What to buy, what to buy...

In exactly two weeks, it will be Duane's and my 3rd anniversary. Woo! Also, exactly one week after that, it will be his birthday. That's where the problem lies. That makes two, TWO! gift giving occasions in a row, and while, I might be the best girlfriend ever , Duane is probably the hardest person to buy for ever.

Also, what do you buy guys for an anniversary? Hello?! Its almost entirely a woman day: Get her flowers, a card, dinner, etc. And guys often forget them anyways. Duane won't forget though, mostly b/c I like presents so my incessant "Can I have a hint?! Huh, huh?!" is a pretty good clue that something is coming, lol. And I'm sure I'll find something to get him.

But then comes the birthday, ah! More gift buying, although I actually already bought that present. I'm so proud of myself, although I don't know if anything will ever compare to a USB missile launcher, but at least half the gift is sure to be entertaining. Tee hee!

Raging Inferno, Pits of Hell, Sahara Desert, etc

Our room is approximately 400º with 200% humidity. I'm going to die! While I'm certainly enjoying the weather--went for a nice, long walk in the park with Duane yesterday and didn't get us lost, hurrah!-- the sweltering dorm conditions make me curse spring. -shakes fist at weather-

What I find particularly unfair, however, is that all of the academic buildings seem to have the AC turned on and pumping away while everyone stuck in their little cell of a dorm room is sweating like a pig, trying desperately to keep cool. No one lives in academic buildings! Well, except maybe the Organic people that sometimes spend the night in Mellon (lab building)... but that's a story for another time. Anyways, its simply just not right that sitting in Genetics, I had goosebumps because the room was super-chilled and then half an hour later, I was flushed and sweaty from walking across my room. Rawr!

But -whew- all is not lost! I think we've come up with a fairly decent cooling system: Windows wide open, Jamie's little fan on high and the door cracked, held open by either one of my first semester Ochem workbook thingy. Ah, feel the breeze!

Update, update!

This is a touch over due but oh well, you'll get over it. And, well, chances are I've already told you and asked for scheming assistance.

Sometime in the general time of April 25, 2008, Duane has informed me that we will be taking a trip. Not just any trip, but one east of the Mississippi AND west of the Prime Merridian, which was obviously included since he hadn't even finished saying the "east of.." part when I pointed out that technically speaking, everything is east. Also, since he has been known to spontaneously comust in direct sunlight, it is north of the equator. So here's a map with a nice, big red box marking the approximate trip destinatio area. Your thoughts?

Also, this past weekend's hint was that I can wear a bathing suit. It actually took quite some time to confirm this was a hint and not just him screwing with me and/or just really wanting me to be half naked in said bathing suit. :-p But I think we settled on it being a valid hint. So hurrah, a real vacation!

Ugh.

I feel like I've been punched in the gut, knocked down and then kicked around for a while. I got back from class yesterday--all happy that it was Friday and a fun weekend lay ahead--and checked my email. There was one from Meg, Ty's mom, informing me that he had his scans this week and the tumor is back. He'll be starting another year of chemo next Thursday. I quickly emailed her back, offering to go entertain Nate for the day or hang out at the hospital with Ty so they can have a break sometime and asking for a little more specifics about the relapse. Then I proceeded to curse life for the next two hours while I went to seminar. Just what I needed... listening to a talk about tumor suppressor genes and cancer enzymes. :-\

Luckily, when I got back, there was already a response to my email, so I figured since that meant they were definitely home, I should just call. I'm glad I did; it helped me feel much better. Ty has a brain stem ganglioglioma. Its actually only partially cancerous. The "ganglio" part is totally benign; the "glioma" part, however, is not. Luckily, the combo-type tumor makes it pretty low-grade, so all the worst-case scenarios I was mulling during seminar (i.e. disease taking off and other assorted horrible things) are rather unlikely for the time being.

The problem, however, is that since its in his brainstem, they will NEVER get to remove the whole tumor. Can't just go hacking all willy nilly in there. Even for "inoperable" abdomenal tumors, for example, there is always a surgeon somewhere that will take it out with no problem. And he could have a massive twitch while cutting it out and nick something without the world ending. There's no room for massive twitching...or much surgery at all... in the brainstem, so microscopic amounts of the tumor will always be there. Those microtumors were the target of Ty's first year of chemo, but unfortunately, it didn't work so well and they've started growing again. So back to the chemo. Maybe by the time he's finished it (he'll be almost 7), they'll consider him eligible for some radiation, which, I think, is much better at zapping the little bits that are left. But he's still so little, ugh.

Also, adding to my boycott of life, we had a camper, Katherine , die this week... of the completely cancerous version of Ty's tumor. Again, I say, ugh!

That Time of the Month

No, not that time of the month. Its the one where Comcast informs me that they owe me $4.91.

Last year, Jamie and I signed up for "free" digital cable. Discovery Health (nonstop babies!) and Noggin (Legends of the Hidden Temple!), oh yeah! Well, we never actually watched it enough to justify paying for it when our two free months were up, so naturally, I called the less than friendly uninstall people and made an appointment for the cable man to come unplug the box. As an aside, I think they purposely make their uninstall process IMPOSSIBLE so as to eek out the last cent. Anyways, billing is tricky, you see. They bill a month ahead of time, so I had already sent in a $17 and some odd cents check for the next month's bill. And then fun catch to the "free" that they failed to mention and we failed to read in the size 2 font small print: It costs $10.99 to uninstall the cable.

Since I was ahead on the payments and all, the uninstall fee just got taken out of the $17-whatever and after all the taxes and random "fees," it worked out to Comcast owing me $4.91, which, the unfriendly phone lady assured me would be credited to my account and after a few billing cycles, I'd get a check.

That was in -ahem- NOVEMBER OF 2005... two thousand and FIVE... as in the year we graduated, came to college, a substantially longer amount of time than "a few" billing cylces ago. Although, at this point, I figured they're actually losing money on me since all the paper, ink and postage have by now surely cost more than $4.91. So now I just look forward to my "monthly friend":

Balance Due: $0.00
Total Balance: -$4.91

It's huge!

Starting tomorrow, I am going on a hunger strike and becoming anorexic. I ate waaaaaaay too much this weekend.

Specifically, I ate a large portion of a 28"--yes, that's right, TWENTY-EIGHT INCH--pizza. Note all the objects in the picture for scale: Mike's watch, bottle of cherry vodka, couch cushions, etc. Needless to say, that sucker had to be turned sideways to get in the door. And I ate about 10 pieces... I was reeeally hungry, but gah, that had to be about 5 days' worth of calories.

And it just kept getting worse, food-wise. We got wings on Saturday night...and my lips burnt off. -blushy- They were near the bottom on the hotness scale--"scale of fiery death," in my world--but I was sweating nonetheless. Of course, after the wings, in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day and all, we then had a variety of tastey "beverages," green, of course. So yeah, first official college drinking experience. Good times, good times.

These don't look like wontons...

A plate holding food very much resembling this showed up at our table this evening while Duane, Vic, Sarah and I were at P.F. Chang's. Now, to explain the whole wonton thing, we ordered the usual crab wontons (crab rangoon.. ya know, Justin's favorite) but the waiter suggested something similar and we decided to try it. So that appears and we're like "hmm, those don't look like wontons. oh well!" and proceed to dig in. Our mystery appetizer was sooooo tastey. And then the waiter showed up and informed us we had just gotten a free appetizer (another server brought the mystery one to the table), as he placed the actal wontons on the table, which, in case anyone actually cares, were quite tastey.

And the identity of the mystery appetizer was chicken lettuce wraps... and I want some more.

Spring Broken

Here it is, Spring Break, and what am I doing? I'm sitting around, pretending to do homework and eating a whole lot...in Weirton. Oh yeah!

Its not all horrid boredom though. I get to do such exciting things as:

1. Work tomorrow for a whole 8 hours. Oh boy!
2. Go to both the dermatologist on Monday... even more exciting than crazy watching, especially since he shares his office with his wife (an OBGYN), I tend to get stared down by disapproving old people, thinking I'm working on my third kid with the third guy.
3. Go to the doctor on Wednesday and get my leg poked and then to the dentist to get my gums poked. Actually, I'm excited to get the leg poked because ¡¡OMG IT HURTS!! The dentist, however, is never a fun time.
4. Do about 3 weeks worth of Organic Chemistry problems for our quiz next week, read a book about torturers and "critically review" a genetic twin study.
5. Be hopelessly bored.

All is not lost, however, hurrah! On Wednesday, after all my healthcare fun, I'm taking Victor and Sarah to visit Duane since he's stuck in the real working world at school... and we're going to eat Chinese food! You know you're jealous, Justin! :-p

-interuption-

Woo, it just got much better. My mom just knocked to inform me that we should go out to eat somewhere (Yay, Mexican!) and then perhaps do a little shopping since Tony is going to formal, my dad is at work and we are very bored. New clothes!