I am "tolerating" the new drugs (Taxol and Herceptin) well. I went in for my infusion on Wed. and except for some aches and pains I feel pretty much okay. I did my 20 minutes abs routine on MWF and went to the gym on Tues/Thurs for 30 minutes of cardio and then another 30-45 of weightlifting. Sorry to brag but I cannot believe that I can do this right now!

Story below is a little "hallmark" my apologies to the snarkaholics who love the sarcastic me better.

Peace everyone!

***

Early on in my cancer saga, I was sitting in "blood draw" with my arm out waiting for them to take a blood sample for some test. I was looking away from my arm because I tend to get faint if I see the blood coming out. I was in a bad mood and feeling sorry for myself. For some reason I looked up and an older gentleman sitting at the other blood draw counter smiled at me. I smiled back. I felt better. I stopped feeling sorry for myself and I smiled at everyone on the way out.

Ever since that day I have found a lot more opportunities to smile at people. It makes me feel better. Maybe it makes the people I smile at feel better. I guess this is what "random acts of kindness" is all about.

As I go through the world as a bald lady, I get some stares. Some times people are looking at me in kind of a sad or disturbed way. I love to smile at these people! I figure it the only way to make myself feel okay about being stared at.

More often people are not staring at me. I think most people do not even notice me or my bald head. I went to a Stanford Track Meet last weekend and felt REALLY stared at. I wondered why. Then I realized that all of these people had paid money to SPECTATE and I was a just another spectacle for their scrutiny.

Why was I at a Stanford Track Meet? Well, my cousin Shelley came to town. Her daughter Jenny is a track star at my alma mater, UW-Madison. Pole vault is her specialty and so we went to watch her try to jump 12 feet 6 inches using a pole, her guts and talent, and a bunch of stylish red an white clothing made by Adidas.

It was not Jenny's day and she did not make her mark. But GEEZ it is amazing what these young women can do! I cannot even begin to imagine being able to run and fly up in the air and then come down without breaking my skull.

We had actually planned to go the track meet to see Jenny the previous day but things got moved around and all of a sudden Jenny had a free afternoon and she agreed to come hang out with Shelley and me at my condo. Speaking of things that make me smile! Just thinking about the fact that this popular 19 year old agreed to spend time with some middle-agers (yes indeedy that is what we are) for NINE hours really made my day.

I met Jenny a day or so after she was born (in Madison) and remember very well how cute and funny she and her sister Julie were as little kids. So,it was a treat to get some "face" time with the adult version and hear about her, her boyfriend, her friends at the dorm (Witte Hall - which is next to my freshman year dorm) and life as a track star. A totally great day!

But back to the track meet. After we saw Jenny pole vaulting, we went to see the triple jump. One of the students that works for me is a track star here at Stanford and so we went to go see him run, jump, jump, and then do a really big jump. How big? Fifty feet and some change. If it sounds impossible, then you get it.

Stanford gets their uniforms from Nike. After Shelley and I were seated, I tried to pick out Feranmi. Shelley, who is very much an expert on track meet logistics, quickly picked someone out who she thought might be Feranmi. He was pretty far away and wearing this very tight bodysuit thing that seemed a bit scandalous to me. "Shelley," I whispered "I don't know if that is Feranmi because I have never seen him with his clothes off. I cannot believe this is all they wear!" But it WAS him and so we were in the right place watching the right person.

We were probably there for an hour watching Feranmi and his competitors do their jump jump jumping. It kind of reminded me of skipping stones the way they jumped three times and then flew. Not all of Feranmi's jumps were amazing, but the 50 feet plus one was really a sight to behold.

Both Jenny and Feranmi strike me as being "super human" for their incredible athletic skills. But more impressive to me is that they are both really nice people and they laugh and smile often and easily.

So consider smiling a few times extra today. And PLEASE smile big if you see a bald woman coming your way.