So ... not exactly the weekend that was planned. Our plans were to do some shopping at the up-scale grocery store in Franklin Lakes, The Market Basket, and then go on to a liquor store in Wayne that was hosting Kathy from Real Housewives of New Jersey as she promoted her new Cosmo drink. I was looking forward to seeing her in person but it was not to be. As you know we spent Saturday in and out of vet offices. I’m not all that sorry about my lost chance to meet a “celebrity” since family comes first.Our dogs and cats are like our children.
Alex came home last night and passed the night fairly comfortably. I slept downstairs on the blow-up bed on the floor just to keep an ear out for him if he had any difficulties. He didn’t. One time he came and joined me on the bed and wanted his belly rubbed. His poor stitched-up shaved belly. The incision looks good, though it’s a long one. I can’t imagine how much he is hurting from having all that skin and muscle cut through. Right now he is on a pain medication that contains opiates, Tramadol, so he’s a little not-quite-with-it at times. He’s been getting lots of rest with short intervals outside to stretch his legs and pee. His appetite isn’t great but he will eat biscuits. Anything to kick start his appetite!
So, to recap a little. After acting off on Thursday evening, he was acting better on Friday. We were assuming it was because sister Bella had jumped on him again and wrenched his neck. I gave him aspirin throughout the day and he seemed to be better. But Saturday morning he was not better and we just knew something else was up. We took him in the vet who found an enlarged spleen on exam. Not exactly what I wanted to hear since the cancer hemangiosarcoma runs in his lines and one of the first places it shows up is the spleen (or lungs/heart). She did x-rays and blood work and when the x-rays showed a large mass she sent us down to the specialty vets in Paramus for an ultrasound. It was crucial to take a closer look and rule out involvement with other organs. His chest x-rays were clean which was a good sign.
In our consult with the vet before the ultrasound he was not optimistic. Alex’s blood work with higher than normal white cell count plus the mass in his spleen was not adding up to anything good. So, we left Alex for his ultrasound and went to eat lunch (which I could not force myself to eat). I was already preparing in my head to have to say good-bye to him before too long. BUT, it was a little bit different than I had imagined it would be. The vet said that actually the mass was pretty solid and not fluid filled like they normally see with hemangiosarcoma and it was completely contained within the spleen (something you could not see on x-ray). Added to that better than expected news was the fact that none of the surrounding organs (kidneys, liver) looked to be affected. Also on ultrasound they noticed that his prostate was larger than usual (he is intact and not neutered) so the high white blood cell count could be coming from a case of prostatitis and possibly nothing to do with the mass at all. At that point we knew we had to go ahead with the surgery and give him the best chance for a longer life.
Of course it was consultations, ultrasound and surgery on the weekend, so emergency fees were in place. We felt we could not take the chance on the mass bursting and rupturing the spleen if we waited until Monday at our regular vet. No way could we do that.
Another good thing was that once they opened him up for surgery there were no surprises and all the organs looked good, so a good chance whatever it is had not spread. It’s no guarantee of course, but a good sign nonetheless.
So now we just nurse him back to health. I have to keep in mind he just had major surgery and with all that opiate stuff in him he’s not going to be feeling all that good. He’s a trooper. He’s our Boo and we love him dearly.
Thanks for all your good thoughts. I’ll tell him for you.
Out for a quick yard visit this afternoon!
Tomorrow we leave for HOLLYWOOD. My stomach is starting to do flip-flops in anticipation of the exciting dress-up event and at the dread of being on an airplane for 5+ hours.
Flying used to be enjoyable, even fun, when I was a child and even when we lived in Europe. I never minded it a bit. I always looked at the journey as an adventure. Of course, that was back in the day before 9-11 and before the skies became so crowded. Also in the day when we used to fly business class (on the company). Now the seats are so close together you can’t really move. If you drop something on the floor or want to get something out of your purse that is under the seat in front of you, forget it! You have to be a contortionist. And that’s if the person in front of you has not reclined their seat any, otherwise you could watch the screen in their seatback about two inches from your nose. You can’t check your baggage for free. You can’t eat for free. You can’t even watch the movie for free. No, flying is not fun anymore.
I’m a little concerned about carrying on my dress. I am going to see if the flight crew will hang it for me, otherwise it will have to be carefully folded over and put in the overhead compartment. We all know how people are with their carry-on luggage these days since no one wants to pay the fee to check it. They are overly aggressive in trying to jam their piece of luggage in to make it fit. So, I will have to guard my overhead space with claws drawn. I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that.
My plan is to get to the airport early and eat some lunch which will include a glass of wine (or two) to make me mellow.
Later today Rick and I will do a “dress rehearsal” with him trying on his tux to make sure he knows how it all goes together and me trying to decide if a need to wear a bra under my gown or not. To date I have not tried on the dress with a bra since it does have a sort of built-in bra and the bodice has some boning, so not sure if the extra fabric will will work since the dress has been taken in some.
I am not stressing about the “what to take?” element of my trip since I won’t be there very long. I did order a cute tunic top online last week which has yet to arrive. The tracking on the package assures me that it will arrive today, but will it fit properly? My wardrobe this weekend depends upon it. Okay, maybe I do have a little bit of stress about what to wear.
So that’s all of have for you today! Check back after the weekend for updates!
What do you do with a photo of house finches all with their mouths open?
We had the first snow of the season that started in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday and ended after noon. It left behind about 7 inches of fluffy white snow in its wake. Finally! It was lovely to have nowhere to go and to just sit by the fire and watch the flakes softly falling.
The birds were very active and we both had great fun watching them and trying to capture them in photos.
female cardinal and junco
male house finch
male cardinal
The dogs enjoyed the snow too! Here are Alex and Hailey on the deck. If you look closely you can see Bella down in the yard.
Repeating patterns!
Our new little electric snow shovel (that acts like a snowblower) made cleaning off the deck an easy task. It worked like a charm!
Yesterday it did not get above freezing and cloudy so there was no melting going on. This morning it is already above freezing as I type and we are supposed to have temperatures in the 40’s with rain and fog. Easy come; easy go I guess. It was nice while it lasted!
leftover snow on our bathroom skylight
At first I was looking forward to shopping for the “special” dress (or in this case, gown) for our Oscar Award Ceremony. I have to say that I like to shop but I don’t love it.
I have curves and many of today’s dresses just aren’t made for a woman that has breasts. Or hips. My body is better suited to the era of the 40’s when it was the fashion to have curves. One look at at the sizes and you have to wonder who wears a size 00? When I hold it up I think to myself that I have a broom that’s wider than it is. Not even Twiggy of the 60’s was that skinny!
What are they thinking with the sizing? So if you wear a size 10 or 12 these days you are almost a “plus” size, when years ago it was a completely normal size to wear. Hello Fashion World! Why not make women feel better about the size they wear rather than make them feel horrible? Our society and this penchant for being the size of a broomstick is scary to me. And nothing is true to size. Nothing.
Not even shoes. I have worn a size 6 for many years now. After trying on shoes to go with said gown I quickly realized that size 6’s were slipping off my feet. Too big! Now it seems I wear a 5 1/2. I haven’t worn a 5 1/2 since I was in high school. (And, as we all know, that was a very long time ago!) Just a year ago I could barely find anything in size 6, let alone a 5 1/2. But now 5 1/2’s seem to be plentiful. I asked the woman in Macy’s who was waiting on me if it was my imagination or had my feet started to shrink? She laughed and said it was true: they are changing the sizing. Huh? I had to wonder if that was for all those size 00 models with feet like boats so they could feel better about their shoe size. I mean, really.
With two friends in tow (neighbor Kim, of course) and Claire who is also going to the Oscars we set out on a mission: find a gown!
We started at a small boutique with what looked like plenty of gowns to choose from. The shop owner was very helpful and friendly. Kim acted as personal shopper while Claire and I tried on what she brought us. Many of them in the size I normally wear would not even zip. Some of them were too beaded. Some too “O.L.” (Old Lady). Some too “M.O.B.” (Mother of the Bride). Some just not me. We struck out and went on to the next shop which was mostly bridal.
Here the gowns in our normal size were even smaller. I assume to fit the average bridesmaid or junior. Claire and I were feeling pretty low by now. The shop owner could have cared less about us and just left us on our own with no help or support. Forget about that place!
The next shop I went to with neighbor Kim was a gown shop. I told the owner what I was looking for and what sizes I had been trying on over the past few days. She looked and me and said “no way you wear that size!” So we pulled some lovely dresses in a lower size. Again, some would not even pull up over my hips, let alone zip. They kept pulling dresses with ruching, saying that it was slimming. However, on my body that ‘slimming’ ruching added about an inch of material to my waist and hips. ACK! Horrible! Some of those dresses weighed at least 7 or 10 pounds with enough material to swallow me whole. Also, as the dress sizes rose, the selection went way down. I was beginning to wonder if my body had exploded in size without my knowledge.
When I got home I immediately tried on a dress I had bought last year and was planning on wearing to a party that weekend, thinking my god, maybe it doesn’t fit either. But it did: perfectly. So, not me. Whew, what a relief.
I was starting to get worried that I would not find anything. Everything we had seen so far could be sporting a label stating: Prom, Mother-of-the-Bride-Boring, or Old-Lady-Going-on-a-Cruise. Don’t women these days buy gowns for any other reason? And who says Mother-of-the-Bride these days has to be the same boring thing my own mother wore? Besides, I am not anybody’s mother! (The dogs and cats don’t count.)
We had plans to go down to Freehold, New Jersey to Diane & Co. that week if we still hadn’t found anything in shops closer to us. Diane & Co. is a unique dress shop that is family-run. In fact, two years ago they had a reality TV show called Jersey Couture that revolved around their dress shop and family. I loved it but sadly they did not return last year. Now I understand that the Oxygen network picked them back up and an all new season starts in February. I was looking forward to going there, but it was not to be. *Watch the new season of Jersey Couture!*
Kim had asked around to her various friends where they have bought dresses for either black tie events or weddings. On a whim one afternoon last week we decided to go to one of them in Hawthorne. It was by appointment only. When we arrived the owner sized me up as she asked what I was looking for and what my budget was. She immediately pulled about four dresses off the rack (and one off the mannequin) for me to try.
The first dress from the mannequin happened to be a size 6. I told her there was no way it was going to fit. She said “ah, just step into it and shimmy it up over your hips.” So I did. It was up (how did she know I could even get it up over my hips?) but it wasn’t going to zip. No problem! She pulls it in in the back so I can see what it would look like, like they do on Say Yes to the Dress. Not bad. I liked it. On to the second dress: a ball gown.
The minute I walked out she told me “no no no!” so we didn’t even bother zipping it up.
The third dress looked promising. It zipped. It was my ‘normal’ size. It fit me almost perfectly except for hemming and maybe a few tucks in the back. It got a “wow” from Kim and she’s hard to impress. And here, finally, it is:
Lovely shop; lovely service. It made up for all the bad experiences of the past week.
I hope that when I go back in on Friday for my fitting that I love it as much as I did when I first tried it on. I also hope that the jewelry I bought (at the same shop as the dress) looks good with it once I have it all on. The jury is still out on the necklace though because the top strand keeps turning on me, so I’ll just have to see. I might exchange it for something else. A few people have said I don’t need a necklace, but the dress is pretty plain with only earrings. Opinions? At this point I don’t think I can just say I don’t want the necklace, but hopefully she will let me exchange it for another if it’s just going to drive me crazy by turning over all the time!
And finally, the shoes and the bag.
We are lucky enough to be staying at the same hotel as the event: The Beverly Hills Wilshire which is just off Rodeo Drive. I have made an appointment for an “up-do,” makeup and nails in their salon, so we shall see what magic they will make happen! That will occupy my afternoon on Saturday so I don’t have to worry about what other clothes to bring to fit into the posh atmosphere of the hotel.
I’m glad this part is over with!
P.S. After hearing about my successful gown purchase, Claire and I went back the very next day to the same shop and she bought a gown. In fact, the same style as the first dress I tried on. Success all-around! Now for Kim’s “Mother-of-the-Bride” dress for her son’s wedding in September. And knowing Kim, it’s not going to be “motherly.”
Our sky this morning.
Presents wrapped? Check.
House clean? Check.
Grocery shopping completed? Almost: picking up prime rib today.
Company arrived? On the way!
Snow falling softly outside? Nope.
Really, if you look back at my posts this time of year they all say the same thing. Rain instead of snow. Temperatures in the 40’s. No snow. Bah Humbug. Etc. Every year it’s the same old song, and this year is no different. It can snow back in Colorado, it can snow in Las Cruces, NM where my in-laws live, and it can even snow in Texas. But New Jersey? Nope. Isn’t snow supposed to fall in the North and not the South?
We’ve had about an inch of rain over the past three days. As if we needed anymore of that! The ground is already so saturated that you sink into our yard when you walk on it. Mud is rampant and brought in on the bottom of dogs’ paws. On my freshly scrubbed floor.
But enough of our un-wished for weather! Be gone I say! On with Christmas!
As I type my sister and her hubby are trundling on a train towards us. They will arrive this afternoon and we will pick them up at the local train station after they make their connection at Penn Station in New York City. It will be nice to have them here for the holiday. We have plenty of good meals planned for their stay and a visit to the Oakland Diner (better known as the O.D.) so her hubby can see the diner where they filmed Danielle always eating in The Real Housewives of New Jersey. (They even have a salad named after her.)
So, I’ll be busy for the next few days with company. If I don’t post anything beforehand or during their stay, have a safe and happy holiday wherever you are, no matter what weather you have!
Puddled reflections from last night’s rain:
