Even seeing Maria around it was telling me that I do not have the physical strength to take things down my stairs. Even my friend Katie, who is over sixty, can carry more stuff than I can, I think I lost a lot of muscle when I lost weight.

I am, right now, ready willing and able to throw money at this issue. Happier to throw $20 bucks at my godson than $200 on cleaners. I will have to find someone next year, but I live near a high school, so maybe I can find someone there. Although once all the junk is gone, it should probably be only one bag a week which is doable.

I just painted my bathroomwith mold killing paint. Probably my landlords job, but I am on a roll

I am very sore after the "Pure Barre" class I took yesterday. Ow.

Am also contemplating making muffins. But then getting bogged down in how I'd need to put clothes on and go to the store.

I hope the concert brought a lot more smiles than tears.

Thanks, Laura. Star Wars was our gateway fandom; "riani" was the name of a character from a fondly remembered, cowritten drawerfic dating from high school - oh, geez, I wonder where that wound up?

The concert also had small children chosen from the audience charging up and down the aisles with models of the Millennium Falcon and a bunch of TIE fighters, under the guidance of ushers a lot younger than the usual set. *g* And the conductor wore a fedora for the Raiders March. Nothing was going to beat the concert Williams conducted here - we got surprise!Steven Spielberg for that one - so the PTB went for cheese, and it worked.

Sophia, sometimes the cheapest way to pay for things is with money: I often find Nextdoor exasperating, but there are always people recommending someone to help with moving heavy furniture and such. Might it be a place to start?

Thanks Amy! I will try next door, even though it makes me a little nutty too. They are always posting about suspicious activity at my corner store, and maybe ai am weird, but they are just selling pot in the evenings when mom and dad aren't around. I have known mom and dad and son for 15 years. I am not going to blow the son in.unless it seems more serious. Maybe my bar for serious is to high, but I take the bus through the "inner city" and there is a serious underground economy going on..This is like a twenty something dude who hooks his friends up and sells me Diet Coke!

And that concert sounds marvelous,

And one of my old students (there have been several) came out as trans on Facebook, and she looks so happy! When I knew her as Andrew, she was a stressed out bunny like me, but now Vivian looks so happy and carefree,

Hello all! Thank you so much for the outpouring of love and support. It helps so much. Thank you for the offers of coloring books and sudoku books and the like. I would love all of those things! Since they are saying it'll be more like three months that I'll be here, I'll need all the distraction I can get. Javachik has already sent me the most thoughtful care package and it got delivered right to my room. I'm not sure how best to get my address out. Should I just post it here?

amych, I didn't know you worked so close to me! Yes, I'm in the cancer hospital of my work's namesake, on the 4th floor. It sounds like Calli sent you the specifics, but if you need more info, please reach out to my profile addy. They let people visit 24/7 up here, but the best times are daytime before 4:00, because they start my chemo infusion at 4:00 each day, and then I get pretty tired after that because of the anti-nausea meds they give me in preparation. I would love a visit! Do you have my current cell? You can text me when you are thinking of coming and I can let you know whether it's a good time or not. T. is setting up a WhatsApp group to let folks know about any changes in my condition in case there's a time I don't feel well enough to update people on my own. Would you like to be added to it? ETA: I went ahead and sent you my cell and a link to the WhatsApp group.

Cindy, your insurance story is so enraging. I'm so sorry you have to deal with all of this. Sorry for everyone who is dealing with it. That's very far in the back of my mind right now, but I'm sure it will become a pressing concern soon enough.

sj, I love that ltc wants to make a Gashlycrumb Tinies book! She is so one of us, and completely delightful.

Javachik, I'm so excited for your post-job adventure! And I just want to reiterate how much your thoughtfulness has meant to me these past few days. I can't even express how much.

msbelle, I hope you find a place to land, job-wise, soon.

Update on me: I know what kind of cancer I have. T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. I thought my story was wild (finding out about it through the kidney stones, getting yanked out of my life the very same day and then finding out that I'll be here for maybe three months) but several of the nurses said that it's a common story on this floor (the patients here are mostly blood cancers). People find out when getting treated for something unrelated, getting admitted to the hospital the same day they find out, and not coming out for three months or more. Bananas! It's a very fast-moving cancer: two weeks ago, my blood was normal. Two days ago, pre-chemo, my blast count was 60%, which means that 60% of my peripheral blood was taken up by cancer cells. It can also spread to my spinal cord and brain really quickly, so I'm going to get chemo injected directly into my spine one day this week. Yaaay. My main chemo treatment is a cocktail of IV drugs called Hyper-CVAD, which totally sounds like a comic book villain. They say the side effects won't show up until about five days into treatment, and I'm in day two.

T. is staying until Dec. 4th. He's basically putting his life on hold for me, which is too much for my heart to hold. My niece flew up from FL for a day. I'm surrounded by so much love and support that I don't think I've fully processed any of this yet. The doctors and nurses keep commenting on what a positive attitude I have, but really, am I supposed to be able to wrap my head around the fact that I have a disease where the ten-year survival rate is 50% for my age group? After knowing about it for less than a week? Luckily, my therapist said she would be available to me whenever she can fit me in for phone sessions, because I expect I will lose it in epic fashion anytime now.

T. also said that since June, 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of our friendship, he wants us to go on a trip anywhere in the world I want to go. I have no idea where I want to go! Any suggestions from the hivemind? It's definitely nice to have things to look forward to (grad school, exciting trip).

{{{amyth}}} that really is a lot to take in at once. I'm glad you have so much love and support.

So much to take in, amyth. I think you lucked into the right hands for this treatment. I suppose the chemo is timed so that you can sleep through the worst of it and have a couple good hours in the day, depending on how your body tolerates it.

T. is staying until Dec. 4th. He's basically putting his life on hold for me, which is too much for my heart to hold.

Remember when loved ones do for you to reverse it in your mind. You know how much you would do for them. It's good to let people show their love and concern.

because I expect I will lose it in epic fashion anytime now

Maybe. Maybe not. Any method of dealing is okay. I know some people that have more emotional responses, and some that are more objective and systematic in response. A couple of my friends going through massive health issues responded by researching, learning, and mostly logical reactions, with bouts of sobbing in the shower of course.

My sister's lung cancer (20 years ago) involved removal of most of one lung and a bunch of radiation. She read somewhere that visualizing the radiation as ice being applied to her skin helped with the burns. She imagined she was lying on a sheet of ice when they did the procedures and the medical staff often commented that they were amazed she never had side affect burns.

tl;dr: Attitude is huge, and yours is great. Know that any way you respond is okay and people who say they want to help mean it.