April 14, 2025 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Well, I am feeling quite a bit better than I was but am not all better.  I didn't make it to the lab for the follow-up urine sample on Friday.  Dagan can bring me over his lunch hour on Tuesday so we're trying for that this week.  Been a quiet week.  Warmer!  Even have been in the low 60s a few days.  No snow left.

Leah was planning to drive down to IKEA in Minneapolis on Sunday to return the hutch that won't go together because the parts were made wrong and the 2-drawer dresser that was ordered by accident.  (That's what we discovered the extra drawers were.)  She and Dagan were moving the rug around in the living room.  I had hoped it would pretty much cover the entire floor and not have to have any furniture on top of it on those three sides.  It works perfectly!!

I am so happy with the colorful abstract rug!

And even if we move the hutches with the glass doors down a ways from the front door...

...they still won't have to be up on the rug!  

I have no idea how Leah made the green arrow to show me that--lol!

The bad news.  On Sunday texts were flying back and forth between Leah and Dagan and me.  IKEA would not take back either of the items.  Not the hutch they still carry or the 2-drawer dresser/nightstand/endtable or whatever you want to use it as.  Been too long they said.  Even though they still carry the hutch and it is manufactured incorrectly.  So disappointing.

I told Leah I hoped she could fit the 2-drawer unit into the car so we could put it together and sell it at least.  The hutch was useless as even grooves made in the wood were not in the right place so impossible to put it together.  She planned to leave that with them to deal with as she could never fit it in the car anyways.

Later she sent pictures!  

TaDa!!  She got the new hutch, the four dressers, and the 2-drawer unit in...plus some other things in that basket!  She is an expert at Tetris packing!

So--the endless delays have been costly in many ways.  This was just another one of them.  But we have the last IKEA pieces.  I am so glad Leah went right away this last weekend.  I was afraid it might be weeks in order to make that long trip there and back in one day, you know?  Hurray!

Oh, and here is what the dressers look like.  (Picture from IKEA.)  They have a frosted glass front on the top drawer.

I really like how they will break up that wall of drawers!  Silver lining to the latest delay!!  I like them better!  :)

This coming week--hope to make it to the lab on Tuesday and Keanna comes to clean that afternoon.  No other plans but to continue to rest and feel better and better.

Some have wondered why I need so much storage.  Well, if you can remember being in isolation during covid...imagine being housebound and living alone with your cat...while feeling like you have the flu 24/7...for over 2 decades.  That is why I have added to all those supplies for doing solitary things when I am able...that bring me joy...and keep me sane.  Books (until I got macular puckers in both eyes so it is harder to read), art supplies, card making supplies, craft supplies, letter writing and journaling supplies...without them...goodness!  Being alone and rarely ever leaving the apartment or having company for 20 years...maybe you'd surround yourself with activities to lift your spirits, too.

My health has been considerably worse ever since cancer (and the year before I was diagnosed), so I haven't been able to play as much as I would like to with the art, craft, and card making goodies...but I am hoping to feel better and better over time.  I have been...just much much slower than I would like...but there has been gradual improvement.  Truth--Keytruda may have cured me, but it also almost killed me--lol!  I am still suffering from side effects, but there has been slow progress.  Since I already had an autoimmune disease (bad fibro) in the first place before cancer...well, that kind of multiplies all the immune system issues.  

Some of the new people may have wondered, too, why I have so many supplies and do so little with them.  That is why.  It is not for the lack of wanting.  I just started retraining my body to be able to sit up at a table again last year.  Started making my own food again, too.  I still can't stand or walk for very long...but I am doing a lot better when I look back to a year ago.  Just frustrating that I have to look back that far to see progress--lol!  But that's life sometimes.  I am just glad I am still here--alive and kicking!  Well, more alive and shuffling, but you know what I mean.

Anyways, I thought I would try to explain that a little bit.  I've been writing letters and journaling since I was nine.  I've been making cards since the 80s, I believe.  Been sometimes decorating paper I wrote letters on since I was nine.  As unhealthy as I have been the past several years here, the things I have persisted with have been writing letters and journaling (even when it was just barely with breaks) and making yearly Christmas and birthday cards (Leah helped me).  Moving is going to be really physically hard...but after I gradually get my home in order around me again and recover from the move and the unpacking...my newly arranged studio will be enticing me to come and play.  I really, really, really hope to be able to do that more often than I have been...eventually.  I am patient.  I am hopeful.  I'm a realistic optimist.  :) :)

If I do start to donate most everything away...then you will know I have given up.  I can't imagine giving up. :) 

Well, that's it for this week.  I've been hearing Canadian geese overhead.  Grackles bickering on the patio.  Supposed to be in the 50s and 60s mostly for like the next 10 days.  No snow?  Maybe spring is actually arriving early.  We could still get snow or frost in May, for sure.  Usually don't plant up here until mid-May and even then sometimes it is a risk.  I'm feeling better than I was.  Life is good!  Till next week, my friends! :)