SO CLOSE!

Hey Guys,

So I'm thrilled to announce that I just took my last dose of Procarbazine (my oral chemo) - the final four pills! I've got a week more of steroids, and then I'll basically be done with all of my pills... Tomorrow at 2pm I have my appointment for my last IV chemo, and that will be it for the "hard drugs" (haha)

I've had a really great weekend - I got to spend a bunch of time with some of my friends, and even got to hang out with a kid I haven't seen since high school (normally I don't particularly like running into some of the people I run into from high school, but sometimes it can be a lot of fun!)

Friday I didn't really get up to much, because I wasn't feeling so hot and James was pretty tired after work, but Saturday was a TON of fun! William and I went over to the Cincinnati Nature Center, which is this amazing park with old log cabins and abandoned buildings and ponds to explore. We spent a good amount of time running through fields and climbing trees (something I haven't done in SO LONG). I'm disappointed that I'd left my camera in my car (and Brian had to drive it) so I didn't get to take any pictures - it would have been the perfect day! The sky was so clear and it hit just above 70 - perfect weather! After I got back from the park, my dad and I went out and had some dinner - everyone else was out (Brian at rehearsal and my mom picking up Andrew from Bloomington), so we had a lot of fun at Applebee's (where I hadn't been in years, probably). I ordered the "small portion" of steak, and I'm glad I did, because I got a giant plate full of steak (well, a small steak) and SO MUCH steamed zucchini. I'm always happy when the "seasonal vegetable" at restaurants is steamed zucchini or broccoli or something, because then I can fill up on veggies and not eat so much bad stuff. Plus steamed or grilled zucchini is one of my absolute favorite foods. When I'm in my apartment on my own, I'm pretty sure I have zucchini cooked some way with almost every meal (I recently discovered via Food Network that you can shred zucchini into super-delicious pasta - one of my new favorite things to do!)

Saturday night after James got off work, I drove him, William, Stewart (James' roommate from college and someone we went to high school with) out to Newport to Bar Louie for drinks. I don't think I've really seen Stewart since high school, so that was pretty cool to get to hang out with him! I like going to bars with a bunch of guys - it's a totally different experience than going with a bunch of girls. It's always interesting to see the guys' perspective bar culture...

Today I woke up surprisingly sore from my jaunt in the park yesterday - I'm so out of shape, and hadn't realized it until I exerted a little bit of energy to run around! I'm actually pretty embarrassed about how tired I got and how sore I was this morning! I spent most of the day just hanging out, but this evening my mom & I went to see the show that James has been working on at Playhouse in the Park. It's called Three Sisters, and if you're in the Cincinnati area, you should definitely go check it out! I was kind of worried that it would be over my head, but I actually enjoyed it a lot! It's not too long, and it's pretty dramatic so there's a lot to pay attention to.

I'll update you guys tomorrow and let you know how the FINAL DAY goes! Hopefully I'll also find out when my scans are and when I can get my port out! Dr Adams said as long as the scans are as good as they were the last time, I should be able to get my port out within  a week of having them done, which means probably sometime the week before Christmas (I'm waiting to have my scans til finals are over at school so I don't miss any more class).

Goodnight!
Lots of Love,
Lauren