Tomorrow is chemo #3 - halfway done! This time I'll get the Neulasta shot the following day, which means a bad week following but should mean I don't have to hide out in a bubble for two weeks with nonexistent white blood cells. I'm a little apprehensive that I'm not going to get all my projects done and exams studied for, since this lost week (that starts tomorrow) immediately precedes all the due dates and exams. However - you never know. I might be able to do some work when the meds have kicked in. And I'll be alone for chemo tomorrow, which is a good thing. Trying to be more independent.

I had a laugh today after I cracked a joke in the work room at clinic ... I was sitting doing charts with three attendings, and one of them helped himself to coffee. This coffee, which is truly awful, appears daily in the work room as either encouragement or punishment, I'm not sure which. Most of us avoid it but this attending, who is extremely polite, serious, and OCD, drinks it every day. This morning he took a sip and remarked, "This coffee will make hair grow on places where your skin is smooth!". I said, "Well then, I'd better get myself some!". He stared at me in horror and turned ten shades of dark red; the other two attendings gave me a look that said, are you going to fly into hysterics now? I had to laugh at all of them (well, I felt bad for the OCD guy). Just told them I take my humor where I find it. They had a good chuckle over it then.

Awesome repartee. There's some Oscar Wilde in you screaming to be free.

I love Oscar Wilde - and Dorothy Parker. Beside them I'm pretty much an anti-wit. But I appreciate the good stuff when I hear (or see) it. :)

You can't go wrong with either of those two.

My beloved car dealership has closed its doors, so I'm sitting in a Midas muffler shop waiting for the verdict on my inspection ....

Well, what a waste of good apprehension ... I am already home. Shortly after I submitted that last post, the nice man said okay, you're done and presented me with a bill for $150. Time to make some breakfast and maybe take a mm ice nap ... I only got about 5 hours of sleep. Heck, I didnt even get a chance to pee out the nice, fresh, tasty courtesy coffee in their surprisingly spotless bathroom.

It's always good to come down on the 'not' side of the apprehension equation, once you can tell.

Enjoy your nap!

orthodoc, that is some funny!

wolf--I don't have inspections for cars out here, except for emissions inspections. I imagine they're stress inducing. Are they really sticklers for the sticker?

Yeah, they are. Everything get checked, including emissions. Tires, brakes, body rust, and all the innards. At least we only have to do it once a year instead of every six months, like we used to.

Getting an inspection here is a royal pain in the ass. The state legislates that the body shops all have to charge the same flat rate for it, and if there's any profit built into that price it is very small. So a lot of shops just refuse to do them at all, and the rest put a quota on how many per day they are willing to do. I've gone in at 8:00 AM before and been told, "Sorry, there are already three ahead of you, and that's the max for the day."

There are a few places that do nothing but inspections, but they invariably have a line six cars long.

And it gets worse as you get closer to the end of the month and everyone needs that sticker so they don't get a ticket.

Do they give priority to cars that are getting serviced, like an oil change/lube, or something?

I posted the other day that I had a flat tire. I changed the tire and took the car and the flat to my local tire shop the following Saturday. I was there at 8:10 am, thinking "oh, smart, proactive me, I'll get my car work done and have the weekend for fun." Right. When I got there, there were three clerks working the counter and the line was three deep. The lot and the waiting room were both full. When I finally got to the service counter, I communicated my surprise at how busy it was so early. The fellow said that people started lining up at 5:45 am. For the 8:00 am opening.

They sure are a popular tire store.

For those of you who need an emissions inspection be sure not to add dry gas to your tank before hand. It will reduce your emissions to zero and the machine will think your car passed, thus saving you a potentially expensive repair bill to get your car into compliance.

Dry gas? As in, no ethanol? I can't even find that around here.