FFF and L

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I've resorted to researching high fashion, how far is that from my life?

That's what happens when you watch The Hills to escape and then because it's the middle of season 3 and you are just getting started watching, you try to get caught up via Google and Lauren's official site seems a logical place to start.


Quickly you find yourself at the LA Times (warning: you have to register) reading about how she took on the challenge of putting together an outfit for only $100. (Poor girl, pun intended).

That is where you run across the knock-off Lanvin frock and decide to take a break from the computer and pick up the copy of C Magazine you borrowed from your fashion-forward friend. There you see the Lanvin frock mentioned again ("do not even think about leaving your house this fall without a Lanvin frock" so you wearily go back to Google to read more about it since you don't have a clue what it is.

"Thank god I had surgery last week and can't leave the house yet," you think to yourself.

Since you're hanging out with Google, you remember to look up this thing called a Louboutin shoe that you are supposed to wear in SF no matter how steep the streets.

And after all this you say, "HUH? What is going on here? Frickin French Fashion, that's what!" and this is only one letter of the alphabet.

"New" Friends

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Jenni & Carter in Half Moon Bay



I got this precious photo this morning to start my day.

Okay in the scheme of my 37 years on this planet, Jenni is a "new" friend since I only met her last year. But Jenni is way more than that already, she is one of those friends that you have an instant connection with and I feel like I've always known her except that I'm still learning about her life story. But those missing details are the only clue that I haven't known her most of my life.

She is an accomplished woman and mother, a supportive wife and just a burst of energy and light in the world. She always has a smile and a positive attitude to share with those around her and energy galore. She is an inspiration to me and she is running the Nike Women's Marathon for her third year this weekend. This event is near & dear to my heart.

I just realized yesterday that we will be out of town and I won't be able to cheer her across the finish line this year like I did last year. In fact, I think at the finish line is when I officially met Jenni for the first time (although I had heard about her from Jamie for years before hand).

Hey Jenni, happy friendship anniversary to us! :)

Well Wishes

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I hobbled around to take pictures of all the well wishes in my little house so I could share them with everyone. (I'll get to the closet next trip). Anyway, it's a beautiful rainy day here which just adds to my joy.

With all these cheerful signs around me, it hardly phased me when I just coughed and nearly passed out from pain. Okay I admit -- it did too phase me. :)


from Marsh & BD pre-surgery


from Lara yesterday morning, hello stunning!


gorgeous roses from all the teachers at Campbell CDC


Yesterday evening, Jaden said "I am so angry with you Mama and I do not know why!" I guessed pretty easily (he's mad I am not up to my normal activities) but he got over it eventually and brought out almost all of his animals to keep me company.


This is to show everyone that I am taking my vitamins proactively. :)

Here's to health!

AAK

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Hi loyal readers (ha ha, I like to imagine I have a wider audience than I actually have)!

I am AAK -- Alive And Kicking. This is a special phrase we use over at my Stop NHL board. Some of us have been posting over there for 7+ years so we like to check in once in awhile and let each other know we are AAK.

I am pretty amazed at my mental state compared to the days prior to the surgery. I feel practically giddy that Dr. L was able to do the biopsy laporoscopically and I got to go home that day.

It is great to be in my cute little house. I love love my little house. On Sunday, Betty helped me hang a few pictures and on Tuesday night I put my hyper nervous energy to good use and tackled the linen closet. The linen closet had been a nightmare from day one. I think I was so excited to have a REAL linen closet with deep shelves and a door (unlike Felix's "supposed" linen closet) that I just threw every odd item in there.

Betty said it was like the closet on the old Fibber McGee radio show which I had never heard of in my life. Then the night I got home from surgery, Jeff and I were watching News Radio and they totally referenced not only that show, but that episode about the closet!

Spooky!
Boo!

Anyway I went to Walgreens at 10:30 p.m. on that rainy night in my pj's and went bin crazy! I love bins and trust me, I didn't hold back. I got a triple play going on the top shelf of the linen closet and as soon I get up again to hobble over there, I'll take a picture and post it. I also got one very large bin to hold my seasonal bedding (I use one set for spring/summer and a different set for fall/winter). Lastly, I got two medium bins to hold seasonal clothing for me and Jaden.

So do you notice I am not even complaining about the pain or the Vicodin that I'm allergic too or the fact that I was up all night and slept about 20 minutes on every hour or that they must have done something to my bladder because it seems to hold only one nano-liter at a time now. Nope, not complaining there either, just reporting the facts ma'am.

I am just so happy that I am AAK and I didn't die in surgery. Seriously, I was that afraid of general anesthesia. I know I've told most of you that I was all over the doctors' cases before they put me under. I said, "Have you guys been working too many hours, are you too tired? Are you in a bad mood?" and "I don't want any of you talking negatively about me while I'm asleep. I can hear you subconsciously and I won't have it!" They handled it well I think, the attack from their little 95 lb. Sicilian patient grilling them about how they were planning to intubate me.

Oh and the flowers and soup galore! Everyone has made me feel so loved, it is just amazing me. Thank you everyone for all the calls, the cards, the ADORABLE drawings from your kids, the emails, the posts, the thoughts & prayers, the soup, the gorgeous bouquets and most of all the love that comes through and heals me.

Okay I'm rambling. Watch out. I've been busted already for making Jaden's bed yesterday and as soon as Jeff gets home from dropping Jaden at preschool, I'm gonna get busted again. Hopefully he's in too much of a rush to notice I made our bed too. UH OH!!!

It's 1:42 p.m.

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I am going pretty much insane. This sucks. I wanted to have a fun day with Jaden but I underestimated my state of mind. I am edgy. All I want to do is stuff I cannot do alone or cannot do today. Here's my list:

1. Install Jaden's cubby rack
2. Install Jaden's book rack.
3. Clean out hall closet
4. Get rid of large junk and boxes.
5. Purge stuff in the garage.
6. Install the bike rack in the garage.
7. Assemble Jeff's garage shelving.
8. Finish the laundry.
9. Hang the guitars.
10. Install the shelf over my desk.
11. Enter 100 million receipts into Quicken.
12. Get my chocolate pedicure.
13. Return IKEA stuff.
14. Exchange PBK start picture hanger.
15. Be at Jamie & Jay's again.
16. Be with my husband.
17. Be healthy.

Okay now I'm even more depressed than I was 4 minutes ago.

Betty's Fall Party

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Every year on the fall equinox, Betty has a party for her friends and family. Six years ago was my first one and I met Jamie for the first time. The year after that, I was very queasy and pregnant. The year after that, I had my noodle with me for the first time. Here's a few pics from this year's party, Betty's first at Patrcia Way.


Oma (fiercely resisting the camera)
and me (fiercely refusing to put it away)


Rayleen, who followed me around the party asking for food by saying,
"Yum Yum" in a very insistent and most adorable manner.


Some very happy grandparents doting on baby Bodhi.

The cousins fall asleep together for the first time
with new skeleton jammies from Lulu to boot.

A little wine and at last, a little music from some of the family guitaristas.

Thanks Betty for another successful party!
(Despite the cool weather for the first time ever).

Almost Satisfied

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I've been searching and searching and mulling over new bedding for Jaden's room since we moved. The tree is so stunning and I was trying to match it exactly but it was hard to find playful bedding in the right colors.

Today I decided to move the tree across the room instead of right near the foot of the bed, so it's not as critical for the bedding to match. The best part? All the new goodies were only $74 at IKEA (curtains, duvet, pillow, lamp).

The lamp alone is giddy-making, his other lampshade never fit from day one and rattled every time you turned the lamp on & off. Talk about annoying! Adios lame lampshade.

Voila!




Thanks for the little pumpkins Aunt Jamie. And here is the corner that still needs work, most importantly, hanging the beautiful tree.


And below that tree? Is gonna be this!


Sans the bins underneath, looks too bulky to me that way. Getting a train table has been a huge dream of mine for two years now, so I'm beyond thrilled that we have a cute little house with a room big enough for Jaden to have one.

I salvaged one from a yard sale in spring and had plans to sand and paint it blue to match his dresser, but let's be real. I'm having surgery next week and who knows what after that. This is not the time for a project like that, especially when Jeff admitted he likes this one way more than the salvaged one. And me too! The other one has really long sides such that you could not put a chair under if you wanted it. I just never liked the aesthetics but then again, it was free. But anyway I'm rambling because I'm excited.

I want to go get it RIGHT NOW but Jaden really wants to roast marshmallows in the fireplace tonight with us so I guess I have to honor that and go find firewood and marshmallows. Organic ones hopefully.

Horoscope

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I never noticed over on Yahoo! by my Mail and Weather there is a little Horoscope feature. I decided to click and here's what I get:

Quickie:
Things are changing in an unpleasant way -- but this is a learning opportunity.

Overview:
See if you can get a little help around the house from whomever is usually most resistant to taking care of that part of life. You may be surprised how easy it is to get them motivated without nagging.

What does it all mean? ;)

Quickie Meaning:
Cancer is back but I get to learn AGAIN that life is precious.

Overview Meaning:
My husband will continue going to the coin laundry for me and plan more dinners. :)

Starbucks and iTunes

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Starbucks and iTunes, now there is some beautiful marketing at work together.

I went in for my tall drip of Joya (today's mild blend) and there is Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell staring at me from the counter, side by side.




It was like my dad was saying good morning to me or something.

For the next 35 days, Starbucks is giving out a song of the day on iTunes, first come, first served.


Today's song


I'm going to download it after I post this.

Get thee to Starbucks and happy listening. :)

Laparoscopic Surgery Coming My Way

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I met with a surgeon this morning and she is no Dr. Eisner, let's get that straight right off the bat. Dr. Eisner was my surgeon in Orange County who did my other biopsies. That man, he was a gift to the world. I hope he's retired now in France with his adorable French wife. He was an amazing surgeon and the most compassionate physician I have EVER come in contact with on this almost 7.5 year journey in cancerland. He will get an entire post of his own one day, I cannot sum him up in an introduction to this biopsy here and now.

Anyway she will do. Besides I am weary now and not as feisty as I used to be I guess. I didn't hate her enough to find someone else. I want to get the show on the road. Besides I'm too sick right now with this stupid head "cold" aka kick my ass to the curb for one week now.

She will go in laparoscopically at first and everyone reading this pray she can get those bad boys out this way. Do you know what laparoscopically means? It means she's going to slice into my groin via my BELLY BUTTON that's what it means.

This shit sucks ass and pardon my fucking French if you don't mind.

And if she can't? Because oh, there's my aorta and some nerves and some limited edition fatty tissues, well then she'll have to go in the "open" way which means I'll wake up with not just three useless (small, but useless) incisions but a fourth gaping one. Great and I'm allergic to every fucking pain pill on the fucking planet.

"What can you take then? Vicodin?"

"Well I have issues with that too but I'll have to deal with it."

"You can always just try Motrin."

Mwuahahahaha. Motrin.

Except starting now, no ibuprofren for my feverish migrainish sad self, nope because that messes with my blood clotting and none of that is going on around here pre-op. No way Jose.

Thanks for letting me vent. I'm really terrified, I don't recover "smoothly" from general anesthesia and it's way, way easier to be pissed off than feel my fear.

Shanghai

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My friend Vic and his wife Christina recently moved to Shanghai from Pasadena for two years. Yep, they're ex-pats now and it's quite the life over there apparently. But talk about destiny, within the same time period, their respective companies offered them opportunities in Shanghai only one mile apart (he's an architect and she's management at the Ritz, ritzy eh?).

Since I'm stuck in the U.S. and not doing any foreign travel anytime soon (um I don't even know where my expired passport is), I am happy to be on the recipient list for email pictures. I heard rumors of a photo blog at some point but for now I can share these few glimpses of a land far away and very different from my own.



These are from The Bund and came around my birthday.


And these just came through as I was typing this post,
it's the Opening Ceremonies of the Special Olympics
at Shanghai Stadium.