Cactus Country

Quite a bit has happened in the past week. I got out of the hospital on Monday, coincidentally the same day Joe started his new job. Man, it's good to be home. I was relieved that the kitties didn't forget me, though they were a bit hesitant around me at first. It didn't take them long to warm up, however. How I missed those furry little critters! Just being home was such a treat; sleeping in my own bed, eating home cooked food, not being poked and prodded constantly and best of all being able to take a nice, long shower without the worry of keeping my PICC line dry. Aaaaaahhhhh.

Just as I was settling into the routine of being back home, Thursday arrived. For 2 months I'd been planning to visit Sue for a long weekend and suddenly it was time to get on the plane and go. To make the trip even more enticing, we got about 6 inches of snow the day before and then rain on top of it, which then froze and created a nasty, icy mess. See ya, New England weather!!

It really blows my mind sometimes to think that you can just hop on a plane and in a matter of 5 hours be in a totally different climate. The differences this time couldn't be much more extreme, from several feet of snow and ice and below freezing temperatures to the desert, where it's green (and brown) and 70 degrees. It's absolutely heavenly.

We took Oscar, her new dog, for a walk before sunset to look at the sun on the mountains in the distance, it was so beautiful. Sue prepared a delicious dinner and after that we finished off the bottle of wine by the fire out in the back yard. The sky is enormous and clear, and the stars were all shining brightly for us to see. It was a wonderful evening.

From the moment Sue picked me up at the airport I feel like I've been talking her ear off. We're cackling like the 2 hens Joe says we are! It's so good to be able to spend time with her, I've missed talking to her by phone this past year since she's been working full time. We still get to catch up one or two times a week, but not nearly as frequently as we used to. I know it's just temporary, but this visit is exactly what I needed- some concentrated, fun girl-time. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful best friend.