Welcome Home Mami!

My mom is coming home tonight! It'll be so good to have her home.

So I went back to work this last Monday. This week I only worked part-time but next week I'll work a couple more hours. I'm really glad I went back to work. It's really helped me physically, emotionally, and mentally. I had gotten stuck in a mind set where I felt like a sick person who was not recovering. I was scared of doing the things I had to do once I went back to work. And they were simple things like being around people, walking, being on my feet instead of in bed all day....... pretty much just being active. I'd stopped being active for several several months. But going back to work made me more active. And it made me see that I would be ok being more active. So that has made me really happy.

The eating is getting better. Unfortunately I've lost more weight but since returning to work I've been eating more so I hope I'll see a difference in a few weeks. My hair continues to grow and I've gotten lots of compliments. I don't care why I'm getting them but it's definitely nice.

I like to think that I've become a more financially responsible person and I hope to continue that this year. I spent too much money during Christmas but I'm finally putting money in my savings again.

Chemotherapy is going well. The first time was definitely a little scary. The second time I slept the entire time. The third time I did get sick afterwards but by the evening of the following day I felt normal again. This week I had a break which was wonderful. I only had to go to the hospital to get a dressing change for my PICC line. The doctor told me that after this 4th time I'll get a CT scan and then maybe another 2 sessions and then see what the results of the scan are.

So I went to the San Diego Zoo last weekend and had a lot of fun. I loved seeing the hippos, the panda, and a monkey family sitting next to a giant orangutan. The monkey family was probably the cutest by far. I had a little mishap where I threw up while we were in line to get on this Skyfari thing but other than that the day was great. Clay, Diego, and I went. Afterwards we went to the Stinking Rose for dinner (and had the most delicious calamari and crab legs) and then to the movies to watch Juno, which I loved. Definitely a great weekend before going back to work.

So my mom had these 3 parakeets that we forgot to feed while she was gone and they died. I didn't want her to come home to find out her birds had died so today Clay, Diego, and I went on the hunt for replacement parakeets. We had taken pictures of the dead ones to get the colors right but we forgot to look at the sex of the birds (which you can apparently determine by the color of their nose) so we ended up just buying 3 birds that looked like her last ones but that might not be the same sexes. I hoped she wouldn't notice and was just gonna play dumb if she asked too many questions but I realize now that she might actually really notice that they're not the same birds. But I figured new birds is better than no birds so I hope she feels the same way and is not too upset when she discovers the truth.

I mentioned before that Jada, our other pitbull, had 8 puppies in December. Well here's the update. Four died and one was stolen (we think) in the middle of the night so now there are only 3 left but they are healthy and have finally opened their eyes. We used to keep them on the side of the house but after one turned up missing, we brought them inside the house. They still sleep all the time but pretty soon they'll be cute playful puppies.

So the craziest thing happened on my first day of work. When I lived in Ithaca and worked as an Estee Lauder beauty advisor at The Bon-Ton, there used to be this girl who was a Cornell student that came in regularly to buy Estee Lauder products from me. I never interacted with her at school, only at my job then. Well, sometime the summer of 2006 I was working at Bloomingdale's and she comes into the store and remembers me. It was so crazy. She gave me her email and phone number and I promised to get in contact. However, a month later I received my diagnosis and I never contacted her. I had actually really wanted to call her but never did because I just thought it would be weird calling someone I had just met again and then telling them something that was at the time very personal and heavy to deal with. I just didn't want to be that girl that you thought would call you for drinks and then calls to tell you she has cancer. So I never called her and I felt guilty about it because she had seemed really nice and sincere. So flash forward almost a year and a half later and who do I see my first day back? That same girl! It was so unbelievable. I actually ended up telling her what happened and why I never called. She was, again, so nice and sweet and told me again that she would love to hear from me whenever I wanted someone to have coffee with. I don't know, this was a crazy coincidence for me so I thought it was cool. Like twice when I was in college, I was in New York City and ran into people from Cornell randomly on the street. This was like that. I thought it was cool.

Anyways, so that's pretty much all that has happened since my last post. I just want to thank everyone who has been so supportive. I'm so so lucky to have so many good people in my life. I can only hope to offer the same kind of support and love in return.