i am not entirely sure how we ever managed anything socially before cell phones. on monday, the MLK holiday, i woke up with my day barely half-planned as far as who and when and where i would be meeting with people, but over the course of the day, got everything all worked out. i had the day off and headed southeast in the morning, and was directly in front of fluff bakery in athens a few minutes past 10am. i caught up with lisa over a blackberry and cream cheese danish, and then it was off to central venue and that morning's play cafe. (basically, my old church is testing out using one of their locations to let kids play, while the parents work or talk or hang out.) i wasn't there for the dozens of kids, obviously, but it was good to see some familiar faces. then it was lunch with paul, laura, and lydia... and then catching up with megan... and then visiting curt and erin... and then chatting with daniel and talinn... and then having dinner at casa with patrick and sarah. i was surprised at how quickly a day can fill up. in my brain, i should have had time to see at least half a dozen other people! i perhaps overbooked myself, but i will just have to catch up with the others next time. oh and of course, i picked up a mocha from donkey to accompany me home to columbus. and maybe some salsa verde, for good measure. and maybe some mac and cheese and fried chicken from miller's...

tuesday was fairly uneventful, though the evening was delicious. andy made a version of haluski, with cabbage, onions, kielbasa, egg noodles, and plenty of black pepper. the traditional slovak version his grandmother makes involves potato dumplings, but the noodles were a perfectly good stand-in for our purposes.

on wednesday, i left work early and headed to an appointment: a massage! i haven't had a massage in probably a couple of years. the bing cancer center at riverside offers three free massages to patients currently undergoing treatment for cancer... yes, please, i will take you up on that. it was a little weird walking into the building i associate with mammograms and biopsies and ultrasounds and scans to get a relaxing massage, but life IS a little weird nowadays. anyway, the massage therapist was lovely, and my favorite part was the head and neck portion. with my head now unencumbered and hairless, it was a full-on lotioned-up head and scalp massage going on and i was ALL ABOUT IT. i definitely remember thinking in the middle of it that i needed to schedule another massage before my hair grows back. the rest of the massage was very relaxing, though slightly less intense than usual, due to chemotherapy making patients more susceptible to bruising in general. all in all, a good way to spend an hour. the rest of the afternoon and early evening was spent doing a little clothes shopping, because why not? hiking pants were purchased, gift cards were used. a pretty successful day.

another thursday, another infusion: taxol, round 11. the penultimate chemo! we got the roomy corner chair, which is nice because it is tucked away, and andy doesn't have to feel like he's in the middle of the walkway. other than the nurses actively decorating for valentine's day, nothing out of the ordinary: the usual drips, nap, cryotherapy, taxol, and chemo picnic.

in the spirit of Doing More Stuff In 2020, friday evening we headed downtown. (after living in athens for over 16 years, it feels weird to not say "uptown"). our first stop was condado, as i figured it was about time i visited. i ended up liking the taco i built more than the pre-built ones. i guess i have... good taste? (ba-dum). then we walked down to the palace theater to see brian regan, a comedian i have enjoyed for almost two decades now, but have never seen live. he was just what i expected in person, and as funny as ever.

after a bit of meetup location confusion on saturday morning, we were off with liz and matt to the clear creek metro park winter hike. there were more people than i expected, and we were ushered on to an additional parking lot after the first one was deemed full (we totally could have fit). we set off for the cemetery trail, which was basically marching straight up the muddy hillside. my body reminded me that i have not been hiking for quite some time, and that also, i am no longer in my 20's. after some wet, muddy hiking (some of us may have taken a shorter route than others), we finished and headed to the olde dutch buffet for too much lunch. when we eventually got back to columbus, i promptly took a two hour nap, because hey, i know my strengths. andy and i played a couple of board games later that evening.

today was a pretty chill day that involved laundry and organizing and tidying and i'm sure that sounds suuuper boring but the end result makes my brain happy and relaxed. that's it for Week 22 in Cancer Land... this coming week brings the last round of scheduled chemo. let's do this.