Tuesday, May 29, 2012

The second half begins

I think lately (or at least last round) I'm feeling so good by the end of week 3, that I get a bit forgetful of the fact that I'm not always feeling quite that good.

The end of last round's week 3 was indeed a great time.  As was true the one previous time that I was there, cocktails at Bourbon and Branch were truly stellar.  Even if perhaps 3 strong cocktails is pushing the limit of moderate alcohol consumption.  I've got to go back there again sometime, this time not waiting several years in the interim.  And/or find a good cocktail bar in the East Bay, which would be a bit easier to do as a date night with Lorien.  Anyone have any suggestions?

Our early anniversary lunch celebration the next day at Chez Panisse was also quite delightful.  And included a full bottle of wine.

Also on the food/drink front, we won a gift certificate to Rumbo Al Sur, as part of the raffle at the Edible Schoolyard fundraiser (where the adorable Dylan picture was taken).  We'll have to schedule that as part of some future week 3 festivities.

I also spent some time doing some more shopping.  With all the weight I lost, I've been having crazy trouble trying to find a pair of jeans that fit me well.  I stopped by the Levis store in SF before Bourbon and Branch fairly convinced on getting a certain pair there.  But it didn't really fit me that well, and the sales guy was persistent that I should try something else.  What he suggested is way skinnier than what I really had in mind, but I have to admit, it did fit me well.  So I bought a pair.

And I tentatively bought a new pair of bike shoes, although there's still one more shop I want to look at, but with my chemo and then Prednisone induced swelling, I still need to wait a tiny bit before I can return to shoe shopping.

So week 3 was really pretty grand, I don't think I deserve to complain too much.  Nevertheless, week 1 has been quite a contrast.  It's not that it's been really *that* bad, but bad enough that it has mostly felt far from good.  And somewhat surprising, since in the past week 1 hadn't been all that bad, and on average better than week 2.  A lot of it has been an overall lack of energy, and just a general feeling of blah.  I had been planning on going to yoga last Friday, but there was just no way that I was up for it.  We had also planned on hanging out in our backyard picnicking for our anniversary on Monday.  While we spent a tiny amount of time outside, neither the weather (somewhat cool and windy) nor Dylan (somewhat cranky) nor my energy (I needed to take a nap in the afternoon) cooperated all that well.  Which made me all the more thankful that we had gone out to celebrate during the previous week.

Fortunately, I did manage to have a bit of energy on Sunday night, and went into the city and biked out towards the Golden Gate Bridge with some friends for the fireworks celebrating the 75th year of the bridge.  They were pretty good fireworks -- besides launching them from a barge, they had a number of effects actually coordinated with the bridge, launched from both the span itself, and the two towers.

But most of this week I've just been trying to take it easy.  I got the opportunity to sleep in a bit this morning, which I think helped a lot.  Sadly, I didn't put that extra energy towards anything very fun.  I literally spent hours today going through months of health insurance related paperwork plus being on the phone with the old health insurance company.  Not that everything is actually resolved, but at least I've got a handle on the things that I think are wrong (I think maybe there are 5 total) and have made some progress.  Ugh.  Every time I have to deal with Health Net, it feels so soul destroying.  I'm so glad they're not my insurance company any more (so far things are much smoother with Blue Shield), but I've still got to deal with the leftover mess from my previous time with them.

Tomorrow starts week 2 of cycle 5.  Tentative plan is for yoga after my weekly appointment, both if the appointment doesn't run too late, and if I have the energy for it.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe week 2 will be a little more pleasant than week 1 was.  But even if it's not, it's probable that week 3 will be, so I'll just ride it through.

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