Two very different scarves

The top one is #23 and I made it for the nice doc who oversaw the ward I was in and took care of the neck mainline wound every day so it wouldn't get infected and kill me. Also he was very nice.

This next one is for an onco-doc who I've been dealing with for a while but who just recently started being nice to me. Not sure why, but I'll go along with it because I need her on my side. She's kind of a conservative dresser, so maybe she'll use this to perk up some. It's number 40. Sorry the pics aren't better quality.

Erratum OR This is what I was talking about II

Fresh from the priest's hole:

Remember I saw a split second of some movie and I thought it was called Attention au grisbi? But then I googled it and it was nowhere to be found? I was in (the) hospital and I think I had a fever so I put it down to that. I'm lucky I remembered my name with all the drugs I was getting pumped in through the neck mainline. Anyway, turns out the movie exists and it's called: Touchez pas au grisbi. Just thought you'd like to know.

This is what I was talking about

The group in Bolivia I was talking about is the Chipaya people. This is a picture of their houses: http://www.amnh.org/education/resources/rfl/web/bolivia/images/14.jpg

Soon I will post a picture of some cool fingerless gloves/mittens we got at the fair trade store on Nikis which are coincidentally from Bolivia. Also some finger puppets which will go in the monster pinata.

Keeping busy

Here's a sample of what I've been up to. Except this necklace isn't one of the 100-- it's one I made for myself one day when I needed something to wear with a brown T-shirt. So it isn't numbered like the ones I'm giving away.



The pouches are finished necklaces that are ready to go, and the ones on the right are from the Girl Power series, destined for some cool international chiquitas. You can see the numbers near the clasp. Also, each one protects the wearer against the evil eye.

Hot air

Last night I watched most of a docu about Bolivia, one of the series Entre Terre et Ciel (Between Earth and Sky), hosted by Sébastien Lafont, a journalist and hot-air balloonist. By host I mean also the adventurer who goes everywhere in his balloon and documents the people and places. So one of the places where he landed his balloon was the village of an indigenous group (minority minority group, can't find them on the UN page I looked at (!?!?)) whose name I (unfortunately) don't remember (knowing what a fabulous memory, compounded by chemo brain, I have, you're probably surprised). The point is, these people live in what looked like the middle of nowhere, in one-room mud houses. They have to hike incredible distances to get firewood. The staple of their diet is quinoa, and if they haven't had a good harvest (as they hadn't the year before the docu was shot), they have very slim pickings, hopefully supplemented by duck or pink flamingo or something else they hunt in very ingenious ways (watch it to find out). Once a year the village floods, and they have to go away (I wasn't clear on where). The POINT is, they have a very hard life. THE POINT IS, they're cool with that, with working hard to survive, but why do countries like ours, the so-called advanced countries, why do we have to make life even harder for them by screwing up the climate to the point where, during the non-flooding season, they don't have enough water to water their g-d quinoa?!?!?! These people have no negative impact on the environment. At the other extreme, where I live we burn tons and tons of lignite (among other things) to create electricity, at extremely inefficient rates. And people in the countryside think windmills create fertility problems! Newsflash, Mitsos: You're probably infertile because you spray carcinogens on your fields. But don't get me started on the Mitsoses out there...

Today was day 28 post-transplant. No excitement or news connected to that. I have a CT coming up but I'm not saying when because if the news is bad, I want to tell people in my own time. The house arrest was lifted yesterday because whites were above normal. I'm still not supposed to eat fresh, uncooked vegetables or some fruits, or honey from the beekeeper (whatever). My take is that you have to disobey some things in order to feel like you have free will. If you feel trapped, you get more depressed and that makes you sicker. The doctors on Grey's understand this. *spoiler alert* They let a girl with no heart go out in the snow! *end of spoiler alert*

Sickie accomplishments: Have watched more sodes than I will ever admit to. Have made 36 necklaces. Have made one very long scarf for cutie doc. Have begun one strange-looking monster pinata. Have written and illustrated two pages of a story about a small hairy creature.

Soon I will post pictures of my craft projects. This is my intention.

Why oh why

The following from the Priest's Hole, where I am under HOUSE ARREST due to low whites:

I was inspired to post today by my chat with K about people who sit in the cinema and record a movie on their cell phones and then make it available for strangers to illegally download. Who is the loser who wastes the price of a movie ticket so he can sit there and covertly tape the movie, therefore not even enjoying it himself? Mobile technology here has always been more advanced than in the US (I'm not sure if this is still true) but I have never seen video off a cell phone that I could watch for any length of time, much less video of a screen. Dude number two: if you want to see a movie so bad that you're willing to watch it in such crappy quality (hand shaking, edge of screen showing, bad sound, including people chewing popcorn and talking in the background), RENT THE DAMN THING. I just do not understand people. There are many, many people out there who I do not understand.

You will not believe this. I think the universe is conspiring to keep this blog going as long as possible. You know how the main theme of this blog was the open sewer hole on the ground floor of the rat's nest, across from the elevator? And then it got fixed and it was like, what's the point of even blogging any more, there's nothing to say. So the universe arranged for the problem to return!!! Bigger and badder than before!!! Reports from the rat's nest (not first person; I'm under house arrest, remember?) include: dumpster in front of building, torn up garden, mysterious black hoses running in and out of the building and, last but not least, BIG HOLE OF ROTTING, PUTRID, NASTY SEWAGE across from the elevator. You know the hell mouth on Buffy? Where you can cover it up or build a high school on it or whatever but it's still there, festering and at some point The First is going to emerge, the root of all evil? This hole is kinda like that. You can "fix" it, tile over it, whatever, but it will bubble up again!!! Anyway, Dappy and K will represent tonight at the owners' meeting. I can't go owing to aforementioned house arrest situation.

Weigh in

The following from the Priest's Hole:

Haven't updated in days! News: Gollum is back in the Shire, released from the ospedale yesterday in a big rush. They swept in and sanitized the place (couldna done it a few days ago, could ya?) and my presence there was erased forever more.

So todo bi and now I'm at the Priest's Hole recovering further.

Skip the following paragraph if you are grossed out by the NECK MEGA MAINLINE.

So after the NECK MEGA MAINLINE was removed, Cutie Doc showed it to me. That thing was huge!!! Imagine the bottom half of a paintbrush of the size you used to have with your watercolor set, but a little bigger, and tapered like it was, but hollow. THAT was in my vein, almost as far in as my heart! And there's a part of it, about half way down, that has holes, and I could see in, and it looked like it was getting clogged! So I asked bigshot oncologist what would have happened if it had gotten clogged and I still needed it, and he said that if they couldn't unclog it, they would have replaced it! I'm so glad I didn't know that possibility existed and I'm also glad I didn't know how huge that thing was because I would have thought I could feel it moving around in my chest.

I may or may not have mentioned in this blog that I am making 100 craft projects to represent the 100 days that a stem cell transplanted person theoretically needs to be considered out of the woods. I will (in some cases have already done) share these with the people who have supported me throughout this difficult time. I have already made and given out 21 beaded necklaces, and have plans to knit some stuff, sew some stuff and (here's where I need the input) make some pinatas (can't find the 'enye'). So I was sitting there thinking about what animal to make (donkey, rooster, etc), and I thought, so I'm going to make a festive interpretation of an animal, and then encourage people to beat it with a stick until its guts spill out. Also, remember that here people have never heard of a pinata, so I'd have to really spell it out for them. And although the people I have in mind as recipients have kids who would probably love it, I can't quite bring myself to do it. I still like the "pinata as artsy activity" idea, however. I considered making a cuca pinata or geometric shape or monster. hmm.

What do you think? Am I totally overreacting or not?