Monday, November 3

As I lay in bed, I am thinking about how my feet are feeling.  So far, they do not feel the same way my fingers do, they feel fat and slightly fizzy.   I think it is strange that my feet should feel this way when they don't even seem cold. I get up and take a hot shower to warm everything up, and get rid of those tingles.

Although the weather is forecast to be fairly warm, it is windy out as we get ready to take our walk.  It must look so strange when I go out for a walk with the children.  They are wearing hoodies, and I have on a hat, scarf, gloves and a winter coat.  I have on two layers of tops and leggings under my jeans.  When we first step outside in my sunny front yard,  I am afraid that I am over dressed.  As we walk down the street and I encounter the shade and the breeze, I am so glad for every bit of clothing that I have on.  When the wind blows I pull up my scarf so my nose doesn't go numb.  My hands are okay, but my feet are starting to feel tingly in the way that my fingers do. 

By the time we get  back to the house, my toes are not very happy.  I need to go inside early to start lunch, so I can let my toes warm up.  I definitely need a different strategy here.  I am wondering how I am going to make it through the next six weeks if things get cooler than this.  Six week, three more treatments.  The more I can do, the better this will go.  I am hoping for warmer weather.

Tuesday, Election Day

Since my last treatment, when I get out of bed, my whole world leans to the right.  It almost feels like an inner ear infection, except that it goes away after a few minutes.  Today, instead of jumping out of bed the way I usually do, I sit up to see what happens.  The room dips and sways even more while I am sitting still.  It seems better to get up quickly.

Steven and I need to go and vote, and want to get to the polling place early.  The polls open at seven, and it is a ten minute walk, so we dress quickly and get out the door.  I have on double socks, jeans, a tee, a long sleeved shirt, a sweater, gloves, coat, hat and scarf.  I contemplate long underwear, but think it is going to warm up, so I skip it.  When we step outside it is sunny and not too cool.

On our door, we notice a printed post it which says that we are reliable voters, hoping we will get out to vote today.  Since it is not quite seven, the note posters must have been out very early.  As we walk, we notice that some houses have these notes on them, and some do not.  Is this supposed to be an exercise in peer pressure?  Is this so we can judge our neighbors? This makes me feel a little uncomfortable, as I wonder what the point to these post it notes is.

Walking down Hope St. my face gets tingly, from the mild breeze, so I cover it.  My legs are tingly too.  I wish I had worn the long underwear.

There is a long line when we get to our polling place.  I am always amazed at how few people I recognize in the line, even though there are so many people.  Within a few minutes, someone from the front comes looking for people with last names A through C.  That is us, our ticket to the front of the line.  In a few minutes we have checked in and cast our votes.

This election makes me anxious, with so much at stake on a local and national level.  I hope that many people get out the vote.