Tales of an Obama supporter

I woke up Tuesday with a sense of anxiety. I mean, I believed Obama should be our next leader but did the majority of others? I was disappointed in 2000 and 2004. Whose to say it wouldn't happen again? Election night at 8pm, when the polls closed I was at Beulaland with a group of close friends. I had to make it out for what could be the most significant positive event in US history that would happen in my lifetime. About one or two seconds after 8pm CNN lit the whole west coast up with Blue. The place was packed, the screams of joy were deafening, the tears streaming down half the faces was lifting to the heart. Thank you america for waking up! What an exciting and relieving week!

Moving while going thru radiation was probably not one of my best ideas. However, I am all situated and unpacked finally! The move went really smoothly, I had a lot of help. Thank you Alison, Audrey, Barry, Erika, Doug, Kelly, Gabe, and Matt. I had amazing unpacking help from Melanie and Valerie. All I have left to do is hang some pics on the walls. That is the hardest part for me. Porter is doing way better than expected, he is a natural. The smaller place means there is less ratio for him to spread out his lovely shedding self. I have had to vacuum every other day. His labrador perfume is also filling up the place nicely... I do a lot of candle burning these days.

I love my new neighborhood. I think that has really helped the transition of ending this chapter of my life. Leaving the house was really hard. I lived there for three years! If you count the year that jeff and I were inseparable and my apartment was only an expensive storage unit it would be four. I really did make it a home I wanted to stay there for years to come. On the day I moved I was a wreck - I cried for an hour! It seems like the inevitable ending to a rough year. Last night I was thinking how I already miss my herb garden, seeing porter sun bathing on the lawn, walking across the street to catch up with the neighbors and have drink, etc. My new ‘hood is quite nice, like I said, so it’s distracting me. Today I walked to grab a coffee with Porter, we then headed to the park and played ball, after that we went to the grocery store and on the way back to the apartment I stopped in at a little boutique shop where I bought this cute calendar. This was all in a five block radius! Porter loves all the smells the sidewalks have to offer. There are way more dogs here to be curious about and there are always people everywhere. Last weekend I went to a movie with Roberta at Laurelhurst theater which is a few blocks away. Movies are $3 and you can enjoy pizza and beer/wine during your flick. We saw Hamlet 2 by the way, it was hilarious.

Other than all this adjustment stuff, I have been doing radiation. Towards the end of my second week my throat/esophagus really started to bother me. It was getting harder to swallow, I had to take baby bites and I couldn’t drink acidic things like wine or OJ. It got worse through that weekend. I went to treatment this past Monday and spoke to the nurse saying I couldn’t eat or drink much anymore. Which is annoying since I love to eat! She gave me some prescriptions for pain meds and liquid lidocain. They had given me something on Friday but it wasn’t strong enough. This new remedy helped a bit, but I still couldn't get down anything but liquids and that was even painful. Tuesday I felt so dizzy and dehydrated. I am used to drinking a lot of water. I also lost 5-6 lbs. So they canceled treatment and hooked me up to an IV for fluids. After 2 long hours of that I felt a bit better. I was and still am extremely exhausted. I can barely get up in the morning. I took tuesday off but managed to work thru the rest of the week because I was so bored at home and my project was on a deadline, I really wanted to help out. I resumed treatment on Friday and they started blocking my throat in the radiation field. This is done somehow in the computer, it’s so crazy. So, this weekend I have been able to eat and drink. Still only baby bites but I feel better. The only other complaint is that my skin is on fire. Tonight I am making some homemade butternut squash soup, yum!

My birthday is coming up! I can’t believe I’m turning 31! wow. Another reason it’s hard to go back to an apartment with coin-opp laundry and no dishwasher. I thought my apartment days were over. In a way though, it’s liberating. I am having a lot of alone time which is pushing me to work more on my goals. I am planning my trip, looking into painting classes and reading more. As an extravert this alone time is sometimes hard, but I’m enjoying it... bittersweetness I suppose.

I am attaching pics of me during radiation. This is the crazy mask that smashes my face!