office visit

Yesterday I had an appointment with a hematologist. I learned that the field of hematology and oncology developed together and hematology is considered the step child to oncology. This little fact I learned after sitting in the waiting room for nearly half an hour. It's amazing the speed at which thoughts can run through your head in that relatively short amount of time. It was like I was seeing several different scenarios of my life flash in segments before my eyes. "What if this or What if that." It was a challenge to get myself under control and to keep from this form of thinking especially after a gentleman stopped in front of a woman sitting near me in the waiting room. The two exchanged greetings and then the gentleman blurted out like an excited kid at birthday party "I only have one more and I’m finished." The woman replied "That’s so wonderful. I have 6 more." While I smiled and was happy for them my first thought was "God, please don't let this become my reality." I felt guilty for thinking such thoughts while surrounded by people who were waiting for their turns to go for their treatments. I can still her a nurse telling a gentleman and his son "see you tomorrow" after wheeling him out of what I guess was the treatment room. For how many people does this become their reality in a blink of an eye? I work in the medical field and see a lot of things, but I left the office with a new sense of how extremely fortunate I truly am to have my health and how important it is that you live life to the fullest because you aren't guaranteed tomorrow.

safe hearing

now boarding group A

Standing in cattle call for my flight home Friday night I scanned the lounge. Business travelers were few and far between at this point. Most in line were couples taking a weekend trip. Must be nice to have a significant other to take a getaway trip with I thought to myself. There were some med students traveling to a conference or something. And there was this boy...he was alone. He wore a Clippers sun visor and I noticed his hair was turning a slight ting of salt and pepper, which he wore quite well. He was listening to his ishuffle and typing away on his computer.

The plane started boarding. I found my seat close to the front and stored my luggage. It had been a long day and my head at this point was screaming. I just wanted to get home and pull the covers over my head. Traveling for work seems glamorous to some. They wouldn’t think so if they traded days with me like the one I had just had. Being hundred of miles from home, racing to the airport in traffic with unfriendly drivers, missing your exit and ending up in a bad part of town asking for directions on how the hell to get back onto the highway in the direction you need to go. I have a good sense of direction, but when the entrances and exits are in neighborhoods where it’s necessary to know the little local streets that’s challenging for anyone, directionally challenged or not. Then on top of that when you do get home you have to wait for the shuttle bus to get you to your car and then drive home exhausted and starving because all you can get on the planes are small bags of peanuts. The topper to all this is then walking into a dark empty home…how glamorous…not! Needless to say the day needed to end and I was dreaming of my bed.

Southwest doesn't have assigned seating and depending on how lucky you are you might not have to sit 3 to a row. I’ve often heard of people meeting and marrying someone they sat next to on the plane. I never, I’ll repeat never sat next to anyone that I’ve been interested in. I must put off this don’t talk or sit next to me vibe which I don’t get why/how, but nonetheless guys that I would like to possibly talk to don’t sit near me even on a plane where there isn’t assigned seating. So on this flight I was preparing myself to have to sit blocked in by some couple going away for the weekend. My luck they’d be talking all gushy to each other. To my surprise though, guess who sat down in my row….the boy with the clippers visor. We didn't talk, but smiled and nodded our hellos to each other.

He pulled his computer out during the flight and started typing away as he had in the airport lounge. His computer was an Apple and I thought of my friend Anna. She'd have something to talk to this boy about…their obvious love for things Apple. The plane stopped in El Paso before heading on to Austin. The boy got off there. In the back of my head I knew he was an Army boy. Ft. Bliss is in El Paso. While he was waiting for the line to start moving in front of him our eyes locked. It wasn't uncomfortable as often those type of situations are for me. We smiled at each other I said “bye”, he said “so long”, confirmation that he was in the military. My don’t sit next to me theory's been broken.

i woke this morning to a boy telling me how beautiful i was and well, what girl doesn't want to hear that? thanks james blunt. what a great start to the week.

boobs

Sometimes as women we have to make difficult decisions, for ex.; white shirt means that I have to wear the white bra that is currently dirty so let's go for the brown shirt which I can wear the clean red bra with. There, done. Yep, everyday we women have to juggle these life altering problems with work and friends. It's challenging, but somehow, somehow we manage.

The boobs, however, well they don't manage as well. As we get older, they go souther. And while souther is not a real world, the direction our boobs are heading is. What we then do to change this inevitable problem is get better bras. It gets to the point where we are wearing body armour. In fact, a kind bra specialist at Nordstorms once had me try on a bra that was not unlike what a knight in the 16th century would have worn. I turned that bra down in yet another one of the those life altering decisions and went for the softer, fleshtoned one whose underwires come almost up to my neck.

Post No Bills once sent me an email that showed an old woman singing a song that went like this, "Do your boobs hang low, do they wobble to and fro, can you tie them in a knot, can you tie them in a bow..." The old woman stood there throwing her boobs around and tying them in a bow. Let me clarify that this was a cartoon and not nearly as disturbing as it seems. It was actually quite funny because even though I have not wrinkles on my body, I could empathize with the old woman's boob troubles.

Yes, my boobs wobble. They are not young and perky, even though they should be. I don't know that they ever were. I sprouted fairly young and the boobs have never gone away. It's one of the curses of being a girl, a woman, but sometimes I wonder what life would be like not to have to strap a harness to my chest every morning that has industrial strength wires holding me up. I'm just saying.

Maybe now, we can get Post to start posting again. Boobs, you can't get much (hanging)low than that.

guest posted by the fabulous Anna

Why no looting in TX?

too damn hot

Rita ended up taking a right hand turn and spared Austin from the wind, rain, and tornados, but she didn't spare us from the unusual high temps we've been experiencing. It was 108 in the shade last week and thank goodness we're down 10 degrees to make the temps at least tolerable. This is the summer that will never end. It's October for crying out loud. There's supposed to be a "cold" front coming tomorrow and we'll only have highs in the mid 70s.