H-dog and I are in LA at the moment. Actually, we're in Santa Monica, but same difference. Dude is sound asleep, while I'm sitting at the kitchen table at our friends Steve and Amy's house, enjoying the blindingly bright sunshine blazing outside. Inside, the air is cool, and I'm warming up with a cup of Irish Breakfast tea (hey, the Irish drink tea too!).
As to be expected, I got a lot of how-are-you-doing's, hugs, head rubs (my head is like a soft downy chick), kisses, smiles, and well wishes. Last night, we went to dine with some friends, and at the table were two other women besides myself who had battled cancer. It wasn't like we intended for it to be like that ("if you don't have cancer, you're not invited!"), but it just happened. So we supported each other, traded chemo war stories, and cast a bunch of downward glances. I felt warm.
LA is always a trip when we come back. On Thursday, my former co-workers at the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA had a lunch for me and H-man. After that, we went to H's brother interment, which was a nice simple quiet ceremony. On Thursday night, H, his sister Trish, my soul sister Mae and her husband George, and I went to Koreatown for some karaoke and Korean food late at night. One of my little secrets (I guess not so secret anymore) is that I LOVE karaoke, even though it hurts to even hear myself sing. So now all these songs are playing on the turntable in my head, especially in the quiet moments....classics like Every Rose Has Its Thorn, 18 and Life, Living on a Prayer, Eternal Flame, Sweet Child O' Mine, and a new favorite--thanks to George--the Monster Mash. It was a blast. I'm going to kick cancer's ass so I can karaoke my little tone-deaf heart out!
On Friday, my dear pal Victoria took me on a pedicure outing in Beverly Hills, so now my toenails are pretty. Unfortunately, my fingernails are still trying to grow out the chemo (tells you how long the chemo stays in the system), so they were unworthy of a mani. But then we had a nice lunch at this little place called Cuvee. It's fun being a girl, especially with Victoria!
Seriously though, I think I needed this trip to tell me that everything going to be alright, and even more so, I want it to be alright, it will be alright, it IS alright. The idea of the surgery has been freaking me out for two months (probably more), but now, I'm looking forward to it. I mean, hell, I get a morphine drip! How fucking kick-ass is that?
Today, we will spend Easter soaking up the sun, seeing more friends, and packing up to head back to Vancouver tomorrow. We miss the kiddins, but anyway, they're having a blast with all four grandparents showering them with attention and doing fun things.
And oh yeah--my CT scans came back clean, except for the arthritis, which we already knew about. So no evidence of metastasis. That's a wonderful thing! Couldn't ask for better news.
One of H's colleagues at UCLA was hoping that we did the little dye job, but I'm still waiting for more hair to grow in before we do that. I'm now starting to consider like a deep pink/magenta-ish dye. We will see.
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