I'm still at my friend's house I VA. I'm makings black eyed peas, collard greens (I cheated and went frozen)' ham, and cornbread. The glaze for the ham is brown sugar and a splash of TJ's sparking apple cider.

Also, as a side note, Teppy and I were lunch sisters, as I also had TJ's scallops wrapped in bacon for lunch.

Vortex, you were on my mind the last couple days as I've cooked some bacon and saved the fat in a jar. "This is a Vortex approved jar," I would think to myself as I reheated some chicken in bacon fat to put in Emmett's burrito.

I am not happy with the way the pea soup came out. It's edible but it called for chili powder, which I put in but it's one dimensional. I prefer the version from a vegetarian cook book I have that has allspice and other things. And I cooked the peas too long, I think they are too soft to handle freezing and refreezing.

I just said, "Go away. You're an idiot" to a Kaiser support person. As I've said before, if you're in a Kaiser office, you're generally getting good care. If you have to deal with the phone system, you're in the ninth circle of hell.

Just because I need to rant somewhere:

I have an infusion appointment for bone-strengthening medicine that helps slow the effects of bone mets. There's nothing traumatic about that. However, they call a day or two before to make sure I'm coming before they order the medication. The nurse I work with left a message Monday afternoon that I had an appointment tomorrow and she needed to confirm it. She was obviously thinking "next working day," but that was just an omen of the confusion to come. When I tried to call back, the oncology number kept going to behavioral health, with no options to leave a message. I kept fighting with trying to get through until after 5, when the main switchboard closes.

I kept trying, but the number never worked. I finally decided to try through the regular switchboard to see if I could leave a message, and that took me through a rabbit hole that finally sent me to the guy who said he'd have an advice nurse call me. He's the one I called an idiot. If you can't leave a simple message, why are you even on the phone?

More to the point, the oncology number includes the extensions to the 24-hour oncology advice nurse and to get the oncologist on call. I was just having a communications problem; someone else could have been throwing up all day.

An advice nurse called back finally, said she'd send a message, and said she'd report the problem. Apparently they put in a new system on Friday. I shudder to think it's been out all this time. Also, if they don't have my medicine, I'm going to be royally pissed.

Oh, that's ridiculous, Ginger. You shouldn't have to deal with stuff like that!

That is just dumb Ginger, and I wish you didn't have to deal with crap like that.

While not exactly resigned to it, I'm an old hand and in pretty good shape at the moment. What bothers me is that there are really sick people and people new to chemo who are having to deal with this.

I know what you mean--- about a month before my last scheduled appointment, my oncology department called and left a message that I needed to call them back right away. When I did, the receptionist said that they had switched records systems, and in doing so had lost about half the patients' insurance info, so could I give it to them again right away, even though I wasn't due in for a month.

I was not very nice in my response, especially after she told me it wasn't just me, it was a lot of the oncology patients.

Lord, Ginger. Happy fucking New Year.

I had to give my cat away yesterday. My roommate moved out, and I gave my cat to him, since he's in a better position to take care of Jordan. This was a very tough decision, and I still think it's the right one, but it absolutely tore me up yesterday. I was devastated, and had several sobbing jags. The house seems so empty now.