Suck it up, princess...

I’ve really been dragging my feet on this, but it’s time to start blogging again!

Life is not on a hiatus! We’re going full steam (though sometimes it only amounts to half-speed).

L*’s hair has been coming in. The last two friday’s, we clipped it with the #1/2 clippers, but this Friday we’re holding off so that next week we can move up to the #1. L* complains that she still sees a lot of skin, but there’s definitely hair all over, coming in in both dark and light shades.

For Thanksgiving, I may take up a mascara wand and make all of her hair longer, thicker, and more dramatic!

And we’re juicing! El Paso is gonna laugh at us, because she offered to sell us a juicer six months ago, and that just wasn’t where our heads were at (chemo=no raw foods), but now the juicer is a big ol’ spot of sunshine in our lives. L* makes us these delicious concoctions using granny smith apples, lime juice, ginger and a little carrot. Zowie! Let’s just say with a bottle of tequila, she could make the world’s best margaritas. Oh, my gosh, she made one last week la tuna --that’s red prickly pear for those of you who are culturally deprived--it’s was pink and foamy and heavenly.



and this week she did something with la granada which reached deep down into heart and history of this desert mujer.



I finally made it to the end of this week: Graded and returned all student work, finished my annual review file, attended a work retreat on Saturday and Sunday, and finished the first round of graduate student letters of recommendation. Whew! Now if I can just find the steam to take care of some much needed infrastructure things like laundry and cleaning house.

L* is a dreamboat. She’s been cooking great meals every day, and she helped me with my annual review file, giving advice on color-coding, formatting, printing tabs, and so forth. We’re both funny in that the annual review gives full rein to obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Last year I had a short review, which means I didn’t really need to have my act together. L* on the other hand, had a full on review that she turned in at the end of January. A big bold binder with careful categories, sheet protectors used as packets of information, consistency of font and design. Of course she spent all January working on it, while I was off visiting my folks in New Mexico. But about two weeks ago--when I realized that the far off annual review stuff “sometime in November” was now “a week from Tuesday,” I suddenly started feeling very very sorry for myself! Poor me! All I had was a box full of disorganized material, and here Luz had this beautiful binder! She should just give the whole thing to me, and then I could turn it in. But no. She was a big meanie, and made me do it myself.

I believe her exact words were "Suck it up, Princess!"

Now that I’m on the other side, I really appreciate it.

Today we went shopping for a present for L*’s dad. I won’t tell you what we got, in case he’s reading this blog, but I will tell you about something we spotted in the window of a card and gift shop. They’re called Perfect Petzzz--have you seen them? Here’s a picture.



Alas, it’s not animated, because the little toy darlings actually “breathe”! no lie! their little tummies go up and down in time to their sleeping breath. (if only they were heated!)
L* and I had great fun looking at them, and then she declared “It’s kind of disturbing, though, when you realize they’ll never wake up!”

L* has in fact come to realize how loveable a stuffed animal can be. Before, she thought they were cute, but never actually wanted to hug one or anything. But during chemo, her parents got her a toy chihuahua, whom she named “Chihuis.” There’s a story behind this... There’s a little boy in the bay area undergoing chemotherapy, and his family got him a little chihuahua that they named “Chemo.” A couple of months ago, “Chemo” was stolen, and this was big in the local news but ultimately the little dog was returned safely to the little boy. And we were watching the news story, and crying out “I want a Chihuahua!!” and lo and behold a week or so later, “Chihuis” arrived in the mail.

Now L*, you know, already likes to pose our cats together into cute little loving scenarios. Which they resist. She’ll keep nudging them closer to one another when they’re asleep, so they look like yin and yang, but then at the last minute one of them will wake up, and pop the other one, and the whole harmonic scene will come crashing down.

So now, with Chihuis in the mix...well, you can imagine.