is blowing so hard that the family room is pretty chilly despite the fact that the heat is on.

This morning, Blair and I got up early-ish (8) to hit the Hallmark store. We got tissue paper and bows which I was out of, but they had no wrapping paper, which I am running low on. It was all only 40% off though. I'm bummed because I'm finally running out of the paper I got for 50% off when Alex was small.

Then we hit the supermarket. What a zoo!! Blair got on line at the service desk to return the Coke he bought by mistake. He was supposed to get Diet Coke to go with the Mentos we gave Daniel for Christmas. I stopped at the hand scanner kiosk and they were all dead (there were only three units in the display). I ran to the other end of the store and there was an out of order sign on the kiosk there. Oh noes! We were going to have to wait on a long line to get out. 

We shopped and got on one of the self checkout lines behind at least 7 or 8 people. I'm leaning on the cart and I turn around to say something to B and he's not there. A little while later, he turns up with a working hand scanner (I guess those three units charged up and he got the last one). We start scanning like mad and packing up our reusable bags, figuring that at least when we get to the head of the line, we'll get out fast. But it got better, the gal who watches over the self service line saw us scanning. She was surprised and checked to make sure it was working OK. The she took us out of line to her station and processed our order, and bang zoom - we were done!

On the way out of the store, we popped the scanner back in the display, so hopefully someone else got lucky too. Once we were in the car, I kept telling Blair that he rocked and that he was "da man". On the way home, I realized I should have grabbed a bunch of scanners from the out of order side and popped them into the empty display. But maybe the woman told someone and they got them working again.

We got home and watched Despicable Me with Daniel. Then I made cheese sticks (wrap string cheese in refrigerator dough and bake according to the directions on the roll package). We all enjoyed them. Blair gave me one of those jewelry armoires (he got a really good deal on one with plenty of drawers, and my current box is overflowing) and I spent the afternoon and evening sorting through the stuff in my old jewelry box, pairing up earrings and such. It was loads of fun (I love sorting and organizing and loved seeing stuff I haven't looked at in a while). Blair and I watched a bunch of old NCISs while I did that.

The hospital massage therapist called to cancel tomorrow's appointment. She may reschedule for later in the week, since she missed last Monday too, due to illness. I probably won't have radiation either. (There's a LOT of snow out there already and it won't quit until tomorrow evening.) I was planning to take a "vacation" day from radiation on Wednesday or Thursday and going into NYC with Dan (who finished all the stuff he owed the English teacher on Christmas Eve!) and Blair, but now I'm thinking I should see if they can take me early in the morning instead, since it'll be 4 days off by the time I get to the hospital.

I felt pretty energetic today (although I did nap for a bit during the day). Maybe it won't take too long to recover my energy once I'm done with the radiation? That'd be nice.

I hope everyone is warm and cozy!

Dan's New Look

Dan's trying a new style. The new clothes seem to be tied with the ipod dock/boombox for best Xmas present.

Weighty Matters

I've been slowly, steadily gaining weight since I opened the store. That coincided with me being happy with my body and allowing myself to partake of the occasional treat. Which lead to my falling off the low carb wagon with an earth shattering thud. (Whenever I had a crop in the store (which was every weekend), there were cookies, and brownies,C and M&Ms, and sometimes cheesecake filling, etc, etc). Then I was in Minnesota and I stuffed my feelings with food. Then I was in California doing the same. I have good intentions, but it doesn't translate to action.

And now I'm over 200 pounds (my previous high was 180 or so). I've never been this big (and I'm only 5'4") - I just had to buy a new coat; I can't zip my coat comfortably. I have hardly any jammies that fit comfortably around the waist. My most comfortable jeans are falling apart (one of the rear pockets is unraveling). I've got reflux and B says I'm snoring sometimes. I get winded going up the stairs.

The first picture is from my graduation party in May of '07, I felt like I was rockin' that dress. The second was taken last month when we saw the president.

Bleh

Blair got a job offer today! The money isn't great, but it's close to home. Before this it was looking like he'd have to take a 4 month maternity replacement gig in a town at least 45 minutes away, plus working weekends for a place that is planning on opening a second building in the fall, and might want him full time then. It's a great relief. We're taking a little money out of his 401K to cover COBRA for a few months, and when he's eligible to join their plan, we can switch to a less expensive plan because I'll be done with treatment.

I'm feeling OK. Mom, a sister and I got together Monday and Tuesday to bake cookies. It really tired me out. Tuesday when I met with the doctor, she said that it's right about the time I should be feeling fatigue from the radiation (speaking of radiation, did you guys hear they want to open up Chernobyl to tourists, how crazy is that?) and that it would get worse before it got better (in maybe a month or so.) I'm starting to get some skin irritation too, and need to be more rigorous about using the cream she prescribed (and doing it more often).

Although it was worrisome (to say the least) to have Blair unemployed, I've been glad to have him with me during the day. He drives me to treatment every day (it's nice to have company). I'm out and about more than I was when I was home alone - and I'm sure I'd sleep more and get dressed later too.

Blair's aunt Sybil passed away (his Dad's sister), she was 91. I'm >so< glad Daniel and I visited with her before we left California - we had a nice lunch and went mini golfing. We're going to visit his parents this weekend. I've adored Sybil ever since I first met her after we got engaged. She offered to throw a shower for me (and invite his parents' friends) and it was lovely. She also adored my husband which was a very large point in her favor. :-)

Dan never told us what he wanted for Christmas, so we went ahead and got a few things for him. He's thinking of changing his look a little and so we got him a couple of henley shirts and a vest (he saw a guy on TV wearing that and liked it). I finished up my shopping tonight on Amazon - I was even able to buy itunes gift cards there! Little teachers' gifts and something for the boys to give Blair.

Dan's almost caught up with the English work. His teacher has been so understanding and willing to work with him. He was missing a couple of assignments - he'd had trouble understanding what to do and was too shy or afraid to ask her.

Blair was really down on himself after he lost his job, and his usual sunny personality is returning. I'm glad to have my usual hubby back.

Sister Study

When I received the diagnosis, it made me glad I'm participating in the Sister Study. They took dust samples from my house, tons of blood (they did the genetic test but didn't tell me the results), and a pretty thorough family history when I enrolled. I figure my sis and I probably have some genetic thing they haven't discovered yet. I hope my stuff helps them.

Then again it could be environmental. The house we lived in from 3rd grade until I was in college was built on a former apple orchard - pesticides maybe?

Radiation Update

The fatigue is no worse than before I started the radiation, when it was stress that was tiring me out. The last couple of nights I've slept poorly (and I had to wake up early to go to the Survivor's Breakfast yesterday morning).

I've been having my "packing dreams" again. The set up varies but there's always a bunch of stuff that needs to be packed, cleaned up, organized or otherwise dealt with, and whenever I think I'm done, I turn around and there's more stuff. Last night I was packing up my belongings at the end of a cruise and apparently I had rooms all over the ship (for which I was having trouble finding the keys.)

Yesterday afternoon was the second day in a row that I went into Daniel's room to check on his homework progress and he was asleep. Later I checked on him again and he got weepy, telling me that he was feeling overwhelmed. I asked if he was depressed and he said probably. I asked if he wanted to talk to someone (and I'm meeting with the gal who arranges services at the cancer center about meeting with a therapist myself), he said he wanted to. He's got a lot of stressors right now, with the change from his cozy magnet school, and the upheaval from changing schools and then changing some classes, plus my illness under it all. Even though on an intellectual level, we all believe I'll be fine, our subconciouses are probably sitting in a corner trembling and crying.

Coming down the hall to hang with us in the family room while he worked helped. He spoke with the teacher today at lunchtime, he's OK to finish the spark notes tonight and meet with the teacher tomorrow at lunch with his questions about the essay, and then he'll have the weeked to finish it. He came home in a really good mood and feels more in control of his schoolwork.

The yoga teacher knew something was off with me today, and pretty soon it was all pouring out of me. You know, if something happens to me, Blair will be OK, he's a grown up and he can take care of himself - but I worry about my boys. They both love me so much.  And Alex doesn't have a father he can turn to - he and Blair care for each other, but it's not the same as having had a father who's been involved his whole life. My poor babies.

Silly Dog

Dumbledore is growling and grousing and complaining because there's another dog on the TV. But the TV is off - it's his own reflection.

The nerve, the utter unmitigated gall of that other dog...

Indignity

I've decided that we have to go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans this year, because I can now take my top off in front of anyone without flinching.