Thursday, February 2, 2012

Today is Thursday, February 2nd.

I'm comin' atcha live from a Swedish Hospital chemo chair. I am back in the out-patient clinic for my bi-weekly chemos (vs. an overnight hospital stay), so I'm one happy girl today. Which, I suppose, is technically a little ironic, considering I'm going to spend the next 12 hours getting chemotherapy. But what can I say? I feel happy. Neil's out getting us waffles. It's sunny. I like chatting with the nurses. We've got all the Apple technology necessary to sustain us for 12 hours (one iPad, 2 iPhones, one MacBook Pro). Plus our Kauai guidebook, for our upcoming March vacay, sans kids. 

Hope you are all feeling as happy as I am today. If not, get your act together! Let's make this otherwise unremarkable day interesting. 

Please feel free to entertain me by writing (either below, or via an email) a short summary of what you have planned for today, as I did above. I'll post them here. Even if they are boring. Do it now.  xo

20 comments:

  1. 1- A haiku from my friend, Libby:

    Hands frozen stone cold
    I rake. Dog poop soars skyward.
    Time not billable.

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  2. 2- Cousin Melissa starts her first job as a lawyer in a few days. She is spending today scrapbooking, mostly from her honeymoon trip to Kauai.

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  3. listening to a 'fresh air' podcast by Baratunde thurston, whose new book is out this month, while working. he's your companion in humor, shel. wearing my special shelly bracelet. writing letters of rec for students, and reading about the 'double genocide' concept in lithuania.a very remarkable day.

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  4. Shelly, Hope the chair is still treating you right. I thought I'd fill you in with my day, which is going pretty well from the deskchair at work. All the usual distractions:

    1) Sent my morning good thoughts and this link http://www.rootsofshe.com/gloriousness-and-wretchedness-need-each-other/ to my friend Sarah who is taking her mom to her first chemo treatment today, after her "emma knife" procedure Tuesday and now onto the treatment to get that cancer in her lungs, where it originated. Thus the Pema quote. Apropos.

    2) Alerted my entire family and greater community of the upcoming hiphop debut show my daughter Skye is in next week (if you feel good you should come too!)

    Friday, February 10th @ 7pm., Showlocation is Aki Kurose Middle school: 3928South Graham Street Seattle, WA 98118., Ticketsare $5 per adult and will be sold at the door. Kids are free. www.dancegrooveswithjeffielou.com (if your daughter wants to dance consider it)

    3) Then I banged out some emails, spreadsheets using some SQL server queries and power pivots....ahhh...boring shit

    4) felt extremely grateful for my spreadsheets, power pivots, email, yada yada and that I have a job

    5) remembered I told you I would tell you about that school on mercer island, but never did, but seems you want to stay grounded at lakewood, but let me know if you want it.

    6) That is when I saw your blog post and the chair reference and got hugely inspired again by your AMAZING ATTITUDE!!!

    Now and for the remainder of the day: sending you tons of good vibes through the treatment and some more vibes and more and more just because you are awesome!!!

    Another Thursday...

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  5. 5-Mo went for a morning run in the lovely Austin morning weather. She took her son to speech therapy, went to the Burlington Coat Factory, signed up for a marathon, and is about to go clean out their pool vacuum. GET 'ER DONE, MO!

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  6. 6- Aunt Becky:
    Celebrated the 100th day of school with my 26 first graders. Fruit Loop necklaces, crowns, lots of books, counting to 100 in numerous ways, listing ways to make 100, etc. Lots of fun and I'm getting ready to have a glass of wine! I'm tired!!

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  7. I woke up with two well-behaved cats (a miracle), came to the office gym to exercise, sat at my desk for awhile working (and clearly reading your blog), did a TRX class at work that felt almost as hard as anything I had to do in the weight room at KU, worked some more, and soon I will be home cleaning and then meeting a girlfriend for drinks. Throw in some eating and drinking a lot of coffee and that's my exciting Thursday :)

    On a side note: Mo=marathon??? My sister doesn't tell me anything!

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  8. Shel, I wasn't going to comment but then I thought, "You're right! Today WAS remarkable. Just like every other day. Let's mark it down." So here goes:

    Today was a day of appointments for me. The dentist in the morning. My dentist always goes crazy with my teeth: filing teeth down, building others up, sanding off chips, etc. (I clench big time and it does a number on them). Later I went back to the neurologist--chronic headaches. In between I worked as much as I could (need to get IRB approval to do my next big project); it's boring work. But I got to eat lunch at home with David, lucky me. Later: kids, playtime, catnap by fire, salmon for dinner, kids' bedtime, and online shoe shopping!

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  9. Oh goodness, I must have said I was doing a marathon, but it is only a half-marathon and I'm worried about finishing that distance. Oye! I was lazy this afternoon too- walked the kids to the park to play, 'only' did one load of laundry, cooked some yummy cream cheese-strawberry jam stuffed & crusted french toast for dinner (from Bubby's cookbook- buy it!), got the kids in bed with mucho help from Nick and then I went to the gym to lift weights really fast. Phew! Now I'm enjoying dessert and am going to hit the hay before a thunderstorm wakes me up at midnight and I have trouble falling back to sleep. Good night!

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  10. Lots of stuff going on here today!

    Our drive from Nashville to Denver was nothing short of perfect. Only thing we would change I am sure would be the fact that it took forever! But the size trailer I was towing my car didnt exactly love, so I couldnt do much over 60. Two long days of driving and then just a quick 90 miles on Wednesday, and we were here!

    Trying to get our place in order here in Denver has been quite the task, but it is indeed getting there. Which I know definitely makes us both happy. I could go on and on about this subject but I will just leave it at that :)

    And now we are watching the snow fall through our window. We brought the snow with us as we are supposed to get between 12 and 22 inches by Saturday!

    Tell the kids we say hi!

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  11. Brother Scott:
    Having a blast on his latest visit to NYC. Loves his job. Had dinner with former Kenyon roommate, Marshall, tonight. Has lots of great visits lined up. Going to see tons of shows. Can't wait. (Yay, brother!-- xo, S)

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  12. Uncle Rhody:
    I enjoyed the day in Pentwater, MI, with 3 poodles, water lapping up on the beach, and preparing for the PIGS weekend. Dickieboy, Tim, Dave, Craig and Denny arrive tomorrow for a weekend of beach bocce and then football Sunday. (Love you, Uncle R! xo)

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  13. The Baker fam is representing! 5 comments. Keeping my bored mind occupied as I sit on this hopsital bed still receiving chemo at 11pm. SUH-WEET.

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  14. Feeling groovy! On Thursday I wrote an article, had chai (in the sun outdoors!) with a friend who was on a reality TV show (not Snooki), bought coffee pods and Duck Rabbit beer and then watched "Date Night," which was great. Now it's Friday and I need to give Chewie a bath in the kitchen sink before a business lunch. I want the dog to look good for Farmer, who comes home from Switzerland tomorrow and he'd better have some chocolate.

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  15. What a gorgeous sunny day...the little girls enjoyed a public library Chinese New Year celebration with kids, I got to spend a precious hour in Pete's kindergarten class, and now just about to head outside for some garden and chicken coop planning. Thanks for reminders to make this, and every day, a little extra glorious. And, by the way, Shelly, I'm headed to a school auction tonight MC'ed by John Curley, AGAIN...he'd better treat me better with the prizes this time!
    - Anne

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  16. Hi Shel! Love your positivity and Apple rocks when you need to pass the time! Today the sun is shining and spirits are lifted. We went to the library to return some books and pick up Ella's current obsession The Muppet Show (it's soooo good!), then we went to the park to see if Ella's toes could reach the sky - almost! I've been sitting on the back deck trying to store up some Vitamin D while the little sleeps. But the biggest news of all in our neck of the woods is that we sold our house and put an offer on another house.

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  17. Hi Shelly,
    Hope your chemo is going smoothly this round. I feel like we're in parallel universes - I'm just starting to pull out of the chemo-fog of my latest FOLFOX round. I just wanted to let you know about this drug I just heard about called regorafenib (being developed by Onyx Pharmaceuticals). It just did really well in a phase III trial and will probably be available at the end of the year. It appears to target VEGF (like Avastin) which gives you another option. According to an oncologist friend of mine, it sounds really promising. Shoot me an email if you want more info (juliapak@stanford.edu).
    Julia (SF)

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  18. The 2nd was my company's annual meeting and 50th anniversary. A ton of preparation, but great time. As company historian (I've been there for 43 of the 50 years) it was a great walk down memory lane for me to present a review of our 50 years. Then off to a weekend seminar on the shores of Lake Michigan!

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  19. February Second is Groundhog's Day and one of my favorite holidays, it's also my engagement anniversary which we celebrate each year. This year we were and still are in San Antonio, TX for this auspicious date. On Groundhog's Day proper I took an 8 mile walk on the River Walk (I LOVE the River Walk) talked to my mom, left messages of Groundhog's Day joy to 4 Kenyon friends as well as my sister, picked up one of my sister in laws at the airport, had a lovely dinner on the Riverwalk with two of my sister in laws, one brother in law, my husband, and son. With the exception of the fact that my husband spent 14 out of the 16 hours I was awake working on grad school work it would've been perfect. Aside from the 12 + hours of chemo you endured I hope your Groundhog's Day was joyful.
    - Katharine Sears

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