What Cancer Cannot Do

This poem is framed and sitting in the Gilda's Club library. I found it very inspiring and just wanted to pass it along...

What Cancer Cannot Do

Cancer is so limited...

It cannot cripple love

It cannot shatter hope

It cannot corrode faith

It cannot destroy peace

It cannot kill friendship

It cannot suppress memories

It cannot silence courage

It cannot invade the soul

It cannot steal eternal life

It cannot conquer the spirit.

Gilda's Club

I'm officially a member of Gilda's Club!

After having an emotional break down at work last week, I decided it was time to reach out for my support. Luckily for me, the Dallas location of Gilda's Club is just a block away from my office - it doesn't get much more convenient than that!

Gilda's Club is a nonprofit support organization for anyone affected by cancer. Their motto is "Cancer support for the whole family, the whole time." They have group therapy, wellness activities, networking groups, fun/informational activities, socials - even an on-site work out room! The whole thing is housed in a home-like setting which immediately puts you at ease.

Branden and I attended our New Member meeting last night, and today I had my one-on-one appointment to design my customized membership experience. I start my family & friends support group next week! I'm so glad to be going so soon. It feels weird to say I'm excited, but I am looking forward to talking to others with similar experiences and emotions.

Oh, and the best part of Gilda's Club? Every single thing is F-R-E-E. I like the sound of that.

They also have a small library, mostly filled with cancer/self-help/support books, but also including a section of general fiction. I already checked out two books:

My librarian mother instilled in me the belief that answers can often be found in the pages of a book, so that's where I'm turning.

To round out my education, I have placed "Saturday Night Live's The Best of Gilda Radner" at the top of my Netflix queue - I'd like to see some of the wonderful woman who inspired all of this. She was a bit before my SNL time (I watched during the era of Adam Sandler, Jon Lovitz, et.al.) - so I'm looking forward to some laughs when it comes in.

Father's Day

I'm finally able to post about our Father's Day!

We're having internet issues at home, and I've been back and forth with AT&T many times. We should've had access over a week ago, but it's looking like it'll be Thursday before anything happens now. So, I'm having to steal moments online wherever I can. Right now, that happens to be at my parents' house, where the boys are continuing their game from last weekend.

Speaking of that, Father's Day was really something special around here! The cast of characters here to celebrate with Wayne included my mom, me, Branden, Branden's best friend Pete, Pete's girlfriend Rachel, Branden's friend Chris, Wayne's son Clay, Clay's best friend Chris, and my best friend Lindsey. Did you catch all that? :o) Oh, and for good measure, my parents' dog Sooner, and our dogs Jock and Pepper, too!

The boys (and Rachel) played a modified version of Dungeons and Dragons, which they called Castle. It is a role-playing game with dice and little characters and a huge, awesome castle Wayne built:



Close-up of the top of the castle:

In honor of the occasion, we ordered a castle cake from Confections in Cake. Erika did an excellent job! It even brought Wayne to tears.

Every castle has to have a King and Queen, so here are ours:

Somehow, the Queen's crown made it onto the Doggy Prince, Sooner:

Here's me!

Pete and Branden, goofing around:

Me and Lindsey:

Wayne kept the crown on for a while. Here he is with Pete and Rachel, in the midst of game play:

Chris, Clay and Chris getting into the game:

Finally, it was time to cut the cake!

After a long day and lots of people, the cake was rather sad looking, being half-eaten. But boy was it delicious! It was pineapple flavored, with cherry filling (and real cherries!).

Here's a cute shot of Sooner, in his honored spot on the couch cushion. Poor Pepper really wants to come in and join the party! (Don't worry, we let him in shortly after this picture was taken).

It was a wonderful day, and Wayne told me it was his best Father's Day ever, which is exactly what we were going for. We love you, Wayne!

I figured I should post

Since I haven't been keeping up very well lately.

What have I been doing? Obviously not blogging. I've been reading...and watching movies. Mostly those two things. I'm halfway through two different books right now. Normally I hate reading more than one at a time, but circumstances forced me to. I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a week early (according to the contest schedule - see "HP Revisited" in my sidebar for more info), so I thought I'd have time to sneak in another book before beginning the next Harry Potter. I was sadly mistaken. I was only halfway through Interview with the Vampire when it came time to begin Half-Blood Prince...so I put Interview on the back burner. And now, only a few days in, I'm already halfway through HBP! It's definitely a much faster read, and I'm just loving this re-reading journey I'm on!

What else have I been up to? Movies, of course! I'm just loving my Netflix subscription. It was absolutely the perfect gift from my wonderful husband. I've been taking advantage of the Watch Instantly feature to get into "The Office". Though the first season was kind of a slow start, I'm beyond hooked now, a few episodes in to the second season. I love that they're only 20ish minutes long, so I can fit an episode in here and there. And it's hilarious! I can't get over how obnoxious Dwight is, or how utterly full of himself - but in an oddly innocent way - Michael is. Can't wait to see how things develop!

Lessee...other news...Branden's recovery seems to be going well. He's still got a few months until he's back to full duty at work, but he's been going to physical therapy and doing his home exercises as well. The only setback has been him pulling his hamstring a couple of times - the first time while playing with the dogs, the second being last weekend, when he decided to be macho and race a couple of our friends in the pool. (He won, but definitely paid a price for it!)

I do have to brag on him a bit, though. Yesterday, I was having a bad day at work. To my great surprise, he met me at work to ride the bus home with me! It was such a sweet gesture, and it totally turned my day around! It's the little things that count the most sometimes, you know?

I think that's quite enough blabbering on from me today. I'll try to be a better blogger - but I've always been of the opinion that if I didn't have anything particularly interesting to say, it was better not to bother with blogging at all. However, I'm trying to balance that with the need to keep this here blog alive, so - I'll try to be better!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Worst part of the weekend: When it was over on Sunday night. :(

Best part of the weekend: Watching lots of movies! Saw 4 movies total:

Most random part of the weekend: When Branden came back from walking the dogs, and instead of starting dinner, told me to get dressed...then took me to Northpark to eat at the food court (I got Which Wich - yum!) and see "X-Men: Wolverine".

People I saw this weekend: Branden and a bunch of strangers at Northpark

Something I wished I did this weekend that I didn't get around to doing: My long-standing to-do item of printing out some wedding & honeymoon pictures for the frames we have sitting in the spare room.

Things that I am looking forward to this week: Quiet nights eating dinner w/Branden and reading "Interview with the Vampire". Hope to have it finished by the weekend. Then party Friday night, and dinner at a friend's house Saturday night.

Things that I am not looking forward to this week: Working out. And working. Pretty much anything with "work" in it.

Book Meme

Copied from Smash's blog...though I did go to the trouble of changing the answers! ;-)

1) What Author do you own the most books by? J K Rowling - I'm sure 7 tops the list!

2) What book do you own the most copies of? I honestly don't think I own more than one copy of any particular title.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? Not a bit.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with? Emmett Cullen

5) What book have you read the most times in your life? The Mozart Season - Virginia Euwer Wolff

6) Favorite book as a ten year old? Definitely one of the Babysitters Club books - I loved those!

7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year? Dixieland Sushi - Cara Lockwood. It wasn't awful, but it really wasn't that great. It's one that I picked by cover - I try to pick a couple of those each time I visit the library.

8) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year? Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

9) If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be? Ditto Smash's answer - Harry Potter series.

10) What book would you most like to see made into a movie? Something Borrowed/Something Blue - I hear there are plans, and I'd love to see them materialize.

11) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read? Something I had to read for high school, probably...I remember "Red Badge of Courage" being difficult to get through...and I know there were others.

12) What is your favorite book? Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

13) Play? I don't have one...I'm rather uneducated when it comes to theater

14) Poem? I'm also not much for poetry...look at me, all anti-literature.

15) Essay? I'm supposed to have a favorite essay?

16) Who is the most overrated writer alive today? I think Smash is right - Stephanie Meyer

17) What is your desert island book? I'll be different and say Twilight

18) And… what are you reading right now? Just finished Goblet of Fire...I'll start on Order of the Phoenix next.

Dog Bowl

We visited the Dog Bowl at Fair Park today. If you haven't been, I highly recommend it. Once a year, the Cotton Bowl becomes the area's largest dog park. They have vendor booths and kiddie pools filled with water all over the field, and this year they even had a band providing entertainment. I'm intimately acquainted with this because the second time I let Jock off-leash, he decided to go UNDERNEATH the stage! Fortunately he quickly came out the other side...I certainly didn't want to make a scene by going in after him!

We only stayed for 30 or 45 minutes. Branden's only a few weeks post-surgery, and his knee still tires quickly, so we left before too long. On the way out of the park, we stopped for a picture. This is the best of the lot - even though Branden's not looking, the pups are!

Jock, Pepper and Branden