Hello. I woke up this morning and I felt terrible. I’m starting to notice patterns of my symptoms post-chemo and am able to predict how to respond which is useful. I managed to get myself out of bed and got myself a very special present! A vitamix blender!

Holy cow is this an amazing device! It is expensive but it makes things so darn creamy and well mixed! This morning I made a smoothie with kale, almond butter, almond milk, and some other stuff thrown in. It didn’t taste so good because I wasn’t really paying attention but more interested in testing it out. But I did notice a burst of energy from drinking so much fresh raw kale! Yeah! I just made a pureed soup in it too and it was so comforting. I am officially part of the vitamix club. Did you know that it cleans itself! You just add some soap and turn it back on and then rinse it. So easy!

So to get myself out of the house we went to the New York Botanical Gardens. I’d been wanting to go there for awhile to see the Wild Medicine exhibition but it was a little underwhelming. The Four Seasons sculptures were funny. Here I am in front of the summer one:

I took the first picture in the post of these lovely lotus flowers we saw there. They were so unusual looking! I think I’ve finally got the hang of my fancy camera’s shallow depth of field! Haha. So my tooth saga is unfortunately not totally over. It’s been aching still so my doctor said to take another round of antibiotics and go back to an oral surgeon if it’s still hurting this week. I’ve been really worrying about it which probably doesn’t help. But it’s just frustrating to have to deal with something like this on an already heavy load if you know what I mean. I should have grabbed some leaves off this plant:

I wish there was a medicinal plant for crankiness/irritability. Hahahaha. That’s one of the “side effects” I’ve been noticing in the immediate days following chemo once the steroids wear off. Maybe the drugs affect your serotonin levels or something. Once I got myself out of bed, I so desperately wanted to practice mindfulness and be relaxed today and I was having a real hard time. This may sound crazy but one little thing that has really been helping me in the past few days is this adorable little fern I bought at the Union Sq Greenmarket on Friday. He’s just so cute and charming! Steve and I named him Franz. That’s why I was so excited to go to the Botanical Gardens today in hopes of connecting with all the plants in nature in a Disney-esque whimsical number. But I ended up being a cranky-pants who should have brought more snacks and I lost my Ray-Bans. Oh well. Tomorrow is another day and I get to play with my Vitamix. Happy Sunday to all! xoxo