My first day back home my friends surprised me by hanging all my art. I cried. AMAZING gift.

Including this gorgeous piece by the spectacularly talented, very dear Christian Beijer (www.cbeijer.com)

And these beautiful ceramic butterflies and floating saucers created by my insanely talented friend Jennifer Prichard (www.jpricharddesign.com)

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary! Way to go mom and dad!!!

This gorgeous, loving, nurturing woman got me out of the house. I was in pain here, and so, so tired, and kind of whacked out, and I was incredibly happy to see her.

Julianna took me to Johnson’s Backyard Garden to volunteer and get my hands dirty in some vegetable bagging. Found this happy guy along the way. (www.jbgorganic.com)

My BFF from high school brought her girls to visit. It had been entirely too long and we’re never doing that again. Ever. Love her so much!

Stuffed my niece, Lilly, with ice cream. It was summer and she’s constantly on the move, and I was gone a lot, and it seemed like a great way to spend time. Sorry, Moni, I know y’all try to go low on the sugar, but I would totally do it again. And we did the locally made, incredible ice cream at Lick, so it kind of doesn’t count. (www.ilikelick.com)

The next week my BFF’s from college came to visit. We bought matching skirts and someday I will play the cancer card and make them wear them out with me…in the same city when we’re all together. These women are hysterical.

Our other BFF was unable to make it, but had her assistant photoshop her into the photo. She flew in for the night by way of Las Vegas the next week.

Had a ridiculously fun night of Yacht Rock with some of my absolutely, positively, favorite ladies in the world. They take care of me ALL the time. A lot.

JT, my roommate and sister wife, made me the best piña colada ever, and put up with me as I recovered. Thank you very much!

I went out to some of my besties farm quite a bit and got real peaceful in the country. This is Texas, y’all, and it’s beautiful. Not pictured is my gorgeous hostess who is taking the photo, but her brother is standing behind the Jeep and I love him a lot, too.

One of the friend loves of my life took me to Las Vegas for 13 hours. We saw Le Reve and it was SPECTACULAR!

Then she took me to Britney Spears. So exciting. We did it to be campy, but during the performance she learned I’m actually a fan. Mainly because I knew the words to all the songs.

This is us. She left Burning Man to do this for me. Not pictured is dinner at Tao and Snoop Dog dj’ing. Come hell or high water she was going to make sure I had a fabulous hurrah before my surgery. Job well done. Well, well done.

The next day we flew to San Francisco. I just like this photo of her sitting on the Sky Train.

From SF we drove to Healdsburg, in the Sonoma wine country, to stay with a dear friend. Such good quality time with people I love a whole bunch.

Two days later we drove back to SF and visited some other besties in Marin and SF. We dined well, we laughed a lot, and got to catch up with the Cali crew. By this point I felt AMAZING! By the way, no one will like this photo, but it was the one I had. Sorry. Love you ladies.

The weekend before my surgical prep week at MD Anderson, a good friend took us out on his boat. It was the first time I was in the water all summer and it felt like heaven. I was plenty healed and figured since they were about to slice me open anyway, that it didn’t really matter. Please note my fantastic necklace by Cristina Pessoa. It’s the church on the quadrado in Trancoso, Bahia, Brazil, and it reminds me of many happy times. (www.cristinapessoa.com)

The perfect late summer day in Austin. I love them so much.

And the next night THIS happened! Gorgeous friend from SF came to Austin! My love cup is running over!

The weekend before my surgery we had a big ‘ole party at Justine’s. They accommodated a massive group of some of my favorite people in the whole entire world. I was schnockered and hadn’t felt that good in over a year. This is one of my oldest friends. (www.justines1937.com)

And these people I love very, very much. Like family. I see a Juarez de Clampett and a couple of schnauckles. La familia.

For some reason I don’t have photos of the fun stuff we did together, but I don’t know if I could breathe without these two ladies, and of course this gentleman. This is an old photo taken right before my 40th birthday. I can’t even describe what a good time this was.

And this fabulous creature on the right (and of course KK in the middle already pictured multiple times) who was VERY pregnant at the time. I can’t believe I don’t have a photo because she was one of the cutest pregnant ladies I’ve ever seen in my life. She took me on lots of walks and made me laugh. A lot.