Category: Bladder cancer

Feeling nostalgia when I saw this page from a high school yearbook. Mr. Righi was a compassionate, endearing counselor that helped everyone, especially me. I was a skinny, shy thirteen year old, in a class with an intimidating, overbearing teacher who liked to embarrass me.  The kindness Mr. Righi showed me makes me wish for that feeling again.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/nostalgia/

In the last few years, I have left a few things unfinished. I used to be extremely organized, everything neat, knew where everything was. But lately,  health has been the priority, and items slip away to be forgotten. In order to remedy this situation financially, I have my bills on EFTs. No mailing makes it more convenient, and the bills aren’t forgotten or paid late. Household items, however, do suffer. I’m always putting something where I know I’ll remember it, and of course I can’t. Maybe it’s just old age! Horrors! I’m not that old, well, maybe I am. Darn!  
Today my sister and her four daughters are visiting from NY. I made a family favorite like our mom used to make, macaroni and cheese. Put it in the oven, and thought, I’m glad I put that larger pan under it, to catch any spilled milk…….oh my gosh, forgot to add the milk! Not that crunchy mac and cheese would be all that bad, but we are used to the creamy kind. So it was unfinished. This might have remained undone in the past, especially if it was one of those “drag on” days where it’s hard to accomplish anything. But the busier I was, working outside the home, maintaining a household, kids, etc., the more organized I was.  

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/unfinished/

Navy shirt, white pants, my uniform. My frame was always larger on top, so I tried to balance it out with this fashion. Legs are short so long skirts dwarf me, and now they are not practical. Sitting always, the long tops I used to wear just bundle up and make me look fat(ter) so I wear tighter fitting clothing up and down. I prefer leggings because they don’t pool around your feet when sitting, or get caught in rolling wheels. The only time I enjoyed ironing was to please my mom and be close to her. I still wear a lot of darker tops and even though my red hair is getting white in places, darker shades flatter me more.  Trying to look my best and a limited wardrobe is only a small challenge. Dressing to please myself for the last three years, I am free to choose what I want. It only took 60+ years for that to happen.  I refuse to wear what my daughter and I call “old lady” clothes.  I expect to be clean, neat, and presentable to the public, but do not fall into the latest fashion trends.  The worst example of how to portray yourself I observed in Texas, when working at a retail store.  A huge hairy man with ostensibly nothing on, including shoes, except a dirty pair of overalls, walked in to my department.  Everyone should have to work with the “public” at least once in their lives.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/discover-challenges/outer-layers/

A personal dilemma this week involves making the decision to travel with my sister and four daughters, or stay home where I’m most comfortable. I haven’t seen them for many years and a lot of chatting, crying and laughing will be involved, my kind of good time. They are renting an RV. I have no idea if I could get up into it, or if my wheelchair would fit. I’m content most days here, but the idea of spending time with them and traveling a short distance from home greatly appeals to me. If I was going to advise someone else, I would say go for it! Life is short, carpe diem! Hmmmm.

  Http://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/dilemma/

When I was a small girl, my favorite rainy day activity was going into our huge attic. There was an old Victrola and big black heavy records to play. There were trunks full of old clothing from previous decades. My sisters and I had great imaginations and would dress up, play music, and pretend we were characters from a book. Of course we loved playing “Little Women”, one of our favorite books. My sister always played Jo, her namesake. We would be Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, Boris Karloff, or a film noir detective resembling Humphrey Bogart. There was a knot hole in the flooring in which we viciously lowered a fake spider to scare our grandmother below. Echoes of “you little whippersnappers!” I still hear today. Every child should have an attic.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/pretend/

Hands over giggles, hide yourself quietly

http://nicolaauckland.com/2016/09/24/sometimes-stellar-storyteller-six-word-story-challenge-50/

I’m not one to panic. Have a crisis?  I’m your woman. In desperate situations I remain calm, quickly assess what needs to be done and do it. It’s after the event that I panic, when I’m alone, and can let my feelings show. My legs get weak, and there’s usually some crying involved.  

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/panic/

I am surprised by this nomination. Thank you,  LazyHaze for taking the time to read some of my ramblings.  I’m new at this. I started as a way to help people who have bladder cancer and having difficulty adjusting. I hoped to explain in sometimes graphic detail what happens and how to handle the results. As a patient, I was shown what I call “happy videos”, showing happy people doing easy daily tasks. Reality is very different. I tried to add humor and honesty to make it easier to accept, because there are some very funny aspects to having a urostomy.

If you choose to accept this nomination, here are my (LazyHaze) questions for you:

Which two facts, do you like most about yourself?
What is your favorite novel?
Which movie did you enjoy watching the most, as a child?
Which two people would you love to have a conversation with?
If you won the Nobel prize, who would you thank?
What is your dream destination?
Which superpower do you covet, and why?
If you could change something about this world, what would it be?
Do you believe there is life on other planets? If yes, why?

 

1. Two facts I like most about myself are humor, and hope.
2. “Rebecca” by Daphne Du Maurier
3. “Cinderella”
4. Barack Obama and Dick Van Dyke
5. Don’t be ridiculous!  But if such a phenomenom  should occur, I would have to say Ms. Elizabeth Tessier, my one-room schoolhouse teacher, grades 1-6.
6. British Isles
7. Ironman’s strength and Captain America’s compassion.  Because the world needs more of these two qualities.
8.  People accepting other people, in every way.
9.  Yes.  Until we have explored the universe, how can we say no?

I haven’t had a chance to peruse all the blogs I’m interested in, but here are a few I enjoy:

1.   LazyHaze
2.   Godless Cranium
3.   Dream Big Dream Often
4.   Juliesattic
5.   The Tony Burgess Blog
6.   Susiesopinions
7.   Eddaz
8.   Purposive Writer
9.   People’s Court
10. My New Normal
11.  Olive Ole

https://lazyhazeblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/21/sunshine-blogger-award/

First thing that comes to mind, is “when I say jump, all you have to do is say how high?” Paraphrased, but the point is made. Sounds like military training, which leads my mind to the movie “Stripes”. Then to John Candy, saying military training was cheaper than EST, so he decided to join and become a “lean, mean, fighting machine”. I love humor, and Bill Murray, John Candy, and Harold Ramis were masters of it in this film.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/jump/