Well, it's the second day of January, 2014. Wow. What happened to 2013?  That had to be the fastest year to ever go by.  My general synopsis of 2013:

January: decided to start looking for a new job. Sent out countless emails, had a few interviews and bummer.. stuck at NOAA for a while longer. I hate the drive, and I dislike most of the people.  There are a few that I miss a lot but i can contact them on Facebook if I want to say hello.

Feb: Chris and I had a fantastic anniversary. We locked ourselves in a  hotel and didn't leave for a couple days. It was AWESOME!!

March: I don't remember much happening in march, so we'll skip March and April.

May, my chemo, Sprycel, stopped working and the doctor was getting frantic noticing that my CML cells were mutating fast. He rushed me on a new drug, that had some harsh side effects. You had to be very strict about eating, and timing when to take the three pills.  I timed everything exact. Why? because to mix food with this stuff could cause a deadly pericardial effusion (fluid buildup around the heart that essentially squeezes your heart to death).  So, we got the first pill and I bawled like a baby. I didn't want to take it but I did.

June 3 i started a new job with the Dept of Commerce, in DC.  I love the people, I love what I do, I even love the commute in. I don't. I park my car a mile and a half up the road and take a bus into the city. OH YEAH. nap time twice a day.

On June 15, I had a chest x-ray to see if there was any fluid around my heart, and Chris was listening to the staff saying stuff like 'walking time bomb' and 'you should see the size of that thing'...I didn't know they were talking about me. The heart surgeon comes in a room with us and says he can't let me leave the hospital. That he is pretty sure I will not survive the weekend. He's so sure, that he's called his team in to do immediate surgery.  Uh... yeah.  I call work and tell my co-worker what's going on and it doesn't look like I'll be in the rest of teh day.. or for the next 3 weeks for that matter.

They did the surgery and removed 2 liters of fluid from my heart. They inserted a drain that had a ball attached at the end and i could feel the nurses sucking more fluid out.. that was kind of painful, but only a little painful as I was on unlimited 7 minute timed morphine. That had it's good and bad points. I felt very little pain, but trying to take the shit before they release  you was a frigging job and a half.  Prunes down the gut, prune juice, apple juice, stool softeners, and then finally the thing they shove up the butt to get you to unclog. yeah, that didn't happen until the next day. :/

so i was in there about a week, and the day they are to release me, they start toying with my feelings. Yes, you're going home.. and no, we can't release you yet. I had to be off morphine for 6 hours or so, and i kept telling them that I hadn't had a morphine hit in 2 days.  Finally someone checked and saw i was right. They did tell me to take one more hit, gave me 2 pain pills, and then yanked the tubes out my chest.  It felt funny, but painful it wasn't.  and then I got to go home.

so, I return to work in August sometime and I'm so so happy to be back. Alive. 

In May, Chris and I had taken a vacation to camp.  Just the two of us.  It was like heaven.

In September my father passed away. Although it was nice to see family members that I hadn't seen since i was knee high to a grasshopper, I would have rather had the reunion with my dad present.

Diablo is still going strong, love my little doggie.  Amber seems to enjoy college a great deal, and Joey is still trying to come to terms with his robery, assult, and car jacking.  He's not looking for work yet and it's been months now.  Frustrating to be hit up for cash all the time, but I hope one day he pays it forward.

December was great, Christmas was lovely, husband had to work, so we stayed home and had our own little dinner of Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. we didn't care, it was good. And joey and amber spent the night... my day was made.

more later.