Our Escape

lol...I got a kick out of all the "beauty" talk....when coonie asked me what I wanted for my birthday I said a pretty sundress and a fake tan!  lol  I'm looking forward to finishing these treatments, getting my hair back and feeling feminine again.  My family always tells me I'm pretty, but they're my family!!! lol

Sooooooooooooo EWB, what do you want for your birthday???  We gals have to start our cyber shopping.... let us know!!!

I want to escape here....

Sounds wonderful EWB!!!

Oh nooooo......great googa mooga Checkum!!! Hey....could ya just do me a favor and put my pennants on the back row or summpin.....jeeeeeshhh......it's fixin to be embarassment time......oh man.......

OH seriously Checkum. I hope you get to feeling better with that LE. You need to take good care of yourself. Can't believe it's almost time.........CAN YOU??!!

((((((((((((((Checkum)))))))))) thanks for doing this for all the sistahs!!!

 What flavor cake you want EWB???

Hey coonie... I feel the same way about my pennants... I don't even think I put Michigan on them...lol   Soooooooooo Checkum...put mine in the back with coonie's!!! lol

Hope you LE mends and you have a fantastic time Checkum... really getting excited for you!!!

Barbe, you are simply hilarious!  

EWB, yeah I know what you mean about there's something to this look good feel better thing.  You put it  very well... I had forgotten about looking pretty, really- and I know my cancer treatments are nothing compared to most.  Also as a new mommy and after a couple years of IVF treatments- whatever, I completely forgot about it.  But in my current avatar I am wearing a dress I bought years ago and never wore, and the picture is at my 30th high school reunion with my best pals.  They got dressed up, and i showed up in my *better* usual clothes.  I asked if I looked OK and they kind of squirmed and said I looked "comfortable".  Its a new haircut and color too.  Boy was I surprised when the dress- and the bra- fit.  I felt like Cinderella.  I had confidence I barely remembered having.  I was recently going through old photos and kicking myself because I was a good looking teen and twenties, and I had no idea then.  Now I am happily surprised when I look in the mirror, see pics etc.  I am doing a crap job of explaining this, you did better with less words.

Now I don't know but... vanity is perhaps a part of being a woman.  Being "put together" like you said.  We all deal with the gory details of life in general (only women bleed), and then the cancer crap, and all that comes with it, lots and lots of big time ugly going on.... yesterday I took the time to use all my face masques, my body scrub, even saw I had the hair stuff put aside from ... half a year ago?  I didn't even remember I had this stuff, like the dress and the bra.  Moisturized my feet.  I felt pretty, I felt good.  

Again, I am one of the luckier cancer patients, I got to keep my hair and my boobs (for now) and my prognosis is good (for now) and I wanted to say something to my sisters on this board but didn't because I am sort of the mini-me of breast cancer relatively, but what you say is the same thing I feel.

So all that to say, AMEN SISTER.  Do the things that make you feel PRETTY.  PUT TOGETHER.  Its almost embarrassing how much better it makes one feel.  OK, it's vanity, but it works. 

About what you are saying about the youth and not worrying about this cancer crap, it's my job to give that to my son- he was 11months at my DX.  Any time i see him happy i feel like I am doing my part.

My Mom had MS, and all I can say is that I am happy for every moment of being happy she had at any point in her life.   And EWS, that IS what we do now!!! We meet you and each other here now, and we sit in that sand and don't get sun burned and we don't care what we look like    

coonie- OK I feel better now about my completely ridiculous pennants.  After all this work, if they even make it to Checkum without looking like a ball of glittered felt I'll be happy.  They do look like g strings.  

JO- I love your Southern aunt!!!!  What a riot. Well I wish I could say I get it together every day, or even every other day, or even once a week as regular thing but... I dont! HA!  Even before BC!  It's a lot easier when I am not fat.  A lot.  But now my priority is losing the weight, so I may look ridiculous, wearing what I slept in the night before, often with baby barf on it, with my back pack and baseball cap and comfy walking shoes, but if i do it enough, I could get un-fat and look good more often!  But it is really quite wonderful to shed my skin every so often, get it "put together" and strut it outside.  Oh and like you, I'd rather DIY.  Everything except my hair.

Oh and I did red matte lipstick and big hair right up to the 90s... 

arnie- I promised G-d if I didn't have to do chemo I would grow my hair just to cut it off to give to the people who make wigs for cancer patients.  But they don't take processed hair, and there's all this fol de rol about what they do with the hair - i got so driven I found a place that takes even hair clippings to make mats to soak up oil spills.  So I gave up on that one.  I thought I had a clue about how it feels to lose hair to cancer treatments, but until I had this revelation and felt pretty, I did not "get it".  I have a friend on this board on another thread who is having a rough time getting her boobs back, she's had a couple surgeries and some trouble.  I have been telling her to stop rushing it because that's only setting her back, but she can't help herself.  When I had this revelation I finally understood really where she's coming from.  Cancer really sucks dog poop. So when your family tells you you are pretty, they are correct, but its when YOU feel pretty that you get the big lift in your spirits and confidence, feel more comfortable in your own skin, feel POWERFUL.

oh and I had to stop fussing over the pennants because I gotta get them in a box and up to Checkum before its too late!  Gonna go sew the strings on now... before the light goes.

And of course, I have no idea how to sew felt.  The first pennant doesn't have enough extra to fold over... :::sigh::: 

Wow pretty one from Karol!!!  And it won't fall apart in the rain!  Or wind.  Or... 

Well I don't have a sewing machine since the fire, so I was trying to get by on glitter and glue... doh!

I'm with coonie in the back!!!  

I wonder if hair spray or shellac would keep the glitter in place.  Or Urethane...  I am thinking of sending along the little brush I keep using to put the glitter back in place... ha!

Checkum, those pennant streamers are cool... but... if you put these pennants on there, they'll rip right off  I only used a basting stitch to add the yellow ribbon (for the troops and 9/11) for tying them, 'cause I have no idea how much the felt can take.  If you have a machine you could maybe tack it down stronger, but most of the glitter would probably blow off and you'd just have a bunch of pink felt...  I am sorry, these are pretty stupid in terms of durability...

Here's mine, on their way to you tomorrow!

ELAINE...HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great pennants Rachel! Looks like you had way too much fun!