My 1st Haircut....Kinda

I feel like a toddler! I went and had my hair cut for the 1st time in almost a year!!! What's the big deal, right?! Well, the last haircut I got was August 17th of 2006. That's when some of my favorite people gathered to send off my falling tresses in grand style...THEY SHAVED ME LIKE A SHEEP! Yup...it's been almost a year since I shaved off my hair due to the chemotherapy. I'm happy to report that I have actually needed a haircut today....it looked like a badly overgrown mullet from the 80's. A good look....hmmm...no, not so much. I don't think the mullet looked that good when they were in style! Anyway, my friend Matt, who has been doing my hair for eons, was in town with his family, so he went ahead and dyed and cut it. Nothing fancy, just a good pick-me-up. It feels good to feel kinda prissy again. Matt's whole family, except his son, Miles, is into cutting hair. It was nice that Miles and Kelly were in town from Tennessee this week; I haven't seen them since Matt moved them to Nashville last year. Miles has grown about a foot since I last saw him. He's only 12 and towers over his dad, so needless to say, he makes me feel like a total Hobbit. But what a great kid; polite, well-mannered, bright and a stupendous musician to boot. But hey, with talented parents like his, how could he fail to be anything but musically brilliant?! I'm going to take my camera over tomorrow and take pictures of the family while they are still in town. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I can catch an impromptu concert by Clowminzer & Clowminzer....or would Matthew & Miles be a better name???? Hmmmm.....

Music, Laughter & Retail Therapy

Money can't buy you happiness...but it can buy you a bunch of songs off of iTunes to make your day! I just spent two of my days off in the iTunes store broadening my musical horizons beyond the American Top 40. Money well spent. Besides watching old Bill Murray movies, listening to Bill Engvall or shopping on Amazon.com, music has been a great way for me to get out of my bad moods, ease the aches and pains, and give me a vital kick in the pants when my energy has been zapped this past year. I've discovered the Pogues and Chet Baker. Rediscovered why I love Elvis Presley, Connie Francis, Tony Bennett, Patsy Cline & the Ventures. Stocked up on my Jack Johnson. I am now musically replete....mmmmm. I have also had the pleasure of trying to bring my sister-in-law, Cheryl, into the 21st century by going halfsies with my brother and buying her an iPod (the fancy 80GB one with video!) as an early birthday present. I had a ball loading it up with some of her favorite music...okay, okay, she may find a few of my favorites on it as well. Who am I trying to kid...she is now the proud owner of the complete works of Chris Isaak & Silvertone, as well as the Rowland Salley CD "Killing the Blues"...a gem that needs to be more widely appreciated. Cheryl is a self-proclaimed 80's hair band fancier, so I'm trying to get her to appreciate less hirsute forms of music...although she'll find quite a few works by another favorite of mine, Bon Jovi. *SIGH*...I had...still have...a big crush on Jon Bon Jovi; the man has aged very well....and his pipes aren't bad either! Right now I'm trying to figure out if tickets to the Bill Engvall performance at Viejas in October is worth $65/ticket. Don't get me wrong...I LOOOOOVE Bill Engvall. And you can't put a price on a good belly laugh. I highly recommend watching a good comedian to help with personal healing. However, having said that...I do need to start saving up for my long-postponed trip to Italy. At the rate I'm going, Zachary & Alessandra will be in college before I make it to Sicily! I did make a big step towards taking the trip in late March to early April 2008 by submitting the paperwork at work...yes, I just got back to work, but you gotta put in for these things early or other people will get in ahead of you. Hope I can find a reasonable price for a flight! Anyway...speaking of work...gotta get back to being all that I can be and go talk to my little patient who is waving his IV at me. God, I love my job! I've really missed this and I'm so very glad to be back.

A Prime Rib the Size of Texas!

Well, we went to the Butcher Shop in San Diego last night (July 5th) to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of my mastectomy. YUM! I am such the carnivore. When we went to the Del Mar Fair...oh excuse me, the San Diego County Fair this year, I kept referring to the cattle on display as dinner-on-the-hoof. Sorry. I was probably a T. Rex in a previous life. Anyhoooo...I ordered a prime rib the size of the Lone Star State; I'm too embarrassed to say exactly how big it was, but let me tell you, HUGE pretty much covers it. No, I did not eat the whole thing. I put a pretty good dent in it though! And the rest of dinner was terrific, too. We had chocolate lava cake and creme brulee for dessert, so we all left there pretty happy. As you can see, my needs are simple; half a cow cooked medium-rare and chocolate. No fancy sauces or "emulsions" or _____ (insert cooking buzz word here). Simple, yet good, food is not as easy to find as it sounds. Too many times we think "fancy" means good, or that an "edgy" or "trendy" restaurant must be great. Hmmph! Just because the "chef" in the kitchen can make the food on the plate look pretty doesn't mean it's going to taste any better than what the short order cook can sling on your plate at the local greasy spoon. Anyway...enough of my pontificating on what makes up a good meal. I'm off to contentedly digest my cow.

One Year Ago Today...Time to Celebrate

Wow...it's been a year! Time has wings! Hard to believe it, but today is the 1 year anniversary of my double mastectomy. So much has happened, and yet it still doesn't feel like it could have been a year. Still a lot to do though. Still in the process of breast reconstruction which will take the next at least the next 2-3 months, if not more. I'm still not convinced that choosing to go ahead with reconstruction was the best path for me, but I'm committed to it now, so have at it Dr. Halls! I think that my brother, his wife & I will go out to dinner to night to celebrate this milestone. Hmmm....where to go. While at dinner, I can irritate my brother with tales of my forays into cyber-fandom; wonder what the folks on the Bon Jovi, Chris Isaak & Michael Buble boards are up to??? I know...what a strange combination, huh? But I've also recently checked into Eric Clapton, Jack Johnson and Pink. What can I say...I like to listen to a musical buffet of artists! As a matter of fact, Rowland Salley, Chris Isaak's bass player in Silvertone, is a recent favorite. Check him out at www.rowlandsalley.com . He's very talented, not only as a bass player, but as a songwriter and a watercolorist. Speaking as someone who can't sing, can't play an instrument and doesn't have an artistic bone in my body, I can honestly say that I have talent envy. Maybe I need to start taking guitar lessons again? Hmmm.... Anyway, a nice little celebration dinner would be a great way to mark the occasion. Now if I could only decide on a place. Oh yes, that famous Mel decisiveness....NOT!

My New Old Blog

Well...I did it. I took the advice of some of my friends and family and blogged all my old e-mails & blogs from my past year of cancer treatment. I'm not sure why I thought it would matter, but it's done nonetheless. If someone reads them & is helped through their own cancer journey, awesome. If it just sits out there idle in cyberspace, oh well. It just took some effort on my part; no harm, no foul. If anyone wants to look at my posts you can go to www.survivingcancer-july5th2006.blogspot.com.

Laughing My Way Back To Wellness

I know...it's a cliche...but it's true anyway...Laughter is the best medicine. Before this past year came about, I was very prone to "blue" periods in my life. Big, unexplained bouts of melancholy. Okay...depression. Nothing so obvious that those who didn't know me would notice, but my friends would. It's weird though...when I got diagnosed with cancer last year, I was really afraid that I would fall in the pit again, but amazingly enough, I didn't. I certainly don't think bravery, inner strength, or even being on an anti-depressant had much to do with it. I think that by the time they gave me the "official" diagnosis, I already knew, deep down, that I had cancer and that I already had made up my mind to fight and just deal with it. And trying to find humor, even gallows humor, in every event throughout my year-long journey certainly helped. While I'm not going to claim that laughter cured my cancer, (It didn't; a double mastectomy & chemotherapy did that.) it certainly helped me through my recovery and all the bumps in the road that I encountered...and there were many. I have found that I tend to laugh and smile more since finding out about my cancer....weird, huh? But I guess that it put is all in perspective for me and reminded me that there are a lot of people out there that have it much worse than me. I live in the good. old USA where I have access to the best health care options in the world and I'm proud to be an American and better yet, and American cancer survivor. During my year of surgeries, chemotherapy, wound care treatments, reconstructive surgeries, etc...I found myself reading more humorous books, searching for shows that would make me laugh...just searching for more laughter in general. I think I blew my budget one week on new comedy albums for my iPod. On that note, I have to thank Bill Engvall, Henry Cho, Jeff Foxworthy, Chris Rock, Carlos Mencia, George Lopez, Wanda Sykes, Lisa Lampinelli and many more comedians for all the great work that they put out there. They should put them on the plan of care for cancer patients because they really helped me through those days that even smiling was an effort. I also went to a few comedy shows during the year; local talent was good for some chuckles. I also indulged myself by going to see Chris Isaak & Silvertone twice...for a damn fine musician, he's a damn fine comedian! His drummer, Kenney Dale Johnson writes a blog here on blogger.com that not only provides a perspective of each city they tour through, but is terrifically amusing to boot. Anyway...enough of my blathering. I'm going to go listen to Bill Engvall's 15 Degrees Off Cool and smile myself to sleep.

I Will (And Did) Survive!!

Okey-dokey...I didn't think it would be as hard as it was...or that a tiny, 5 pound, newborn could kick my butt so completely, but it was...and she did. If I'm rambling, it's because I just finished my 1st 12 hour night shift back at work in the NICU (that's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for the uninitiated) after taking a year off to go through breast cancer treatment...and my butt got the beat down of a lifetime. Frankly, I think my chemotherapy treatments went a lot smoother in many ways than last night did. It wasn't that my patient was so sick, or that my assignment was so heavy...they really weren't....they were great to me at work and understood that I wouldn't be back to full capacity on my 1st night back, but.....WOOOOOOO! I didn't think I'd be that worn out, both physically and mentally afterwards. I guess what they say is only too true..."If you don't use it, you lose it." My brain felt like Jello left out in the sun on the 4th of July when I got home. And I hadn't been that busy, just steady. But despite the need for major recuperation, I am ever so glad to be back among my babies. I knew I missed caring for my little ones, but it didn't really hit me until I was back. I not only missed working with my friends (and having adult and human conversations after talking to the dog for 8-10 hours a day), but I missed working with the kids and using my head. Funny. People always say that they'd quit tomorrow if they hit the Lotto. And I used to agree with them. Until today. Funny....