Well, we got there, checked in, drew blood, waited, were taken back to a cubicle, got comfy, got a nurse, and was hooked up to two of three antinausea medications via IV, only to be told a half hour later that part of my white blood cell count was low. I don’t recall the exact name right now but the nurse showed me the paperwork and explained to me that while my regular overall WBC was in the normal range, the part that fights infections was a little low. Which I kind of expected — enough so that on the drive over to the clinic this morning, I was chanting to my white blood cells to be high and mighty (I guess they didn’t listen). So I got a Neupagen shot and was scheduled to come back Tuesday to test my blood again to see if I need another shot or not. Then back to chemo next Friday. Anyone who’s local want to take me up to the clinic for my blood draw on Tuesday? They put me on the schedule around 2:00 but I can actually show up any time I want (they say between 10 and 1 is their busiest times and to go either before or after then). Drop me an email if you’ve got a couple hours and gallons of fuel to kill on Tuesday.

So we left there, went to pick up our visas for China (anyone want to play me on the China trip?!) and then grabbed a quick lunch before Honey poured my exhausted body onto the couch. And on the couch I stayed…asleep…for 4 hours. Ugh. I haven’t been sleeping well at night lately, which is also why I was up so late last night posting on here! I get really tired during the day so much that I have to take a nap. And if I don’t wake my tired booty up before, say, 4:00pm, then I have trouble sleeping at night again. But, really, that’s just one of the contributing factors. I think about and miss my mom a lot at night when the lights are off. A LOT. So I try to avoid it by watching endless TiVo’ed episodes of Scrubs until the wee hours of the morning. This disturbs Honey’s sleep (even though he won’t admit it!) so I started trying to just say up later and watch TV downstairs. Lame. Boring. But at least I have a challenging cross stitch pattern to keep me occupied!

My girls (cats Ariel and Nala) turned 12 yesterday. And they are healthy and strong as can be. Nala’s overweight but I gave up trying to get her to lose some of it a few years back. I’ve just come to accept she’s just one of those fat and content cats and if that makes her happy and as long as she’s not having health problems as a result, then I’m happy for her. My girls came from the pound when they were wee kittens. I had gotten my first apartment alone in Denver (I’d had one apartment previously with a college friend in Greeley) and what I wanted more than anything was a cat!! My mom took me to the Denver Dumb Friends League to get me a cat as a housewarming gift. I visited with a cute little kitten and fell in love. The DDFL needed to call my new landlord to verify that I could have cats so mom and I left for an hour or so to let them do that. We came back, picked up a box with my name on it that had a kitten inside, paid and left. As soon as we hit the car, I took the cat out of the box, only to discover that it wasn’t the same cat I had visited and fell in love with! :O This was an entirely different cat! It had a similar facial structure but different coloring entirely! OH No! Needless to say, my mama was furious! We stormed back in there to raise a fit. We ended up demanding a free cat to remedy the situation. There only one tiny kitten left in the whole place and she happened to be the litter mate of the one we had in the box. Turns out, the one I had visited with was the same one that was the last (BOGO kitty) one we got and that one was Ariel. The one in the box was Nala. So we got them both and immediately, mom started referring to them as “Sisters and Twins.” I still call them that, along with a wide variety of other crazy nicknames like TeenieTiny, Chunky Monkey, Cuddle Bug, and NillaBean (those are all for Nala) or Sweet Girl, Black Toed, Tongue Sticky Outy Kitty (because she is often caught sticking out her tongue and drooling on her chin for no apparent reason!) and Fuzzy Girl (those are for Ariel). They’ve been with me through thick and thin and they’ve adapted rather well to three puppies (one was mom’s when we lived with her for a while and she first got her dog), three other cats (one is our Merlyn, the others, again, were mom’s) and various other temptations like pet lizards and, now, fish! They’re senior citizens and set in their ways but they almost always come to me to cuddle at night or for a nap. I love my girls! Happy Birthday!