Ok.. be forewarned, today's entry is going to be a long one because I am going to be posting two days in his one entry. Heck, I think even I will go and make a cup of tea because if you think it's going to take you a long time to read it, imagine how long it's going to take me to type it?? Hahahaha!! Now that I think of it, I think I should be cleaning my keyboard... what a mess it is!! But first... a nice hot cuppa tea... be right back.
Ok... I'm back! Everyone got their beverage of choice??? :) Nothing more soothing at night than a nice hot cuppa tea! So, let the blogging begin...
Tuesday, March 27th: I have to mention Tuesday because this is the day I got together with my dear friends, Lelani M. and Michael F. It's hard to believe that we have known each other for (mumble-30 years-mumble), give or take a few years. I can't even tell you which one I met first, but suffice it to say, we were all much younger then (grin). We used to do shows (theatre productions) together and, like now, I always had my camera with me. Mind you, back then, I don't recall ever having a problem with the batteries dying on me... something that happens quite frequently nowadays and trust me not to have spare ones with me when I need them :)
Anywho...these next two pictures show me (remember now, it's all about ME! (grin)) with Lelani and with Michael.
Lelani is in town, which is why the three of us could get together. She is one of the headliner entertainers on the Princess Cruise Lines so will be gone for long stretches of time, hence us getting together often is not necessarily possible. So I was thrilled that we could get together yesterday.
Michael is going through his own adventure too!! He has two different strains of leukemia, of which I can't, off the top of my head, remember the names of them. But this has in no way affected his sense of humour or outlook on life.
For this get together of ours, I think I mentioned in a previous entry that I had an idea for my first scrapbook project. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time to put this together, since I only thought of it last Thursday. I decided to put together a small "Memory Book" for each of them. Being that I have taken so many pictures over the years, I have oodles from back when we did shows together and/or spent time together. So I made an individual small book for each of them... and it was a real warm, fuzzy feeling to see how both of them reacted to their book of memories. Hmmm... let me see if I can upload a scanned page from each of their books...
There were approximately 20 6" X 6" pages in each book, and each page had 1-2 pictures on it with a different background of paper, buttons, bows, pieces, etc. I would have also added text to each page, but decided not to so that Lelani and Michael could add their own text/memories if they wanted to.
This first page, with the orange gingham background (which I picked to match Lelani's orange poodle skirt), is a page from Lelani's book. Both these pictures are "in character", back when we did the Western Canadian Premiere of the musical Grease! Lelani played Frenchie, the beauty school dropout (grin) and these pictures were taken outside because I believe we were in a parade, advertising the show.
The second picture is one I had of Michael which I really liked. I had oodles of black and white pictures of him and two other friends that I took one day when we all spent a day in Stanley Park. Neither Michael or I can remember WHY the four of us were there and taking all these pictures, all we remember is just how much fun we had that day!
Anywho... the pictures brought back lots of memories and we had the most pleasant afternoon going over the years we've been friends and all the history/memories we have together. I LOVE get togethers like this... talk about giving one the warm fuzzies!
After we had our visit and went our separate ways, I did take a short cut home through Stanley Park. I still can't get over the devastation wreaked on the park from the major wind/hurricane force storm we had back in November. I don't think the following pictures do it justice, it's one of those things you have to see in person for yourself. For anyone living in the Vancouver area who has NOT driven through the park in a long time, I recommend you do take a drive through the park, especially around Prospect Point. It will move you to tears!
Like I say, I'm not sure that the pictures really do the area justice. We almost need before/after pictures. Where you see sky, you couldn't see the sky through the thickness of the trees. In the last picture, where you can see the water and the buildings across the water (West Vancouver), you NEVER could see through the forest of trees to that view before. This goes on and on throughout the park and it really is very emotional to drive through.
The Parks Board will clean up the mess and replant. Since Stanley Park is part of a rainforest (as is most of the Pacific Northwest), nature will take over and there will be regrowth, but we will never see, in our lifetimes, the magnificent growth that was there after centries of nature.
Oh... how depressing! How did I get on this subject? Oh yes... because I took the shortcut home through the park from North Vancouver. This park is a wonderful park to come into just to relax, de-stress and contemplate life, so it is a very important part of town for me.
Ok... that was Tuesday... a wonderful day and yes, I can honestly say I was really tired Tuesday evening... and even slept in until after 8am this morning (Wednesday).
Wednesday, March 28th: Today was another lunch date with two other friends! While getting ready to go for lunch, I got a surprise call from Bonnie (from Seattle). So we had a quick chat and it was great to hear from her!
It was now time for "The Ladies Who Lunch" (apologies to the musical "Company"). I went for lunch with my two buds, Lynn S. and Anne K. We went to Milestones in West Vancouver, so Anne, who lives out be UBC picked me up on the way to West Van.
Hahahaha... whenever we get together, it's always good for some serious laughter, and today was no different! I'm STILL cracking up!! Lynn, bless her sweet heart, said that she had made me some homemade Chicken Noodle soup. Now, we all know that Chicken Noodle soup fixes whatever ails you, so chances are, it should be the magic pill to fix any reactions to the chemo treatments. Sooo, Lynn is the Queen of making homemade chicken noodle soup and I was going to be the lucky recipient of it.
Hahahaha... well, Lynn had a wee accident! She had the container of soup in a plastic bag and she was holding the bag while she was driving. I bet you can guess what happened! She came to a stop and the bag/soup went flying and half of it ended up all over the floor of the passenger seat! But she did manage to save half of it!! Hahahahaha!!
Well, when we left the restaurant, I just had to take a picture of the boo-boo! The first picture is Chef Chicken Noodle Lynn and her little mini-Cooper... the second picture is the "oopsie" (grin). Just my luck, the camera batteries died, so I couldn't get a picture of second-in-command, Anne K. I really must pack extra batteries in every purse!!
Speaking of purses, I had changed purses so that I only had a small one with me today. I distinctly remember taking my camera and wallet out of my big purse and putting both in my little purse. Well, being that I took these two pictures, you can tell that I had my camera with me... but no wallet. That is a little concerning because one does NOT want to misplace one's wallet and I REMEMBER putting it in my purse. Sure enough, when I got home the first thing I did was check my other purse and voila! There was my wallet. DEFINITELY a classic case of Chemo Brain!! No wonder people don't want me to go driving by myself when under the influence of chemo... although that doesn't explain today since I'm not on chemo today ;)
So that's about it. Tonight, after he got off work, my friend Keith came by for a visit and to wait out rush hour before he headed home to Squamish. We had a nice visit but I was still so full from lunch, it never dawned on me to offer him something to eat! Can we blame Chemo Brain for this too???
And one more thing to blame on Chemo Brain... my hair is starting to thin/come out a lot more than what it was doing when the doctor put it down to stress. I have a lot of hair, so I'm still going to be good for awhile, but definitely, I'm losing lots of it on a daily basis. I'll see how Chemo #2 week goes... and maybe Chemo #3 week before I may have to make any hair decisions.
Ok... I warned you this was going to be long... and long it is! I am now going to take my Chemo Brain and my little four-legged diva to bed :)
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