My mom had her first chemo treatment on Weds. Everything went well. They decided to get her radiation going on what little is left of the spinal tumor and she only has to have 10 of those treatments (hallelujah~!) but in order to do both chemo and radiation at the same time, they’ve put her on lower doses of chemo. Instead of one big one every 3 weeks, we do one smaller one every week until radiation is finished, then back to the normal. She’s handling the drugs well and is even getting around to do errands and such. She has informed the doctors that 15 months is not enough, she intends to live for 15 years and they can get ready to rewrite the textbooks. So her morale is improving as well. She may even come visit me this weekend for the first time since the holidays. She’s just going crazy to get out of her cage, I think. Chemotherapy is an interesting thing. I mean from every perspective. And there’s a whole culture revolving around it, too. I may have to write some of it down someday.
Itgirl had a post about reading cheesy teenage angst novels and because that is SO COOL we decided to co-host a “book club” revolving around it. We’re calling it the Awesome Angst Along. It’ll be just like all those After School Specials. I’m still setting up the blog for it. I’m having trouble finding a template that’s angsty enough. But soon we’ll have something up and will direct you to it should you want to join us. Here are some of the rules:
1. Books should cost no more than $1.50. If you choose to spend more on said books, that’s up to you, but we’re looking at books that are readily available on places like Amazon or used bookstores for less than a dollar.
2. We’ll start with a list of 4 or 5 books. You can read all or one or as many as you want. We want suggestions for other books. This is interactive.
3. Feel free to share books amongst yourselves. People shouldn’t get hosed or clusterfucked or anything, but if you’re done with that book and want to send it to someone else, please do.
So who wants in? We should be emailing invites to interested parties in the next few days, providing I can get more than 18 consecutive minutes to work on it. 18 consecutive sober minutes. And don’t worry, we’re flexible and there’s no pressure when you join. And this has little to nothing to do with knitting, you just have to enjoy stories with deep teenaged meaning, strong messages about what’s truly important in life and HOPE. LOTS OF HOPE!!
And now…photos! I’ve been told that most people like those. I’ve even heard reports that blogs with photos are more popular than those with just words.

That is yarn. You may remember it, I hardly do. But that’s no ordinary yarn. No, that is yarn that La dyed especially for me to commemorate my beloved and much missed Ed. The hub and I described Ed as “orange and pink” and hub referred to him as “Pinkman”. You can bet your sweet ass I’m going to do something special with this. Your ass is sweet, isn’t it? Good.

The yarn did not travel alone, oh no. It came accompanied by girly bath things (I have a very girly bathroom, with pink swirl glass accessories, a floral embroidered shower curtain, girly rugs and pink rhinestone shower curtain rings. NO BOYS ALLOWED.) Flower post-it notes. (Oh how I love the sticky notes. I have flower reminders all over my house even now.) A clear green chibi, sleepy tea, a starter herd including a sheep and a cow. And an orange striped kitty to replace the one I lost. Because my husband is mean and hates me and won’t let me get another real one.
Also seen in that picture, on the lower right? A finished Maze sock. Did you hear me? I said a FINISHED Maze sock! The first person to mention that one sock does not qualify as an FO dies. In my life at this time, one finished anything is an FO. I’m even counting wound balls as FO’s at this point. So chemo is good for something anyway. Like knitting time. Oh and also for treating cancer.
Yes, that is all of my pictures for today. I don’t want to spoil you. See you at the Awesome Angst Along. Or you know, here.