overdue update

aaah I can't believe I let 10 days go by without an update! That's pretty bad. I suppose it's a good thing though, because it means I've been busy having fun and staying active.

I can't remember exactly what order I did any of these things in, so I'm just going to kind of randomly summarize the past week and a half.

I ended up getting to see fireworks at Dan's house on the Friday after the 4th of July. In keeping with tradition, the Mahler men set off a series of small explosives in the driveway while Kathleen, Mrs. Mahler and I watched. It was a lot of fun. After visiting with Dan for a bit, I headed down to Trolley Square for a drink with my friends at Catherine Rooney's pub. We had a nice time and I saw a ton of people I knew from high school and grade school. That's Delaware for you!

On Saturday, Dan and I went up to West Chester for Dan Farrell's graduation party. Farrell was Dan's roommate for nearly all 4 years when he was at Millersville. His family has a beautiful home with a pool and hot tub that sits on a fairly big plot of land, so we enjoyed a night of swimming, football, tons of food, and good times chatting with Dan's friends from MU. It was great seeing all of them again.

Monday night I went out to dinner at Kelly's Logan House with Meggie and Caitlyn, who I haven't seen since high school. We had such a good time! Caitlyn was one of my best friends back in the day when I attended IHM, and I think we picked up right where we left off. Hopefully I'll see her again soon. I think I've said this already, but I really am grateful for the way being sick has sort of helped me reconnect with friends I've lost touch with over the years. I suppose cancer is the kick in the pants that I needed to pick up the phone and see how my old friends are doing.

Tuesday I hung out with Dan. We saw Transformers, which was pretty good for an action movie. I thought the romance part was a little cheesy though. We went to Friendly's after the movie and got ice cream and dinner.

Wednesday Amy came over and we went out to lunch with Keen. I took them to Bon Appetite since I enjoyed it so much when Jenny took me there a few weeks ago. We had a nice lunch and chatted about our years growing up in Deerhurst where Amy was our neighbor across the street. I can't believe how long ago that was. It makes me feel very old seeing how much all of the neighborhood kids have grown up!

Thursday I drove down to Baltimore to see Kelli, Janine, Lindsay and Susan. Kelli Larson was my boss at the Alcohol and Drug Education office at Loyola. She was also the adviser to the Alcohol and Drug Education Team, which Janine, Susan and I were student coordinators for. We had a deliiicious dinner at a Cuban restaurant called Little Havana. It was right on the harbor in Federal Hill, and our table was outside overlooking the water! I got crab quesadillas (and Susan did too...we always have the same taste! haha). We had such a good time catching up. Kelli made me cupcakes for my birthday (which is this Saturday) and brought me a bag of my favorite candies. Yum! Kelli has been a great friend and mentor to us, and is someone that I truly admire. She is due to have her first baby in September, so I was really excited to see her and hear all about her progress. I can't wait to meet baby Larson in the fall when he or she arrives :)

After dinner I drove down to Annapolis where Susan lives and spent the night at her house. I got to meet her adorable golden retrievers, Josh and Ben. I think I definitely want to have a dog some day...and a cat...and a horse...haha. But anyway, it was fun getting to visit her home and I slept like a baby!

The next day I drove to Fenwick beach in lower Delaware to see Meggie and Kristen at Meggie's family's beach house. The house sits right on an inlet and we all sat out on the porch and had margaritas and a delicious taco casserole dinner that I loved (I am a huge fan of anything Mexican). After dinner, Meggie's boyfriend Joe arrived and we drove down to Ocean City, MD (which is about 10 minutes away) to go to a beach club/bar/restaurant called Seacrets. This place was nuts! I can't imagine how much money this business makes in one night, because it's absolutely humongous. Seacrets sits right on the beach and has many different sections within it. There is a beach club, a night club, an ocean bar that sits right in the water and has inner tubes and tables where you can be served drinks, a dock where boats can come and get dinner and drinks, a beach restaurant, tons of different bars all made to look like beach huts, two stages featuring different live bands, rooms with different DJ's playing everything from 80s to techno to hiphop to reggae, and tons of food stands selling pizza, funnel cake, etc. Needless to say we had a GREAT time there. I was DD, so I only had one drink, but it was delicious! I tried the "Pain in de Ass", the club's signature drink. It was a pina colada/rum runner swirled together. I also ordered fries and we sat out on the beach restaurant surrounded by palm trees and tons of tiki torches. It felt like we were in the Caribbean! We all had a great time dancing too.

After spending the night at Meggie's, we spent the day laying out on the beach. It was perfect weather and the water was nice and warm. At dinner time we headed up to the Rehobeth boardwalk for some pizza and ice cream. I drove home that night and went over to the Levine's where Dan was dog-sitting. They have a golden retriever named Scout. He was so cute! He climbed right in my lap on the couch and watched tv with us. haha

Dan came over last night for dinner and we went to Rita's for water ice and then watched Big Brother with my parents. They are obsessed with that show. I think it's pretty ridiculous.

Anyway, that's what has been going on with me. Aside from being sick, I'm having a great summer. I am doing my best to use my time wisely and enjoy this work-free summer as much as possible. I've been feeling great and exercising a lot to try to take off some of the weight I've gained from the Prednisone. Dr. G said I'm allowed to exercise as long as I don't do anything crazy. I'm also trying to eat healthier, although I may not do too well this week with my birthday coming up on Saturday.

As for my treatment, my 4th round of chemo is coming up on July 24th. There was an interesting article on the cover of the New York Times on Saturday about two revolutionary new drugs for treating lymphoma that are not being widely used because of marketing issues. I want to talk to Dr. G about them and find out what he thinks. These drugs were able to cure late-stage Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma with only 1 hour of receiving the drug through IV. Isn't that amazing?!?! So far they are approved for treating indolent lymphomas (the slow growing type. mine is aggressive), but they are also being used to treat people who have failed the CHOP-R treatment (which is what I'm receiving now). In the years to come, they could be replacing CHOP-R as the preferred treatment for all types of lymphoma, but first they need more evidence to prove that these drugs increase survival rates in patients. Recent studies only suggest that they are better. This is definitely something that I want to learn more about...

Time for me to go do my aerobics routine. That's a pretty good sign if my lungs are working well enough for me to do cardio workouts, eh? I am very pleased :)

I hope everyone is feeling as great as I am!

Lauren