WHAT A BUSY WEEKEND

My busy weekend started on Thursday night. I had a wonderful dinner with Gary, Debbie and Kathy Conley at John Ash. It was so great to see Kathy. Chef Tom came out and said hi. He was so concerned that I eat good things for my heart. He made sure my steak and everything I ate had little or no salt. It was a very nice evening.

Friday was a very special day. I was able to attend the client appreciation lunch at Tommy Toys. This is a very special day for my clients and alot of them take the entire day off to enjoy the seven course meal. Tommy Toys is a very famous San Francisco restaurant. Alot of you don't know what kind of work I do. I work for a commercial collection agency. I don't collect on medical or dental bills but for commercial accounts like food, beverage, radio, TV etc. My clients are mostly commercial large accounts such as San Francisco Chronicle, Youngs Market, Sysco Foodservice, US Foodservice and many more. The luncheon on Friday is for our clients to say thank you for the business during the year and for a holiday celebration. The meal is seven courses of Chinese French. I couldn't have alot of the courses because I can't have shell fish anymore. So I changed the menu. It was so good. I had five courses. My clients could not believe I was there and I knew how important it was to be there. I'm glad I went. I came home and crashed. I slept until 7:30PM and then Mark woke me up because I had to start dinner and take all my medicines. I slept really good last night too!

Today as usual I got up at 5:00AM and read the newspaper with Mark. I started my spaghetti sauce. Cousin Maria called and said her and Mike were coming up to visit. We had so much fun. Mike watched football with Mark in the bar room with the guys and Maria and I watched - Guess what! Sex in the City. They stayed for dinner and then had to leave. The weather was really bad outside - the fog was terrible. I was tired and went to bed so early and now its 1:00AM and I'm wide awake. I have a lot of trouble sleeping and going to bed so early didn't help. I'll play with my new lap top and hopefully get tired and go to sleep. I think I'll do some of my Italian lessons to pass the time.

I have asked my donor family if it would be ok to post a blog about Jazmin including pictures of her and her family. I want my family and friends to meet my angel. I'm writing a draft because I feel it is so important to be sure it is thoughtful and considerate of my donor family's feelings. So I don't want to rush. I'm so happy to have them in my life and can't wait to meet them personally.

I read Kevin's blog and he started the second chemo drug Valcade. Kevin received his heart transplant on 8-15-08, just about 6 weeks ahead of me. Therefore, starting the second chemo drug will be ok. I will talk to him today to see how it is going. I know the drug is given by infusion at least twice weekly, so I'll find out how he feels and what other side effects there are. I can not believe the side effects these drugs including all the heart medicines have. I had my face waxed entirely on Saturday to remove all the hair growth. It would be nice if the hair grew on your head and not on your face. HAHA! Well this is a small price to pay to have this second chance at life.

Well I think I'll play with my Italian tapes for a while and hopefully start to get sleepy. This week, I'll be going to the heart center on Tuesday for the support group meeting. I'm excited to see my heart transplant friends, doctors and nurses. It will be a big day!

Make moments in time that take your breath away! Give to others during this holiday season. Make a special moment in someone else's life. I have so many special moments to be thankful for and pray to God each day for the gifts I have in my life.

love,

debbie