The sun will come out tomorrow...(sing along folks)

Happy Day after Obama was elected President everyone!

First off let me say how incredibly glad I am that we are on the brink of hopefully some change in the US and some change in the way we are viewed by others. It's about damn time! 8 years of ridiculous Bush was just waaaayyyyy too long! Anyways, since this isn't a political blog I will leave it at that. I am very happy that Obama was elected and I'm looking forward to what that means to our country in the very near term future.

I also wanted to thank everyone who sent some of those groovy positive vibes my way a few weeks ago when I asked you all too, seems to have worked! I went in for my blood tests last week and my counts had rebounded a little, enough so that I didn't need to stop my meds at all. Hopefully they stay that way for the next few tests I have before my scan, I have them again on next Wednesday so keep your fingers crossed :).

Things for me are still in that somewhat "blah" phase. There are ups and there are downs. There are days when I'm really really good at being Raw and there are days when I suck at it! The only consistent thing in my life is that it's always insanely busy! A couple weekends ago Jeff and I finally got to go to the Philadelphia Eagles game that I had bought him tix for for his birthday and it was quite a nice time. I really enjoyed the game, though all I did that weekend was sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep.... I even slept through the Phillies World Series Baseball Game party we had on Saturday night -- OOPS! But apparently my body must have needed the rest!

The rest of last week seems to be a bit of a blur with the exception of Halloween. I was a little sad that Jeff and I weren't going to get to go out all decked out and dressed up for Halloween and so I called my brother to see what they were doing with Alexis (my niece) for that night. At the end of the day it worked out really well! Katrina and I latched on to Ryan, Jackie, and Alexis' Halloween plans and went to their house to go trick-or-treating with her. It was sooo cute! She was dressed up as Minnie Mouse -- though she did not make a very good trick-or-treater she cried every time we went to a new house, and she passed out 30 minutes after starting , hehe. All well maybe next year! Although it was fun to get a chance to dress up. I dressed up as a big orange pumpkin, it was awesome. :) I wish I had pictures, when I get them I will post! So Halloween turned out pretty good afterall and then Jeff was up here that night.

Saturday was a pretty fun day as well. We went to the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival, which was a little bit of a let down, but did have a few cool things. We managed to pick up a spiralizer (a machine that cuts veggies into spiral spaghetti type strips) that I have been wanting for a while now! And we also got a Raw "cook" book to leave at Jeff's place in DE that promises raw meals in 5 minutes. We're trying out a fettucine alfredo pasta this evening, should be interesting! :) Hmm talking about food is getting me a little hungry. Anyways, we also went to my aunt's 25th surprise Anniversary party that night and got to hang out with my whole family again. It was actually a lot of fun! The food was so-so, but the drinks were cheap, and there was a dance floor to boogie on. So I dragged Jeff out a couple times to twist-and-shout and then the rest of the time I bounced around dancing with my mom and my sister. Needless to say I think Katrina was a little embarrassed dancing with the two of us, but hey it was West Boylston! Who cares?! :) We had a lot of fun that night though and ended up staying much later than I thought we would. Sunday was pretty typical, a big breakfast, then saying goodbye to Jeff before lounging around use-lessly for the rest of the day. I'm always a bit sad on the days that he leaves :(.

But Monday helped rebound my energy (well after getting a verbal beatdown by my boss --oops!) as we went for dinner for my Mom's B-day. That was quite a good time too and we made her wear the mandatory birthday hat even though she didn't want to! It was very entertaining :). We had a nice dinner and a decent cake (I got candles in the shape of little booze bottles!!) and she got some nice gifts. My sister Britt got her a pretty hilarious card. It was one of those ones that is over a foot tall and plays music. On the front it said " A long, long time ago..." and then you opened it "...you were born." And it played the music from the movie 2001 Space Odyssey (which I still think is actually from Star Wars, but Jeff says no.) It was pretty funny, especially in the middle of a restaurant!

And now here we are on Wednesday. I am back down in DE working for the rest of the week and spending some time with Jeff as usual. It's nice to be back with him and I'm looking forward to a not entirely packed week. Though I am planning to meet a woman from the OCU-MEL list serve site I belong to for patients with ocular melanoma, so I will be really excited if I do in fact get a chance to meet her!

Speaking of cancer, and the whole reason I started blogging, scan time is quickly approaching. It's two weeks from tomorrow -- yikes. I try to focus on my vision board and the perfect health section, and I try to meditate at least a couple times a week. And I've finally started drinking homemade green smoothies every morning --yum yum to drinking spinach and spirulina. Mentally I feel unprepared for these scans I guess. I keep having what I'll call "psycho-symatic" (sp?) pains in the area where I think my liver is... every time I think about my scans I feel like I have a little feeling in my liver. I'm fairly certain it is all in my head. Last time before my scans I had started having these weird muscle spasms that were freaking me out a bit and everything was clear. So you all should start your positive thinking, praying, chanting, etc.. now and keep it going straight on through til Nov. 20th. I'm at a point now where I wonder how much positive thinking can really alter what happens to us? Anyone got any opinions on it? I'm starting to fall into the believing it does matter camp and so am trying to get my mindframe in the right place, hard as that may be.

I also want to ask everyone to say an extra prayer for my cousin Mike on Nov. 20th, he is going for a biopsy that day on a tumor that they are pretty sure was caused by the radiation he received 3 years ago when he was treated for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. I wish the kid could catch a break, I wish my family could catch a break, two young adults in the same family battling cancer at the same time, and diagnostic tests on the same day! Double-yikes. I already told my poor grandma that she should go to church and just stay there all day on the 20th. :) hehe. In any case, please pray that him and his family find the strength to get through this yet again, and that this new cancer is contained and treatable. I know I will be thinking of him that day as well.

Well that's it for now folks, I'm sure it's more than you wanted to know, as usual, but hey why not read about my life for a little bit and distract yourself from work or your own obligations. :)

Be well and happy and healthy to everyone going into the holiday season!
Carissa