The Way Life Should Be

This weekend we went to Rusty's parent's summer home in Maine. Ah, Maine. When you cross into the border, the welcome sign says "Maine, The Way Life Should Be". I agree completely :-)

The summer home is in the woods on a small lake about a half hour northwest of Portland, about a three hour drive from Worcester. Whenever we go there, it's guaranteed to be a relaxing weekend full of good food, good beer, quality family time, a little bit of work, and lots of fresh air (but hopefully not too many mosquitoes).

We leisurely made our way up to Maine on Friday and got there in the late afternoon. We had a delicious supper (and just a little bit of wine) and yummy local strawberries and chocolate for dessert (and just a little bit of Kava, which is Spanish sparkling wine). Rusty's brother, Bob, and his wife, Laura, brought some "sparklers" to have a little homegrown fireworks display. While we set off ours, the other neighbors on the lake were displaying their fireworks (which were a little more than sparklers, I'd say - I think one guy spent his whole month's paycheck on his fireworks.). It was a lot of fun, and quite a pleasing and flagrant disregard for the local law.

The next day, Rusty and I went for a boat ride on the lake. It started out as a motorboat ride, but despite our best efforts, we couldn't start the motor. So, we took the rowboat instead and Rusty got a bit more of a workout than he originally intended. We also went swimming, which was my first time swimming with a bald head. It didn't feel as weird as I thought it would, but was pretty cold. While trying to get the gumption to dunk in the water, I decided having my boobs removed has one good side-effect (albeit unintended) - no more cold nipples :-)

After our swim, we relaxed on the beach a little, and then made our way back to the house for beer (just a little) with Rusty's aunt and uncle, who were over for dinner. After dinner, the four of us "kids" drove to see the official fireworks display for the town of Limington. Somehow, we forgot that the place we selected to watch from last time was probably the single worst spot (a large tree was directly in view of the display) so we camped out there again this year. After an hour and a half wait, the fireworks began. It was nice, but I liked the unsanctioned lakeside fireworks better. Also, it probably had a little something to do with waiting an hour and a half for a 20 minute show. The anticipation was just a bit too much. I'm glad we went, though - I like fireworks.

That's pretty much it - there was a lot more eating and relaxing and just enjoying each others' company, but you get the idea. I neglected to take pictures (bad blogger), except for one. This is for the beer, the wine, and the Kava. :-)


I also have a few pictures from the wedding last weekend. Thanks Kelly and Melissa!

This is of me and Sarah, my best friend. I can't believe there hasn't been a picture of her, yet. I took this picture of us in the limo on the way to the church. My sister had just called to say hello (I informed her that I was a bit busy...) so I took a picture of us to send to her.

Mom says the wig makes me look like Princess Diana.

This next picture is of Sarah, Sara (one of Vicki's friends from college) and me:


And here is me and Melissa. Can you tell how tired I am here? I've mentioned Melissa before, she's my friend from college who is currently in med school. And she is hoping to specialize in dermatology, not plastic surgery (which is what I kept saying). However, I think she should give this careful consideration because she did a wonderful job taking out the wrinkles in the photo below:
Did I say wrinkles? I didn't mean that. I meant to say she made my boobs look huge. :-)

Hiatus

Alright, alright. I've had enough of you politely harass me about my blog not being updated... I decided the best way to handle this was to just write a new post. Jocelyn says that I have gone the way of all other bloggers, dropping off the face of the blog-o-sphere.

This past weekend I was in Vicki's wedding. It was great - it was beautiful, fun, enjoyable, all that good stuff. But most importantly (ha ha), my wig was awesome. I borrowed a wig from the American Cancer Society resource center at the place where I get chemo. People donate their wigs when they don't need them anymore, so it's like a "lending library" for wigs. I wasn't interested in buying a wig (I don't care whether or not my insurance company pays for it - I have a hard time getting something like that to use just once).

To me, not wearing a wig is a sign of strength. I think it's strange when I see patients getting chemo and wearing a wig. Lets face it - you're not fooling anyone! And guess what? Most of us don't have hair, either! To each her own, but I can tell you from firsthand experience that getting a wig is not physically comfortable... but it can be emotionally comfortable. I know that since Vicki is a good friend, she would have been okay with me wearing a headscarf to her wedding (in fact, she told me she wouldn't mind if I sat in the pew in jeans if it meant I could be there - I almost wish I took her up on that at several points during the day :-). But I think that being a good friend means not asking her to be okay with me going in a headscarf. I'll be bald for another few months. She'll have these pictures of the most important day in her life forever.

As it turns out, I'm happy I had a wig. There were dozens of people I'd never met before, and they would have all been staring at me, or whatever. The wedding was beautiful, everyone had a great time, and I was part of it.

But, I'll tell you, I don't know if I'll ever wear the wig again :-)

I'm trying to get pictures of me in the wig at the wedding, but I don't have any, yet. Stay tuned...

p.s. Today was my next round of Taxol. Though I'm tired and a bit loopy, I feel fine.