Yes, Oakland used to have trolleys, too! We're gonna get our engagement photos done in a few weeks. My friend Julie is coming all the way up from Fresno to do them! She rocks! Very excited about that and really appreciate that she'll do that for us. We're going to do them here! Treasure Island across the bay from SF. Really pretty. Hopefully, it'll be sunny that day. Yes, there are flat areas there to sit and stuff. It's the first place we went to talk and kiss so it's special to us. I was staying with a friend there before I got my permanent place in Oakland with my friend, Laurel. I also met with a wedding photographer today. I really liked him and his photos so we may have a fit there. I'll meet one more later and hopefully Drew can come with me this time. He's been running a fever yesterday and today so he couldn't go anywhere. We're watching it closely.

Here's the cute tea set Drew's mom gave me. Look at the little Chinese restaurant style cups. Plus now I finally have a teapot with an infuser so I can get loose tea leaves. I have developed a higher palate for tea so that I hate the cheap paper bag ones now. They taste really sulphury or something. ANYWAY, very nice.

Drew has just told me he's not sure he can marry me now that he knows I prefer wheat to white bread. Packaged. I have no aversion to French bread or sourdough but like Rainbo-Yelch! So, you may need to find some other plans on July 22, next year...(Disclaimer: No! Please don't make other plans! We'll find a way to survive as a dual bread type household!)

So apparently, the wound surgeon and the plastic surgeon are playing phone tag. Makes us feel better to know that we aren't the only ones who can't get thru. Other doctors can't either! They will try to set up a surgery soon. I have been doing his dressing changes this week because the home care, Crescent, that was doing it before has stopped. They specialize in IV's so they weren't going to continue now that his antibiotics are done. We like the Crescent nurses. Honestly, it pisses me off. I'm not his nurse and I don't think it's right for me to take on that role. It undermines our relationship as fiance and fiancee. Yes, there is a female version of the word. It's French so I know ;) Anyway, we are working on getting another home care but he has a limited number of home visits to be covered by his health insurance, too. They are jerks, too. His case manager is a witch, I've talked to her.

Totally off subject if you're looking for a good book, I'm in the middle of an early (may be her first) Margaret Atwood, called The Edible Woman, that I really like. It's from 1969. It is sort of like a Catcher in the Rye from the female perspective. And if you've read The Dive From Clausen's Pier, it definitely influenced Ann Packer. When I was between classes, I went to the library to study. It was sitting on the table I sat at. Someone had left it so I picked it up and started reading it. In 2 hrs I read over 100 pages. So it really pulls you in. Anyway, enough book talk.

Drew's very happy to have the laptop. He has to be in bed about 23 hrs a day. I do think the tract (tunnel) off the main opening of his 2nd wound is healing a little more the last couple of days, so maybe my dressings aren't that bad. Please continue to send us good thoughts for healing. I know this sounds self-piteous but I feel like hurricane Katrina is a metaphor for my life this last year. I feel like I was flooded by some natural disaster with nothing to grab onto. And that some of those supposedly close friends reacted slowly to help me or not at all. Instead of the friends close by, who had a "contract" to do something (like those local and state, Louisiana officials) it was new friends and some further away who came out of the woodwork to support me. People I hadn't even met in some cases. It always surprises you who really makes the effort and who doesn't. Weird analogy I know but it struck me nonetheless. But I'll just say there has been some disappointment for me with some people this year. Nothing new, it happens. But anyone who thinks all this gets easier, it just doesn't. You do what you can to keep going and try to stay positive but I would never be adverse to a shoulder to lean on. And I really appreciate those you've extended one to me.