Friday, August 22

Today we are celebrating a birthday at daycare, so we make cupcakes of the birthday girls choice.  Chocolate with purple frosting!

While out for our walk, we watched an orange cat chase a squirrel up at tree.  After getting bored waiting for the squirrel to continue in the game of chase, the cat jumps to the roof of the house beside the tree.  We watch as he inspects the edges of the roof, and then starts looking in the windows of the house.  He has become a peeping tom cat! We all think this is very funny and have a good laugh.  We watch him for quite a while before he becomes bored, jumps to another tree and climbs down backwards!  This is a very exciting morning.

After lunch, we frost our cupcakes, and each get a candle in the middle of our cakes.  We sing "Happy Birthday to You," and make some wishes.  Life is good.

After I take Allie driving, I am hungry, so I call Steve to meet me at The Ivy Tavern to split a gigantic order of fish and chips with a salad.  I need to get my grocery shopping done this evening, because I have a busy weekend coming up, and this will be the best time to eat.

Saturday, August 23

Allie and I go driving on I95 this morning.  There is more traffic than I expect at seven o'clock, but she does great.  We do small loops at first to get the hang of entering and exiting the highway, building and maintaining speed.  She works her way up to going to East Providence, and we drive to her school.   We get back in time for me to make it to my hair appointment.

I love getting my hair cut.  It is the opportunity to have my hair washed by gentle, kind hands.  I love the way the water is warmed up to just the right temperature and the thorough rinsing your hair gets from the sprayer, the way no shower nozzle can.  After that I get sit for an hour and talk to Leslie, who has been cutting my hair for many years.

Today, as I am sitting talking, I think I smell something strange.  It can't possibly be me, I assure myself, I have only been sitting here in this chair, barely even moving.  When I get up to pay, I get that creeping sensation.  When I get out to my friend Brett's car, I sit down and check myself, horrified at what I find.  Another blow out!  How is this happening?  I look around the car to see what I can use to keep anything from happening while I am driving.  I didn't even think of bringing my "knitting" bag today.  It didn't even enter my mind.  I can not find a thing to help with my predicament.  No napkins, no tissues, nothing.  I place the seat belt low across my hips and gently place my shirt around my belly, so I don't ruin it.  It is one of my special fox shirts that I love.

As I drive home, the firefighters are out collecting for the Labor Day telethon.  I wish they knew how to read a calendar.  Labor Day is still a week away.  I contemplate flashing my belly at them, but decide to keep it to myself.  No need to be gross.

I manage to make it home without making a mess of anything.  I run into the house and up the stairs, like a teenager in a hurry to avoid a parent.  Steven calls out to me, but I just run into the bathroom and close the door.  He comes to see what the problem is, and I tell him I just need to change in a tone that is pretty surly.  As I am changing, he goes back to his computer and looks up ostomy blow outs.  He tells me it is a very common complaint among ostomy bag patients.  It just happens.  As if this is supposed to help ME.  I do not really care about that or anyone else right now, I just want this to stop happening to me.  I do not say this out loud, but something in my look tells him it is time to leave me alone.  I clean up, change up, and get over it as well as I can.

We are supposed to be at a picnic at Colt State Park by noontime, and I want to stop in a yarn store in Warren.  We are supposed to bring some food, and I forgot to get burgers and rolls, so we stop at Whole Foods on the way.

I need to go to the yarn store so I can get some special yarn for a baby sweater I want to make.  Bella Yarns has been open for a few years, but I never seem to get over to Warren to stop in.  It is a beautiful shop, and I would love to browse for a while, but Steve is waiting for me in the car, so I get down to business.  As I check out, the woman at the register asks about my tattoo.  I know if I tell  her the real story I will not get out of the store quickly, but I tell her anyway.  It turns out she has her own cancer story to tell.  She calls it the "C" word.

We get to the park where the Humanists of Rhode Island are having their picnic and have a nice time with some old friends and meet new people too.  I am very worried about my bag, it is hard not to be.  I stay for a while, but not too long. I need to pick Alex up at Whole Foods, and do my WFM grocery shopping.

As much as I am worried, about my bag, the rest of the day passes without any surprises.  Well, not bag surprises anyway.  When I start to work on my blog, my screen does this weird thing.  Most of it turns black, except for a shape that looks like a torch or maybe a chalice.  It is very weird.  I call Alex from his room to get his take on this situation, when the whole screen goes dark.  My monitor has crashed.