Holiday travel

Christmas time! One of my favourite times of the year. I gotta change my layout to something Christmas-related. But I update my blog so unfrequently, it'll probably end up getting stuck with that layout til like mid-January. :P But then again...does that matter? hahaha.

Sometimes I have super clear random memories of being in the hospital and I'm just so GLAD to not be in there that I'm just so chill with whatever happens in my life otherwise; like, I don't care about anything that happens pretty much as long as I don't have to be in the hospital again. But sometimes that's kind of a vicious circle, and counter-productively (for lack of a better word) causes anxiety, as I'll think about how happy I am to be where I am, and I don't want anything to stop that happiness and take it away from me, so I'll get anxious about getting sick again and having to return to the hospital, thus having that comfort taken away. Vicious circle bullshit! lol

I'm leaving for Miami on Wednesday to meet up with my husband. I'm staying there for a week and then we're coming back together. He's going to stay here in Montreal for the Christmas holidays, so he'll be here for Christmas and New Year's, which is beyond wonderful! He goes back to the US on January 2nd though, so it'll pass by much too fast, I'm afraid. Next time I see him after that is in mid-February, when I'll be visiting him in Calgary.

Marc-André Skelling

Things seem to be going well for Mai Duong (happily!), but unfortunately not so much for Marc-André Skelling. He has a month left to find a compatible donor or else HE'LL DIE. He's only 23 years old! This is ridiculous! If you're a reader of this blog and/or a friend of mine and you have yet to donate blood and/or get swabbed, DO IT. At the verrryyy least, spread the word?!

USA travels

Since I last wrote here I went to Cleveland, which is a really nice city. I want to go back. If I get to move to Toronto next year, I'll be closer. Mostly I just want to go to Chicago though, where my husband is now; I've been there twice, but a looong time ago. How long ago? Once where I was 4 and again when I was 8. So the last time was 25 years ago! Ha! I remember it quite well though. I enjoyed it a lot. Still, it would obviously be quite different as an adult. ;) And I'm sure Chicago has changed a lot in the past 2 1/2 decades.

On the way back from Cleveland I had a 3-hour stop in Detroit. So I hung out in one of the airport bars (that airport is HUGE, man!) and just listened to people talk. I love Americans and I love their accents, omg. I love their culture and pretty much everything about the USA. I wish I could live there but it's just not that simple nor easy (my husband & I have looked into it before). We haven't given up on that dream yet though!

For now, plenty of travelling to the USA, at least. So there was NYC and Cleveland in October, and coming up next in December in Miami. Never been there (the only place I've been to in Florida is Orlando for Disneyworld), so it's exciting! 

I have (yet another) cold, and had to cancel my weekend plans, so I ordered in Chinese food. Which I guess is good food for a cold! SPICY. *__* I gotta go get my flu shot...

LOTS of travel! :)

Ahh! I haven't updated in a month in a half.

Well, it's been a busy month and a half. I got to go to one of my absolute favourite places in the world--New York City!! I used to go there twice a year back in the day, but I haven't been since May 2011, so it was about time I had returned. Also, for all the times I've been to New York, this was the first time I had gone in October. I've been there in the winter, for Labour Day weekend, and a ton of times during the summer, but never at this time of year. What a perfect time to go. The reason I went was to go see Morning Musume in concert. Morning Musume is a jpop group I've been listening to since I was 17 years old! That's 16 years of being fan (though to be really honest I've been an on & off kind of fan, haha). But omg. To see them in concert was the most amazing thing ever. I went with my best friend who's as obsessed with Morning Musume as I am and I could not have asked for better company. It was just the best time. And we took advantage of being in Manhattan and hung out in Times Square and SoHo, it was GREAT! We also went to Tom's Restaurant, the SEINFELD diner, and as big Seinfeld fans as we both are, for some reason neither of us had ever gone. So it was wonderful finally getting to cross that off our wish list. :)

Speaking of travelling, I also went to Nova Scotia in September to visit my husband. I've always wanted to go to the Maritimes, so that was wonderful! I got to visit Halifax while I was there, which was really cool. It's a nice little city. Nova Scotia overall is very beautiful. Very different from Quebec, so it was a great experience. There's so much more of Nova Scotia I'd like to see, to say nothing of the rest of the Maritimes!

My husband continues with his tour, travelling from city to city in both Canada and the USA. In a week I'm off to Cleveland to visit him. I'm very grateful that I'm able to do all this travelling and that I can see him so often. <3

Friends acting awful

When I got diagnosed with cancer, so many of my friends said they'd be there for me no matter what, and if I ever needed anything, just ask. I never asked anything until a few months ago, when the situation with Mai Duong happened. I asked people to share her info to help her find a donor. You think that'd be an easy thing to help me with, seeing as it takes less than 4 seconds to share a link and doesn't cost a cent. Some of my friends were awesome and shared right away (some of them I didn't even need to ask!) But a lot of people? Nope. So few people wanted to do it. And even among some that did, it was only after me begging them to do so. What is that? I thought they wanted to help me? So I ask them for their help and it's something free that literally takes less than 5 seconds to do and they don't want to bother? What the fuck?

It boggles my mind. I can't understand it no matter how hard I try. It's shameful. Sharing a link is not a lot to ask (ESPECIALLY SEEING AS THEY ASKED ME HOW THEY COULD HELP IN THE FIRST PLACE), and it could save someone's life who has leukemia. LIKE ME.

It's like...stop acting shitty and share the link, ya know?

I have more to rant about on a similar subject, but one bit at a time. The other rant will come later.

Other folks with blood cancers, part II

Also, I forgot to mention this on my post last night; I keep sharing stuff on Facebook for Mai Duong, the Vietnamese woman who is in desperate need of a donor. Asians (and other visible minorities) are so very much under-represented in the stem cell/bone marrow donor registry. If you haven't sent for a swab kit, do it! It takes 5 minutes, doesn't hurt, and can save a life. It doesn't matter where you live; the registry is global! The whole world has access to it. Please do it. Even if you're not Asian. There's no such thing as too many donors. Recently I've been sharing info about a young man of 23 (!) named Marc-André Skelling who also desperately needs a donor. He has Hodgkin's lymphoma and is of Irish and French origin.

Here is Marc-André Skelling's Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/trouvonsundonneur

*It's in french; if anyone reading this doesn't know french and wants me to translate, just ask me and I'll be happy to translate anything you want word for word. :)

 I shared Mai's info a few posts ago, but here's her Facebook page again:

https://www.facebook.com/savemaiduong

Also, Mai's website, which explains the process of a bone marrow transplant and many other things. There's a lot of good info here; not just on Mai, but on stem cells, bone marrow, transplants, donors, where you can get swab kits (no matter where you live in the world), etc:

sosmai.com/en/

Please please please take 5 minutes to send for a swab kit and send it back! LIVES can be saved. Please. <3

Travelling! :)

Ack, how long has it been since I last posted here?! Over a month. Well, I'm certainly doing better in terms of loneliness; I'm much better adjusted to being on my own now. Plus, I just came back from visiting my husband a few days ago. I stayed with him for a week in small-town Ontario and oh what a nice little vacation it was! So VERY different indeed from life in the big city. It was so wonderful seeing him and it made it that much harder to be alone again after, but I bounced back quicker this time. Plus I'm visiting him again in 3 weeks, this time in Nova Scotia. I've never been there (or anywhere in the Maritimes, for that matter), so to say I'm excited is a bit of an understatement. His contract involves him travelling around, so I'm going to be visiting him about once a month or so in the places he's sticking around in (some cities he's really just passing through). Around Halloween I'm going to go see him in Cleveland, Ohio, so that'll be cool. And in December I'll be seeing him in Palm Beach, Florida. Perfect timing to skip out on some of Montreal's horrid winters! ;) Then he's coming back for about 2 weeks for Christmas and New Year's (yay!), and then I'll be visiting him again at the end of February in Calgary, Alberta.
His contract is set to finish in March but may be extended to April, then he'll be back home.

These are all places I've never been to, so it's very exciting indeed!

As for MY work, I'll just be subbing this year, so that I can pretty much make my own hours and not have to worry about taking time off for travelling.

On the subject of travelling, I just booked a trip to New York City with one of my best friends; we're going to a concert of our favourite Jpop group we've been listening to since we were teenagers, so that's going to be too amazing for words. Plus, it's NEW YORK. (Omg. As I'm writing this, a piano version of "New York, New York" is playing on the episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm I'm watching, I KID YOU NOT! Ha!). Anyway, yeah--we love New York. I have a frickin' tattoo of the skyline of NYC on me, I'm THAT obsessed. I think about New York all the time but I haven't been since 2011 so to say I've been going through some New York withdrawl is putting it pretty mildly!

Speaking of that same wonderful, amazing friend, she was totally there for me at the end of July (right after I wrote that last entry, actually, according to the date) when I had to go to the ER after finding a random huge bruise on my arm that suddenly appeared after a week of feeling unwell. Cold symptoms, mouth sores...it was too scary. She kept me laughing in the ER when I got blood tests done and I really don't know what I'd do without her. Anyway all is well; just a summer cold, random bruise, and mouth sores; bad coincidence they all happen to be AML symptoms. But all was well. I had another blood test 2 weeks later (my regular scheduled one) and the results were fine, so all's good; let's hope it stays that way! Next blood test is in November. I'll have done quite a bit of travelling by then! How exciting. I love to travel. I hope to return to Japan soon. <3 But for now, I'm so grateful I'm able to go to all these places in Canada & the US and see my awesome husband!