So, the story goes...

Hello, friends. Sorry to not be around in ages. Popping on to share the sad news that our dear Emmet Otter crossed the bridge yesterday in our arms. He was Jenn’s sweetest boy for 12 years—remember the belly up bunny feet photo she posted when she got him?—and I was thrilled to be his Lady for the last 8.

It doesn’t hurt, really, it just feels… weird? I haven’t shaved in ages so it’s not like an infected hair thing? It’s not very big. And I only just realized because my legs were hot so I just unzipped my pant legs and rolled them up and was like “wtf is this bump on my leg?!”

Here’s the cranachan I made for tonight.

Lucky enough: there’s enough of everything to make more tomorrow!

We’re hanging in! Have stayed healthy and largely inside and so not much to report. I’m a godmother—and hopefully I’ll be able to meet my adorable goddaughter in the Spring (she lives in London).

J is good; cats are good; house is good. I’m making cranachan and we’ll have a wee dram tonight.

Oh and I’m running these days. Wild. Am doing the virtual NYC Half because I didn’t get a place in the actual one.

I hope that one day soon we can go out for a nice dinner. That would feel good.

I’m very excited for this decade. And I have had a lovely day.

On Monday, I go back to the Perlmutter for a checkup. And then in a few weeks I go for my physical and get an order for my very first Boob Smash.

@the-justsara I enjoyed it! This is one in the Hawthorne series—the third (Word is Murder; Sentence is Death, then this). It’ll be out in… I want to say September but we may have moved it to October. The autumn, at any rate.

I think his books are fun, so I’m a little biased. It’s fun and entertaining and light. Murder, obviously, but a gentle plod in the way Midsomer Murders is and not gritty.

I don’t have a Very Rare blood cancer! This is excellent news!!

The flip of this news is they don’t know what’s wrong! They might decide nothing is wrong! Maybe they’ll know more in August, when I have to go back!

May was a wild month, and I’m glad I finally heard back from my hematology oncologist.

So basically the surprise in all this is that I’ve kept up with running? LOL. I am slow and I’m learning not to care about that and it may also be teaching my brain a thing or two about being patient with myself. Probably having So Much Blood Oxygen is also helping with all that, too, so as long as it won’t kill me in 15 years, then I’m cool with it, ya know?

We’re also working with two neighbors on a garden for our back patio area. It’s going great and one lady has already told me today she’s out there as often as she can be because she loves it already (and that’s with some things still not planted!). That just feels so great.

We are kicking off the holiday weekend with margaritas. It will rain. A lot. And be chilly.

My plans are to run, to bike (all weather permitting), to eat, to sleep, to smooch on my gal, to read, and whomp some cat butts. Also watch movies and shows. And write cards and letters.

@cats-books-donuts Not forever but we are subleasing two floors we own—one of which is my floor—and converting our other floors to ??? something no one has given us details on probably because they don’t yet know. Nobody will have an office anymore and there will no longer be assigned desks.

My boss was v much like “we don’t have to go in to do a newsletter” and is of the opinion that when we go in we have a purpose. So I honestly think that means I’ll only be going in maybe 2-3 times a month.

So far this week I have been mildly productive at work and tomorrow I go and clean out my desk, which will hit me a lot in the feels, probably.

I have also planned two vacations for whenever we can vacation responsibly, which probably isn’t until 2022.

Most of the time I’m okay. I’d really just like to know what’s going on, what I need to do, and what it all means—and I do get a bit stressed and worried.

Meanwhile: I’ve tried to get up earlier this week to have a bit more time to run. It means I’m tired earlier and I’ve sometimes napped, which I usually never do. But today, Tilly stretched out next to me and fell asleep, so I wasn’t far behind.

The bone marrow will be done via blood work (thank you Science because when I heard that I saw giant needle in my hip and NOPE). They may have to take it from my arm—I have small veins and ask for it out of the back of my hand (everyone always balks at this but it doesn’t hurt me unless the person sticking me fucks it up, as with anything else with a phlebotomist).

These tests will rule out (or in) a pretty rare bone marrow disease. I’m not really sure which to hope for, in or out, because if it’s in, then at least we have a name for it and can go from there in terms of managing it (it’s currently not curable, if it is what I think it could be). If it’s not, which I think at first my hematologist was thinking it wasn’t (though he didn’t rule it out) because I am both very young and the wrong sex for those most often diagnosed with it, then I am not sure what happens next (other than more tests of some variety).