Bonnie Becomes a BON

I am honored to be selected as a feature blogger of Words of Wisdom (WOW). Please check it out:

http://www.ourwisdomofwords.blogspot.com/

WOW, in its own words, is a support site for blogs of substance. Mmmm. I never thought of my blog as a blog of substance and I've actually given up trying to define what it is about. Sometimes it's better not to over-analyze these things. When I feel like writing, I write. And it might be a while between posts. If I have nothing to say, there's no post.

I love the concept of this site and I look forward to finding interesting new blogs to follow. It was created at the perfect time for me, since it seems that several of the blogs I've been faithfully following have abruptly decided to end. And I'm the type of person (nosy) who needs to know what happened! So if I start to follow your life and suddenly you say "I'm done" - well, I won't be happy about it!

I will admit that I found the acronym BON (Blogger of Note) to be very amusing. You see, as a Bonnie, when Sandy emailed me with the subject line "BON" I thought she was being especially friendly to me!

I have been blogging for 1.5 years now. I am a Compliance Officer at my job (in employee benefits) and I do a lot of technical writing, and let me tell you, it doesn't get any more boring than that. I have always enjoyed writing, and found it to be quite refreshing to write whatever comes to me and have people actually read it! My husband's cousin got me into it - she is much more creative than I am, but we both agreed that once you start blogging, you seem to view everything in your life in a new way and think to yourself "oh now THAT would make a good blog post!"

I tend to find the humor in things. Even in things that aren't funny. I am known for laughing at the most inopportune times, and when that happens, I usually can't stop.

As a Cancer, I love my home. I would be quite content to never leave it. I am mom to an almost 22 year old daughter and a 20 year old son. My husband and I will celebrate our 25th anniversary this September. And I am a loving mama to a 15 year old dog and 3 cats. I can't imagine my life without these animals hanging around.

My friends are very important to me and I would describe myself as a loyal person.

Finding my favorite posts was kind of a fun adventure. I did not realize I had written so much! But here they are:

http://mamaksblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/friend-for-few-seasons.html

This blog was meaningful to me because (1) friendships are so important to me; and (2) it touched on what we went through when my son was younger. It was not a fun time.

http://mamaksblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/water-aerobics-for-people-like-me.html

This is kind of how I see life. Most things are amusing to me. And while my water aerobics days are over ( just too painful to get into a bathing suit), it was fun while it lasted.

And finally

http://mamaksblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/pepper-is-15-today.html

A tribute to my wonderful dog, Pepper. I admit that the first thing I do every morning is make sure she's still breathing. It's getting harder for her to get around. She is one of the great loves of my life.

In closing, I want to wish a happy birthday to my oldest cat, Bing Krauss, who turns 11 on 3/26/10.



In final closing, here are the kids (there will be no pix of moi, because the last good picture taken of me was taken 30 years ago):

Back Home to Reality

I have been chided for not writing.

I have not felt like writing. I didn't know how to put down in writing what has been happening. But I will give it my best.

We had a wonderful trip to Florida. Spent the first night in Tampa with an old friend who goes all the way back to junior high. We hung out and went to an Irish pub where the 3 of us were a team in a trivia game. Thankfully, my husband and my friend are much better at trivia than me. I have forgotten pretty much everything I know. I'm a perfect specimen of a menopausal woman. My brain has pretty much left my body.

We spent night 2 with my old boyfriend. We were together for about 6 or 7 years, starting in our college days. We keep in touch very occasionally. When I told him we were coming down, he said he and his wife wanted to take us to dinner, and we were welcome to stay there. It was nice meeting the wife of over 25 years, and spending time with them.

The remainder of the trip we stayed at my husband's old high school friend's condo. He was happy to have us, we were happy to be there, and it was very relaxing.

I had been very nervous about leaving my 20 year old son home alone with the 15 year old dog and 3 cats. I thought I'd be a wreck the whole trip. But it was quite the opposite. It was like living in a fairy tale world for one week. Now I know why people take vacations. It is very, very nice to live with no stress, if only for a short week.

Upon arriving home, our fairy tale world ended. First we walked into the house to find clear signs of a party that had taken place. I wasn't surprised; my son admitted to me on the phone that he had one. I just wasn't prepared for the mess that awaited us.

He also never brought the garbage can in, and there was a nice letter from our city telling us we are in violation of whatever code for leaving it out. The letter even included a nice picture of our house with a picture of the garbage can on the treelawn.

Then came the call. My friend from the beginning of time - we lived 3 doors away when we were born and have therefore been friends for 52 years - was diagnosed with cancer. She had an ultrasound and the tech brought in 2 doctors, who both looked at the ultrasound and stated it was cancer. I thought well they must be wrong; who diagnoses cancer without a biopsy? Yet what kind of doctor says "it's cancer" without really knowing it's cancer?

We have always enjoyed doing dumb stuff together, and laughing at everything. Yes, she has been the subject of many of my posts. Going to see Deepak Chopra and laughing hysterically through the whole thing. Going to garage sales. Doing queer stuff that would not be fun with anyone else. I always expected that we'd be doing this together through our 80s. I could not picture growing old without her.

Then came the days of tests and the horrendous wait for results - did it spread?

That news was as good as it could be. The cancer was contained to a breast. She will start chemo soon. After 6 months of chemo comes surgery. I had never heard of that order, but apparently that's how they do it.

I guess 52 doesn't seem that young if you look at it objectively. But no matter what age we are, we will always view ourselves as being young, even though our bodies and are minds are starting to go.

The next year will be a hard one. But the news could have been a lot worse.

So, that's what's been going on. The ups and downs of life, in the span of a few weeks.