A New Year

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope 2006 brings you all good health and happiness. Although 2005 was a difficult year for me in terms of treatments and set-backs (GVHD, shingles, fungal infection), I'm so grateful to my doctor's and the support of my friends and family who are the reason I'm here today. I'm looking forward to continuing my treatment this year and hopefully eventually getting my donor lymphocyte infusion.

As most years, Chris and I had nothing planned for New Year's. Friday morning that all changed a little bit. I went to coffee with some of my TNT friends (we get together every once in a while to catch up) and as always, we talked about everything that has been going on in our lives. We somehow ended up talking about when Chris and I were going to get married. They thought it would be a good idea to jump in the car right then and there and go to Vegas. Funny.

Well, three hours later, Chris, Pebbles, and I were on the road on our way to Vegas. It took about 9 hours to get down there. We checked into the Golden Nugget at around 1am and were extremely exhausted. New Year's Eve we went to the Strip and visited most of the hotels and shopping malls. We were still pretty exhausted from the day before so we went back to the hotel for a little rest and to get my Neupogen shot. Yes, Chris finally was able to give me my shot! After that we headed back to the Strip to meet up with our friend Dave and his friends. We chatted, played a little Keno, drank a little, and then went outside for the countdown. I had a watered down Long Island Iced Tea, which was more than enough for me (things were already spinning and I was seeing double). New Year's Day we woke up early, had breakfast, and headed off to "A Little White Chapel" (where Michael Jordan and Britney Spears got married). After a very brief and cheesy ceremony, we were finally married! Our friend Dave was kind enough to be our witness and photographer. A few minutes later we were back in the car for our 11 hour drive home (traffic and weather were terrible). We stopped by Harris Ranch for a delicious dinner and got home around 11pm. Although this was never how I inteded my wedding to be, I'm more than happy that we finally went through with it. Just one more thing to make 2006
special!