Chantix update

Today is two weeks of being smoke free! See below for more about Chantix that I'm taking to help me really do it this time.

Chantix dreamin'

Since I've only been smoking for 44 years, I thought it might really be time to quit. The most successful I've ever been at this was about six months before my first husband and I separated. That little bump in the road tripped me up and I was lighting up like a firecracker!

But with Steve's cancer behind us (I hope!), it's important that he quit and there's no way one can quit while the other keeps smoking.

A year ago in January, we got a prescription from the doctor for Chantix -- the new wonder drug for smoking cessation. Of course, we couldn't commit to stopping right away and before you know it Steve was diagnosed with rectal cancer. Even the oncologists - who you'd think would be all over you to quit smoking - say they don't encourage cancer patients who smoke to quit smoking during treatment. It's too hard given all the other challenges and issues you're dealing with.

Anyway, to make a long story long, we finally picked our quit date (March 30). So we started taking the Chantix a week before hand and then on the seventh day we quit. So as of today, I've been smoke free for seven days.

I frankly am amazed by the fact that from day one i really haven't thought that much about smoking. In the past when I've quit, I've always spent a lot of time sitting around thinking about how much i wanted a cigarette. This time, I really haven't had any of those thoughts.

Chantix works on the receptors in your brain, so maybe that's part of how it works. One thing they warn you about is changes in dreaming and they are right about that! Most of the time - at least for the past few years - I don't dream at all. Or if I do, I don't remember anything about the dreams. But this week, I have had some weird ones.

So here's a little taste of Chantix dreamin':
Weridest one: Amy Bremmerman (an actress you probably don't remember from the TV show "Judging Amy") invites me to an off-Broadway opening of her new show. Turns out this is in some school or church type setting (no stage, just a riser kind of thing). About halfway through the performance, someone knocks on the window and I go to answer. It's the caterer bringing the buffet dinner, which he carts through the window and right across the front of the stage to set up in an adjoining room. After the performance, we all go to eat (me and amy together because we are apparently good friends). But the food looks lousy. So i settle for what appears to be a steak. But when I sit down with it and start to cut it, Inotice it has kind of a mucus-type layer around it. The guy sitting next to me says "Oh, they forgot to skin it." As I scrape the mucus off, it turns into the complete skin (and head) of a lion including the bullet holes from where it was shot!

Last night, Steve and I were flying (Steve was the pilot) somewhere and were right behind the space shuttle. With me sitting there saying "Watch out for that SRB" as they were being ejected and flying past us...

Definitely making for a more interesting night's sleep. But it's a small price to pay if I really quit smoking this time.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Marilyn and Brian celebrate St. Patricks Day (our favorite holiday - well, Marilyn likes Xmas just a tad better) with friends at Long Beach Island (that's the Jersey Shore - for you novices). I don't know Mar's neighbors, but I already especially like the woman right behind her who's wearing the New York Jets jersety!

Nancy got runover by a reindeer

Nancy Gladfelter, new cool chick here in Greenville, has poor Harley trussed up like a reindeer. What a patient pooch! Nancy and her husband, Chuck, who has been through his own cancer journey this year, own a Fast Frame near our house. I like to go over there, hang out and play with Harley (sans antlers).

Cool Chick Carol hits the big time

The item below is an excerpt of Howard Kurtz' media column in The Washington Post today. Yes, THE Washington Post. I am tickled pink just to know you, Carol! You go!

Carol Hunter was impressed with her glimpse behind what she calls "the hard-knocks-sculpted political facade" of Hillary Clinton.

When Clinton, in Iowa, talked about loving long nature walks with her husband, "it was not the answer so much as her body language that reflected her genuineness," Hunter says.

Hunter may be the state's most important undecided voter. She is editorial page editor of the Des Moines Register, where six out of seven members of the editorial board -- including Publisher Laura Hollingsworth -- are women. And in the next couple of weeks, they will decide whether to back Clinton or one of her Democratic rivals in the Jan. 3 caucuses.

Although newspaper endorsements matter little in presidential politics, the Register's nod is a powerful exception. In 2004, its endorsement of John Edwards helped propel him to a strong second-place finish, transforming him into John Kerry's chief challenger.

That was a different editorial board, though, and political insiders are chattering about whether today's predominantly female lineup will give the former first lady an edge.

"It will cause all sorts of second-guessing," Hunter says. "We can't win. If we endorse her, it will be 'Well, of course.' If we don't, there will be all sorts of questions raised about why."

Perhaps we can look for clues, such as Hunter's column on Clinton's professed love for strolling the hilly green areas around her suburban New York home. Hunter, who grew up on a Kansas farm, writes that America needs a president "committed to leading a green-energy revolution," and that the key is "how much he or she talks about conservation." Hunter has complained that most politicians have "quit talking about poverty" and noted approvingly that Edwards calls poverty "the great moral issue of our time," adding that "a presidential election is no time to think small."

Let's compare days!

Terri called me about 9 p.m. Thursday night to wish me a happy birthday. She's had a lousy day at work and, I guess by way of thinking she'll cheer herself up, asks me about my day.

So, here goes... Got up at 6:30 (which is VERY early for me!) so I could have Sable (our 7 1/2 year old lab mix) to the veterinary surgeon by 7:30. She's torn the cruciate ligament in her right leg and that required a procedure called a TPLO. She'd been limping badly for the couple of days prior to the surgery and would hardly put any weight on her right leg at all. We sat in the waiting room -- me clutching my American Express card; Sable with her head on my knee. That's Sable today after getting home from the vet with Bogey (who just 10 days ago had emergency surgery to remove a rock from his intestine!) watching over her.

After leaving her there (I admit with a couple of tears in my eyes), it was off to the next stop -- the cancer center for steve's chemotherapy. It was relatively uneventful - that's a good thing - and so far, he's feeling pretty good. I am just crossing my fingers that he tolerates it better this round than the first one.

Then - off to work! ('Nuff said about that).

Because I'd lost several hours of the day, I didn't get home until about 7:15 or so. And was touched to find a fire in the fireplace, fresh flowers on the table, a birthday card and a "bauble" box. It made me feel guilty for being late getting home, but it was a great homecoming. The bauble was a black pearl pendant - very lovely.

So I recounted all this to Terri, who said in hindsight, her day wasn't so bad! When is 2008 coming????

Karen "Technology is My Friend" Sweet

Karen and Terri in Mexico - drinking with two perfect strangers - but what the heck. This is an old picture. That is all I can tell you as I am sworn to secrecy - but - truth is stranger than fiction!!!!