Ethan’s Journey

One year ago on this day, my beautiful kidney was nestled into it’s new home. It made itself comfortable there and is just being a little busy bee for Ethan.  My coworker and I had a great time getting to know one another, which isn’t really my cup of tea, but we really hit it off.  We drove an hour and 20 minutes to pick up lunch for the students and then another 20 minutes for the college. We drove around campus clumsily looking for the correct building. We saw this older guy that looked a bit sheriff-y. He gave us some pretty vague instructions to get to the desired building. I am pretty sure I became dumber after that conversation. My 6 month pregnant coworker waddled her cute, small pregnant body into a building to ask where to go. We finally found it and carried in all the lunch items we brought. The students grabbed their lunches and sat back to watch our “show”. My coworker introduced us and she was so nervous. She sounded great and did a good job. My turn. I started my portion

  Today was a travel day. Ethan had to go to the lab this morning, so I went with him. We left at 7:45. I got all the way there and realized I had forgotten his lab orders. No problem, it’s only a 15 minute drive. Drive 15 minutes home, 15 minutes back and then check in.  I had to leave for the airport at 10:00. Well…we finished up at the lab and I dropped Ethan off and grabbed my bag. It was 10:15 when I left. Ugh! I made it on time though. Ethan had an 11:00 televisit with his nephrologist and said it went “good”. One word. It was the right word. I like being the last person on the plane anyway. I took my seat right in front of the mom with the two young kids. For the most part, the kids were screaming and crying for 75% of the trip. It came complete with seat kicking which was awesome, because my tingling leg loved it. The last 25 % was snoring from the one little girl. She was a beast. She sounded like an adult man snoring. I felt sorry for the mom though. I would have been beyond

 Back to the grind. I am doing my first traveling gig tomorrow. I feel ready. I have a teeny tiny overnight bag packed and I am checked into my flight. It is going to be quite a whirl wind for Tuesday and Wednesday. I get to meet one of my co-workers in person. We have meetings together so I see her a lot but it will be nice to meet in person. Ethan worked today. Tomorrow will be busy for him. He is getting lab work done as well as meeting with the nephrologist via telemedicine. We will see how it goes. I am ending my day with a headache. One of those ones that squeezes your entire head. These are the moments I miss ibuprofen because Tylenol doesn’t do squat for me. Happy Birthday Mom! 🎂 

 I woke up early this mornin at the air bnb house. The big living room window overlooked the sunrise. I went outside. The air was still and quiet. The birds hadn’t started their daily chirping like they are making trades on Wall Street. The only thing I heard off in the distance was a hooting owl. Of course I loved that. It was my little gift of solitude. So pretty. We had a great breakfast and then we all went our separate ways. Avery found out that she was accepted into SUNY Brockport and will be getting a scholarship that includes her room as well as $4500 per year. She was excited. She still wants to keep her options open before saying “Yes” anywhere. She also is going to explore more scholarships. Ethan enjoyed his quiet weekend. He took care of the dogs. He didn’t necessarily want to be around his family. That is fine. We will just go with it for now. I felt tired and in need of a break. I did some cleaning and cooking. Then I played a game on my phone while entertaining the dogs

Today was fun. I got over my funk. I enjoyed the day. I haven’t seen my nephew in a couple of years and it felt great to be able to chat and laugh with him. I heard all about his college apartment, multiple jobs as well as projects he was working on. I loved it. The weather was warmish for upstate NY. It was in the 50’s. We had a campfire as well as did some day drinking. We spent the evening playing games. We ended up playing Cards Against Humanity. We have deducted that Paul now has a colorful search engine history. At one point he asked “do you want the regular definition or the urban dictionary definition?” Which is silly, because the answer will always be the urban dictionary version. Ethan stayed home and took care of the dogs, which was appreciated. He didn’t want to be around us anyway, so that worked out fine. We ate well, laughed hard and enjoyed the company. A well deserved change from yesterday!

Today was a hard day. I felt tired. We started to decorate for Christmas. That really meant that Paul brought up the tree from the basement and set it up. He also brought up the ornaments. I brought up a handful of festive things. They kids didn’t have interest in helping. I was excited to decorate the tree this year. Typically the kids and I place the ornaments on the tree.  I found myself decorating the tree, alone. 3 years I have been waiting to do this and I had pictured it quite differently. I became bitter and angry and just had to stop.  We then picked up the pizza for our big family dinner at an air bnb my brother, sister in-law and nephew were staying at. I was excited to see my nephew because I hadn’t seen him since before Covid. On our way to the Airbnb, Paul pissed me off. In addition to my already crappy mood, this did not go well for Paul. Avery was also crabby and that started to piss me off as well. I was finally pushed over the edge. I had to retreat and have a time ou

We had the members of our family that could make it, spend this holiday with us. We had everyone come over to watch the Bill’s game. It allowed to bond over a shared interest as well as chat and eat. Normally we deep fry our Turkey. The price of oil deterred us from doing so this year. Instead, I found a brine/rub kit. I mostly followed the instructions and it came out moist and delicious. I would do it again in a second. We may have a new Thanksgiving tradition with the Turkey. All of the sides were delicious. We are going to have leftovers for days. Yum! We don’t have any looming surgeries for the holidays. That is so nice. I feel like it is a reward for all the stuff we have been through. I do hope that Ethan can some day appreciate how lucky he is. Avery made her first pumpkin cheesecake pie. It was yummy.   Happy Thanksgiving. From our family to yours.