Happily Ever After

My little brother got married this weekend. After months of planning, the big day was here on Saturday. But that was just the end. There were many crazy moments leading up to it. There was mom working frantically on the cake, starting last Saturday. There was the bachelorette party on Thursday night. Ryan and his friends played golf and beer pong on Thursday. Friday I kind of spoiled myself and made myself all beautiful for the wedding by going and getting a pedicure, my hair highlighted, my eyebrows done, and a spray tan. I have to say that I looked quite stunning when I was done. I barely made it to rehearsal in time though from getting all that done, but I made it. After rehearsal, we all headed out to the hall and had pizza and beer and then we decorated. There was a minor argument over the placement of the tables, but it all worked out and we got out of there about 10. And mom came home and continued to work on the cake. I did my nails with the nailpolish that Liz bought everyone and headed to bed around 12:30.

Saturday was nuts. I got up and helped mom transport the cake and dad take the booze. When we got to the hall I did what I could to finish the decorating since we didn't have enough table skirt to do the head table the night before. Poor dad had to put his hand in a bag of poopy goldfish water to take the goldfish out of the bag from the store and into the vases on the table. Then it was a mad rush to get to the grocery store and buy more pop and the for me to get to the hairdresser. But I got my hair all done up and sparkles sprayed in it and made it to the church on time. We took a million and one pictures before the ceremony.

The ceremony was awesome. It was all so beautiful and the Pastor gave an amazing sermon. I told myself that I wasn't going to cry, but there I was, standing where I could see the look on my brother's face as he said his vows to Liz and I was tearing up. Of course, that was in between silently laughing at the flower girl as she's unzipping her dress up on the altar because it was choking her. Oops.

After the wedding we posed for a million and one more pictures, and the entire time, all of us bridesmaids were wondering when the hell we could take our shoes off because Liz picked out the most uncomfortable shoes on the face of the planet. Once we made it to the beach for the beach pictures though, we all took them off and it felt so good to walk barefoot in the sand. And once again, we were all laughing at the flower girl because she was lifting up her dress to keep it clean, and boy was she lifting it. Before any picture was taken, you always heard "Ana, put your dress down."

The reception was awesome. We all walked in to the DJ playing Rock and Roll part 2 and it just really started the party off on the right foot. The food was amazing. There was a loaf of bread there that was 8 inches tall and about 3 feet long. And the caterer stood there and cut everyone a piece. The bridal party dance was really fun because all of us girls danced it barefoot, mainly because we couldn't stand to put our shoes on one more time. And once the party started, it didn't end. The DJ did all the important stuff right away to get it done, and then he really didn't slow it down the rest of the night, in fact, Ryan had to ask him to slow it down so that he could dance with Grandma. I learned the Love Shack dance, though I doubt that I'll remember it now. And to cap the night off my Grandma P and I started a kickline around Ryan and Liz as they danced the last dance to New York New York.

What an amazing weekend.

Cheap laughs

Here's a quick way to get a cheap laugh, as I found out about 10 minutes ago.

Step 1: Go to Wal-Mart dressed nicely with your hair still in an up-do from the wedding the night before.
Step 2: Proceed to the checkout and ask for the cheapest chewing tobacco that they have.
Step 3: Explain to the bewildered cashier and customers behind you that the tobacco isn't for you, but is being mixed with lemon dishsoap and mouthwash to kill bugs on plants.
Step 4: Leave store

Memory

I've been thinking a lot about memories and memory the past few weeks. Watching my grandma slide further into her dimentia is hard. She doesn't remember the time that we spend together and she's not remembering things shortly after she's done them. Last week when I was sitting with her before chemo, I think that we had the same conversation 4 or 5 times.

Which makes me think how precious my memories are. And that makes me think about this blog. I can write about whatever I want and then I can look back on the person that I was and the person that I'm becoming. It helps me to remember the fun times. Like when Jill and I went to Ann Arbor or the crazy things that happened during college when I started this blog and started becoming the confident person that I am today instead of being the shy girl that I was.

And I can hope. I can hope that I won't have the same memory problems when I get older that my grandma now has. But then again, I know that I'll have this blog that can always help me remember. Grandma was writing things down that she'd done during the day, but now it seems like 5 minutes later she's forgotten what she did. I just don't want her to look at me one day and not know who I am. More and more of our family is having the fear that this is going to happen, and we're scared.

Funny Sign

So I was walking in the skywalk at work last night and saw this funny sign handwritten by maintenence.

"Wet Stripper. Stay Off."

Yes, they were stripping and re-waxing the floor, but I giggled anyways.

Allergies

Whomever said that allergies are worse when they develop during adulthood needs to be shot. My doctor diagnosed me this year with allergies and gave me a perscription for claratin.

It'd be nice if it actually worked. I think that tomorow I'll be calling the office to get a lil help, because right now I just mixed some claratin and benadryl because I can't breathe and can't stop sneezing after doing my favorite summer hobby of planting flowers.

This cocktail had better work

The Chemo Saga

Ok the hospital that my grandma gets her chemo at is so freaking stupid!

There is an order of draw for lab work for a reason. First you fill the blue top tube because it has to be completely full or it's no good. Then you fill the green tube because that's what is used to check electrolytes and stuff. THEN you fill the purple tube because it has EDTA in it and EDTA contains potassium (which is a lyte) and binds up all your calcium. Anyways, the nurse that was drawing the blood off of my grandma's line attached the line, flushed it like she was supposed to, drew off waste like she was supposed to, drew the syringe for lab and then laid it down on the table while she flushed the line again. So she let the syringe sit while she finished messing with the line and then she tubed it. My jaw dropped when I wateched her fill the purple tube first, then the blue and then the green. I was really expecting them to have to repeat her labs, but they didn't. So I sat with her until they got the lab results back. In that time grandma got thirsty and wanted coffee but they didn't have any on the floor, so I went down to the cafeteria and got both of us some coffee. Two hours later they have the lab results and are starting the first chemo pre-med. I know that she's going to be there all day and so I ask what time they expect her to be done and they said around 4:30. I told my grandma that I'd be back around 4 to see how she was doing and to pick her up because I had other things to do during the day.

Fast forward to shortly before 4pm. I get back up to the hospital and they're just starting the last med which takes an hour and a half to infuse. No big deal that it's taken longer than expected. Grandma wants a snack so she gives me some money and I go down to the cafeteria and get her the cup of ice cream that she wants. I run back upstairs and tell her that I'll be back in an hour, I need to go to the store to get some stuff for dinner that we're gonna have at her house. I run to WalMart for salad stuff and spend $70 (yeah, I bought more than just salad stuff) and ran home, put the groceries away and went back up to the hospital.

The wing that she's in is deserted. The outpatient nurses have all gone home and all the rooms around her are empty. There's a nurse from the inpatient end of the unit that is checking on her occassionally. But she can't hear the alarm going off on the IV pump when the meds are done running and I have to go find her because she has her own load of patients that are in house too. Not to mention that my grandma is 76 years old and has absolutely NO short term memory. What if she would have had a reaction to the meds and couldn't press her call button or holler for help?

Don't get sick. That's all that I can say.