How I Spent My Summer Vacation - Part I

Warning: Read at your own risk. May or may not be whiny. But it's my blog and darn it, I'm writing whatever I want to.

I didn't have huge plans for the summer. After the stress that was the planning of The Anniversary Trip (loosely translated as weekly, scary panic attacks from Feb 26 until May 9), I simply wanted to start running again, enjoy my photography class, learn how to use my damn camera, and just plain, old enjoy the summer. I love warm weather. The hotter, the better in my book. We had such a long, cold winter that I was so ready for summer to get here. And I was looking forward to chilling the fuck out.

Here's what's happened so far:

4/25 to 4/28 - Found out that my friend-since-kindergarten, J, has leukemia

4/30 - Met with pet sitters and freaked out about that

5/1 - J came back home (she'd just moved back to NJ) and was admitted to the hospital (where she ended up staying until the middle of June)

5/2 to 5/9 - Continue freaking out about trip AND J

5/9 to 5/11 - The Anniversary Trip. It was nice to get away, but they don't call it the Sunrise Suite for nothing. The sun comes streaming in the windows at 6 am every morning. So much for sleeping in.

5/12 to end of May - Back and forth to visit J in the hospital and check on her cat at random intervals (hospital and her house in opposite directions), in addition to trying to keep J's crazy mom from freaking the fuck out. Oh, and I contracted a lovely, lovely virus complete with a cough that lasted for 5 weeks.

June - Split time between hospital and J's house, and my uncle died.

6/23 to present - 'tocks trouble galore. EG the week of 6/23, Tazo the week of 6/30 (plus EG's conjunctivitis), Titus, Tazo & EG the week of 7/14, and back to EG as of 8/2 (only this time it's a different breed of 'tocks trouble).

J gets two rounds of chemo, gets all of her stuff moved back from NJ, is doing really well and then contracts a lovely infection in her arm that she can't fight because she doesn't have any white blood cells right now.

So lets do the mid summer check list:

Running - um, no
Photography class - passed the class, but didn't really get to focus on it
Camera practice - I haven't even picked her up in a month. Oh, I take that back. I did try to use her to see if the UPS man had delivered my package to the house across the street. #1 - It didn't work and I felt like a total stalker. #2 The package got delivered to my house - he just put it on the porch at a weird angle so that I couldn't see it sitting there.

On the plus side, I have learned a lot about leukemia, chemo, side effects, and infections. It's pretty interesting, I just wish it wasn't happening to my friend.
I have learned to stop feeling weird when I see "sick" people in public. Me, the shy, quiet one, talks to bald, chemo patients who are out in public, instead of giving them a weird smile or avoiding eye contact. 'Do rag talk is always a good ice breaker.
I gave blood. I never realized how much blood is needed. I always thought it was a pint here and there for emergencies or surgeries. But blood disease patients need A LOT. J had 11 transfusions in the first week she was back here. That's 11 donors. I don't even know how many she's had so far. I stopped counting at 33.
Oh, and I'm developing my obsession with Ryan's Hope and 90210. It's weird the shit you watch when you can't sleep.