"So if you care to find me, look to the western sky..."

Hola!

Well, life has plodded along and it has brought us to this day, which is remarkable solely because it is Shania Twain’s birthday. =P

I guess I’ve been keeping somewhat busy. Since last Monday I have: helped with play practice, had a saxophone lesson, pretended I was a teacher (I got to lead the ninth-grade choir while Mrs. Forsman dealt with some troublesome boys), went to a football game, and have played in both a brass band and a jazz band. I had a lot of fun playing with the Chatfield Brass Band; we have fun songs that we’re working on and the people there are great. Last night I played with 37th Street Gold, the IBM jazz band. I must say that I played horribly; I was playing lots of music wrong that should have been easy enough for me to sight-read. I don’t know if it’s because my brain was turned off, that the music was too far away on those silly jazz stands, or if I just can’t read jazz music like I can other music, but I was not impressed with how I played in the least. However, the people there were a fun bunch and didn’t mind having me play with them, so I might try another rehearsal before I decide if I’m just going to be a hindrance if I join them or not.

What else…

Saturday I went to Ben’s house for a gathering of friends. It was fun. We visited, had popcorn, and strapped people into this odd machine that tips you upside-down and lets you just hang there by your ankles. I have no idea what the machines true purpose is, but it was interesting, especially when people came and tickled the person who was trapped and hanging by their ankles. =D

Sunday I finally got to go book shopping. I have been in desperate need of some books for the past couple of weeks, so Mom and I made a trip to Barnes & Noble and I got a couple of books. I’ve already finished the one and I think I’ll probably start the other one today. It looks like it should be a good book.

Also on Sunday I had both sets of grandparents and Ben over for a birthday dinner. My dad made sweet and sour pork and it was delicious, definitely better than anything the Chinese restaurants can come up with. After dinner I got to open some gifts. I love everything I got: a sweater (which I definitely needed since the temperature has plummeted), a music T-shirt, fuzzy socks (yay! I love fuzzy socks…), some money, and a super-cute doll/figurine who’s playing the saxophone (his face is adorable). My mom and dad decided to let me open a gift from them too; they gave me the Renewal Angel with Attitude pendant that I’d seen at Lasker’s during one of our hospital visits. It’s absolutely gorgeous; here’s a link to a picture of it: Angel of Renewal. After opening gifts we were going to have dessert, but we were all still full so we had to postpone eating the wonderful peach, blueberry, and pound cake dessert Mom had made until later in the evening.

So, yep. That was my weekend. A rather good one all-in-all.

Oh, yesterday I also took another biology test. It went very well, I think. I had forty-five minutes to take it, used only twelve, and I know I got 100% on the multiple-choice. I think I answered the short answer questions satisfactorily as well, but we’ll just have to see. I have yet to take the pretest and test for chapter 1 in my math class, but I’m not too concerned. I don’t think the material for the class will get too difficult, so I should be able to breeze through most of it and if I ever have problems or questions, I’ll just go bug Mr. Harris or Mrs. Houghton at the high school.

Yay! I just got flowers. Thanks, Veronika! They are very pretty. =D

Later today I’ll probably go to play practice and then just stick around and watch the girls’ soccer game. Hopefully it doesn’t rain then.

Tomorrow I have blood tests and CT-scans. I’m kind-of anxious for Thursday since we’ll get to meet with Dr. Pitot and see what the results of the scans were, plus we’ll get to maybe learn why I have this cancer when we meet with the geneticist. The only downside of Thursday is that I have another round of chemo *wrinkles nose*. CT-images are so cool to look at, though I’d have to say bone scans are better because you can watch the image of your skeleton slowly appear on the screen as it scans you rather than waiting for a doctor to bring it up during an evaluation meeting. Actually, I think bone scans are better overall. Sure, you have to drink so much water that you have to scuttle to the bathroom every other minute prior to the scan and the scan itself takes awhile, but at least the medium they use doesn’t require an icky arm IV like the CT-scans do and you don’t have to worry about the possibility that they’ll make you drink a contrast-medium shake. Blech.

I see sunshine! Hooray!

I guess that’s it. I think I’m going to go have lunch and figure out whether I want to make the journey to Schmidt Music by myself to snag the last copy of the “Wicked” piano/vocal book or wait to go with someone else. Then again, I wonder if Petit Music has it. I still haven’t seen the new showroom and I’ve heard it is spectacular. Maybe I’ll ring them up and see if they have a copy. Yeah, I like that plan better.

Anyways, I’ll be sure to post the results of the scans on Thursday.

Thanks to everyone for cards and comments!

Much love,
Cheryl