This is gonna make you cry;-)

Happy Monday everyone:-) That is a total oxymoron, no one likes Mondays, and if they do, then there is something wrong with them. I don't trust anyone who likes Mondays.

The weekend was fun, and include a lot of being Nurse. The Boy is really sick...so much so that he is taking today off, which he never does. He stayed at our place all weekend, and has basically been asleep and/or watching football in my bed since Friday night...I had to go to his apartment to get him some stuff yesterday:-( Normally I encourage him to spend as much time as possible in my bed, but I am also kind of paranoid about getting sick, so I haven't spend much time in that bed. What a buzzkil!

I slept in Munchkin's room both Saturday and Sunday, and of course she woke up kind of sick this morning, so I may need to revisit that now, too. She is at school, but I told her she can come home at lunch if she doesn't feel well. They have a science class outside this afternoon, and I would rather she skip being outside all day if she doesn't feel well.

I wanted to write a bit about Saturday night, which was awesome. I guess some of you never got the original story, but every once in a while, Smoking Hot Roommate takes a handful of girls who are being treated at the Dana Farber Cancer hospital out for a "Girls Night Out." It stems from a teenage leukemia patient telling her a couple years back that what she really missed out on most was the regular stuff that teenagers do...the really normal, everyday girly stuff.

So SHR talked to a couple of doctors that she has met during her various charitable endeavors who identify the girls that they think would really benefit. And then she hit up a bunch of businesses to donate things to these girls. Usually a limo or two comes to pick up the girls and drive them to a spa for some pampering...mani's and pedi's and facials and the girls that have hair can get their hair done. Again, just silly girly stuff.

The girls also can bring a friend if they want...and the girls that live around here almost always do. The friends either pay their own way, or the sick girl's parents sometimes pay, or SHR will pay for her if need be...but she doesn't usually want to ask for donations for the friends. Either way, the overall cost is not that steep considering how much good it can do.

Then they go shopping, either somewhere on Newbury St. or at the Copley mall or someplace like that. Ella W asked yesterday who picks up the tab for the shopping, and the answer is that kind of a couple different parties do. Generally stores are pretty willing to give like a $50 gift card to a teenage girl with cancer, especially if it is part of a larger group. Some other donations go to help pay for some of it, too.

And finally they have a fancy dinner somewhere downtown. Again, SHR usually asks that the restaurant pick up the tab for the sick girls and she or someone else pays for the friends and anyone else that is there. Generally the restaurants are more than willing, especially if you have an early reservation (they don't care about donating the food so much as tying up a really big table...but if you sit at 6:00 and they can still book the table at 8:00, that is just fine).

I have gone a couple of times, and it amazes me how positive these girls can remain despite being very ill. It can also be a little depressing...they usually get extremely tired towards the end just because they don't have the strength. And one girl that went on the earliest ventures has since died:-( Another left the hospital, but is back two years later because she has relapsed:-(

I have just always thought it was a really, really nice thing to do. It doesn't make these girls cancer any less serious, and it doesn't do anything to cure the disease. But for these girls, for at least one day, they get to do some of the things that the rest of us take for granted but that they get completely deprived of.

I am gonna finish with one quick note that made me cry...one of the girls this weekend is from Pennsylvania. She is 15, she is a sophomore in High School and she has a rare kind of lymphoma that required her to come to Boston for treatment. Her mother gets here as much as she can, but she has no father and three younger siblings, so her mother can't be here all the time. So, for a large chunk of the month and a half that she has been here, she has been kind of alone.

She was a pretty natural fit to come on this outing, and they had arranged for her best friend to come up to spend the weekend visiting and come out with everyone. Her friend made an appointment to get her hair done while we were at the salon, and then asked the hairdresser to shave her head completely bald so she could look like her friend:-) I think that is a pretty ballsy thing for a 15 year old cheerleader, who is clearly one of the "pretty girls" to do...

Yes, I am crying again...