The day

You may remember a few months ago when I mentioned my niece’s surgery. As you can tell from the photo, it was today. (If you missed it, details are here and here.)

Everything went well. It took less than 90 minutes, and the doctors were pleased. She was pretty loopy when I saw her this afternoon, but when we went back tonight her IV was out and she’d been up walking around. And she ate and ate and ate!

There’s talk of letting her come home tomorrow. Character Builder’s staying the night with her, and CB’s husband and I will probably head back to the hospital in the morning after we drop the chatterbox off at daycare.

Thanks, everyone, for your good thoughts and prayers today—we really appreciate them. If you have any left, send them up for the one-month-old with two bad kidneys who shared Catherine’s room in the PICU. One thing you learn from an experience like this . . . no matter how bad things seem, there’s always someone who’s going through something worse.

UPDATE: She’s home! Currently lying on the couch with a big blue Icee and some saltines.

Overheard

I don’t often wait while I have my car’s oil changed, but today I decided to. So I’m sitting here at the car dealership, enjoying the free wireless as others read, watch TV, or talk on the phone. The man on the phone was talking about arranging for a car for seven people. That’s the only part of his conversation that even registered with me—I have absolutely no idea what else he said because I was concentrating on what I was doing.

Man on Phone: Okay, thanks. Bye. (Or some such thing. I have no idea because I wasn’t listening.)
Nosy Woman Nearby (loudly, to MOP): Can I ask you a question? (At this point, I began tuning in, but kept my eyes focused on my laptop.) Do you realize that other people can hear your conversation? Don’t you think that’s insulting?
MOP: (somewhat dumbfounded) Uh, well, yes, I guess you could hear what I was saying. But it wasn’t anything private.
NWN: Well I find it insulting when people do that.
MOP: Well yes, if we were in a restaurant or something I would’ve excused myself and gone outside. But there isn’t any seating available outside today, and besides, it’s not that big a deal. I’m sorry if you were insulted.
NWN: Harrumph!

::stony cold silence::

MOP (to NWN): So, are you an Obama supporter? (I couldn’t even believe he brought this up with her, but it truly did sound like he was trying to make conversation.)
NWN: Heh, heh. (You know that Dolores Umbridge throat-clearing/cackle? It sounded a lot like that.) Oh, that’s not available for sharing.
MOP: Oh, so you’re not?
NWN: I’m not saying either way.
MOP: Ah, so then you’re probably not. I guess I should’ve expected as much from someone like you.

Me (to self): Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!

So should I have been insulted by his conversation too? I really hate it when people aren’t paying attention to what they’re doing (in the car, at the grocery store, standing in line for something) because they’re on the phone. But in this setting it didn’t bother me at all. Would you have been insulted? I do think that word is a bit strong—would you have been irritated by the phone conversation?

Meme from MN Mom

I don’t often do memes anymore (who am I kidding? I don’t often do POSTS anymore!), but Minnesota Mom tagged me today, so I decided to play along. Here are the rules:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What were you doing 5 years ago?

We were planning a trip to Hawaii to celebrate the fact that it wasn’t 2002 anymore. That’s the year when my cancer came back, and we lost our cocker spaniel Chloe and J.P.’s dad.

(Do you like how I turned that into a question about what I was doing six years ago?)

What are five things to do on your to do list for the day?

- Get my port flushed. Yes, I still have it after being cancer-free for six years. (Done.)

- Do laundry. Last load is in the washer now, waiting for the dryer to finish the previous load. Bzzzzzzzz! The buzzer literally sounded just as I typed that last sentence.

- Do dishes. Our dishwasher decided that it didn’t want to hold water anymore, and we’ve got some stains on the hardwood floor to prove it. So we’re doing them by hand until the new one arrives. (Done.)

- Call Lowe’s to find out when the new dishwasher will arrive. Their store advertises installation within 72 hours if you purchase an in-stock item on a weekday. We did—on Tuesday night. When I hadn’t heard from the installers by this morning (to even schedule the install), I called and asked how they were going to make their 72-hour guarantee. The guy pretended he didn’t know what I was talking about. I explained that I had seen a sign about it in their store and he said, “Oh that must be for other appliances.” Me: “It was hanging BY THE DISHWASHERS.” Him: “Let me call them.” Later, he called back: “How’s late morning tomorrow?” Me: “Excellent!”

- Pick up a take-n-bake pizza and go see the new Narnia movie.

What are five snacks you enjoy?

- Pudding. I’ve been buying the 100-calorie snack size. Yum! Totally worth 100 calories.
- Cheese and crackers. Sometimes this is a meal.
- Cereal. MN Mom mentioned Quaker Oatmeal Squares, and I love them too! The BS flavor (that’s brown sugar, you know).
- 100-calorie Lorna Doones or chocolate animal crackers.
- Peanut butter Kandy Cakes from Tastykake. I don’t go out of my way to get them, but if J.P. brings them home I have a hard time resisting.

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

- Buy a second home in a warm climate.
- Learn more about and get better at photography.
- Support charities we believe in.
- Travel.
- I’m not sure what else.

What are five of your bad habits?

- Staying up too late.
- Spending too much time on the computer.
- Being late. I’ve always had a hard time getting up in the morning, so have always been a little on the late side for early appointments. But since I married J.P.? I’ve become terrible about it at all times of day.
- Not cleaning when the house really needs it.
- Biting my cuticles.

What are five jobs you have had?

- Cashier at a grocery store.
- Telemarketer for my college’s alumni association.
- Dish room worker at the college dining service.
- Nanny.
- Gift store worker in an amusement park (for one month!).

What five people do you want to tag?

I’m not going to tag anyone, but feel free to participate if you like.

Enjoy the long weekend, and take a few minutes to think about why you have an extra day off work. Check out William’s post if you haven’t seen it already.

Everybody’s doin’ it

Well, not everybody’s doing it, but if you clicked around the blogosphere today you may have seen a few copies of the photo above. On Friday night, J.P. and I met Mainline Mom and her husband for dinner. Then we all went to William’s play, where we met up with Sue and Charlotte (whose blog I can’t access) and Teri.

Dinner was kind of like a blind double-date. A date that we were late for (and I can’t even blame JP–it was my fault). But Sarah and Mike were very forgiving and pretended that they hadn’t been sitting there twiddling their thumbs for 15 minutes. I’m hoping that they were just basking in their temporary child-free status. The food was excellent, and the company was better. It’s too bad we’re just getting to know each other now that they’re going to move away!

After dinner it was on to the play, The Philadelphia Story. I had never seen it before, but I really enjoyed it. Bill’s character, Dexter, came on at the end of Act I, and he was a funny guy who had a great sense of timing with the one-liners. But he was also insightful and caring, and he truly understood people. Sound like anyone you know? Yep—the character reminded me of Bill himself.

The theater group was cool too. Some (if not all) of the proceeds from ticket sales were donated to the American Cancer Society, and the concession stand benefited Alex’s Lemonade Stand. After the show, there was a reception with food and wine. The actors and crew made and brought the food themselves! Somehow, that just gave it a special touch. After our big dinner I wasn’t hungry, but I heard that the pepperoni dip was out of this world.

The eight of us stood around and talked for a while, and it was really fun. I wish we’d had more time. And maybe some drinks. Yep, it definitely would’ve been even better with drinks.

Thanks for inviting us, Bill! It provided an excuse for Mainline Mom and me to finally get together, and then bonus—we got to meet you and the other bloggers too! Let’s get together again soon.

What’s New

I almost began this post with an image from a recent maternity session, but then realized that it—along with the title of this post—would probably give you the wrong idea. So I’ll save that photo for later.

Things are good and bad here in Sharkeyville. J.P. and I went to Disney World with Character Builder and her family recently. That’s CB’s daughter above—she turned five while we were there, and was very excited to wear her new Cinderella dress when we had breakfast with the princesses on her birthday.

Vacation was lots of fun. As you may know, WDW is J.P.’s favorite place on the face of the earth. And it was fun to experience it through the kids’ eyes. For a blow-by-blow recap (and tons of photos), click on over to J.P.’s place.

I’ve been experiencing a little flurry of activity with my photography biz. I did two maternity sessions in March, and have already completed one of the newborn sessions. Now I’m just waiting for the little girl below to arrive so I can go spend some time with her.

So that’s the good stuff. Unfortunately, there’s some not-so-good stuff too. I know Character Builder has been planning a post about this, so I *think* it’s okay to mention it here. Last month, her nine-year-old daughter went flying off her scooter and got a concussion. As part of the treatment and diagnosis process, they did a CT scan and discovered a cyst on her brain. It’s not life-threatening, but she will need surgery this summer to drain it. UPDATE: Read the full story over at CB’s.

And speaking of surgery, it sounds like my mom may be in for some more. We learned yesterday that her ovarian cancer has returned. We’re waiting for the results of her CT scan to know the full extent of it.

So if you have some extra good thoughts or prayers that you could send along on my family’s behalf, we’d really appreciate it.