With a Little Help from My Friends

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The middle of winter can certainly start to wear you down. Dreary days, snow and ice, and a lot of cabin fever are what typically make up my midwest winters...brrrr! Adding daily radiation and other treatments to the mix makes this winter especially taxing for me. Thankfully, I have some really great friends looking out for me.

I specifically want to mention my friends that comprise my book club, The Sidebar. Over the past two years (and some odd months), we have all become extremely close. What started out as just a group of passionate bibliophiles became a misfit family of...passionate bibliophiles. In addition to our constant book babble, we have discussed everything else...from food to sex, politics to sports, disease to death. Sometimes the convos are highly entertaining. Sometimes the convos are heartbreaking. But, no matter what, we always feel the love.

I was truly blessed to feel LOTS of love from my fellow Sidebarians over the past couple of weeks...

We recently exchanged gifts with each other (which has always been an extremely exciting enterprise). Typically, we like to do the exchange in December before the holidays, but due to horrible weather in the UK, a few of our members had difficulty getting packages delivered, so we had a very big delay. (My package sat unopened for over a month...sheer torture!) However, the wait was, of course, well worth the rewards.

Lorena ended up with my name and I ended up with hers! What are the odds? (Actually, I also had her name last year, too...crazy!) Well, she spoiled me. Check out the swag:

A stack of goodies!!

 

Notepads, a pencil, and a handmade bookmark!

3 BOOKS!! (Hello, lovers...)

Bel-Ami - Guy de Maupassant

The Collected Stories of Richard Yates

Oblomov - Ivan Goncharov (signed by Miss Lorena)

See? Truly spoiled rotten. And that's not all...

This week I also had another surprise package turn up. A box from Amazon hit my doorstep and I was absolutely baffled. I've been trying to be so good with my book buying this year. (Okay, so I had a bit of a splurge at a library sale a few weeks ago. Sue me.) I ripped open the box and found this lovely note:

"HOPING THIS ARRIVES ONE DAY WHEN YOU'VE BEEN AT A TREATMENT. (ALSO HOPING YOU DON'T HAVE IT ALREADY.) THINKING OF YOU ALL THE TIME."

-- JEN F. & FELLOW SIDEBARIANS

(Doesn't that just make your heart sing?!?)

Also tucked away in the box was this beauty:

A new book journal!

I'll tell you what, this little surprise was a ray of sunshine during an otherwise blah week. It made me smile from ear to ear and it is a gesture that I will never forget. 

Many thanks to Jen & company!! You sure know how to treat a gal right!

So, now I have the fixins for a snowy, blowy winter day...

BLISS!