Good night and Good summer!

My last post was the day before Mom's birthday and today is Dad's birthday - he and I just celebrated his birthday with Vietnamese Food and a Wii marathon...the summer has evaporated in between! The past 2 months have been full...of all kinds of normal life things. Visits, work, parties, short trips, and even a few moments of just relaxing. Normal life. Ah. It's been some time since I had a normal summer. I like it.

Mom's birthday stretched for the first week of July...after Colleen's surprise visit and Stampeding with Bob, Colleen and Dad and I, Mom also blew out the candles with her favourite little boys. We ran in to them at Stampede and they were the coolest cowboys I've ever met (Davis left, Jack right) They even took on the rides and its clear they're going to love driving some day.

July zoomed on with my usual quick trip to Edmonton for a Dr. Aung tune-up and as usual a wonderful visit with Amy and Ryland - we even took in Shakespeare in the Park on a warm summer night. My almost thirteen-year old cousin Grady landed in Calgary for a week and he and I took in Gasoline Alley at Heritage Park as well as some crazy laser tag and mini-golf before he headed South to visit uncle Bob in Fort MacLeod. I can hardly believe he'll turn 13 in 2 days.

Early August I travelled to Regina for a surprise 40th anniversary party for my Uncle Tony and Aunt Carol...lots of catching up with Antonini's which is always a boost of energy. They were so shocked and had such a good time...their "first dance" of the evening while my Uncle Marty played piano in the park seemed similar to any newlywed. Amazing stuff for 40 years. After the party I met up with Tasha and enjoyed some time with her family at Pelican Point on Last Mountain Lake: a few days of humidity, peace, relaxation, kayaking and the occasional ice cream. No pictures. Too relaxed to remember to take them. While I was in Regina I also fit in a couple of visits including one at my great Aunt Marj's new place of residence. I loved it so much I almost thought I'd get on the waiting list.

The rest of August has absolutely disappeared. I've not even had a lot of time to enjoy my new condo yet (pictured right). And apart from getting re immunized for the 4th time (me and all the crying babies) I haven't had to visit the hospital. I've been a bit more tired these days...perhaps because I've been working, playing and living a lot! A bit surreal actually. Tomorrow morning I leave for Vegas for 4 days of craziness with 22 fun women! It's a party to celebrate 2 of them turning "Fabulous" and I can't wait. Gotta get some sleep though, so good night and good summer!

June 20ths

I am sitting on my new sofa in my new condo, blogging on my new wireless network serviced by my new wireless router. New, new, new! I finally got possession of my place June 16th and spent that week gradually moving in and accepting deliveries of furniture. The Antonini moving group (mom, dad, my brother and I) were pretty exhausted by the end of it all. Dad's friend Wade generously donated his truck for us to transport the large items (mattress, boxspring and BBQ), and the rest made it by way of the Jeep Liberty, Jeep Commander, and Nissan Xtrail. Dad and I also tested our logic skills when assembling my new bed and the BBQ I won last year in the Home Lottery. You start to hate that guy "Allen" who invented the Allen wrench after too many assemblies!

While it took a few days to get used to living alone again, with no roommates to talk to and no Daisy greeting me in the morning, it's quite surreal being in this place now. I really love the space and while starting from scratch again (not even a fork!) has been expensive, it's really been refreshing to create everything. My patio even has furniture on it now. The location is awesome - every time I drive the 10 minutes to work I smile and say "unbelievable". My first night that I slept here was June 20th... a year ago June 20th I was in the hospital and had just had a CT scan to confirm I had severe typhilitis post transplant #3, and I was waiting to hear if the doctors were going to need to do a very risky surgery to deal with the inflamed small and large intestine. If someone had of told me "don't worry, a year from now, you'll be sitting in your new condo, be back at work, and feeling better than ever" I probably would have screamed at them. I guess you just never know what can happen in a year, or twelve. 12 years ago June 20th was the day I played golf and ended up in the hospital with leukemia.

Speaking of health, the week before I moved in, I had all my one-year post transplant tests (add another hole in my back-bone) and so far so good. Now, remarkably I don't have to see Dr. Brown for 6 months and only need bloodwork in 3 months time. I've had a cold for just over a week now, but it's just a cold and otherwise I continue to feel great.

Lots of action packed into this past month before, during and since the move. The boys turned 3 with a fantastic pirate and princess party...they are really little boys now and the babies are gone. "Wanna play golf?" and "Hey guys" are repeated phrases now - they are so funny pretending and discovering and commentating the entire time. Certainly one of the best benefits from my NYC life being interrupted 3 years ago has been getting to know those little guys every week.

Speaking of birthdays, Tasha finally caught up to me in age after a long three week period of being reminded that I was older than her...we celebrated her birthday with a barbecue and even dragged the entire guestlist at her party into a group Sing Star competition. The birthday girl herself won the challenge, after a final sing-down against her husband!

I've even been golfing this month. I joined a women's league that a bunch of girls at work joined, and have golfed 9 holes after work about 3 times. Lessons were included in the league membership, so I've made it to 3 of those as well. My first one was the evening after my bone marrow biopsy - Dad had to drive me as I had sedation for the biopsy - I was extra "relaxed" and my swing and results were pretty good! It's been pretty wonderful to be able to get out and play on some beautiful days.

I'm looking forward to enjoying the summer in Calgary with a few plans here and there for some weekends away. Last night mom, dad and I had plans to go to dinner for mom's birthday - I secretly picked up Colleen from the airport and took her to the restaurant! She was definitely surprised and excited. We're heading to the Stampede grounds shortly for some rides and some fun while Colleen is in town for the weekend.

Who knows what the next June 20th will bring. For now, I'm just going to enjoy the summer on my new patio. Happy summer!