Countdown to Hermination - 6 days

I head to Seattle in a few days - yay! - and I think my brother, Kevin, is driving me up there.  I'll be up there for three nights - and unfortunately, the American Cancer Society was not able to secure a hotel room for me, so I will have to pay out of pocket.  Good thing that I received donations from a couple of friends, the Chaplain's Office, and the local Cancer Center (about $1350), and a gas card from the American Cancer Society.  I think that I've spent about $550 so far for four trips and used all the money from the gas card.  It would have been twice as much if I paid for the hotel room myself - the going rate at the hotel I was able to stay in was over $150/night and I received four nights from the American Cancer Society.   I wanted to thank everyone who gave me donations - it's been very very helpful! It means that my own money could be used for every day things and even day trips to the coast, like we did on Sunday.

In other news, I did finish my mosaic and I finished repainting my bedroom in the colors that I prefer since I'm single now!  I liked the seascape I created - I will try to post pictures when I get a chance.  The blue sky was in a color called "Still Moment" (appropriate, since I'm trying to learn how to meditate) and my blue sea is in a color called "Healthy Waters" (also appropriate for obvious reasons).  When I looked for something to paint the sand at the store, after trying out various ones, I picked a color that I thought was more tan (so I guess it wasn't really "sand" but more tannish hills in my seascape; when I think about my image, it comes closest to a place in Spain called La Herradura that Eddie and I visited five years ago).  But when I brought it home and used it, it was more yellow.  So, I ended up mixing the yellow with a "coffee bean" acrylic paint to make a tan and then added water to make a "wash" and then used that to paint my hills a tan color.  When experimenting with paint strokes, I ended up with some splotchy clumps that I needed to fix. I ended up making them into clumps of grass.

All in all, I'm happy with it! I used a paint called "Fresh Aire" that has "No VOCs in the paint, no VOCs in the colorant and no chemical odor".  However, after painting with it for several hours on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and sleeping in my room, I ended up feeling really fatigued for a couple of days and yesterday, I was headachey.  Part of my fatigue was staying up too late.  But I think part of it was the effects of the paint fumes.  So, today, a student (who just finished remodeling his house) let me borrow his respirator mask.  I think it worked great!  I don't feel nearly as yucky after finishing my room today.

So, six more days until I get my t-cells back.  I am very curious to see what happens!