Skip to main content

The New Me 2.0


In March of 2015 a friend I had known all my life died from inoperable cancer and when she died, she took a piece of me with her.

She was diagnosed the same year I was, and left her husband and 2 young children behind. She had worked very hard in her short life and I decided that if we could manage it, I would welcome a chance to take the time to share experiences with those I love and maybe not spend so much time at work.

The New Me is happy to report that after a number of years, I am on a sabbatical from work...again! So the New Me is "New" again!

For a long time-
  • I needed to work so I didn't spend my days and nights worried that every ache and pain could be cancer.
  • I needed the work challenge for my brain to recuperate from the fog that is "chemo brain".
  • I needed to know that I could be successful and productive again in spite of the trauma.
This year will be 5 years since my diagnosis and I feel I could breathe a bit easier even though I could find out tomorrow that my cancer has metastasized. I feel my time with my loved ones is running out - my older son is fast becoming less interested in Mama and I won't have him for much longer. So even though we will need to make adjustments, I am taking a break.

I started this blog back in September 2008 - 7 years ago! At that time, I had quit my job to stay home with my kids (my younger son had been having some health issues), and the first post I did was this one: Flexible Schedule Work from Home.

In that first post in 2008, I had ended with "Now..getting daycare so I can read and eat bon bons, now that is something I could get interested in." And so it has come to pass, that the kids are in school, and I can read and eat bon bons. (However why I have done that yet is a story for another post.)

In these past 7 years I have grown older and had opportunities to reinvent myself, and I am looking forward to doing just that again

But first, a few pictures of what I have been doing in my first months off.

Some celebratory flowers; reading trashy novels in bed

Going to the movies

Pool time
Playing video games with little one
Reading
Hanging with the Aged P

Trip to Trinidad, here on Maracas beach.

Adult karate! With my pink belt for October

Labels:

Comments

Austin Trini said…
I should also admit to an inordinate amount of time on StrikeBack http://www.cinemax.com/strike-back/
21 January 2016 at 21:53
G said…
Awesome post Sally... so happy we can do this.
25 January 2016 at 11:24
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Job Search2: Networking etiquette..

On which I have a few ideas.  As my husband keeps telling me, I won't get a job by spending hours in front of the computer submitting applications to online job postings.  The best use of any job-seeker's time is spent talking to friends and acquaintances and letting them know that you are looking for a job and what your skills and interests are. So here is what I found tricky about networking: How hard to push?  Working parents are busy, so if I asked a friend, who is a working parent, about a position I had seen at their company, do I ask a second time? How soon after? And what if there is another position - do I talk about that too?  If that friend is very enthusiastic about getting more information for me on a post then I hear nothing, what then?  Is it realistic to think they'll get back to me?  I find it difficult to broach the topic again.  I might ask a second time but for me there is no third time. What do I trade in return? In the net...
4 comments
Read more

What is your 'bread & butter' conversation?

I am anxious to get back to the playgroups with my Moms group, and talk with some of the other moms because I want to know what they talk to their husbands about at the end of the day. If I were to truly tell my husband what goes on with my day? Well, the conversation would be inane and irrelevant. Gunnar: "How was your day honey?" Big smile. Me: "You know the usual. Lucas got up late this morning and was crabby because he didn't have enough time to play before breakfast and Liam pulled off my tiny earring, you know, the one I was so excited about getting because I thought he wouldn't notice it, and I could wear earrings again? Anyways, he pulled it off, and I grabbed it from him and set it down so I could deal with him appropriately, and I forgot about it, but when I went back to look for it I couldn't find it. It might have gotten wiped off the table when I was cleaning, so I spent part of the day sifting through the garbage looking for it, then I looked ...
3 comments
Read more

10 things I have learnt about my teen and language

I have just been thinking about how my son speaks and what he says. He is 13 now and here is what I have discovered: 1. He does know some curse words, although he does not use them (at least in my hearing). I know this because he knows to switch the YouTube video he is watching when he hears one. 2. His language is tempered by having a younger sibling around (and he knows he will be in big trouble if he forgets that). 3. He gets more animated when he is around his friends and especially when he is gaming with them, and he uses a different vocabulary than regular speech (see #5). 4. I should not be annoyed if I am speaking to him and he shouts back "What?!!" The decibel level gets really, really high when he has his headset on AND he is gaming. 5. I am grateful that he uses expressions like, "What the fudge?",  "Crap" and "YOLO". Usually these are followed by the terms "Die!" or "Hackers!" or "Destroy" , bec...
Post a Comment
Read more