Last night I went to Women & Children First to hear Fatemeh Keshavarz speak about and read from her book, Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran. I went by myself and didn't know anyone. I wore my Bad Girls of Breast Cancer t-shirt...
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Fancy O Fancy
I had an appointment at 10:30am yesterday at Fancy Hospital for blood test (to check that my white count was high enough for chemo) and then chemo. I had a memorial service to go to at 3pm in Hyde Park and figured I could stop at the nearby Seminary...
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Post-Funeral
The week was framed by death of parents, starting with a funeral on Monday. Friday I stopped by the home of a colleague of L's. Her mother had died; the service was private, but her home was open for what we call "shiva," but others might call an open...
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
The Blessing
My accountant had asked me if my cancer made me believe in God more. She was assuming that I believed in God some. No, I told her. Although I have returned, mostly because I have more free time, to Atheist Torah Study. At least that's what I call it....
Monday, May 21, 2007
Funeral
I went to a funeral today, my third in the past year. In Jewish law, one of the best things you can do for someone is help with the burial, because that person can never pay you back. I knew of the custom of the assembled people lining up to put earth...
Sunday, May 20, 2007
How Not to Be Intimidated
I don't know how. I am reading submissions for our little literary magazine and I am cowed by a cover letter from someone with several books who sent us a travel piece and informs me (not really me; the letter should be addressed to me but it is not)...
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Free Dinners & Free Dinners
Too rich for my blood. I had a lovely free dinner last night with professors, all writers, and all excited about teaching. We decided to exchange syllabi later. The menu was prix fixe so you felt the obligation to order dessert. I did. We all did. I...
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Foot, Horns, Feathers
I was making plans yesterday to get together with my friend R, who I hadn't seen in several months. I don't have hair, I told her. She said, I'll recognize you. Then, joking, she added: Why don't you wear a red carnation in your cleavage? I said, I don't...
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Cloak of Invisibility
When I'm in familiar crowds now, I know that certain people won't recognize me. I don't blame them. My hair was my outstanding feature: thick, dark, wavy. People (who know who I am) are telling me that they're seeing my face for the first time. Revealing...
Monday, May 14, 2007
The Mothers
The Mothers have come and gone, and the sun is shining brightly on this warm, breezy day. The mothers are mine and L's; last year he came up with the idea of having both of them here for Mother's Day weekend. They'd only met once before, and yesterday...
Friday, May 11, 2007
The Watcher Watching Herself
The idea of a blog. A web log. A ship's log. A ship's log was impersonal. Three knots. Ten knots, fifteen hundred, the wind, the stars, the waves. Thunder. All that. Fate and nature recorded and the little bark's progress along the vast indifference,...
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Cancer Bitch definitely on the air Thursday, May 10
I will be reading selections from this blog on WBEZ, 91.5 FM, the NPR Chicago affiliate, starting tomorrow morning, Thursday, on the program called 848.I t's on NOT AT 8:48, but between 9 and 10 am; the show is repeated from 8-9 pm. I should be on the...
When the Obit is More Fun than the Front Page
I was going to write about fashion and art and whimsy (and death and depression and cancer) inspired by the obit page, but then I read something really scary and important on the NYT front page. It's about doctors being paid ("rebates") to prescribe...
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Bitches
1. Competing bitchesI'm starting to think more and more of this blog as a potential book. I just found out thatDa Capo Press is publishing "Cancer is a Bitch: Reflections on Midlife, Mortality, Motherhood and Marriage" by Gail Konop Baker in October...
Thursday, May 3, 2007
The Holter (Not Halter)
We are falling apart. And L's employer is paying for it. L is taking a Holter monitor test. Not wearing a halter, as I thought. Holter is the guy who invented the monitor, attached to L's belt during the day and put in a shirt pocket at night, to record...
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Our Continent and Then Some
Tuesday I lay in bed in my nightgown until 7pm, resting and reading Saving the World by Julia Alvarez, which is an interesting but flawed novel. It is made of two stories--one about the life of a Julia Alvarez-type (her age, her background) writer, and...
At the Office of the County Assessor
Today I did something I'd been putting off for at least three years, to my own detriment. I went to the county assessor's office and signed forms that say that I deserve the homeowner's exemption on my property tax bill because I am the homeowner. I've...
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Barking, Berkeley, Hyde Park
I haven't written for a while here. To quote from that great American philosopher, Snoopy, if you don't have something to say, there's no reason to bark.I have a philosophy about barking, real barking. I think that dogs bark for the same reasons people...
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