Saturday, March 31, 2007

Hamlet & Fools

To get dressed or not to get dressed; that is the question. I slept till 2pm today. I dreamed of driving in Texas, and coming across, outside, pairs of guys dressed as scorpions fighting one: one. Each scorpion carapace was made of fried-food crust....
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Friday, March 30, 2007

The Circle

Yesterday I was droopy and couldn't concentrate. I could remember hardly anything about the theatrical/costume shop I went to, even right after I walked out. My brain wasn't working. I think it's because I didn't have enough sleep. Also I was borderline...
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Thursday, March 29, 2007

The Stores

I've been wandering around the neighborhood, scouting out stores that look like they might sell hats or wigs. Last night I went to punk store that had mannikins in the display window wearing red, black and white scarves. Like they were just waiting for...
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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

The Peace Flag

Tonight L and I fought about the peace flag. It is an American flag with a white peace sign in the blue square instead of stars. It hangs in the middle bay window. I was irritable when I got home, and he was, too, or else he caught it from me. He hates...
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Shopping/Water

Tonight I walked to the Lesser Than Two Evils mega-bookstore and bought The Breast Cancer Suvivor's Fitness Plan, recommended to me indirectly by my student A. I went to the mega-sports store and bought a pedometer, recommended by my student B. (Both...
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Acupuncture Folo-folo

Tonight I wrote to the absent-minded acupuncturist and told her that if she's always like that, i can't continue working with her. I wonder what she'll say. I gave her the examples that I listed here. (Below.) E-mail is great. It's easier than getting...
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Monday, March 26, 2007

Chemo..

...is not as bad as advertised, said the legendary journalist Harry Golden Jr., back in the late '80s. I interviewed him for a magazine profile when he was dying of cancer. Of the throat? The magazine soon died, too. He was still working as a beat reporter...
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Sunday, March 25, 2007

Why I Hate Elizabeth Edwards

Because she might die.Because she didn't find her lump in 2004 until it was the size of a half dollar.Was it the size of a half dollar spinning? Because cancer is in the shape of a stone or rock, it is not flat like a coin. It is not even a perfect sphere...
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Saturday, March 24, 2007

Acupuncture Follow-Up

I must report that my cold-cough-sore throat is mostly is gone, even though the acupuncturist wasn't that attentive to what I was saying. I did remind her about my cold/sore throat and she put in needles specifically for them. And I suppose my alleged...
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Friday, March 23, 2007

I Get Acupuncture

I was acupunctured for the first time today. Uh oh, I forgot I've been punctured before. I must be catching the forgetfulness of the acupuncturist. Such as: I tell her I've had acupuncture before, in the mid-1990s, for asthma and anxiety, and it worked...
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Thursday, March 22, 2007

A Brighter Shade of Pink

That's the title of a general Yahoo site on breast cancer awareness. Elizabeth Edwards wrote a column under this rubric, posted in October. She talks about telling her kids she had cancer and that her hair would fall out. I just read that her cancer...
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Mr Toad

Mr Toad was arrested for stealing a motor-car and being cheeky to the police. That was my day; I have a cold (which L insists did not originate from his virus) and stayed in all day reading and sleeping. I want the cold to be over with quickly so I'll...
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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Gender: Hiding the Evidence

When I went for the scan to see if my heart was up to snuff for chemo, I wore the Soviet camisole under a red flannel button-down shirt of L's. He brought me some button-down offerings before chemo. Luckily, I was able to put shirts on over my head only...
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Monday, March 19, 2007

War

Today is the fourth anniversary of the start of the war and I went to a candlelight vigil (arriving late) in my neighborhood. I didn't have time to go home and get my peace flag from out of the window, and to put on my Out of Iraq button, which I wear...
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Saturday, March 17, 2007

My First Hair Cut of 2007

Cancer Bitch went for her $60 hair cut Friday with trepidations and a ruler so that she could send 10 inches of hair to Locks of Love, though it’s a controversial outfit, as her friend from Iowa City pointed out in a comment. (In 2002, it supposedly...
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Friday, March 16, 2007

The Neighbor Boy

The neighbor boy came by the other day. This is accurate but also misleading. He did not amble by, tapping on the kitchen window next to pies cooling on the sill, and say, Howdy, Missus Cancer Bitch, I’m home for spring break and thought I’d give you...
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Thursday, March 15, 2007

News/Heart

The local print media are not cooperating. Yesterday this was the banner headline and main story in our city's tabloid:Finding solace in memoriesFilling book with reflections on wife a labor of love... It took a while to find the breast cancer, but there...
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Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Happy

I was standing in line at one of my favorite coffee houses, a place with wood everywhere and antiques for sale, and I was thinking, I want a blueberry scone. I asked myself: Would that make you happy? (The answer was supposed to be No, I don't need all...
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Hair

****news flash ****Got the second drain removed. I am now a drain-free woman. It is so nice not to have the bulgey bulb sticking out of my shirt.**** **** **** ****I went back to Fancy Hospital today, and on the way out of the subway I saw that the Cancer...
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Monday, March 12, 2007

Contest Winner!

The winner of the contest is the first Anonymous. Could Anonymous please let me know how to get in touch with him/her? Thank you to the other contestants, related and not. I was pleased with all the entri...
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The Cancer Card

Today I used the cancer card. It was the second time. The first was when a telemarketer called in the morning (!) and I said, I'm going to have breast cancer surgery and I'm on the do-not call list and I hung up. The second time was this afternoon. Using...
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Saturday, March 10, 2007

The Prestidigitator

We read in our languishing weekly (it has to be languishing because I haven't published there recently and because this here blog has been rejected there) about a Mexican restaurant with great tilapia tacos at a bargain price. We went there tonight and...
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Friday, March 9, 2007

Bad News, East & West

Our good friend S, who is married to L's cousin, just found out today that she has breast cancer. So she will be starting the MRI-chemo dance. She lives in Marin County, which has a high rate of breast cancer, but no one can figure out why. She lives...
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A Contest!

I guess you'd think a person with cancer wouldn't be worried about being a hypochrondriac, but I was today. Worried. First of all I was tired of the drains and wanted to call to see if I could get them out. L offered to do that for me and left a message...
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Thursday, March 8, 2007

What is a Meltdown?

It might be when you're feeling very very shatterable and don't want to answer "fine" when people ask you how you are and you're feeling shaky and so instead of going to your mother's hotel to meet her and your husband for an early dinner at 5.30, you...
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Tuesday, March 6, 2007

The Mysteries

The pathology report is full of mysteries, and the surgeon says, Do you have any questions, secretly hoping that you don't. O please please don't have any questions, she's silently begging, that's why I'm standing up instead of sitting down and not caring...
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