It was lovely and such a relief that all we had to do was go upstairs to Mom’s to hang out this year. No holiday traveling is the best thing. So today is very laid back, but puppy, it’s cold outside. Much brr. So pajamas.
We did the family Christmas thing a few days ago, and that’s when Boomer got swaddled by his Unka Menanie and photobombed by Izzy.
We’re going to have a modest Christmas dinner with Mom later, and I’m going to make a pumpkin pie shortly.
It’s bitterly cold here, a balmy 9 °F. It was colder a few days ago, with the massive front bringing us a bit of snow and a lot of wind. Temps dipped below zero, and our windows froze up.
There have been lots of cookies and sweets this week, and in January, I know my sugar-loving taste bud switch will flip, but for a few more days…
I have an MRI scheduled for around noon on New Year’s Eve. I was a little surprised to be offered an appointment then, but it is at a hospital. It’s not like those things close. I imagine chaos will ensue closer to midnight, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I won’t be in the waiting room long.
Since it’ll be done at a hospital, there’s a good chance the IV for the contrast will be a one-stick event. Keeping my fingers crossed for that too.
Speaking of MRIs, I finally got this gorgeous piece of art from my friend Tina framed. She gave it to me a few years ago. It’s by the artist Lindsey Joy Holcomb who has done several of these MRI slices as art, though most often for MS patients in her #ColorsofMS series.
That’s it for now. Enjoy your day and eat something sugary if you can.
Apologies to Led Zeppelin for ganking the Ramble On thing.
This is the Monday-est Friday ever. Dan and I had to overnight some documents for the sale of the Old Digs first thing this morning. That all went fine. I mean, yeah, we were the only ones masked at the UPS Store here, but the cancer beanie and my walker at least earned us some personal space. (Dan gets annoying comments occasionally when he’s alone, but the upside to having cancer in my head and looking sick on the outside is that people don’t tend to harass me or the people I’m with about masking.)
Oh, Americans, don’t forget to order free Covid tests again if you need them. USPS is doing another round.
I’m already digressing. A sure sign that I’m not at the top of my game this morning.
After the trip to the UPS Store, I thought we’d get my favorite breakfast since McDonald’s was on the way home. However, the problem with ordering the caffeine I need to brain appropriately so early in the morning is that my brain hasn’t accessed the caffeine it needs to order caffeine.
Catch twenty-two.
In summation, I fucked up trying to order in the app. Then Dan had to go to the bathroom because full bladder plus wind equals ticking clock. So we came home and I apologized to Mom that I didn’t have her coffee because I can’t do things in the morning, and I ordered delivery from DoorDash instead of getting points in the McDonald’s app, because the app kept crashing. It was a whole thing, and I’m leaving stuff out for the sake of brevity. You’re welcome.
The important thing is that I’m caffeinated now, and Dan and I had a good laugh about Elon Musk and various other narcissists while we waited in the wrong McDonald’s parking lot for absolutely nothing. We talked about the time my ex-husand’s mom gave him an old Liberace LP and he couldn’t admit he liked Liberace when he was a little kid.
“He had issues,” I said. “I mean, my favorite song when I was five was ‘Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On.’ It’s funny. Why are there so many man babies?”
That last question there was rhetorical, but feel free to hypothesize in the comments.
I had trouble sleeping last night, so I listened in on the conversation journalists had on Twitter Spaces. If you haven’t heard, several reporters were discussing being suspended from the so-called Free Speech platform. Watching Elon and Twitter fall apart has been entertaining to me. Like that time Chris Christie, et al closed down that bridge out of spite, and I thought we’d reached peak Republican pettiness.
I’ve been called naïve a few times in my life.
I’m doing it again. Sorry.
So, yeah, narcissists. They ruin pretty much everything. Marriages. Social media websites. Democracy.
OMG. I just need to say those “trading cards” of T**** made me laugh so hard I cried. I mean, where’s the stick of NFT gum? Maybe it’s too hard to launder the money if there’s gum in his pockets?
I feel for people who were hoping they could hold on to Twitter and the friends they made there, for the small and small-ish business owners and freelancers who depended on connections there, but me? My whole life is just me pivoting when things go horribly wrong. I gave up on Twitter and moved to CoSo when the sale to Musk was finalized, and in retrospect I feel like even that was agonizingly too late.
I’m intentionally not going to link to certain things, but watching cable news or doing a web search should get you the details if you need to verify I’m not making the current event stuff up.
Today was for seeing a new oncologist. I waited a long-ass time to see the doctor despite arriving early. I never got the new patient forms in the mail (I suspect they went to the old address and are in USPS mail forwarding limbo now).
So I had to fill out the forms when I arrived, and it took me 45 minutes to finish them. This is cancer, folks. Everything feels extra except the goodwill of insurance companies and their employees.
I dont really have an opinion of my new oncologist. I was so tired of sitting in chairs by the time he came into the room that I don’t know for sure if he was hastier than I’m accustomed to, or if I was just too exhausted. Maybe a snail passing me on the sidewalk would have made me feel lost in a whirlwind too.
Not that I’m complaining. I was ready to go home and crawl into bed before the nurse even slipped the pulse oximeter on my index finger. Bed, coincidentally, is where I’m composing this update.
My next MRI will be at the end of the month. I basically just need to know where things stand with the tumor so I know where to go from here. This cancer center doesn’t really do palliative care, so I will be relying mostly on my primary physician for the non-tumory stuff. Which is good. She’s close, and seems like an excellent doctor.
And if I’m saying that after a single visit, she left a very good first impression. Because I no longer know how to give doctors the benefit of the doubt. (If you don’t know why, read basically any blog post from 2015-2016 or the Lincoln Financial Group stuff.) They all have to earn my thanks now.
So I’m glad to have that initial encounter done. My immediate medical future appears to be requesting records, getting labs and imaging done, and procrastinating on getting a routine mammogram.
Ugh.
Anyway, in keeping with a tradition started back in 2017 when I was at Barnes-Jewish, I had ice cream after my appointment. Now I want a nap before Dan and I watch the finale of whatever season of GBBO we’re on.
I was going to do a lovely little post updating you on #AllTheThings after I tweaked my home page for the holidays, and now it’s two and a half hours later, and I forgot what I was planning to write about. So this post is one hundred percent off-the-cuff.
I got a new printer, a LaserJet this time. With the Black Friday deal, it was cheaper than the current list price and also cheaper to buy a whole new printer than replacing ink cartridges for the old printer. (I know, tale as old as time.) This means I only have black and white printing now, but I never printed anything in color anyway. Jury’s still out on how good or bad the M110 is, but it printed the test page beautifully. Also, I’m ridiculously happy with how small this thing is. I mean, lookit! It’s not a complete eyesore.
I haven’t decided what to do with the old printer yet. I mean, it still works as a scanner. I’m just not sure if I need that functionality. The new one scans with an app and my phone’s camera, but I’ll be honest. That sounds like a pain.
So what necessitated my buying a printer? The sale of the house in Urbana. I’m going to need to sign more documents with actual (as opposed to digital) ink to grant power of attorney—unless I sign in person. And I want nothing less than to ride in a car for 5 hours round trip just to be present for closing. It’s too much. And the reason I know it’s too much? Mom and I wen to the old digs Friday to pick up a few things we accidentally left behind. It wrecked me to travel…just to sit in the car. I’m still in great gobs of pain and it’s Monday now.
Let’s see… I have all of my holiday shopping done, though not all of it has arrived yet. I ordered these boxes from Walmart. Thought they were kind of cute. I could color them in if I feel up to it. Or I could just be like, “Have fun coloring this!” if it doesn’t work out.
Anyway, I made pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving that was so good I made another. I’ve also started making these chocolate caramel cookie bars. I’ve yet to get the melted chocolate on top, but the kind of great thing about the recipe is that I can do that whenever I feel well enough to tackle it.
Here’s the first pie I made. (The second one already has a slice missing, so I opted to forgo posting a picture of it.) I’ll tell you what the secret is: Libby’s pumpkin pie mix, room temperature eggs, and premade crust. I don’t like a lot of crust on my pumpkin pie. Your mileage may vary.
Aaaaaand just like that I’m done typing. Happy random Monday, y’all!
