Opera infusion!

Friday was another double-dose infusion, seven hours in the luxury suite this time (i.e. with a bed instead of a chair, and sliding door that closes off the room). The usual math, Italian, snoozing, occasional excursions with my IV pole down the hallway, "free" dinner etc. The most fun is seeing Sara's amazing enthusiasm for her new opera adventure. She brought in her "Opera 101" book with various pages marked in colored tape for my comments: my opinion on the author's suggested first operas, for instance. I'm the resident opera expert on the infusion floor! When her pager would go off she would answer it reluctantly, then return to our opera discussion.

This is not to say that it's all fun and games, as I don't feel so hot for several days. But it's still nothing compared to what I thought it would be. Even the hiccups weren't nearly as bad this weekend; don't know why. Last night I managed to stop a hiccup fit right before bedtime by faking them out. Didn't want to drink a bunch of water, as this has well-known collateral effects during the night. So I just filled my mouth with water and pretended to drink it, and it worked! My next step in mind-over-body is to see if just looking at a glass of water with a straw in it will frighten off the hiccups, but I can't say this has yet worked.

In any case, to steal a lovely phrase from Chris, I've had many infusions of joy of late: wonderful visits from Mom, Janet, now Abby and this Thursday, Victoria! Not to mention the Nutty Nut Show a.k.a. Kaia and Finley, who were in fine form last night at our house for dinner. When it's time to go and Jessie and Kevin are trying to get the kids out the door, Grandpa's secret weapon is to ask "who wants to help me carry down the garbage?" This results in great excitement, and much negotiation ensues over who gets the compost, the recycle, the regular garbage. For some reason they both are enamored of the small green compost bag, but it was too full and too risky so I took it. Kaia was happy with her recycle bin,
while Finley, once I talked him out of the compost, marched proudly down the steps repeating "I'm carrying a VERY LARGE sack!" And "look at all the stars!" says Kaia.

Taking out the garbage--who knew it could be so much fun?