la_belle_laide | Maybe quiet, maybe not (Reply)

Here I am then, on the other side of my birthday. It was a super fun day although I wasn't really observing my b'day as such; it was just a time for some people to get together for a hang. So, my friend RT came up from VA, then there was Homeslice, his daughter the Cute Bruiser, Lady Chrysanthemum, Empress Teishi, Maximus, my Mom, and me of course. People brought metric craptons of cakes and cupcakes and ice creams and I got boxes of pizza and much, much sugar was consumed. We went to my Mom's and played RE: DC, in rounds, by twos. Hilarious, trying to explain to Empress Teishi that Leon Kennedy was my fictional husband while Jared Leto is my non-fictional one. Hilarious, the Lady Chrysanthemum having an identity crisis over killing zombies when she just got finished playing a zombie in our little commercial. And hilarious watching Tropic Thunder with RT and a gallon of ice cream and some wine.

THERE WILL BE PICSPAM!

PAH!

OM NOM NOM.

Killing zombies is SERIOUS.

Later, RT and I tried to recreate a photo from our crappy apartment in Seattle, October 1995:

You can see that I dyed the CRAP out of my hair back then. :)

So, a few people were unable to make it for various reasons, but still, it was a good time.

Two entries ago I was a little vague about "oh I'll write again after Monday when I know what's going on" or some ambiguous stupid thing like that? Well the thing was, I found this lump on Sano's neck and I was really stressing about it. Between his relentlessly itchy skin, what felt like a low grade fever and now a neck lump close to the prescapular lymph nodes, I got a little panicked. Well, maybe a lot. Logic told me it was just a lipoma because it was a tad superior to where I know the prescaps are, and because it felt like a lipoma. I've felt enough tumors in my years working at The Bad Place that I know what cancer feels like, but I didn't like what all the symptoms added up to.

So off we went to the vet today. First I have to say that the new vet assistant is ridiculously good-looking. Yet I could hardly concentrate on him because I was so worried. I got a Dr. that I really like, and I told him what my concerns were. At first he couldn't even find the lump and when I put his hand on it he was like, "Wow, how'd you even find that?" I told him, "You know what they called me when I used to work for a vet? Cancer-Finder. If there's a tumor, I tend to put my finger right on it every time."

But then he told me what my brain had already told me, even if my stupid nerves were telling me otherwise: the borders are smooth, it doesn't feel like cancer, and the prescaps are slightly inferior to where this is. All the lymph nodes are fine.

However, his immune system is clearly destroyed (remember when the drugs crashed it last year, totally wiped it out?) and is now attacking protein sources in his food. So I'm going to have to figure out a way to make food for him myself, and try to get it balanced. And if that doesn't work, I'll have to seek out really unusual protein sources like ostrich and alligator, WTMFF? Where am I even supposed to begin? And me, a vegetarian; preparing meat is repugnant to me, whether it be chicken or ostrich or whatever. BUT. I guess I'll have to do it. I mean, dogs eat meat.

Well, but anyways. So I was really, really relieved. You know that sense that you get when you feel like you're done worrying for a while and you can go about your life and enjoy your day? That was me today.

So I went out for a ramble at the local hiking park and took a few handfuls of pictures, while I jogged around. Then I took some in my own back yard, too.

MOAR PICSPAMZ

These are from this lovely little creek that runs under the main road:

Aww, poor little thing! But still, what a cool and spooky find today.

And these are all from the hiking park:

Hey Miss Dragonfly, I see you look at me with your beautiful eyes...

So I swear, I saw this red barrel and I almost tried to shoot it. I play too much Resident Evil.

I got a little obsessed with this mossy stump and I don't know why.

Sears Bellows Pond:

NO ONE CAN HELP YOU!

Seriously, how cool would it be to smear fake blood on that? :)

And my yard:

Bittersweet

Nice mums:

My Sano who protects me:

Haku is a pretty pretty princess:

Then after my ramble, I went to the store to buy some juice. While at the checkout counter I was behind this little old lady who looked and dressed so much like the Queen Mum that I kind of wanted to bow. It was really cute and weird.

So I got my juice and headed home, having decided that I was going to put my laundry away and do my homework, which is code for "dick around on the internet," and do a juice fast, which is code for "eat pizza and a caramel apple."

Good days.

And this is me, 38 years old today.