Sunday Morning

I get my money back. Trevor did not do chores. He came home with a friend from band practice and played all day. The young man was picked up only moments before I arrived home. I am glad they had fun, but today we will try and tackle the mess together. That will not be fun.



My niece has introduced the boys to Saturday Night Live. I went to bed, kicking the dog and the cats out of my room. I slept soundly, only occasionally disturbed by the laughter from downstairs. They could have stayed up all night for all I knew in the end. I loved the sound sleep for once.

The scratching at the door I at first ignored, then yell "No". An hour later the scratching was back. Light shined through the windows, I knew it was morning. The clock said 7:30am which means it was only 6:50 am. Tom keeps the bed room clock at least a half hour fast for psychological reasons. We are rarely late for work, if when looking at the clock first thing in the morning we already think we are running late.

The cats are lined up at the door with the dog standing behind them waiting his turn in last place. There does seem to be something wrong with that order. In our house the cats rule over the dog. They are please that the door is opening, but everyone waits for my invitation to enter before crossing the threshold, cats first.

I crawl back in bed with a cat meowing on my pillow, letting me know he did not appreciate being shut out of my room all night. The dog leaps up on the bed and waits for his invitation to crawl under the covers and curl up next to my belly before he will settle down. The other cat lay on the floor, content just to be back in the Queen's royal room.

We all fall back to sleep for another hour, but the light coming in prevents me from finding the deep oblivion again for long. I get up and check on the boys. They are sound asleep. I wake Trevor and ask how late they stayed up. It takes a few minutes to wake him, he is so deeply asleep. He mumbles and moans in complaint, finally he says they only stayed up until the show ended. It seemed a lot later to me last night. I couldn't see the clock without making an effort so I didn't look last night when I heard the laughter. Besides they were having fun and it's vacation. Riley is good about putting himself to bed when he is tired. Trevor wouldn't have stayed up downstairs without company. So they probably did go to bed after the show was over.

I will let them sleep in a little, but Riley needs to take his pills fairly close to on schedule. We let it go an hour or two, but try to be consistent. Mornings are good. He takes them right before catching the bus, 7:55 am. That gives him most of the evening to choose when to take them at night.

I was so please with his numbers, 123,000 platelets. That was a great leap. It was like the leap from 64, 000 to 95,000 he had before. With any luck perhaps he will have another great leap, defy the odds. There is a small group,(very small), 10% that do recover and do not relapse using this treatment. Tom is not placing any bets, but I am keeping my hopes up. The doctor was able to put Tom off with the numbers improving again. He also extended our time on the drugs. Nine months is now a year on the cyclosporine.

Cyclosporine is an immune suppressant. It is hard on the kidneys and liver. He will be weaned off slowly when it it happens. The blood levels will be watched closely again. He must remember to drink lots of fluids while taking the drugs to prevent damage to his organs. He is a teenager, not always the most reliable. He has been a real trooper through all of this, but then he hasn't had much choice.

So the boys sleep on this wet and damp morning, enjoying the opportunity to sleep in. I wont spoil it, but at some point I will get them up. They can't sleep all day. Tonight I am taking them to dinner and the symphony with Margaret and Hugh. They will dress up.

It is amazing what clothes do to their personalities. When they dress up they seem to realize that more is expected of their behavior. I feel like I have real pending adult children for once. Perhaps its because we are doing an activity. But Trevor definitely doesn't behave this nice respectful way as well when we go to Bullwinkels for the end of season parties. There he ditches me for the games and disappears. He sits with his friends and leaves me to fend for myself. When we do the symphony, the boys stay close. They carry on conversations. They love to stand in line and order drinks and desserts from the counter before the performance and at the intermission. I get comments from total strangers about how pleased they are to see young people attending the concerts and how well my boys behave.

The symphony only costs $10 for students. The concerts are never sold out. They want to encourage young musicians and future patrons, give them the opportunity to hear the concerts. My seat on the other hand runs about $75. You get a big break for season tickets or senior citizen tickets.

I just can't pull it off that often. Late nights and the long drive home discourage me from going very often. Margaret lives close into town. It is easier for her less than ten minutes from downtown. She does motivate me to come out on occasion, such as we are doing tonight. It will be fun and special and the boys will love it.

Last time we went to the symphony, Trevor had a smile ear to ear stuck on his face as he absorbed the sounds. It looked like the music plucked his soul. Riley looked at it more like his father the engineer. The impressive timing of getting 30 to 50 people all playing different instruments in time with each other, like cogs in a giant well oiled machine. Each piece doing its part to perfection.

Now I just have to choose one of my party dresses to wear. I bought a great Ann Taylor skirt at the thrift store for $5. It is an incandescent blue and brown tones. I am going to have trouble finding a top to coordinate with it. But it was such a lovely skirt I couldn't leave it. Almost time to wake the boys. I was enjoying the quiet.