It's a good thing

Wow. It's been a few weeks since I posted. But I have good excuses. Plural. As I splained earlier, my friend Anne and I went to the Springsteen Symposium in Jersey and it was just so much more than what I had hoped for. I have been writing off-line about it and will be posting soon. In spite of (or because of) its awesomeness, the conference wiped me out physically and emotionally, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Since coming home, a couple of other doozies have lit.... My favorite: I was told by the Czarina of my book club that I just don't quite fit in and perhaps I should tone down my personality a little and maybe not share so much..... Nice.

I think this book club thing deserves its own post, but for now, I just have to say that after a year of dense dose chemo, hair falling out, chemo-induced freight train menopause, a bilateral mastectomy with giant tumor removal, more cancer found, more chemo, then eight weeks of daily radiation plus chemo combo, an oh-so- attractive drug induced weight gain (which goes so well with the new no breasts, no hair look) and my beloved 15 year old weimerainer Meg dying . . . I need to TONE DOWN MY PERSONALITY?
I am surprised I have any personality at all that is not RAGING BITCH. I mean, I am surprised I am not standing in the middle of the Super Walmart screaming at the clueless masses that I hope they are proud of that $12 they saved on the backs of the worst treated, most uninsured workers in corporate America!

Ahem. I digress. Sorry bout that.
Let's move to something a little more high brow.

How about reality TV?
You know, the sad truth about being isolated at home so much this past year is that I have watched more TV than I have in my entire lifetime. Although, I also read tons, there were some days when I couldn’t read because of drug side effects like nausea and dry, unfocusing eyes. So the TV was my companion. Some shows I watch like an anthropologist -- I marvel at the people who will go on TV and spread all their personal bidness to the world. I am ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIED when they drag their children onto these shows. I think Dr Phil is deeply in love with himself. . . and possibly delusional. But mostly, I am sad at the lack of altruism I see for the most part (Oprah and Extreme Makeover Home Addition being the exceptions, albeit, way over commercilized). But yes, I have watched some of these shows from time to time and it has given me a better view of our world today. Watching easily manipulated, poorly educated (Or mis-educated) folks on TV, I realize who voted for George Bush.

Wait, I was going to talk highbrow, yes? Sunday New York Times kind of content, yes? Well, day is night, black is white, and look who is commenting in today's NYTs?
CLICK ON THE TITLE OF THIS POST: IT’S A GOOD THING.

Caption contest

Here is a picture screaming for a funny caption! Will you please submit one?

Mark these dates, music lovers!

Black Honkeys CD release party
September 1, 2005
Chickaboom Room
Dunedin, FL
check them out here.


The Subdudes
October 7, 2005
The State Theatre
St. Petersburg, FL
check them out here.

Best Beer Ad Ever.

OK, my sister Jenny sent me
THIS LINK
and you have to go there RIGHT NOW. I was squealing! It makes Superbowl ads look like local car dealers'. Enjoy! Then tell me what you think.
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2677569

Turn off the stove-- I'm done!

Today I had my last radiation treatment and for the first time in almost a year, I don't have some fresh hell to dread. Tomorrow I will wake up and for the first time since September 2004, I won't have to take a handful of pills and wait in grim anticipation for the after effects.

I can't go back to work until the burns on my chest heal up a bit, (unless the St. Pete Times has instated a new "topless" dress code), but the last few months I have found that you really can accomplish a lot with a laptop, cell phone, wireless connection, and coworkers who make house calls. . . .

Welcome friends, strangers, and cancer survivors!

Time to get this blogparty started! Right now I am one radiation zonk away from ending 11 months of treatment for inflammatory breast cancer. The entire time I have been meaning to get this blog going -- along with my website, jillwilson.com, but I was too tired to be inspired.... now however, I am ready to gradually rejoin my life where I left it last September -- just in time for football season -- yeaa! So, talk to me, ask me questions, share opinions, etc...

Hey, kids, I'm going to Springsteen World!

For twenty-odd years, my friend Anne Turner and I have been following Bruce Springsteen anytime he tours here in the south. I first saw Bruce in concert on The River Tour in 1981. Anne saw him with about 50 other audience members in 74! The pic here is of the last time we saw him -- at the move on concert in Orlando last October...I was already on chemo and went to the doc's that day for a big bag of steroids so I could make it through the concert. Small world city alert: The nurse who dosed me up was also a Bruce lover -- the first time she saw hime was in PARIS! Needless to say, we immediately became BFF! My sweet sister Krista drove me through I-4 HELL and mostly tolerated my shotgun seat commentary, but drew the line at me taunting cars with W2004 stickers with my BRUCE NOT BUSH signs. I figure she was scared of roadrage--don't blame her, I guess. You know all those crazy shrub-worshipers were packing. I don't know if it was the drugs or the usual Bossmania, but I felt great and danced all night -- even though my hair was already falling out.

In September, Anne and I are heading to Jersey to join other like-minded BOSSanovers at the Bruce Springsteen Symposium.This first-of-its-kind conference will bring together educators, journalists, historians, musicologists, and anyone interested in scholarship regarding Bruce Springsteen and his influence on American culture. . .plus Anne and me.

Going to the Promised Land is on my list of things to do in my lifetime, which lately has taken on a greater sense of urgency. Do you have a list of things you want to do before you die? Why don't you share a few here?