6 months down...1 more trip to go! (Well, 2, if you count the follow-up leukophoresis trip...but I'm not, right now!!)

Ruthie and I just finished the next to last Peptide Vaccine and Anti PD1 infusion trip! The trip down went fine....no scans, no hostility. The visit was fine with the NP (everything is always fine with her!). Then, we won the lottery and had our bestest one nurse Jackie!!! IV's were started..and didn't ache the entire time. Vaccines were given as painlessly as possible and all medicine invested was injected!!! (If that's a good thing?!!!) The trip back was easy peasy, got an earlier flight, seats together, NO scans, AGAIN, even though we were brain dead and didn't even remove our packets of explosive hair spray, shampoo and mousse into our lovely grey buckets....leaving them to be scanned in their special, less-than-3-ounce-containers, ensconced within their super duper plastic zip lock baggies, WITHIN, the confines of a suitcase!!!! HORRORS!!!!! Yet, no one cared in the least!

We dealt with yet another bizarre rental car employee. Second time, actually. When renting from Alamo (which I don't really advise, though it is better than Budget) you have to make a reservation. Woe be unto those who fail to complete THAT step. You MUST appear with the SAME credit card in which the reservation was made. (They don't tell you that...neither do the other guys...though they all require it!!) You have to deal with a person at the counter who is usually in a bad mood and angrily insists that you buy extra insurance (which you don't need if you use a credit card...which you must....and if you have car insurance on your car at home...Readers Digest even says so!!!) and really expensive gas from them. But, if you are lucky, which we were this time, the kiosk thingy will be functioning, and you can do this step without human intervention, by punching computer buttons and sliding various cards in slots. Still, after this, you must walk out to the cars and go to the section with the label of the car type you have rented. You must understand this is a very fluid label. I have driven all manner of cars over the past 6 months. Sometimes they are parked in the "mid size" section, sometimes they are designated as "compacts". The past is irrelevant. Where the car is parked today is all that matters. Once you have picked your car, you must drive to the attendant in the glass box and start over. They must inspect your credit card, driver's license, rental ticket, and a hangy label thingy from the car itself. After a certain amount of fluster they will give you back some of these things and tell you that you may leave. Sometimes there are "floor walkers" (if you remember these from the children's book, Babar the Elephant). They are not always present. Some are helpful and others are not, but they are there to assist you in finding the cars you have ostensibly rented. Last time, a chubby, hale and hearty gentleman, yelled at me and Ruth from across the car park, "Are you with them?" Looking about, we replied, "No." "Are you with them?" he yells again. "No, we are just us!" "Good!" he says, while the people he indicates are still in view and within hearing. (We never knew what that was about!) "What can I do for you two ladies? Nice hair. You can see I don't have any!" Slightly bemused, confused regarding whose hair, and why, I reply, "We are just looking for the compacts." "Compacts? No way! Let me upgrade you!" (Who does he think he is? Beyonce?) Ruth says, "We don't need any extra space or charges." "Oh, no, no!! This is on me!" This went on and on. We picked a horrifying orange Dodge something....merely because on the time before we had had a grayish Toyota, as has everyone else in the world, and we would lose it every time we left it anywhere!!! He seemed a bit incredulous about our choice, but WOULD NOT LEAVE!!!! I whispered to Ruth, "Am I supposed to tip him?" A procedure we had never seen used in that circumstance, but I stood ready to invest in it if it would make him go away....which, FINALLY, he did. Low and behold....as we are walking in on this trip....who do we see canvasing the area?.....BALDY!!! We try sneaking in the direction we know we need to go on our own... "What can I do for you ladies?!!!!" "Just looking for the compacts." "Where are you coming from?" (A. What's it to you? B. This is a trick question for us because Ruthie is from Alabama/Prattville...I am from TN/Chattanooga/Signal Mountain....) I pause. Ruthie steps up to the plate..."Chattanooga," she says, with remarkable calm! "Oh, Chattanooga! I love your aquarium! It's marvelous. I was there with my wife. I am divorced now. I love the aquarium in Chattanooga. When I got back from that trip with my wife (I divorced her and..) I called our aquarium and I told them they were nothing but a fish bowl! Nothing but a fish bowl!!!" Ruthie's calm has departed. "Really?" I reply. "It IS nice. Glad you liked it." "Yeah. Ours is nothing but a fish bowl. That's what I told them!" "Well, that's OK. You've got the ocean." "We don't have the ocean, that's on the other side." "Well, OK...(Weird little fat man!)...you have the bay. Large body of salty water with fish in it!" (That part I really said!) "Nothing but a fish bowl!"......OMG! We are getting desperate now! No cars have been discussed. Ruthie and I have been walking steadfastly toward the compacts of which there are 3 sad varieties. All looking like the kind of cars little kids draw. We opt for a red one....which turns out to be a Chevy Cobalt.....(Whatever you do...don't invest in one of those...better than a Volkswagen Jetta....yes...but barely! Just don't!) And...as odd as it may sound, Ruthie and I like to smell our cars before we commit to them...we really hate the smell of old cigarette smoke...and other odors can be alarming as well!! But, we were in dire straits! We hopped in! Smells be damned! We adjusted mirrors and set up the GPS with lightening speed! I couldn't see out of the windshield because it was so nasty, but damn the torpedoes.... we plow straight ahead. But, what to our wondering eyes should appear? Someone is already in front of us and stopped at the little glass box, and Fatty Patty Chatty is standing right along side. We are now a captive audience with the window rolled down! "So....where are you ladies off to in Tampa?" "Oh, here and there", Ruthie answers in a vague, disinterested sort of way. "Oh, shopping?" "No, cancer therapy," I reply. "Sort of the opposite of shopping...really." The man starts swimming through the air backwards...his face looking much like I imagine his nether regions were puckered...."Oh, well, you'll be next, right after this car!" I almost guffawed with hysterical laughter right in his face, but worked hard not to do so....lest he think it was a joke and start up talking again.....but, as far as I know...he is still walking backwards...his face in a pucker!!!!!

We took a scenic route, in our nasty red Chevy Cobalt...we kept feeling it should be blue...and clean...with an incredibly odd and annoying cricket-like sound when the air conditioner was on. A sound that could be temporarily diminished by twisting the air up to full force for a few minutes and back down again....to a nice restaurant Kik had suggested. Then, we headed back to the better La Quinta....which had supposedly been booked last time and we had stayed in a sketchy La Quinta...so much so that we put the large overstuffed chair in front of the door to bar intruders....but I digress.... We were back to our home away from home and the treatment went as well as it could as I noted before.

Here's to you, Ruthie! And our combined ability to adapt!!!! c