Solace
The story of my journey through breast cancer.Archive for June, 2008
Farcical aquatic ceremonies
- Dennis: What I object to is you automatically treatin’ me like an inferior.
- Arthur: Well, I am king.
- Dennis: Oh, king, eh? Very nice. And how’d you get that, then? By exploiting the workers! By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society! If there’s ever going to be any progress–
- Dennis: We’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as sort-of-executive officer for the week–
- Arthur: Yes.
- Dennis: But all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting–
- Arthur: Yes, I see.
- Dennis: By a simple majority, in the case of purely internal affairs–
- Arthur: [getting bored] Be quiet.
- Dennis: But by a two thirds majority, in the case of more major–
- Arthur: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
- Dennis’ Mother: Order, eh? Who does he think he is?
- Arthur: I am your king!
- Dennis’ Mother: Well I didn’t vote for you.
- Arthur: You don’t vote for kings!
Dennis’ Mother: How’d you become king, then?
- Arthur: The Lady of the Lake, [Angel chorus begins singing in background] her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. [Angel chorus ends] That is why I am your king!
- Dennis: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
- Arthur: Be quiet!
- Dennis: You can’t expect to wield supreme power just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
- Arthur: Shut up!
- Dennis: I mean, if I went ’round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me away!
- Arthur: Shut up! Will you shut up?! [Grabs Dennis and shakes him]
- Dennis: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system!
- Arthur: Shut up!
- Dennis: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I’m being repressed!
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- What, you may ask, does this have to do with breast cancer?
- And well you may ask.
Heat in the East, White in the West
The Weather Channel reports, “Today’s the last day of the excessive heat in the Northeast, but severe storms will bring it to a crashing end…”
Here in The Outback, we awoke to something a bit….cooler.
The temperature at 8:15 am, when these photos was taken, was 34 degrees.
The Wig Page
By popular demand, here’s how I look in my wigs.
The Goth Wig
The Long, light brown wig
The dark brown, short wig. This photo was taken 7/3/08.
I included this one because every time I look in the mirror, I think, damn, my face is swollen. Compare the photo taken 7/3 to this photo taken about a year ago, and it’s clear how “puffy” I’ve become from the taxotere. The good news is, in time the puffiness will go away. It will take many years, however, for my hair to be anywhere near as long as it was.
When I look at this photo, it reminds me of how much cancer has taken from me: more than just my hair and my breast. It has stolen six months of my life.
The ordeal is over. I get to live. No, I will never be the same.
Life starts over for me in a few weeks.
This time, without cancer.
