RevelationsThe sisterhood

The other night I went out for sushi with 3 of my single girl friends.  All of us are in our late 30s/ early 40s.  We sat around the table eating our edamame discussing the usual- guys, dating, work, life when one of the group got serious.  She informs us that she is now 1 week into radiation for breast cancer.  They caught it really early, she had a successful lumpectomy.   Not the usual single gal dinner chat, but then as I looked around the table, I thought of giving the response that the girl sitting across the table gave to me when I told her of my diagnosis 2 years ago-  The simple "welcome to the sisterhood."  I still remember her saying it.  It wasn't pity or fear she was sharing with me, it was friendship, welcoming, and an understanding that you only have if you've been there.  I hope that we were able to share that kind of welcoming to our friend.  

Then on further reflecton, we all realized that oh man-  here we are 4 single women in our prime, and 3 of us have had cancer in 3 different forms.  All of us were diagnosed early and have good prognoses, but one of us has already had a recurrence.  We all are healthy appearing, vibrant young women, none of us has that "woe is me" thing going, but yet how?  That is rhetorical , obviously.   It seems to me that you keep hearing more and more about younger and younger adults getting diagnosed.  I like to hope that it is because of better screening leading to catching it earlier, but I don't know.   I thank goodness for public awareness about mammograms that caught my friends tumor at such an early stage that she has an excellent prognosis.  I am thankful that she, who had a lot going on in her life at the time, didn't cancel the appointment as so many (including myself) do.  Thus, giving her the best chances possible.  I continue to encourage everyone to get their own screening done- please

This post is dedicated to you my friend-  may health and healing follow you and may you know that people are thinking of you.-  Lisa

Karma Rocks

I have many amazing friends, I am blessed that way, but I am thinking of one of them today.  She is one of the strongest women I know.  She has worked in Illinois government since we graduated from college, rising through the years to become a senior policy person for the last republican Lt. Governor of Illinois.  When their administration was coming to a close she moved to a new a job in the Illinois government.  When the new governor, Rod Blagojovich, took over, one of his first things that he did was fire all senior staffers from the old regime still working in the government, including my friend.  He fired them publically, in a news conference and then printed it in the Chicago Tribune.  I read about a few hours after she told me.  Today he got arrested for trying to sell Barack Obama's senate seat for his own personal gain.  Here is what she had to say about that.  Her post is all about feeling guilty for smiling all day.  However, I am right there with you.  Smile on, girl

The Day Before Thanksgiving

It's the day before Thanksgiving and all around the country people are scurrying to cook turkey and all of the fixings.  This year I am joining in the fray, sort of.  My parents house is still under construction and I volunteered to have the family meal as I am thankful for my new "fully functional" kitchen.  Just as I relish in the functionality of my new kitchen it throws a giant road block my way.  Further, I am missing out on the day before food prep because I went to work before 8 am and I am incarcerated in the hospital until 8 am tomorrow. So last night, my sweet mom and I made the cornbread for the stuffing, did all of the peeling and chopping of vegetables, etc.  Only to discover that my sink got clogged up and no amount of plunging or running of the garbage disposal or drano would unplug it.  So, as we prepared for bed my mom asked what she could do to help- I replied, just get the sink and garbage disposal functional by the time I get home from work, oh and take the turkey out so it can finish defrosting.  The thought of preparing Thanksgiving dinner without the use of my sink is just more than I can stomach.  Please wish me luck.

All is Good

I have completed my series of tests and all is good. Yeah!!!

It's That Time Again

I'm back in NYC for my every 6 month check up and scans.  I wish that I was a better writer because then maybe I could describe how I feel about these apts, but as it is I do the best I can.  I pretend that these visits to NYC are pleasure, I fill them with social visits.  I smile, I laugh, I look normal, but .....  underneath it all is the everpresent fear that I might get bad news.  I have known the odds from the beginning and while they are in general in my favor, the risk that my disease will come back or spread isn't zero, not even close. The results if it does- Catastrophic.   So, I head to MSKCC, today, I'll have my MRI and run on a treadmill for my exercise testing, tomorrow they PET/CT practically my whole body then I see my doc.  I'll know the results by then.

Wish me luck

The economic ills

So, as I've said jury duty is a big sociology experiment. It is a window into many different ways of looking at things. Our jury was economically mixed- successful people, those out of work, those scraping to get by. Every day a number of the jurors sat in our little jury room and complained about the financial impact of being on the jury, and the pittance that you are paid to be on a jury- $15/day. They complained about the price of food around the court house. How it was costing more money than that generous stipend etc. Yet still every day, I was the only one who brought my food. I brought two or three snacks and lunch every day.  I would spend my lunch hour happily eating lunch, reading my book and relaxing by the fountain that I used to  walk to lo those many years ago when I worked for an LA law firm in the LA Law building.  My point is not my trip down memory lane, but that I was the only one who didn't buy my lunch and breakfast and Starbucks coffee every day. I was getting my usual salary, yet I brought my food. I listened to all of these people bemoan the economy, yet they paid $10 or more for lunch every day. It is small thing, but the ills of our economy are based on this kind of action. People spend beyond their means, and then want to bailed out. These people wanted a bigger jury stipend, but wouldn't do simple things like decrease their expenses. There are countless examples of this kind of overspending, and more taxes and more big Wall St bailouts aren't going to change this simple problem.

 My friend's sister who is a very talented economic journalist wrote an Op-Ed piece for the NY Times a few weeks ago about this theme, and how the blame for the financial crisis lies in both Wall St and Main St because of overspending and over-borrowing, and then she got hate mail. People don't want to see or be told that there are in part to blame.  I hope that people can grow to see the need for renewed personal responsibility, but the climate seems to be going the other way. That makes me sad.

And So It Ends:

I am off of jury duty.  We deliberated for exactly one hour before we all agreed on the case, and this was a civil trial so we didn't even all have to agree.  My faith in people is restored.  I feared that there would be very different takes on the information, but no we all heard the same thing and came to the same conclusion.... Keanu Reeves was innocent.   Yes you heard it right, I just spent a week sitting on the jury of the trial where a papparazzi sued Keanu Reeves for damages and medical bills after he alleged ran over him with his car after Mr. papparazzi refused to get out of the way while trying to get a picture of the star.  Um, hello get over yourself.

Seriously, this is part of what is wrong with our legal system, this guy couldn't manage to tell the same story twice while KR never changed his tale that he hadn't hit the guy. My dad always said his memory isn't good enough to lie and clearly neither is mr paparazzi's.  Plus there was no evidence to support the paparazzi's claim.  Further, the accident happened because papi dude refused to move once Reeves car was turned on, then he backed up, fell over complained of injuries that he didn't have, but did have an xray which showed an old injury, that he then tried to get KR to pay for.  Why oh why, did I have to waste 6 days of my time to listen to this drither.  In my opinion, if you file a silly lawsuit like this, you should then have to pay the court fees for hearing the case.  Maybe then our judicial system could actually catch up with the court backlog, there would be fewer silly lawsuits and we wouldn't all have to live in such a litiginous society.  

Further, why is society so obsessed with seeing celebrities going about their everyday lives?  Why is that news, why do we treat it as such?  After having spent 6 days listening to all of this, I vow that my actions will support this claim, and I will not financially support this business that prays on celebrities and then sues them when they get hurt.  Not that I ever did, but now I really won't, I promise