I would lounge in strangers’ homes, when I was in college, having devoured everything I could find in the pantry, deliberately ignoring the vacuum and cleaning supplies at my feet, and listening with a sort of rabid attention to a disembodied voice dramatically droning:  “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our […]

(Facebook readers, please click on this link to view the post: https://www.xanga.com/serenitymine) TODAY’S HOSPITAL VISIT I walked into the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center at 8 o’clock this morning and didn’t leave until nearly 6.  I spent the morning having more ultrasound imaging and 14 additional x-rays, then spent a good bit of the […]

(If you’re reading on Facebook, please go to the bottom of this post and click “view original post.”) June 5, 2008 – I leave the hospital with “You are cancer-free” ringing in my ears. July 5, 2008 – Exactly one month later, I pick up the phone in South Carolina to hear a kind and […]

There’s a perplexing sight along the QEW (highway) between Toronto and Niagara Falls that has fascinated me for years. It seems a little out of place, don’t you think?  Especially when you consider that a major highway runs just meters from the unusual sight. (That’s the highway on the left!) For the first time, my […]

(Reading on Facebook?  Don’t–it’ll take forever for the photos to load!  Instead, click on the “View original post” link above to be taken directly to my blog. ) In my hurry to recover, I’ve been spending a lot of time doing nothing.  And by “nothing,” I mean working feverishly on an iMovie about BFA to […]

It has been a long and winding road… PHASE ONE: Dec. 31,  07:  Diagnosis of MAC (Microcystic Adnexal Carcinoma) and launch of the McJourney. PHASE TWO: June 2, 08:  Surgical removal of the cancerous tumor and the excessive scar tissue left behind after my initial hack-job.  Discovery that additional suspicious bumps were just that—bumps.  I’m […]

Day One is over, and the good news keeps rolling in… My mom and I arrived at our motel last night after a long day of driving and socializing.  We LOVE our Microtel!  It’s clean, it’s sound-insulated, it has an ironing board and iron in the room (yes, Youngs, I am indeed excited about that!) […]

I sneaked out of my Riedlingen apartment shortly before 5 am on Tuesday morning and thought to myself, “I smell a skunk.”  Now, in North America, that wouldn’t be anything unusual, but I actually don’t remember ever smelling a skunk in Germany.  I dragged my bags up the stairs to my car and noticed what […]

(Reading on Facebook?  Please click on the “View original post” link above.  Seriously!) “Why are you still here?” a student asked this afternoon.  He wasn’t referring to my imminent departure or to the fact that I was still at school, cleaning out my office, long after I’ve usually gone home.  In the course of a […]

(Facebook readers:  click on the “View original post” link above to see this entry as it ought to look…please.) Picture this:  [okay, maybe don’t picture it—don’t want to cause any retinal damage—but at least imagine the context] a quadragenarian woman, all decked out in slimming (ha) black sweats and three gallons of sun block, heads […]