WOW!  On Friday, March 15, my friends held a Friends of Loretta get together.  I knew that this event was going to happen, I just didn’t know what it entailed.  Boy was I surprised!  Scott, Fiona and I arrived at the gym a bit after 7:30.   David and Jan were there.  (Rachel was sick and couldn’t be there.  I am hoping one of them writes about buying the flower from the two of them).   Waiting for me were friends, family, co-workers and clients.  (Actually, I should say all my friends who happen to also be clients, co-workers and family.)

This event was put together by my dear friend Roberta.  It was a “good wishes for the next phase of my recovery” party.  After an introduction from another friend, Alexa, and a few words from me, the well wishes began.  Every person or couple brought a flower and were given a bracelet.  As I met each person, they gave me the flower and the bracelet and hugs and well wishes and hope and love.

Scott took some photos of the event that you can see here.

The flowers were made into three gorgeous arrangements.  The bracelets went on my wrists.  There were 53 bracelets symbolizing 20 weeks of chemo and 33 days of radiation.  I had originally thought that I would get 33 bracelets at the start of radiation and remove one after each treatment.   That idea was taken one step further to include the weeks of chemo.  Since wearing all 53 bracelets won’t be feasible (I still have tests to be done that all metal needs to be removed from my body) I have decided to wear them in groups.  Small goals on the way to the ultimate goal.

The first group will be 8 bracelets for the 8 weeks (4 cycles every other week) of AC.  The second group will be 12 bracelets for the 12 weeks (once a week) of T.  I will then take a little bracelet break for surgery.  The third group will be 33 bracelets for the 33 radiation treatments over 6.5 weeks.  AND THEN I WILL HAVE MET THE BIG, FINAL GOAL!!!!!

I received a basket with slips of colorful paper written with words of encouragement, jokes, more well wishes, etc.  I have read them all and will keep them close for the times I may need a little pick me up.  I also received a montage picture of friends and family who weren’t able to attend.  For those of you who couldn’t make it or are just now hearing about this event, I still feel your love and support.

It is hard to put into words how much this evening met to me.  Knowing that my friends wanted to do this for me and seeing all the people gathered for me was very humbling.  All the kind words of love and encouragement will stay with me forever.  Each hug made me feel mentally and emotionally stronger.

Today I received a card from a good friend of my mom’s (my mom died in 2005 from pancreatic cancer.)  She wanted me to know that she and my mom’s other friends are sending prayers from Virginia.  She also told me that my mom called me courageous.  I don’t know about that.  But I do know that it is easier to be courageous when you are surrounded by people who so freely give you flowers and bracelets and well wishes and hope and love.

My cohorts! So mature!

So go get something to eat!

Along with the jokes, I have been sent some very funny videos.  This is one of my favorites and so apropro.

Canadians have the best breast self exam videos ever!
http://youtu.be/QA2uPxYeXGU

This is Gym Etiquette by Jimmy Tatro.  Warning the language might be offensive to some.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YByfi1ENOiI

Paper is not dead.

Enjoy!

We have a front-row seat for the Chilly Hilly.  Three boats full of cyclists.  The scene below went on for 15 minutes for each boat.  There was a steady stream the rest of the time.  I hope they all found their way home…

Robodog with Xray eyes no less.  She sees all (food).

This is not about Loretta or any of her parts so if you are looking for pictures, you are in the wrong corner of the Internet.  No, this is about an exciting new feature of this blog called an RSS feed.  If you’ve never used an RSS feed, it is like a bookmark that you add to your browser that shows the last 10 posts on the blog.  You won’t have to go to the blog anymore to see if there are updates.  It’s easy to set up:

There is a button on the left side of this page (any page on this blog) that is orangy and is in the RSS section:

  Click it.  Then, click the Subscribe Now button:

A bookmark will be added to your browser.  Click the bookmark and it will show you a list of the last 10 blog entries.  Click any one of those and it will take you to that entry.  Now you are an RSS master!

If you are using Google Chrome it won’t work.  Google doesn’t include a feed reader in Chrome though there are some plug-ins available to do that.  Why?  I don’t know.  Maybe to limit cannibalization of their stand-alone feed reader.  Silly, if you ask me.

I think it is important to find the humor in situations – all situations – because if you aren’t laughing you might be crying.  And laughing, I have been told, is a great work out so if I’m going to get any exercise I might as well enjoy it, too.  So, I look for the funny things.  Like this:

Our good friend Eileen offered to take care of Twix (our dog) while we were playing at the hospital.  Twix is a city dog now which means that everything she does outside is on a leash attached to a human.  She has to go outside several times a day so she can “do her business”.  Eileen did a stellar job of taking her out twice during the day, as we requested.  We would be home to feed her and take care of her the rest of the night.

Well, it didn’t turn out that way.  I arranged for my son and his wife to come over feed and spend the night with the dog while Loretta and I enjoyed a night in Seattle.  Eileen didn’t get that message.  This was totally my fault – I thought she knew she was released from dog duty when the two walks were completed.

The next morning (early because Eileen is like that) Eileen read on this very blog that we were spending the night.  She immediately panicked and thought that she had abandoned the dog and expected the dog to have made a mess of the place.  So she rushed over with cleaning supplies (because she is like that) to save the dog.  When she opened the door to our place the dog was right there to great her.  This is normally bad because we prevent the dog from getting to the front door with a gate that Eileen thought she had forgotten to put up.  She put Twix on a leash and took her out for the morning business meetings.

Meanwhile, immediately above the front door, David (our son) wakes up thinking he heard the door open.  He heard the sound of the dog (tags tinkling as she ran) go down the stairs.  Soon, he could hear the faint sound of the dog outside moving away from the house.

Rachel (his wife) wakes up and asks what is going on.  “I think someone just stole the dog,” he said as he was looking out the window, seeing nothing.

“Don’t worry about it.  Whoever stole her will realize what a pain she is and bring her back,” replied Rachel.  They both went back to sleep.

After the dog did her thing Eileen was starting to take her on a little stroll when she realized that she had forgotten to lock the door so she hurried back to our house.  When she got there, she noticed that there were shoes on the steps heading up stairs so she knew there must be someone there.  She backed out of the house, locked the door and left.

The dog, fresh from a walk and now probably hungry for breakfast, goes into the room where David and Rachel are and wakes them up.  “See, I told you they would bring her back.”