Haaaappy Tuesday everyone!!

Well, I would have written sooner, but I’ve been fighting a little bit with the blog—I made a couple errors trying to put up the pictures, and once all is said and done, basically I’ve been working on this blog for about five or six hours (stretched over a couple days). Yes, there were times when I just wanted to quit and say, “no pictures for you!!!”, but I really wanted you to see them because I had a wonderful weekend with my parents. My dad came out on Thursday, and the weather was gorgeous the entire time he was here…hot even! I guess September is one of the very best months to be here in Seattle. The forecast for the week is all sun!! Who said it always rains in Seattle?!!!!

First off, I have to submit a correction to my previous post where I wrote that Cyclosporin “disintegrates”…my mom pointed out that I misheard…I could swear the pharmacist said it would disintegrate after two hours exposure to air, but my mom thinks she meant the potency of the drug would be affected…disintegrate, decrease in potency, same thing!!! But maybe just to check, I’ll leave one out to the air once I start taking them. hahaha

In other medical news, I had to do a 24-hour urine collection last week….boy, was that fun! Luckily we found a good day when I didn’t have to go out too much, because everyone who knows me knows I have to use the bathroom every five minutes…OK, not five minutes, but you get what I mean. I was so relieved to hand that jug in (ewww, it’s so gross. It’s kind of embarrassing handing it over, even though they do this all the time). I found out my spinal tap results, and it was clear, as were all my scans…wooooohoooo!!!!! Unfortunately, I do have three cavities though. I am fanatical about my teeth, so I was pissed to hear this, but I think not flossing, using my stimudents or brushing with my Sonicare toothbrush these past months definitely contributed to the cavities. Here in Seattle though, they encourage flossing as well as using a normal (soft) toothbrush, as opposed to a foam one. They said that a small amount of bleeding is OK, what’s important is that I get the bacteria out from between the teeth. I was so excited to floss last night!!!! I feel like a new woman.

My dad arrived Thursday morning, and after dropping off the urine collection (again, ewww), we took him to dinner at Joey’s, one of our new favorite spots, located right on Lake Union. As you can see from the pictures, it was another beautiful day (I’m beginning to think everyone lied about Seattle so tourists stay away because it has been absolutely gorgeous!!!). Friday, I had stuff to do at the clinic, and while my dad and I were upstairs in the waiting room, my mom snagged us Mariners-Yankees tickets from the volunteer desk (every so often, people donate tickets). I was super excited, but as the day wore on, my headache got very irritating, a 5 or 6 on a scale of 1-10. Sadly, we decided that a game probably wasn’t the best thing, and we opted for a low-key dinner at “La Spiga”, a delicious Italian place about two or three miles from our place. By the way, all food in Seattle has been good!

Unfortunately, after our delicious Italian food, somewhere between the restaurant and the car, I stepped in poop (maybe dog, but I’m honestly not sure ’cause there are a lot of homeless people in Seattle…more than any other city I’ve ever seen)….I was wearing my new Vasques (a low-top hiking/walking shoe), and of course, there are lots of grooves and crevices in that type of shoe. I can’t even describe how disgusting the ride home was—we thought it was coming from outside, so we all put our windows up, and then I discovered the awful truth. Luckily, being immunosupressed is in my favor in these situations, because clearly no one expects me to clean up poop on my shoe or in the car!! My mom and dad worked very hard to get it out of everywhere, because it’s obviously extremely dangerous for me to have any contact with it. My shoes were meticulously cleaned and are like new, but all I could think of that night was (assuming it was dog poop) “People have no idea how their laziness affects others!” For anyone, cleaning this up is a nuisance, but for me, it’s a danger to have it anywhere near me. So if anyone out there isn’t picking up after your dog pooping in the sidewalk (or God forbid, if it’s you pooping in the sidewalk ), shame on you!!! Please feel free to pass my feelings along to whomever you’d like.

PS We went back to the location of the incident, and looked over the sidewalk for poop. My dad spotted it just on the curb, where one might step while getting into his/her car…knowing where it is made me more confident while walking in the area, but alas I had no feeling of peace because the person who did it was not punished.

Wow! I didn’t realize how much I needed to get that out! It felt good! All right, what else other than stepping in poop…On Saturday, my mom, dad and I went to Port Townsend, WA, just a drive, ferry boat ride and drive again away for the wooden boat show. It was again a gorgeous day, and you can check out the pictures below to see for yourselves just how much fun we had!!! One funny thing my mom and I noticed on the drive over…we were in the middle of nowhere, WA, and we saw a sign for “Graves Excavating”….I started cracking up. I don’t know about you, but I think they should have thought of a different name…pretty much anything involving “graves” and “excavating” doesn’t seem to go well to me. The highlight for me from the boat show was a beaten little red canoe named “Bijaboji”. I don’t know why I stopped to look at it, considering the beautiful yachts and sailboats casting their shadows over it, but I did. In 1937, Betty Lowman Carey, rowed her little red canoe from the Puget Sound to Alaska, alone. Apparently no fishermen woud let her aboard their boats to go to Alaska because she was a woman, so she decided to take her canoe. She planned on visiting her dad in Alaska. Pretty amazing story, huh? Apparently there is a book about it, “Bijaboji, North to Alaska by Oar”…should be interesting! My dad appreciated all the boats, but he was really excited to go aboard “Shamrock”, one of the yachts, and a boat that was built in Annapolis, MD in the 60’s…I can’t think of what it’s called, but this type of boat is very well known. It was certainly luxurious as you can see in the photos!

On Sunday, we decided we wanted to go up and see Mount Rainier. Let me just say that if you ever feel like doing this, do all your research before hopping in the car with a couple guidebooks, some maps and a general idea of where the mountain is. We enjoyed a beautiful car ride, and we did indeed get fairly close to Rainier. We drove to Carbon River. Ironically, our clearest views of Mount Rainier were when we were driving back to the city and it was in the rearview mirror. It was a lot of fun though, and we did have a bit of an adventure when we decided to stop for some food at the “Carbonado Saloon”. This link will give you a better idea of the place than perhaps my words can render: http://carbonadosaloon.com/ . The signs for the place were all over the road, so we figured it would be a nice bar and grill or something, but no siree, this is a SALOON—the only thing they were missing were the two flapping doors when you walk in. When the three of us walked in, all prepified (I just created that word…it means “looked like preppies”…you like it?!) and innocent-looking, everyone (all eight of them) just stared. I walked to one long table and asked if we should sit there, and one lady said “no”…they pointed to another table in the middle of the bar, and then a customer pointed to a round table in a separate room (and only this table was in the room—it was kind of like the fish-bowl seat you get when you’re in the window of a restaurant), suggesting we sit there.

We were more than happy to put some distance in between us, so we headed over to the round table. I’m pretty sure we were all thinking the same thing: this does not seem like the kind of place I should be when I’m neutropenic!!! Good thing I’m not. There were dirty, dusty relics from ages ago, the table was deeply carved with names of past customers and regulars, but this seemed to be our only option. We pretended like we were totally comfortable being there, but none of us was at ease. Pretty soon, more customers started showing up. A couple of them rested their horse bridles on a post in the corner….”what the?!!!!”, I thought. I felt like I was in a different country. I tried to casually watch the townies, but I’m sure I was probably staring. They fit felt poker tables over the wooden tables, and soon a couple poker games ensued. “Is this really happening”, I thought? I mean, it looks like fun, but riding your horse to a bar, and leaving him outside while you play poker is just weird to me. Anyhoo, you’re probably tired of my description. Needless to say, it was an interesting experience. I felt so relieved to get out of there. I’m sure they were all laughing about us too, but oh well!! It was seriously like something out of an old western.

Driving out of the town, there was a man walking with his two children and his rifle over his shoulder, and then further down the street one dog started attacking another dog that was passing by….I was glad to get back to the city life. I love the outdoors and adventures, but I think of that more as being one with nature, relaxing, getting good exercise by hiking, not spending time with people who scare me a little bit.

And speaking of the city, the other night my mom and I watched “Sleepless in Seattle” with the lights of downtown Seattle shining in the background. I love that movie, and it seemed just like the appropriate thing to do once you arrive in town…a classic.

OK, it’s getting late, and I’ve still got to put the descriptions under the photos. You better appreciate this post, damnit, ’cause it took lots of sweat (literally, it’s really hot in here ) and hard work to finish it. But I taught myself several lessons about the format of the blog, so I guess I’m better in the end….at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

Before I go, I just wanted to say “welcome to the world” to Evelyn “Evie” and Clementine “Clemy”!! My friends, Katrina and Ashley both had their daughters within the past couple of weeks and everyone is doing well. The babies are beautiful…I can’t wait to meet them!!!! Gosh, they’ll probably be walking by then! Crazy. Well, meeting them is something I will certainly look forward to.

All right, I’m done now. For real. Thanks for reading everyone (and praying and for your support, etc, etc)

Sending lotsa love (and lots of pictures!!) from Seattle.