In the past 6 months, nothing in my life has gone how "I planned". Yet I am as happy as a dog with two tails!!

And THAT is something to be thankful for. Happy weekend!!

A Very Special Friday with James

One year ago today, I met James. We were sitting at Elizabeth's (Betsy) house, and she said, "my friend James just moved back to Houston and is going to go out with us. I think y'all will get along." I was skeptical (mainly because at the time I knew about 10 people in Houston[that number is DRASTICALLY larger this year], and because I'm kind of a meanie [i.e. bitch] and usually find some reason not to hang out with someone- if you need further proof of this, read the post before this one).

So in walks this burly, bearded man to Elizabeth's house. I start talking to him, and immediately realize that he has to be my 11th friend in Houston. He looked at me like I was batshit crazy (I am/was), and then I informed him that we were going to be friends for a long time. He looked at me like I was nuts, and then the three of us headed out for a night on the town, where he proceeded to carry Elizabeth home, while I gave him a personal tour of Midtown, and pointed out all the places I had used the bathroom on the walk from our favorite establishments to her house (I kind of used to sleep on her couch all the time because I wouldn't drink and drive the 11 blocks back to my house- which is actually a really responsible thing to do). Why James ever hung out with me again, I'll never know, but thankfully he did, and it's been all downhill uphill ever since.

It's been a fun year of crawfish (even though he INSISTS on saying crayfish) boils, me suckering him into philanthropic events, 2 awesome birthday parties, 6 am Saturday texts, terrible photos, beer drinking, football game watching, dirty joke telling, and many many Friday's with James. And on that note, I'll leave you with two photos, and a Friday with James. Thanks James for being such an awesome friend!!

Brewery tour, where he got soaking wet so we could stay dry.

If any of you ladies want me to put in a good word for you, let me know.

Just saw this picture of James & I for the first time today. It pretty much sums up our relationship- beer, food, me chasing tail, James judging (with good cause).

He and I have a pretty good track record at the 'Dillo.

It has been a year. And he hasn't killed me. YET.

Shaving my head

As some of you know, I have promised to let James shave my entire head, and donate my hair to Locks of Love if I raise over $2500 for St. Jude's. I hadn't told my brother this (or even asked him to donate since he's in school), but last night when I arrived home from my various volunteering and social events, I had an email from St. Jude's (they email me every time someone makes a donation). The message was from my hilarious and generous brother who wrote:

"Here is $50. SHAVE YOUR HEAD!"

If you would like to donate and help the children of St. Jude (and make me shave my head), please follow THIS link. Also thanks to the following people for already donating:

James (awesome teammate and of the famed Friday's With James)

My darling mother

My hilarious brother

Sarah A. (friend to James & Avery)

Meghan McBlogger (I am kinda obsessed with her blog www.2birds1blog.com, and shot her an email, and she generously donated- making her the greatest and most hilarious blogger of all time)

Beverly M and Kevin K. (friends of James)

Brigitte T. (friend of James and cancer survivor)

Ineka M. (friend of James)

Johnny A. & Family (friend of Avery)

Matt S. (once for $1.18 because he thought it was funny- friend of Avery)

THANK YOU ALL!! THE CHILDREN OF ST. JUDE APPRECIATE YOUR KINDNESS AND GENEROSITY!!

Weekend Recap

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go visit my younger brother Preston in Colorado. He has an absolutely gorgeous house 5 minutes from Breckenridge, and they so generously let me stay in their guest room. Since I recently had surgery (and wasn't really looking to rip the stitches on my side or under my chest open), I took it easy, only skiing on Sunday morning, and going on some relatively easy runs. Below are some photos from my time there- we played many card games (we got our love of cards from our Grandmother), Scrabble (Madison and I dominated), and I cooked enough chili for 30 people (only 6 people were at the house for dinner). On Sunday while Preston was at the store, a guy came up to him and it turned out to be one of his buddies from high school- Ben. After chatting with Ben briefly, he found out that Ben and his buddies were renting a house ON THE SAME STREET PRESTON LIVES ON. . .so Sunday night we went down to their rental house and spent 6 or 7 hours hanging out with him and his Air Force Academy buddies- a great time was had by all. Monday Preston, Madison, and I ventured to Denver (to take me to the airport) and did some window shopping in their downtown open mall area!! Then I hopped on a plane and headed back to Texas, where I was greeted by warm and sticky weather!! I can't wait to join them in Colorado again for a week next month!!

Playing Scrabble. The 3 of us are really masters at this game.

This cat doesn't really like anyone, except me. Crash would sit in my lap for hours and just purr and knead his paws. Then he spent a good thirty minutes just staring at me like this.

On the slopes with my brother. It was super freezing and snowing.

3 of the 5 animals that live in their house- all laying on me.

I really am some sort of animal whisperer.

Scar-y

If you have a weak stomach, I would encourage you now to just skip this post. Today and tomorrow I'll be posting the pictures of my wounds (I figure showing you both of them in one day is a little much). Below is the picture of where they removed Terrence (the tumor), and stitched me back up. Where you see that big black bow looking thing is where my skin meets my nipple (is a nipple part of your skin?! I'm not really sure). I'm actually feeling a little better today, still have the sensation that someone is stabbing me every time I take a step, but nothing I can't put up with.

I have always been satisfied with my small and perky chest, but always considered the option of enhancing it later in life. Now I know exactly why God made me part of the itty bitty titty committee- it was because he knew that I'd have to go through this and that if I was any bigger, the bouncing movement when I walked would be even more excruciatingly painful. Talk about a blessing in disguise!!

I haven't been able to wear a bra yet (and am not supposed to for the next week), but I'm going to test out a new Under Armour sports bra that's incredibly soft and hits in a place that doesn't make me want to cry. . .hopefully this will allow me to maybe go down some blues this weekend in Breck with my brother.

Thanks for all your love and support, it's truly been appreciated!!! I will have the results to the pathology tests in the next week, and hopefully they will be free and clear and there won't be any next steps!! I'll keep you updated!!

And now, what you've all been waiting for (or avoiding)- my boob wound. The scar on this sucker is going to be really heinous, but don't worry about me, I've already throughly convinced myself that I'm going to be an old spinster so I won't have to worry about scar-ing anyone with it in the future!!

DRUM ROLL. . .DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM. . . .

My wound on day 3. I need a name for my scar- maybe Sally?!

Suggestions?!

I never did a run down of 2009, so I'm going to give you the first thing that pops into my head for each month...here we go:

January- met James, told him we would be friends. I was right.

February- fell asleep with a balloon on my hand...on valentines days.

March- crawfish boils galore and found someone to cook and eat dinner with. A "dining compainion" you might say.

April- Realty tv birthday party.

May-played tons of golf, became a Rockets fan, and ventured to Arkansas.

June- road trip to Montana. So awesome. Best week of the year.

July- had a ridiculous time floating the river with Sadie and Yuri.

August- Quit my job, started a new one, boyfriend moved a million miles away.

September- next.

October- got more involved with various organizations and had a blast with my friends. Also went on the worst date ever.

November- skiing with my family and finally becoming awesome at my job.

December- party. every. single. night. Oh yeah and found out I had cancer.

And that was 2009. Met many amazing people, had a blast, got my heart broken, and learned a whole slew of things. And I wouldn't change a second of it!! I'm sure 2010 will be just as wonderful!!

Twi-Hard

Do you LOVE Twilight?! Click HERE.

Do you HATE Twilight?! Click HERE.

Do you feel INDIFFERENTLY about Twilight?! (this is where I fall) Click HERE.

If you don't know what Twilight is, then you are probably an ugly vampire with no friends.

Surgery was a NO-GO

I even FAILED at surgery. This morning at 5:30 am I went to the hospital, not only mentally prepared, but physcially prepared as well. I had been having trouble when I was doing my hair/washing my hair, and was having a really sharp shooting pain in my chest, but I brushed it off. The original suture under my nipple was still looking infected even though I was cleaning it up to three times a day, and putting medicine on it like there was no tomorrow, yet it just seemed to get worse. At each appointment they would ask me if I was taking care of it, and doing what they told me, and I continued to tell them "yes, I'm being responsible but it just won't get better." They switched my medications as recently as last week to try and heal it, and it was still oozing blood, puss, and other unrecognizable liquids. It was nasty (there is a photo at the end of this post when it looked BEST, so you can only imagine how disgusting it looks 3 weeks later). This is on top of the rashes I got from someone using latex gloves (I'm allergic to latex), and the allergy I developed to bandaids. Yes, I'm allergic to something in bandaids now as well.

When I arrived this morning, the first thing I told the nurse was that I didn't feel good, and I think my wound was still infected. She asked me when the sutures were put in and I told her December 8th, almost exactly 1 month ago. She looked at it and said, "yes that looks infected." she squeezed it (yeah a woman squeezed my boob this morning, no it wasn't awkward), and it started to drain. Then she took my temperature (it was 100.3) and blood pressure (I forget what it was, but rest assured it was awesome). Then she told me she was going to get one of my doctors. When the doctor comes in, I show her my boob and she looks at me and says "we can't operate if it's infected". Now I may not have an MD, but I know what an infected suture looks like, and I had one. That's when I started to cry, but just a little bit.

I gathered my composure and told her how badly it was still hurting, and I didn't know what else to do. She got some sort of magnifying tool, and got really close and took a good look at it and gasped. The doctor looks at me and says, "did we not take out all your sutures?". Again, I don't have my MD, so how the heck am I supposed to know if you took out all the stitches?! You told me 2 weeks ago they were gone, so I'm assuming yes.

She takes another long look, (now there are 2 nurses, a tech, and the doctor staring at me on the bed topless) and says, "there is still a suture in here." That's when I started to bawl. These past few weeks when I had been told I was doing things wrong and not taking care of myself, it truly wasn't anything I had done. My doctor then takes some forceps and takes not ONE, not TWO, but THREE sutures that had been sitting in my breast getting infected for the past month. I couldn't stop crying. They told me I would have to reschedule my surgery, be on antibiotics for the next week and put me on an entirely new medicine for my wound. Oh and they swabbed it because she said it looked like it could have staph infection and they would let me know when the lab results came back. Then they cleaned it, put medication on it and put so much gauze over it (it was bleeding profusely) that one boob actually looks big (i.e normal). Also, I am strictly prohibited from wearing a bra until after surgery (this is irritating for many reasons).

I sat and cried for a good 20 minutes, called my mom, cried some more, and then put on my big girl panties (without a bra of course) and came back to work. Needless to say I am not a happy camper today.

Here I am around 6 am waiting in my gown.

This is closer to 7 when I'm really bored, and no one has told me anything yet.


This is in my car on the way to work after my meltdown. Don't I look happy?!




My wound a few weeks ago. This actually looks really good compared to what it looks like now.
It's hard to tell, but it's a little bigger than a dime, and those spots around it are from my allergic reaction to the bandaid.

A day of FAIL

Today has been a day of FAILING:

• "operation no more ejaculation" (ON ME) ?! FAIL. Shortly after she recieved the note today (I'm sure she got it I checked the mail), she and her hipster boyfriend had crazy monkey sex. At 5:30 pm. Actually crazy monkey sex is too tame...those noises were like silverback gorillas on steroids. GROSS. So gross I went to my young adult Bible study on Acts to escape the noise.

• I am so hungry and my throat is dry as a bone. FAIL. Since I'm having surgery in the morning, I can't eat or drink for 10 hours before (so incase I vomit during surgery I won't choke or something like that). All I want is a giant bottle of water and some chicken fried steak, is that so much to ask?!

• The laundry "situation". FAIL. My house is old and there is no hookup for a washer/dryer (even though my sun room would make am excellent laundry room). So the clothing has slowly piled up from the last time I took it all to the drycleaners (yes they weigh it by the pound, yes it's ridiculously expensive). I washed a set of sheet and towels last week at the Rae's house, but that didn't even make a dent. My plan for tonight was to hopefully make it to the laundromat and wash a load since I am literally out of clean clothes that I enjoy wearing. Unfortunately it gets dark around 5ish here, and the washeteria ain't somewhere I'm going alone with my pretty panties. Don't worry, I have new clean underwear (thank you Victorias Secret gift cards, and Sadies underwear theivery in 2008) to last through the end of January.

•Sadie's behavior. FAIL. My little furbaby is driving me bonkers. She chewed her "indestructible" toys apart (I swear she can read and is just trying to prove the packaging wrong) and is bouncing off the walls when I get home. I'm not sure how she's going to cope when we can't go for a walk for a few days.

BANG!

I'm kicking the new year off with a BANG!, and by BANG! I mean that my goal is to get Crazy Claire to STOP banging. With the help of my colleague Courtney, tonight I will put "Operation No More Ejaculation" (ON ME) into action.

Step 1 of ON ME: Courtney has written the following note, on a very nondescript piece of notebook paper.

Step 2 of ON ME: When I get home, I will slip this letter into her mailbox, and put another copy of it on her back door.

Step 3 of ON ME: Wait. If her "nocturnal activities" are louder tonight than normal, I will: call my landlord in the morning and file a complaint. If her "nocturnal activities" cease, I will bake her some cookies, and send a basket full of things that make people fat and not horny- a non-aphrodisiac basket if you will.

Step 4 of ON ME: If I see her and she asks me if I wrote the note, I can honestly say, "What note?! I haven't written anyone a note." If she shows it to me, I am prepared to act as though I have never seen it, AND give her a handwriting sample.

Step 5 of ON ME: Sweet, silent, and restful slumber. Without having to listen to things that go BANG! in the night.