Women's History Month

Today marks the beginning of Women's History Month. As my "Getting in Touch with Your Inner Bitch" desk calendar says:

Don't you wonder what all those notable bitches were doing the rest of the year?

But still, at least we have something. For this month, my favorite quote of the day, on the right sidebar, will feature a great quote from a great woman. They are women I've admired for various reasons. I don't necessarily agree 100 percent with their ideologies, but I admire them for what they've accomplished. And not just as women, but as people. If you can't understand that, open your mind a little.

The quote for the first of the month

Well-behaved women seldom make history.

is one I've heard only recently, but was coined some 30 years ago by historian and author Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, according to this article. The original quote comes from a paper she wrote in the beginning of her career:

"Cotton Mather called them 'the hidden ones.' They never preached or sat in a deacon's bench. Nor did they vote or attend Harvard. Neither, because they were virtuous women, did they question God or the magistrates. They prayed secretly, read the Bible through at least once a year, and went to hear the minister preach even when it snowed. Hoping for an eternal crown, they never asked to be remembered on earth. And they haven't been. Well-behaved women seldom make history."

The line took on a life of its own, and still appears today on T-shirts, mugs, etc. Ulrich even wrote a book with the title, examining the appeal of the slogan and looking at feminism through the ages. Might be a good one to put on your reading list this month.

While you're remembering this month the notable women in history, remember one more. I never met Jana Mackey, even though she was from where I live now. I am inspired by her story, however. She worked for women's rights and counseled victims of domestic abuse. She was a law student at the University of Kansas when, at age 25 in July 2007 she was murdered by an ex-boyfriend. Who knows what she might have accomplished had she lived? Eleven hundred people attended her funeral, and her family and friends formed Eleven Hundred Torches, an organization to encourage others to carry on her work. March 8, International Women's Day, has been declared Jana Mackey Day in Kansas to encourage others to use some time that day in service to others. It is something we should do everyday.

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily difference we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee. -- Marian Wright Edelman

You can make a difference in the world with something as small as holding a door open for another person, helping a neighbor who might have difficulties with tasks around the house, helping a co-worker with a task instead of making fun of him behind his back ...

Whatever you do need not be big, because even something small might make one person's day better. And that can't be a bad thing at all.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. -- Helen Keller

A busy week

I'm starting to feel like I have a life or something. There's so much to get done and not enough time to do it. Of course, if I'd quit goofing around on Twitter, I'd probably have a lot more time!

Actually, it was kind of a hectic week last week. Mom had some health problems, which meant not one but two trips to Hutchinson, where her doctor practices. She's OK, and actually impressed her doctor with how well she's doing.

In the meantime, I've been dealing with back and hip pain for about three weeks. I probably should have gone to the doctor a couple weeks ago, when the pain was almost unbearable at times, but I'm kind of stubborn. I've always had back problems and had to deal with some bad pain from time to time if I've lifted too much or moved the wrong way, but I'm used to getting over it in about a week or so. So as the pain went on, and since it was also in the hip, I decided I'd better get to the doc. X-rays showed no fracture, and nothing else that shouldn't be there, but there is some arthritis in the backbone.

So now I'm getting some physical therapy for my back. I've had one appointment so far and was given some exercises to do at home. They're not all that different from the yoga I (try) to do a few times a week. And the PT said I have a slight curve in my spine, and that's causing the joint between my backbone and my hip to be out of whack. So the therapy is supposed to put them back in alignment. It does feel better. I don't want to cry after I've been sitting for awhile now.

On top of all that, my boss' wife had a health crisis, too, so he was out of the office most of the week. That kind of put a burden on my-coworker, as he had to take on a lot of the extra work with me being gone too. Things are settling down now, though.

Unfortunately, I haven't had as much time for the Relay for Life Web site and newsletter. So I'll have to carve out some time for that this week. Hopefully the other committee members and team captains will get me more stuff to put in it!

Back to blogging

It's been almost a month since I've posted anything here. This time, it means I've actually been busy, not just lazy or avoiding it.

I've gotten caught up in Twitter, which is a lot of fun. There's a lot of times I just have something not real big I want to say, and the blog doesn't seem the place for that. Twitter's perfect. I've actually got two accounts -- a personal one (that's fed onto the sidebar here) and one for work (HDN_Juno), where I follow and tweet to others in the media. I even attended a webinar by Poynter's NewsU on using Twitter for journalism last week. It was very basic, and a lot of it I already knew, but I did some things about using Twitter. What was real interesting about the webinar was also following the tweets of the people who were attending. Lots of communication going on in ways that even just a few years ago would have been mind-boggling. So now my newspaper also has a Twitter account, NorthWestKansas, that I post to. I've invited other editors in the newsroom to join in, but so far no takers.

I was also busy putting together an in-house wiki for the newsroom. It's our stylebook, our reference guide, our place to share information that can help each other. Again, not everyone's as enthusiastic about it as I am, but one of these days, something's going to happen and they'll see the value in it.

I've also been writing a bit more for the newspaper. Not a lot, just an article once in while, when something interests me. But that takes time, too.

I've also been putting together the Web site for the local Relay for Life. That's all set up now, but I'm also supposed to be doing the newsletter, and that's been tough to find time for since I don't have good layout software on my home computer. I do like to get away from the computer at work once in awhile, so I'm kind of behind on that project. But it'll get done.

Just kind of seems like my life has taken on a lot more stuff in the last few months, and it's been hard to balance it all out. Something new to work on, I guess.

Speaking of things to work on, I kind of neglected my February resolution. I was going to make it eat more fruit & veggies, which I've kind of been doing, so maybe I'll stick with that. March can be for my spring cleaning/organizing, I think.

And how'd I do last month? My resolution was to eat out less. Looking at my Quicken account, I have 10 purchases listed under "dining," and I know there was once I paid cash while working at the mall, so that makes 11. In October, I ate out 14 times, November 9 times, and December 9 times. So I guess I didn't do so hot, although I did spend about $20 buck less than I averaged for dining out October through December, so that's something. And I probably made some better choices about what I was eating. At least some of the time.

Resolution update

I did only so-so last week on my resolution not to eat fast food. I got a bit down in the dumps about mid-week and didn't feel like making meals to take with me. Which was bad, because Wednesday and Thursday were also the days I worked the second job and so had to worry about two meals away from home. So I ended up eating out Wednesday through Friday's lunch.

I didn't do that bad, really. Wednesday's lunch was salad, soup and some fruit off the grocery store salad bar, and Thursday's was a turkey flatbread Sammie with soup from Quizno's. Dinner was another matter, though. Wedneseday, I had Chinese again from the place in the mall, and Thursday was KFC. And Friday, I really did bad with a chicken sandwich and fries from Wendy's.

But I did take dinner to work at the mall last night -- a baked potato with cheese sauce and shredded chicken for toppings, and I added a salad from the grocery store salad bar. So that's some redemption, right?

Happiness

Saturday afternoon, I took Buster on a walk along our usual route -- over the bridge just to the west of my house, south down the dirt road, back east over another bridge and then back towards home.

Going over that second bridge, I noticed some blue-colored birds flitting back and forth between the branches of a tree that had fallen into the creek and trees on the bank. I figured they were bluejays, because we have plenty of them around here, although it seems during winter they usually take off for other parts. There was one thing a I noted a lack of, however, and that was noise. Bluejays are pretty vocal birds, especially when disturbed, and I should have been able to hear them even with my headphones on.

Then I noticed little flashes of orange as they flew. They weren't bluejays, these were bluebirds! I don't recall ever seeing bluebirds before around here, although where I live is included in their range.

Bluebirds are supposedly the bird of happiness, so maybe seeing them now, just after the beginning of the year, is a good sign of things to come! OK, maybe I'm reading too much into that, but I'm a creative person -- symbolism means a lot.

There's more interesting ideas about bluebirds here and here.

Doing good

Forgot about updating, for those of you not following the tweets. Both checkups went well. Some of the numbers on my bloodwork were a bit lower than normal; the doc said those numbers usually indicate an allergy and viruses. She's going to have me go back in about a month for another blood test just to make sure. I have felt like I've been fighting something lately, waking up with a dry, scratchy throat, so maybe that's it.

Otherwise things are a-OK. And both the surgeon and oncologist said I don't need to go get another MRI. That was good news, because I don't want to go through that mess again.

So far, so good

Six days into the new year, and I've eaten out only once! And it was sorta healthy. Chinese food. I mean, there were lots of vegetables. OK, I didn't eat all the vegetables. But it wasn't a greasy burger or corndog, after all.

Tomorrow and Thursday are my three-and-half year checkups with the surgeon and oncologist. Feeling good, so everything should go well. Send some positive vibes, though. Every bit helps.

Healthier 2009

So it's the new year, and I've been thinking about resolutions, as everyone does. How can you help it with all the diet/exercise product infomercials and organization stuff in the stores?

One thing I want to do, as I've said every year, is to get healthier. It means a lot more now than it did, say, five years ago, though. And I have done better, at least somewhat. I eat a little better and exercise more. But I never seemed to be able to lose much weight. Until this year. Once it warmed up this spring to where Buster and I could walk everyday, I lost about 15 pounds without even realizing it! That's the difference, I guess, of walking with an elderly dog vs. walking with a 1-year-old dog.

Really, I'm not that bad off. According to this site, I have a BMI of 26, which is just over the limit of being "overweight." According to that site, I could get down to 100 pounds and be considered normal weight. Yikes. I look of pictures of myself from right after college, when I was about 110, and that just looks too skinny (although it probably didn't help I always wore baggy clothes). I'd be happy with about 130-135, so I don't have far to go.

Anyway, back to resolutions. I've tried lots of different methods of keeping them, and it never really seems to work. So instead of saying "Lose weight" or even more specifically, "Lose 10 pounds," I'm going to go with small steps. So first step for January: Cutting fast food from the diet. This one should be easy, because I've already done a lot of that. I quit eating at McDonald's about a year or so ago after they ripped me off on my change in the drive-through and the manager was a jerk about it, and I lost about five pounds in the two months after that.

I go to Sonic once in a while (OK, more often than I should) for a corndog and tater tots (they probably start fixing them when they see me drive up now). Chicken (popcorn chicken, nuggets, KFC) is my downfall. But I hardly ever eat fast-food hamburgers anymore. And there are healthy options at fast food places. Wendy's (which is one of the best places for lunch here, service-wise) has chili, baked potatoes, salads, etc. There's a Quizno's near where I work, and I'm taking my lunch/dinner to work a lot more often now. So if I can just control the corndog/chicken nugget cravings, this one should be a smooth way to start.

I'll be working on some exercise goals this month, too, but I'm really going to focus on success on one goal each month.

On turning 40

Today I turned 40. Five years ago, I would have said I dreaded that thought. But then, three and a half years ago, something happened. I found a lump in my left breast. It was cancer.

There are cancer survivors who say getting cancer was a blessing. Not to belittle anyone's beliefs, but I think they're crazy. It was hell. And not just for me. My family, my friends, my co-workers all also carried a part of what I went through.

But I got through it. Hell, I kicked its ass.

This year, I've come to realize just how lucky I really was. Lucky I found it when I did, because I never did regular self-exams and didn't think I'd need to go for a mammogram for a few more years. Lucky I'm in a place with a great cancer center and doctors. And lucky I have so many great people around me. It is in, in part, because of them I am here, celebrating 40 years.

So to my family and friends, thank you. Even if you couldn't be here while I was going through my treatment, I felt your support and good thoughts and prayers. And your e-mails and cards got me through some tough days. And to my co-workers who stepped up when I couldn't quite keep up the normal work load or just gave me an ear or even a shoulder to cry on.

And of course, to Nipper, my buddy, who didn't understand what was going on, but was always ready to curl up with me and comfort me.

This year, I have felt better than I have in years -- even before the cancer. The fatigue is gone, the chemo brain is gone. And it's not just a physical difference. It just feels like there are a whole lot of possibilities out there within my reach and all I need to do is grab them. And I will.

Cancer was not a blessing. But it did open my eyes to a lot of things over the last few years. One of those is that there are a lot of great people in my life, and that no matter what I might face in the years ahead, they'll be there to support me. I hope I can be as much to them as they have been to me.

Thanks, all. Here's to the next 40!

Long live journalism?

The Detroit Media Partnership, which publishes the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, announced big changes are coming in how it publishes. Next spring, the newspapers will deliver print editions to homes only on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, their biggest advertising days. They will still print daily, but the remaining days of the week, the size of the print edition will be drastically reduced and will only be available at newsstands. The papers will push online delivery of the news over print.

I can't say that I'm shocked to see this coming, but it makes me pretty sad. However, I think it could well be the most workable business model for newspapers to come along. It certainly makes more sense than cutting your staffs to nothing and cutting budgets so that the reporters and photographers who remain can barely leave the building to cover the news.

Fact is, this writing has been on the wall for a long time; newspapers just refused to believe it. Or maybe averted their eyes. Yes, there is still an audience for print — and I think to some extent there always will be — but it is literally dying. I think that those who are in the early 20s and teens now are likely going to be the last generation to see print newspapers have much of a role in society. There will always be those small-town or neighborhood weeklies and specialty publications, I think, but the bigger papers (even ones like the small daily I work for) have to face that in order to survive, they've got to emphasize online. Home delivery of a print newspaper will, for them, become something "extra," an offering to those who can afford the luxury of sitting at home in their pjs reading the paper while the rest of us rush around with a job or two, or kids to rush to school, or whatever we do to get by while we hear the news on radio or browse on PDAs or cell phones or whatever we'll have in the future.

Our product has never been a piece of paper. It has been delivery of information, wether it be in advertising, articles or opinion. That can be done in many different media. Few papers took broadcasting seriously as competition, fewer still looked at the Internet that way. A very few did, and even embraced that competition. What the Freep is doing is quite likely the next step we have to take to keep delivering our true product.

Lights!

I've got the outdoor Christmas lights on finally. I put them up a week ago, I think, and just now got around to getting them plugged in. Because you know, you have to do it strategically ... what gets plugged into what outlet and so on. I didn't put up as much as I have in the past. I have enough lights to line the front of the roof and around the porch, but the lights I got a few years back, which I really REALLY loved, they, of course, do not make any more. So replacing them is the pits. And it's a lot of work to put them up.

But last year, on the after Christmas sale, I got some blue net lights for the shrubs next to the porch and a couple red rope lights. I debated about winding them up the porch poles, but hated to think about how to plug everything in. So I wound them around the split-rail fence next to the driveway, and I think it looks OK. I put up the cheap, plastic red ribbons on the fence posts. I have plenty of those so if the weather trashes them, I can replace them pretty easy. I might buy more of the rope lights after Christmas again this year and eventually wind it all the way down the fence ... which is actually quite a ways.

I might get to the tree later tonight. It's just a fake tree, and we'd always kept the lights on it when we put it away so every year we just had to straighten it out and put the decorations on it. But I also need to do some housecleaning and some laundry, so we'll see. Plus, I had a pretty busy day, so it'd be nice to just crash for a bit, too.

Talking to the future

Today I talked with a beginning newswriting class at the local university. It's taught by a professor I had when I was there, although I had that class before she started there. She has her class submit stories to the newspaper I work for as part of their assignments and I had edited some of their stories for us to use, so I offered to give them some feedback. I was able to take about an hour to talk to them -- all four of them.

A couple of the students were late, and so was the prof, so I chatted with one of the students while we waited. And when I did start talking to the class, I gave them he basic rundown of my job and offered some feedback to a couple of the students' stories, explaining why we made the kinds of changes we did.

They had some good questions, too, asking about the paper, the kinds of things I thought they should be learning considering the kinds of changes going on journalism, etc. It was kinda fun, really, and it's nice to know there are some younger people still interested in what makes journalism good and not just getting their name and their friends' names in the paper.

You were looking for what?

It always amuses me to check out my blog stats. Yes, I have a counter, and I like checking out how people find my blog. A lot are from friends and family, since I used it to keep people updated on how I was doing during my cancer treatment. But I also get a lot of hits from people who must just be ... weird.

It seems like the current most popular search terms people hit on my site with have to do with this entry, about finding out how I could easily finish my bachelor's degree after 21 years by taking two classes. People are seriously searching for "how to get a bachelor's degree in ..." two days, a week, a month, six months, you name it.

Then there's the recent hit on "how to buy a giant pink Serta sheep." You gotta earn one of those, pal. Buy a mattress in October and you'll get a small one.

I've recently seen searches for "Christina Applegate nude naked porn" lately. Get a life and get out of your parents' basement, OK?

Occasionally, I get hits from people searching for something about Mark Harmon's hairy chest. Only thing I can think of is that this entry about TV and this one — both from the same month — are drawing them in. I'm sure people have been quite disappointed it was my own hairy chest I was talking about.

There is a more serious side. This one, where I talk about the side effects of Novelbine, one of the chemo drugs I had, gets a lot of hits. That was a nasty time, and I'm glad it didn't have to last long. Hope that what I wrote in there might help someone else with their treatment.

Long overdue update

Can't believe it's been almost a month and a half since I posted. There's been lots going on, really.

Being a journalist, I guess I'll start with the biggest news. Mom has moved out of the house. It had been frustrating lately, probably for both of us, and after she returned from her last trip, she moved into the house she bought for my dad to live in when I was starting my cancer treatment. I guess they figured since they didn't kill each other on that trip, they'd be OK. And I'm getting along OK, finding a groove to get into to keep things running smoothly. I hate leaving Buster alone so much, but Mom still goes over to do her laundry and such, so he gets some playtime with her.

The other big news would be that I finally found a second part-time job. It's at the local mall, on the mall maintenance staff. It's a pretty easy job, mainly because it's not that big of a mall. Although we'll see what I think after working by myself tonight, "Black Friday." The Penney's store is staying open until 11 p.m.!

What else? Oh, yeah, I was a model in the Day of Caring back in October:

I don't get all made up ... uh, ever, so this is a rare sight. I ended up buying the outfit, except for the boots, which cost almost as much as the rest of it put together. And in the goodie bag I got for modeling was a little stuffed Serta sheep. Buster stole it out of the bag and made it his. I had to cut the eyeballs off so he wouldn't and choke on them.

That's about it for now. I'll do more later, but I've got to head to work soon, and while writing this I'm also chatting with a friend. Talk about multitasking!

Rain, rain, go away

We've had more than four inches of rain since Saturday. For this area, that's a lot. I mean a LOT. I came home to discover the roof had been leaking in the kitchen. Not too much, but it was still a mess to clean up. It's been dripping off and on all evening.

Poor Buster didn't get his walk today, and he probably didn't go out much during the day since it just POURED much of the day. We roughhoused on the floor for awhile, and played with his favorite squeaky toy, a turkey. It's actually the only toy of his I can find anymore. He's sort of buried it in the back yard a few times over the last couple weeks, and I have no idea where his other squeaky toy, a shoe, is. Probably in the same place where his Kong is. We haven't seen that since shortly after he got it at Christmas.

Buster's not a snuggly dog like Nipper was, but he has his times when he wants to be close. I'm learning to "read" when he wants that. He'll kind of bug me if I'm lying on my couch, but he's not interested in playing. So when I scoot over and pat the couch, he'll hop up next to me and curl up for a nap. He doesn't put his head on my lap or anything, but once he's up there, he relaxes. He still sleeps out in the living room when it's time to go to bed, though.

Other than the rain, there's not a heck of a lot going on. So here's hoping we dry out the rest of the week.

Busterversary

Today marked one year since Buster came home. We had a pretty good day. In the morning I finished up some yardwork that I started last night but had to quit since it's getting dark earlier. I wanted to get that out of the way, because a friend of mine -- the one whose wedding I went to a couple weeks ago -- was in town and came over for awhile, and plus I wanted the afternoon to do something special with Buster.

So Karen and I had a good time visiting and catching up, and Buster was a pretty good boy. He got a bit overexcited a few times and nipped at her -- playfully, but I still don't like when he does that. But overall he behaved. Then in the afternoon, I took Buster into town and we spent about an hour walking through the big park. I think he had fun, even though it was pretty cool and kind of rainy. He's sure tired out tonight, so we're just hanging out at home with the TV, some popcorn and brownies.

Some busy weekends are coming up, though. Next Saturday is the Day of Caring, a brunch and fashion show for breast cancer awareness. All the models are breast cancer survivors. And yes, this year I'll be modeling. I was a bit nervous because the store they picked for me is a western wear store, and I am NOT into the cowgirl thing. But I did find some cool stuff, and I hope to have some pix to post here afterwards.

The weekend after that is a copy editing conference in Wichita -- yes, back to Wichita. I've been there more in the last year than I have in my whole life. But I'm looking forward to it. It'll be nice to be around people who actually think copy editing is still important to newspapers.

Lookee what the mailman brung ...

OK, you'll have to wait to look, since I don't have a digital camera with me, but when I got home today, there was a big express mail envelope in the mailbox, with a return address from the local university. And when I opened it up, inside was ... my Bachelor of General Studies diploma! And a tassel! They even spelled my name right!

It's a little more awesome than I woulda thunk.

Good weekend

Buster and I are both back home after our weekend. Buster had a good report from his vet's visit, except for his weight. He's about 15 pounds over what he should be, the vet said. She said I could cut down on the amount of food I give him, so he's gradually going on smaller rations today. And maybe we'll go for a bit longer walk every day. Buster seems to be happy to be home. I'm glad he's home, too.

My weekend was pretty good. I survived driving through Wichita traffic -- not a bad feat for a small-town girl. Although we did get to know the Oliver loop to Kellogg pretty well. Seems we kept taking the wrong turn onto Kellogg, but with all that construction going on, it was hard navigate. We got lost only once, on the way to the reception, and were about an hour late, but there was still plenty of food. And we weren't the only ones who had a hard time finding the place downtown. But it was worth it to be able to see Karen & Eric get to celebrate and how happy they were.

And Vanessa Peters was great Friday night. Not too many of the people there were there specifically to see her -- and it was Oktoberfest -- so the crowd was a bit rowdy. A fight even broke out at one point, but overall it was enjoyable. I got to talk to her and her guitarist, Manuel, before the show and during a break, and during another break she sat and talked with a group of college kids (mostly Chinese students) who seemed to be there more for the music than the booze, which was cool. She's got some albums available on iTunes, if you're interested.

Back to work tomorrow. Hopefully, it won't be as tough a week as the last one.

Dogless

That's what I am until Sunday evening. I'm heading to Wichita tomorrow morning with a co-worker for a friend's wedding, and we're staying overnight Saturday, so Buster is staying in a "cabin" at his vet's for the weekend. I can go pick him up Sunday evening, so depending on what time we get back, Sunday will be a quiet day.

Tonight, I'll have something to distract me for awhile. I'm heading into town to see Vanessa Peters and one of her bandmates perform at the local brewpub. I've been bored with commercial radio, and got tired of hearing the same old stuff on my iPod, so I started searching for different music. I checked out the Web sites of the local venues one day, and found she was coming here, listened to stuff on her MySpace page, and kinda got hooked. And then I thought it might be fun to write about some of the music going on around here and pitched the idea to my boss. He was less than enthusiastic about it, but I went ahead and did an article on Peters anyway for our arts page this week. I'd like to do more, especially on the local acts. We'll see how it works out time-wise with all the other crap that gets heaped on me at work now. I'm kind of hoping to maybe branch out into some freelance writing with some of this, too.

On my way to the show, I need to drop off Hope, my support group's giant pink Serta sheep mascot, at the home of one of the members so she can ride on the Homecoming parade float tomorrow. I'm kind of sorry I'll be missing that, because it's always a great experience. I've done it twice now, and each time, got a little choked up when people stand and applaud us as we go by. All we did was survive. It was all the scientists, doctors, nurses and caretakers who made that possible. They're really the ones who deserve the applause. So if you're involved at all in cancer research, oncologoy or are helping a loved one through treatment, know that applause is really for YOU.

Best. Compliment. Ever

I was sitting at my desk this morning, when Joe, one of our ad sales people who's around my age, passed by. Pointing at his thinning hair, he said to me "If I had hair, that's exactly what I'd want it to look like."

Awesome.