Ispirato

That’s my 21 year old second cousin on the left, Meredith. She’s from Indianapolis. She just spent 6 months studying at the University of Melbourne so we got to see a lot of her during the last half of 2008.

And on the right - that’s me. I’m wearing my wig. My eyebrows and eyelashes are thinning. I look pale. But hey, at 47 I’m still a cool chick ‘cuz I’ve got a nose stud.

Meredith knew I’d wanted a nose stud for awhile, so in November she said we were going to go together to get our noses pierced.

There is something about having cancer that makes some people become more daring than they ordinarily are. Cancer can shake you out of your complacency. This nose stud is my little act of bravery and rebellion.

Besides getting our noses pierced at the same time, Meredith and I did some crafting together. In her final days before returning to Indianapolis, she found a couple of books on my shelf about making softies, and asked if we could do this. Meredith picked ‘Mabel the Monkey’, a pattern from ‘Softies - 22 friends for you to sew, knit and crochet’ printed by Viking. My ‘Lucky Dog’ pattern came from the book, ‘Softies - Simple Instructions for 25 Plush Pals’ published by Chronicle Books. We were both very pleased with the results.

These past few months I have been in ‘convalesence mode’. The chemo makes me tired, but I am lucky to have very few other side effects. Still, I spend a lot of time sitting and reading or just thinking or meditating. And I nap. I thought I would be making more art than I actually have. There is some energy for that, and I am sure it will improve over time. Most importantly, I’ve removed a lot of the pressure I used to put on myself - to work, to make stuff, to write, to promote, to blog.