Long Time No Blog

I've had an incredibly full last month and a half which, alas, did not include setting aside the time to blog. What have I been up to instead?

I hosted a pre-holiday cookie swap. Everyone who came brought cookies and we all hung out, played board games, ate a bunch of cookies, and brought home tons of leftovers. Here are pictures of some of the cookies:

Vegan cookies.

Non-Vegan Cookies.

I went to the Science Museum with Karma, the kid housemates, Karma's girlfriend, her husband, and their kid. Despite a tantrum at lunchtime, it was a pretty good trip.

Secondo and Terzo watch a presentation about rabbits.

I dance about like a weirdo in the light exhibit.

I celebrated Christmas with the housemates. Alas, all of the pictures are identifying photos of children so you only get to see the tree and September's dog:

The Christmas tree!

Doggie presents!

I pet-sat for some truly adorable pets whose humans were out of town. This involved the additional awesomeness of staying in a gorgeous beach house in Rockport MA. Merry Christmas to me! 

Doggie woods walk.

Cat cuddles!

And here's the dog stealing my spot on the couch.

Isn't this a gorgeous picture of the ocean?

Another beautiful picture of the ocean and sky.

In sad news, September moved to California on January 1st, taking the puppy with him. They both seems happy there, though, and his new apartment looks awesome so that's good.

And…

Last but most personally important, I had surgery to remove all of my reproductive organs. This was both necessary and planned for so it's actually a good thing. I had already banked my gametes in preparation, which was a supremely awkward process (I'll spare you the details). I was nervous about this surgery but also ready to get it over with and enjoy my life as a eunuch - ideally sans frustrating health stuff. There was a loooong delay in surgery the waiting room so I made friends with the very charismatic man next to me who was waiting for a knee replacement. After that, I went in, had surgery, and woke up feeling good enough (and doped up enough) that I tried to convince the nurses that I could walk to my room instead of being wheeled in the bed. Apparently I was quite entertaining. Overall, I think the worst part of surgery was having a catheter - I think they scraped something putting it in because it was truly unpleasant and even after they took it out (early, because I was threatening to yank it out myself) peeing kind of sucked. On the plus side, I asked nicely and my surgeon gave me pictures of the surgery! I'm not posting them because I know not everyone wants to see my internal organs, but I was super psyched about it and I'm keeping them forever. Anyway, once I left the hospital it was smooth sailing and I had a nice break to play video games, watch movies, and read. Ultimately, this was a good decision. And now I'm back to work and feeling better than I did before surgery.

Diagram with Gametes on top and Baby on bottom showing that babies come from gametes.

That said, the best part of this story is that my friends truly showed up for me…

Pacman signed up to be my health care proxy and called me regularly to check in and see how I was doing. Bruno came for surgery day, held my hand during a variety awkward and painful procedures, and then slept overnight in the hospital chair so I wouldn't be by myself. Alice stayed for the weekend after surgery and did all manner of random chores that I was unable to do for myself, including pharmacy runs and middle-of-the-night medication dispensing. Tea stopped by multiple times with a variety of delicious homemade meals. Karaoqueen, Frisbeast, and Bachata all visited (on different days) to help me out and keep me entertained with chatting, board games, movies, and video games. Surrogate Mom brought me medication, hot chocolate, and homeopathic remedies. Housemates Karma and Plum picked up all of my slack while I was a useless lump on the couch. Primo read to me from his comic book and taught me to play Super Mario Brothers so I wouldn't be bored. Terzo drew me pictures to decorate my hospital room and kept trying to tuck me in on the couch whenever I took off my blanket. Secondo broke his thumb and had to get a pin put in it while I was in the hospital, so he became my recovery buddy and we cuddled on the couch watching Phineas and Ferb and SheZow. And then there were all of my far-away friends (and both of my bosses) who called and texted to check in and make sure I was doing ok. So basically I got lots of love from everyone! 

I'm reciprocate it now with a selfie of very drugged up me in the hospital :P

Hospital selfie.