stubborn as ever

my mother started radiation therapy on tuesday, the first of her daily visits for a six-week period. she had a simulation last week where they permanently marked the area for radiation, almost like tattoos. she had an abdominal ultrasound last week to try and determine the cause of her unexplained weight loss and stomach issues. she also had some unusual things come up in her blood work, most notably an elevated something-liver-related (dunno what the proper term for it is). when she meets with her primary care doc next she'll find out the results of this. despite all this, she seems to be in good spirits. she's in the beginning stages of quitting smoking (yay!) and is being aided by zyban in doing so.

***

if last year was my year of travel (utah, maui, new york twice, various trips to tahoe) then this is my year of travel on the cheap. i'm going to seattle and vancouver in april for the sum of 20,000 miles and a whopping $5. i'm going with my friend matt, who will be attending a conference that is paid for by his work. yay for free lodging! i'm also going to vegas sometime hopefully soon with some tickets gifted to me by my folks, long beach in july for a wedding (driving down and free lodging) orange county for my cousin's wedding in september (more driving and free lodging) and a couple of other similar trips as well.

***

i'm stocking up on polaroid film now. bastards! and just after i finally bought a polaroid camera last month! last week's haul brought me three packs at a 20% discount.

***

i'm seeing more movies than ever lately, 18 last month and 17 this month thus far. in related news, i canceled my cable tv and am relying on netflix and especially its "watch it now" feature. i saw a disturbing documentary last week that i can't get out of my head. stupid me decided to watch it just before going to bed. ijit!

***

speaking of movies, i called up my moms on saturday and asked her to a movie. she chose a horrid one (welcome home roscoe jenkins, as she digs martin lawrence) but it was definitely more about spending time together than what we saw. we had dinner together afterwards and had a lovely afternoon and evening together. 'course my sister, once she got word of what we'd done, thought i was conspiring against her to spend more time with our mother and thought i was trying to "out-do" her. sibling rivalry rears its ugly head, i suppose.

***
i had monday off, and went to santa cruz, my president's day tradition of doing so is in its fourth year. the weather wasn't great, but i had a good time photographing the beach, boardwalk and downtown. i did some antique (window) shopping, photoboothing, and lots of walking.