So we are out of the aughts, and into the teens. I do sincerely hope that this decade is better than the last. Looking back, there were some positives: I got married in 2000 to the love of my life; we had a couple of amazing trips (Caribbean Cruise, France, Africa); and I got my MLIS and my job. And while still trying to think positively, I can't help but think about the bad times, too: I lost two beloved pets, my cockatiel, Bisous, right after we got back from our honeymoon, and our sweet greyhound, Christmas, who dropped dead very suddenly in 2004 at the age of 8. I was pregnant once but miscarried at the beginning of my second trimester and then spent three years going through fertility treatment, up to and including IVF, all for nothing. Shortly thereafter, my mother died, August 22, 2004. Just when I thought I was getting over that, my sister collapsed and died with no warning, October 13, 2006. And of course, I was diagnosed with stage-III breast cancer in August 2009. So enough already! Let's get on with the good stuff :).
We had a very quiet but lovely Christmas. We ended up staying home and not going over to Monroe. We decided that trying to do both Monroe and Houston would be too much, and since we had just seen Paul at Thanksgiving, and I had last seen my Houston family in May 2008 (and Kyle hadn't seen them since October 2004), we would make a short trip to Houston. So we had a quiet Christmas Eve and Day, celebrating with our friend Rafia and as a last-minute addition, our friend Erin, who couldn't make it up to Oklahoma to be with her sister because of our weather. Yes, we had a White Christmas here in Texas -- a first for many natives. We spent a quiet weekend post-Christmas, then drove down to Houston on Tuesday for two nights with my cousin Shirley and her family (son Dean; his fiancee, Leslie; daughter Karen; her husband, Doug, and Shirley's sister-in-law, Carol). We had a scrumptious dinner at Shirley's house that first night, and another wonderful meal at Karen's the next evening. Shirley was kind enough to chauffeur us down to the
Houston Museum of Natural Science, where we saw a gorgeous show, "Faberge: Imperial Jeweler to the Tsars." We also got to see some of the permanent collection, but sadly the butterfly garden was closed by the time we tried to go. Thanks again for a wonderful visit, Shirley, Carol, Dean, Leslie, Karen, & Doug!
We returned home on Thursday, New Year's Eve, and attended a pot-luck party that our friend Gretchen hosted that night. I was actually kind of tired and not really in the mood going over there, but ended up having a blast. We played Rock Band, which is always hilarious, and a trivia game that Gretchen got for Christmas. We ended up staying until around 2:00. Thanks, Gretchen!
The rest of my time off was spent being rather lazy, although I did make an exhausting (to me, anyway) shopping excursion the Sunday after Christmas. I wanted to use my Macy's gift cards that my in-laws had so generously given me for my birthday (thanks, Carol & Ger!) during the post-Christmas sales, so Rafia came along for moral support (thank goodness), and helped me choose a bunch of stuff, most of which I needed (jeans, kakhis, another hat), and some of which I wanted (a couple of beautiful pullovers that I got for under $10 each).
I returned to work on Jan. 4, so I've been back for two full weeks, but they have been rather quiet since classes don't start up until next Tuesday, Jan. 18. It's been nice to have some time to get caught up and geared up for the new semester. I already have lots of requests for instructions sessions from my regular faculty, and I just found out that a colleague from another program area in our library is leaving to take a position in South Carolina, so since he does a lot of first-year instruction, Gretchen (who is in that program area) asked me if I could help fill in for him, and I said that was fine. So it seems as though I will be busy this semester with a lot of instruction, a presentation at the end of the month to the UTA Black Leadership Conference (for students), another presentation in mid-February in Austin at the EDUCAUSE SW Regional Conference (I'm doing both of these with my office neighbors Eric and Rafia), and a paper the three of us are working on for publication.
My first go-round with the new chemo protocol, Taxol, was last Friday, Jan. 8. I am getting all the same premeds plus another one, a steroid called Dexamethasone that prevents allergic reactions (I guess Taxol has a high prevalence of allergic reactions, so they just give this routinely). Last week, my side effects were lack of appetite and sleep on the first day or two (the antinausea drugs slow down my digestive system and this leads to the lack of appetite, I believe, and the steroids are uppers). I also had, as usual, bad constipation from the antinausea drugs. But I did meet with my oncologist before that first administration, and she advised me to take a stool softener every day, like Miralax. So I started doing that regularly the next day, and once things got moving again around about Tuesday or Wednesday, I felt much better. (I know this is really gross to write about, but again, if someone else out there is going through the same thing, perhaps it will prove helpful to him or her.) The only other thing I was dealing with was fatigue; I had to go in late on Monday because I was so tired and brought my computer home that evening, with the thought that I would make up the time I missed that morning by working at home, but I was just too tired. At least I was able to put in about 6 hours that day, so all told, I missed about 10 hours that first week. Much, MUCH better than missing a whole week as I did with the last Big-Bad. And no nausea, no food-smell aversions, no horrible taste and smell in general. Again, I'm told the most common side effect than can become serious with Taxol is numbness in fingers and toes, which will probably come as the drug builds up in my system. I had the second administration of the drug yesterday, and so far, all my side effects are the same. I slept horribly last night; I turned off my light around 2:30 and think I finally got to sleep around 5:00, woke up at 9:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. Hopefully I will sleep better tonight.
The only other news I can think of is that I now have pink hair. And blue hair. I decided that I was getting tired of wearing scarves and hats; I wanted something more fun. So a friend had a blue -- and I mean NEON blue -- wig that she had gotten for Halloween, and she lent me that. I liked it so much that I bought a pink wig as well. I've gotten lots of stares, but also lots of compliments, so it's been kind of fun :). I will add another post with pictures of me in the wigs and other photos. For some reason, I can't figure out how to make a picture show up in a specific place in my text, such as HERE. They all just go at the top.
This afternoon, we are going to the
Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. I'm excited because I always love going to museums, and we haven't visited this one yet. It's supposed to have a fine collection, and the exhibit that's up now sounds really interesting. I think we are going to try to do the
Fort Worth Botanic Gardens either Sunday or Monday as well (I have Monday off for MLK Day). We haven't done a lick of sightseeing since Kyle moved down last June, which is just plain silly and stupid because there are lots of wonderful things to do and see in the DFW area. So we decided to make this a sightseeing weekend :).
Must go and shower and eat some lunch to we can be ready to go by 2:00. Have a great weekend! Peace, Jody
These first four above are from Gretchen's New Year's Eve Party. Rafia (the only other person besides me & Kyle in the pics) adores dressing up and brought boas for everyone. As I said, I was kind of tired before we headed out to the party and didn't bother putting on make-up or a scarf, so you can get a sense of how I look when I'm basically sitting around my house. The next few pics are obviously of me with my Fancy Hair :).
