September

September was one crazy busy month! In my last post I was getting ready for fall and had found a treasure trove of energy to help me through it. That energy did not last long after that day, but I am glad that I was able to get so much done when I did have it. That is a lesson to take advantage of my "good energy" days.

My last post was on the third and that upcoming weekend was the Lobster Festival. I get some extra money by stuffing the will call tickets, it is not too taxing a job. I go to my friend's house, she is in charge of the ticket pre-sales, I get a printed sheet of name labels with the amount and type of tickets ordered. I sit on the couch with boxes of blank envelopes and rolls of tickets. First, I put the name label on the envelope and then I put the corresponding tickets into the envelope and make sure everything is alphabetized. I usually stuff tickets on the Wednesday and Thursday before the Festival since it starts on Friday. I wind up with an average of 4 boxes of tickets.

This time it was different. Tickets had been sold on Amazon local and the numbers doubled the usual count of tickets I stuff. Plus there were also two new tickets that could be sold for a lobster roll and lobster on a stick. That gave me five different tickets and double the amount of tickets. I worked as fast as I could but I still only made it through the letter "L" after six hours. I knew I would have to be over even earlier the next day, not only to catch up from where I left off, but there would also be more ticket orders that had come in since the day before that also needed to be stuffed and alphabetized.  I arrived around noon and started working. I did not finish until 10pm, by that time my eyes were starting to cross from looking at the same tickets. I wound up with a grand total of eight boxes full, twice the usual amount. That was much more exhausting than the usual ticket stuffing.
On Saturday I went down to the Lobster Festival. I arrived around 10am to help with setting up the ephoto booth. Not only is my friend the graphic designer and in charge of ticket pre-sales, she also has an ephoto booth that she works at during the three days of the festival. I did not go down on Friday, I had things to do, including continuing my job search and some errands to run. I usually only go down to the festivals for one day, it is all I can handle. I don't really do much at the festival other than help with set up and occasionally I will walk around the festival taking pics for the website. At least I got some lobster! yum! I think the heat really gets to me the longer I stay at a festival and it takes me a couple of days to recover. My body really can't handle the heat at all anymore. I get overheated and then start feeling sick. I spend a few hours at the festival and then head home.
As I suspected, I was really not feeling well by the time I got home. It took me two days to really recover and start feeling good again. At least the festivals were over for the year.
I found out that my ex boyfriend's aunt had been diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, which is a smooth muscle cancer. Hers was located on her uterus, so she had to get the same surgery as I had, a radical hysterectomy. Her cancer is very rare and the doctors don't really know much about it so her treatment will be different from mine. Since I am the only one that really knows what she is going through, I have been talking to her about her treatment and her fears. She is really having a hard time coping with it, especially since someone close to her passed away from cancer the year before. I am glad that my story and experiences can help her. I have managed to calm her fears as much as they can be calmed considering the treatments she is going through. I told her to call me anytime, that she was not going through this alone. I am glad that I can help others that are going through something like this. I did not have anyone that really understood what I was going through. I had support and love from friends and family, but no one really understood. That is why people that are going through cancer really need to connect with others that are going through the same kind of cancer. I am a member of several groups on Facebook for survivors and people that are just starting their journey. We can be there for each other, it really makes a difference.

Somehow, during these past two weeks, I did get enough energy to be able to finish going through my final bookcase. I have a couple more things that I want to do, like cleaning the linen closet and the fridge and then I will be ready for the holidays. One step at a time and I will get there...