While on a walk with a dog I was dogsitting, this man on a bike shouts, "ON YOUR LEFT, SIR!" Made me sad. I then realize I have a dog and he doesn't. Makes me vengefully happy. Man proceeds to dismount his bike when confronted with a tiny hill, not even attempting to bike up it. All I can think about is how this poor man confronts life's other difficult situations, I don't know. Anywho, it's been a busy couple weeks for me! And I say that in the best way possible! Last week my bud, Mary, had surgery and needed someone to watch Queen Grandma Hazel and Baby Willow the Weenie. This was immediately followed by another dogsitting job with the Goodest Girl in the Whole Wide World, Josie. Needless to say, it's been a good week. Mary's surgery went smoothly and is back home recouping like the beast she is! Read all about it here. It's a good one! But then again, is she capable of writing a bad post? Probs not. While I didn't get a crazy, new, innovative surgery due to a spinal cord injury, I found this post particularly relatable as she wrote about Mommies giving blood thinner injections and asking good questions and awesome docs and self-advocacy. Did I mention self-advocacy? Self-advocacy. Been thinking about self-advocacy a lot as a friend's fiancé was diagnosed right after I finished my last treatment. These people invited me to an Israel birthday party in college my freshman year and were involved in Challah for Hunger, a charity that sells bread to raise money to combat student hunger. I was a frequent customer because if you didn't know, I love bread. Anywho, this poor couple has been having a rough time. His stomach hasn't been handling treatments very well and they had to return to the ER several times because of stomach pain. Let me clarify something. They went to the ER. Were discharged. Then went back to the ER. Then were discharged again. Then went back. All in the course of a day. Turns out his tummy wasn't just hurting. He had an infection. They knew something was up and were persistent. I can't imagine how frustrating that must've been. Well...maybe I can a little... But like I said, you learn about self-advocacy big time through big medical issues. So please be thinking of this wonderful couple as he heads into his second to last treatment! Sending lots of love their way! Updates: As of now, I am not eating dairy. And I haven't had diarrhea for a couple weeks. So I'm not saying those two things are related because I'm really hoping they're not. But I've been doing well living my almond-cashew-pea protein milk life! My stomach has mostly calmed down. DEFINITELY eating a lot better. I am working part-time for a boat club and a small publishing company. I have an apartment all set up in Arlington. My roomie is already there, and I move in *fingers crossed* after Easter. Livestrong: My mom and I volunteered at this XC race in a very muddy field in the hills of southern Chester County the other weekend. We worked registration and right next to the registration tent was a Livestrong tent. While I went to the port-a-potty to pee, my sneaky sneak mom struck up a conversation with the people at the yellow tent. The lady at the tent is a survivor. While she was talking about how many treatments she had, I turned to my mom and saw her eyes start to well up as I felt a lump at the top of my throat. I think hearing how many years of treatment she has had to go through (and I'm pretty sure is still going through) carried a different weight than it would've six months ago. My mom and I both know how much I struggled with just four treatments. And I can't imagine having even one more than that. I finally decided to tell her how much I'm loving the Livestrong program at the Y, revealing I'm part of the cancer club too. I'm so glad I did. We exchanged funny appointment stories. I shared how I would get asked the name of my child since I was assumed to be the mom of a patient. Meanwhile, she would bring her mom to appointments with her and the doc would address her mom as a patient. She also told me about this really cool organization called First Descents which helps connect the young people's cancer community via outdoor adventure. There's a variety of trips: local, domestic, and international. She went rock climbing in Colorado. How cool is that?! I'm definitely going to apply. To echo Mary's blog post, thank goodness for moms. Hilarious and random anecdote: If you haven't noticed, I have a "CONTACT" heading under "ABOUT" at the top of my website. Why do you ask? Oh, I'm not really sure. But right now, I'm so thankful that I put it there. I guess having cancer has increased my blog's traffic just enough so that on occasion random people miiiiiight stumble upon it. Well. This person filled out my contact form. I won't reveal his name (1) because I don't know them and don't want to get sued and (2) because I'm about to make fun of them. We will call them B. I'll let you read B's message for yourself: Funny part is I was just hired in a "design" capacity for this small publishing company. Not that I think that my graphic design is particularly good in general or specifically on this website. I do post a fair number of poorly executed photographs. Not to mention, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to change the color of my name on the homepage. Things B might know how to do. Let's move on to the part about advertisements. Maybe he thinks that since he stumbled upon this blog, it gets enough traffic to attract advertisers. I can assure you, it does not. I also like how he asks what kind of work I need on a "regular basis." Dude. I don't have the motivation to post on a regular basis with my heaps of free time. So to answer your question: on a regular basis, I actually need nothing. But now that you mention it, I'd love to see your portfolio. Just for funsies. Also, let's just take a moment and think about this. B obviously does not read my posts. If he did, he'd know that I'm a grad school drop out, living with my parents, and have no money. The steady income went out the door when the diagnosis arrived. He'd also know that I'd make fun of him in a blog post if he read my blog.
B was very polite in his inquiry, so feel free to think I'm a terrible person because I'm making fun of him. If you're B, don't feel bad. I'm actually very impressed with your ability to reach out to random people on the internet with confidence in search of a job. That takes gumption. And if this was a money making giant of a website, I would definitely consider hiring you for your ever so appealing "fixed monthly fee." I hope you found a client who won't roast you on their blog. Love, Emma.
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AuthorI'm Emma. I love food more than anyone will ever understand - specifically cheese, chocolate, bread and pretty much every fat & carb combo you can think of - apple cider donuts, ice cream, the list goes on. Fats and carbs just go so well together. Don't you think? Why is it that when I'm tasked to describe myself, I always talk about food? Anywho, I'm a grad student and rower training studying and training in DC. Here's to having no free time and loving every minute of it (jk...I'll tell you the bad stuff too)! Archives
July 2020
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