Just another Manic Monday

Back at work.. YAWWWN.
As usual, I worked my hours at Big Box Mart and that pretty much killed my weekend. Suddenly, there's been a resurgence of people out buying crap but most has been necessity items and very little luxury items. On Saturday, I left the kids home and went to see "The Wrestler" with my brother and his friend. I would strongly recommend it. I'm not a big fan of Mickey Rourke as I find him a bit creepy BUT, I saw "9 1/2 weeks" back in the day and that movie just bothered me and I've avoided movies with him in it since. Emily has learned to write her name and she is very excited. She's so excited that her name has been written everywhere, on note cards, on my bills, in my checkbook, on walls, entertainment centers and little scraps of paper she finds lying around. Emily has always loved pens and she knows how to use them! Before she learned to write her name, she drew smiley faces. I have smiley faces drawn on my comforter in highlighter pen. And there is a stick man she drew in pen on the arm of my couch which I noticed before our NYE party. "Well, at least he's smiling" says Joe. I was not smiling. There's a smiley on the couch cushion and she drew a big smiley on Cassie's wall in green Sharpie. Though I tell my older kids to please not leave these writing implements lying around, it's beyond their scope to actually listen to a thing I say and then they whine when they open their notebooks and see that Emily has drawn a smiley there.
All the kids have been home since Thursday since the Chicago area has been hit with snow and cold. It was -15 on Thursday night without the windchill and it has snowed every day at some point. My driveway is getting narrower and narrower while places to put the new snow are getting harder and harder to find. One of my customer told me yesterday that we are only a few inches shy of meeting the record set in the famous triplicate blizzards of 1979. My dad took pictures of the three of us in front of the snow drifts which were at least 5 feet high. I've had my fill of bickering and fighting and can't wait until they go back to school tomorrow. We've entered into a heat wave now so they should be able to trek to the bus stop. It's a balmy 10 degrees. Whip out the shorts and tank tops!!

It's been 6 days since I started the Brivanib. About 20 minutes after I take it, it feels like a shot gunned a beer. My head feels a little light but that lasts maybe 20 minutes. 4 hours after I take the drug, I'm ready to lie down and take a nap and I'm also incredibly thirsty. On Friday, I had such a craving for a huge glass of ice water.... The fatigue lasts about an hour and then I feel fine the rest of the day. After a large glass of water, the thirst goes away and I spend the afternoon running in and out of the bathroom. The first three days, I felt a little nausea around the 4 hour mark but when I had a little food, I felt better. So, so far so good. I was worried after reading the trial overview about two things 1) That the side effects would be so bad, I'd have to leave the study and 2) the drug doesn't work. The first part is no longer a fear...The second...we shall see.