ABC's

I saw this hanging in a friend's home (Tate & Suzie) and really enjoyed it... thought you might enjoy it too.

Accept differences   Be kind   Count your blessings   Dream   Express thanks   Forgive   Give freely   Harm no one   Imagine more   Jettison anger   Keep confidences   Love truly   Master something   Nurture hope   Open your mind   Pack lightly   Quell rumors   Reciprocate   Seek wisdom   Touch hearts   Understand   Value truth   Win graciously   Xeriscape   Yearn for peace   Zealously support a worthy cause

Pumpkins!!

We spent the morning at Hunter's Farm with Jim/Cindy/Patrick and Char/J/Regan.  Enjoyed a hayride, picked some pumpkins, bought some mums, apples, cider donuts... tested out our new kelty backpack carrier (was inspired after seeing how much tate & tegan enjoyed it so we got one off craig's list!)

,,, basically just enjoyed a warm autumn day!

waiting for a train (a story about Jess)

I spent 20-30 minutes yesterday waiting for a train.  After a full day of work, I was exhausted... but extremely excited as I sat on the side of JFK, waiting for the train to arrive.  My dear friend Jessica was on that train and I could not wait to see her. 

When Jess suggested last week that she come down for a visit, I was ecstatic.  I only see Jess once or twice a year and it is typically a quick visit on my way home from a full day of recruiting at RPI.  2-3 hours is nowhere near enough time to catch up with someone who played such an integral part in my life. 

Jess and I met at cross country practice freshman year at RPI.  We hit it off pretty quickly, but she decided to leave the team quickly too.  Since we didn't live in the same dorm or share any classes, I didn't see her much after that.  Until the day that I walked through the arch into the quad and saw Jessica coming down the stairs.  She was wearing the same red, buff and green pin that I was wearing... and I was so excited that she and I would be joining the same sorority.

Yes... it's true.  You may be surprised by the fact that I was in a sorority in college.  It surprised me too!  Most of my high school friends were guys and I much preferred playing sports or catching crawdads to shopping or talking on the phone.  But I was a joiner freshman year... I wanted to try it all -- cross country, student government, ROTC, even a sorority... and I'm glad that I did. 

The women that I met at AGD (and RPI, in general) showed me that girls are pretty cool too.  They showed me that there actually were other women out there who wore sweatpants and a baseball cap to class, didn't care what other people thought about how much they ate (in fact, they were proud of the fact that they could polish off two dozen wings in one sitting!) and would love to spend the weekend playing ultimate, hiking at Grafton or driving up to Bennington VT.  Of course, they also didn't mind spending a weekend night getting fancied up for a 3-to-3!  Whether dressed to impress or choosing function over fashion, these women were smart, real and beautiful... and I'm so glad to have them in my life.

Jess is one of those women.  Smart, caring, beautiful... a wonderful mother... a wonderful friend.  What a great day I had with her today.  As I stood on the platform with her this evening, waiting for the train that would take her back home, I couldn't help but think of all the times we've shared, I couldn't help but to think 'I am so blessed.'

Weekend in Boston

We had a great but busy weekend last weekend. 

On Thursday, we drove up to Carver to visit my grammy.  We spent the night visiting with grammy and playing fill or bust.  Of three games, we each won once, so we were able to all head to bed fairly satisfied.  On Friday, we visited grampy at the nursing home he's in. It was nice to see him and he's doing so much better than he was when we saw him last.  He's got a cute roommate named Bob and the place he's staying seems nice.

After our goodbyes, we headed up to Duxbury to the Thomas home.  We met up with Adrian and got to snuggle a bit with Collette before we headed up to Boston for Maura & Kirk's wedding.  The wedding was at the Boston Public Library and was beautiful.  The perfect setting for Maura and a great time catching up with friends like Abby/Adrian, Rich/Laura, Wong/Scott, Craig/Alicia, Jim/Sherry, Julie, Allegra and of course, the beautiful bride.  Maura looked perfect and incredibly happy... her smile, as always, contagious.  I can't wait for a chance to finally spend a little bit more time with her new husband, Kirk (the only times I've met him were at our wedding and at theirs, so needless to say, we haven't really had much time to get to know one another!) 

Despite a late night and an early morning, Saturday was also a great day.  We caught up a bit more with Abby and Adrian and cuddled a bit more with Collette!  and then headed down to New Haven CT to visit with Tate/Suzie, Matt/Nicole and Pete/Meg... plus all their kiddos.  Another delicious meal: cold pizza, veggie burgers and root stew (I know... none of that sounds particularly good, but trust me... it was delicious) and time visiting with friends and getting to know their little ones really warmed my heart. 

We stayed the night with Tate & Suzie and after Tate's delicious french toast (he told us the secret ingredient so we will be trying this one soon ourselves!) we went for a hike down to the beach, found the perfect spot to open a coffee/ice cream shop and explored the local farm market.  More goodbyes and we were on our way back home to NJ.... tired, but happy to see so many dear friends.

eyebrows

It just didn't seem appropriate to write about this in my previous post....

Honestly, I don't really mind losing my hair.  I mean... I do... but I don't... what I really hate is losing my eyebrows.  That's when you really start to look, well, sick.

It took a while.  The hair on my head fell out in July.  Everywhere else pretty much too.  I haven't had to shave my legs in months.  Thankfully, I still had my eyebrows.  Until last week that is. 

Now, I didn't have very thick eyebrows to begin with.  In fact, I somewhat took pride in the soft, fair eyebrows I was blessed with.  Sure, I plucked the stray hair occasionally... and even broke down and began waxing them periodically.  I mean, what's a girl to do when the pedicure lady gives you "that look" when you tell her "no thanks" to the "eyebrows?" question (even the strongest of us crumble!) 

Anyways, I attended a program by the ACS this week (Look good feel better).  Honestly - I went for the free makeup.  But it turned out to be a pretty nice evening with Gail, Tanya, Kim and Robin... and of course, Gail.  In addition to a bag full of goodies, Gail gave us lots of great tips and tricks and we had a good time playing make up and trying on wigs.  I even came home with a new wig. 

Yes, it makes me look like a 50 year old librarian.  I'm still not sure I'll ever really wear it in front of anyone I know.  I did wear it on my trip to Indianapolis yesterday.  I figured, I was meeting a new client who had never met me, so why not try it out?  Unfortunately, the client called in sick (I didn't find this out until I landed in Indy!) and we did the meeting by conference call (me, sitting on the ground in the Indy airport... waiting for my flight back to Philly).  But I did spend the entire day in the Indianapolis airport wearing that wig (and we did get the project!).  I felt mildly fraudulent and incognito, but hey... nobody really obviously stared!  And nobody came up to me to talk about my cancer.

Back to the eyebrows.  One of the things Gail insisted on was eyebrow makeup.  I've tried this before and it always looks ridiculous.  But Gail had some kind of eyebrow magic: Anastasia Eyebrow Ex-press (check out the beautiful brows in the picture above!)  I felt so great that I went to the store today and bought it myself.  Of course, similar to my many experiences with my hairdresser, I can never get it to look as good when I do it myself.  So here I sit, typing this with crooked eyebrows! 

At least I know Mike loves me for who I am... bald head, crooked eyebrows and all... and for now, that's who I'll stick with (but I will keep practicing my eyebrow magic at home and maybe someday... will venture out wearing my brows with pride)

MBC Day

October 13 is Metastatic Breast Cancer Day. 

Who knew?  Seriously... you can't even turn around without seeing a pink ribbon, right?  Well, after all... it is October... It's actually pretty incredible to see how BC month has become so mainstream.  How it's infiltrated our wrists, our tshirts, water bottles, purses, sunglasses, kitchen products, cookbooks, cosmetics... even our liquor! (wait... don't they say that drinking increases our risk of BC?)

It's become so prevalent that people are starting to become anti-pink.  Articles are popping up about all of the other "neglected cancers", jealous of the power of pink.  While I agree that funding is needed for all cancers, should we really be complaining about raising money and awareness for breast cancer?  Seriously.  And, while it is a constant reminder of my own situation, I suppose the more aware people are, the more likely we are to actually find a cure some day (and hopefully that day is soon!)

Of course, what you don't tend to see in the sea of pink media frenzy this October is the fact that while early stage breast cancer is "curable"... Advanced Breast Cancer or METASTATIC breast cancer is not.  It is a chronic and, currently, terminal disease.  As Musa Mayer says in this article by Dr Elaine Shattner, "It used to be the C-word," she says. "Nobody said they had cancer. Now it's the M-word nobody mentions. The word is metastatic."

Now that the world is aware... we need to shift our focus and continue to search for a CURE. 

My friend has a friend who has breast cancer

I thought you might enjoy reading a post that my friend Amanda (or Mandy, as I call her) put on her blog recently... even though she totally sold me out and told everyone about my (our?) Math League & Science Olympiad days.  The bus ride to "states" still ranks as a top memory from my G-C days! At least she was kind enough to omit the fact that I also was in the Dungeons and Dragons club in 6th grade. 

Thanks, Mandy... for your kind words, your support and your friendship so many years later!