Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

At this time of Thanksgiving I am grateful for my family and the memories we have created together. It also is a good time for me to revisit my bucket list since many items involve my family. In 2011, my therapist (yes, I needed someone to help me get my head in order), recommended I do an activity called " 32 squares ". Take a blank letter-size sheet of paper Fold it in half and keep folding it  in half about 5 times Open it out, you should get 32 (not quite squares) Sit down and write every thing you would like to do/experience, every dream or goal you have They usually work out to be a mix of immediate, medium and long term, maybe even some things you may not ever get to. Welcome to your bucket list. The trick to this exercise, she said, was that the first 10-15 things were usually easy to write, but then by the time you get to 25-32 you really have to start thinking deeply about things you may have given up on doing many years ago. In writing your dreams down,

I have posted before about the education system and how I felt about public vs private school. After having my son in private school for 3 years, he is now back in public school. See my prior posts here: Path to Private School and My Education Rant. Was it worth it to have him in private school? Now there's a question. I think he would have done well in public school although there is no doubt he did get challenged in private school. It would seem that the question isn't so much public vs private, but more, who is the teacher? I've also taken a step back in my expectations and how I view education. I have always compared the kind of schoolwork that my son does with what I did when I was growing up. I came from a different education system, where we would spend hours doing homework and revision for tests and extra lessons was normal. My son? He is in middle school and does his homework in school and spends no more than 30 minutes at home doing work. If I don'

I recently had a birthday for which I was very grateful. You never know if you will get another birthday even without having had a cancer diagnosis. So I was pretty sad that my brother didn't tell me "Happy Birthday". I don't have an expectation that my sister-in-law (his wife), would remember, but my brother? He didn't even have to call, since I called him two days before my birthday - he could have said it then. He even had a built-in reminder - his wife's birthday was two days after mine. I never considered myself a needy person who needs encouragement and needs to fussed over unnecessarily, but I just didn't understand it - I still don't . My husband's family remembers every year. But it did get me to thinking about what other friends who have been diagnosed with cancer, have said: Friends fade from their lives, or avoid them. Some friends are so wonderful, they are the cream of the crop. Family get offended if they, (the diagnosed) are

It struck me recently that we have relatively low-key cars, my husband and I, even though we both work, and could probably spend our money on something a bit more flashy. But we don't choose to spend our money on that. By my reckoning, we spend our money to buy time and experiences. We buy time by spending money to have someone clean our house and mow the lawn so we don't have to spend the weekend doing it. We get back time that we can take the kids to the movies (or just be lazy if we choose). We also spend our money on experiences - each year we spend a weekend with each of our kids alone, so they have special time with a parent and then alternate (one year I will have one kid, the next year the other). We don't have to do anything fancy - it just has to be alone and special (like going to the movies, Chuck E Cheese, ice cream or a park). But it could be fancy - like Seaworld! Or a family vacation - maybe camping. We are blessed to be able to afford to d

So, you know how you can't remember your phone number or anyone else's because it is in the phone and you press a button (or use a voice command) and it calls? And how you can't recall anybody's birthday exactly, because you know you put the reminder in Outlook and it will remind you in time to get a gift/send a card? It's the kind of atrophy and decay that sudoku and Lumosity is supposed to fight against. Well, I found myself in a bit of a situation regarding my ipod nano. So I've started exercising and use my ipod to listen to music while I do, but my pants don't have pockets for it. So I started using an old ipod shuffle that has a clip, but it was so frustrating to use it because the shuffle would die on me all the time. Anyways, I went around and around in my head about what to get, use my phone and forget the ipod, continue using the shuffle? Buy an elastic armband to hold my ipod? Or one for my iphone? (Lord knows there are enough i-accessories o

I don't normally post movie or TV commentary, but every now and then I do (you can read my comments on  Airbender and Smallville ).  I wanted to put in my 2 cents worth. I felt gratified that there were scenes that reminded me so much of Smallville. I liked the characters and story. I really loved Henry Cavill in this role, but I do have a few (unsurprising) quibbles about this movie. I don't like my Pa Kent morally ambiguous. There is a scene in the movie after Clark raises a school bus that went into the river, and Clark asks Jonathan if he should have left them to die,  and Pa Kent answers, "Maybe." My Superman would not leave so much destruction. When Superman was fighting General Zod, I had a really hard time watching all the wanton destruction. My Superman would have found a way to move the fighting and protect the people (and property). My Superman would not kill. So this is a hard one. There probably is a scenario where Superman may, at some po

Yes, indeed, this past June was two years since my diagnosis, and if you wanted to be transported back to that beginning, you can do so here . But such a post cannot begin without the word gratitude. Gratitude for being able to make wonderful memories with my family and friends over the past two years.  But this post cannot be complete without remembering some of those who have shared this journey with me and are not here anymore. My friend Amy: Amy was diagnosed with stage 2 triple negative back in November of 2011 and she recently passed away in August. I had last seen Amy in July, and while wan and frail, she was so optimistic and hopeful, the way we all are. I feel very sad to have lost her and to know her family and her young son are without her now. Hugs to you Amy, in the beautiful place you are now. My friend Karen: I first met Karen when I had started my chemo treatments. She sat next to me in the infusion chair, and I was very interested in her quilt, since we wer

1. You must be fit and not susceptible to heatstroke. We went in August, and it amazes me every time I go, that I have never seen any medical action - how is that possible with the heat? And pregnant women?And small kids? 2. If you are on a special diet of any kind, including plain vegetarian, you're screwed. The best you can hope for is to limit the damage.   3. Don't go to SeaWorld by yourself and your school-age child. Your  child's playmate will be you. Need I say more?   4. If you must be there alone with your child, help yourself by taking a day off from work the day after you come back so you can recover.   5. If you are a mom with a son, prepare him by letting him know you will be going to the bathroom 3 times to his 1. It may help reduce the whining, "Agaaain?" I also tried out my new waterproof camera - which was fabulous! Here is a picture of some underwater wave and bubble action.

Some time ago I blogged about how I came to be in possession of a number of glossy magazines here. Clearly I am not the target audience for these magazines, at least most of them. When I look at some (really most) of the styles in the Vogue I find them somewhat hideous - I cannot imagine myself wearing some of those outfits (or makeup either). And if there was any doubt about me being the right audience for these, this little full-page disabused me of any such thoughts: So the caption clearly says "What to Wear to Work This Summer" and the outfit looks ok, but look at the accessories. I've enlarged the watch below. I am not sure who exactly can afford to wear that watch to work this summer, but I know it is not me.

Rainbows Superstars Pixies Hello Kitties Shooting Stars Unicorns Lady Dragon Dolphins Orange Crushers Lady Bugs Red Hot Chili Peppers Water Lilies Super Spys Fireballs Storm Troopers Ninjas Wildcats Sidewinders Firebirds Speedy Sharks Secret Agents Speeders These are the names of the soccer teams in the boys U-6 and girls U-6 league that my son played in over spring. The colour scheme is meant to confuse, but from the names I bet you guessed that the first list is the girls teams and the second, the boys.

It has been a long time since my last post, so what have I been up to? For one thing, getting rid of my old job and moving on to something new (a very good thing for me from a stress level perspective). I've also taken the first step of breast reconstruction and frankly I was just enjoying a more than healthy dose of feeling sorry for myself. It was very hard to be broken for so long, and see real progress and then be broken again. Especially since I didn't feel I was quite prepared for the hit my body took from what was a straightforward procedure compared to everything else I'd been through. Frankly, this surgery and recovery has had a disproportionately negative impact on me compared to what I was expecting. But that was yesterday, and I will keep looking forward and moving forward.

15 years ago today, my husband took a leap of faith and married me. When we first met, he didn't even know where Trinidad was! I'd been working in information technology for long enough that I felt I needed to expand my horizons...perhaps a business degree somewhere overseas? I picked my graduate school because they offered a 1-year program (that is, a 2-year program compressed into one year), and I didn't think I could afford a 2-year overseas program, since I missed all the deadlines for scholarships - I had decided too late. They also had good scores for their teaching. After being out of school for a while, that seemed a good thing. I went into debt and headed off to England. My husband's graduate school had an exchange program with this University in England and as fate would have it, we landed in the same class doing much the same courses, with him sitting behind me. Here is a somewhat poorly scanned image from the year we met  - a class photo. No, we didn'

I thought I'd post out a few pictures to give everyone a flavour of Trinidad from my whirlwind visit. Click the links to enjoy the full experience! While I was there I heard more soca than parang since everyone is now gearing up for carnival 2013. You can hear the 2012 Road March winner (soca). Road March is the tune that is most played by the steelbands/DJs on the road for carnival. I can only imagine the winin' going on to the speed of this tune. What? You don't know what is winin'? Well take a look here - as you can see, no men required. (Did I just pump up the interest by a factor of 10 for the guys out there?) On to the pictures! On the way to Maracas Beach. On the beach, looking like my foreign self. Picture of the Debe market. I even found they were selling a fleece jacket there. Really. Wha's the price of cucumber dey Uncle? 3 for $10. Double rainbow. It rained a bit every day I was there.  Well, what is this picture below yo

It's a new year, and it's a good time to visit friends and family. I made a last-minute decision to visit my relatives in Trinidad. Here are just a few pictures of my experiences so far. Breakfast the first day - doubles. De doubles vendor. Harvesting some lettuce leaves from Grandpa's lettuce "garden" (that is, some PVC pipe cut in half with manure in it. Cutting   a coconut off the coconut tree. Fortunately my dad had the good sense to forgo the cutlass for the hacksaw - more tedious but safer. Driving around Trinidad - extremely hazardous, and not to be tried by amateurs (that is, "tourists"). I elected to omit the photos of the kids lighting fireworks and running for their lives as they went off. This is likely to be an adventure to remember.