2013 Ramblings

•May 27, 2013 • Leave a Comment

I guess my blog is becoming a summer project. Wow, not one entry during this entire school year. I think this, more than anything else, is a sign that school is eating my life.

I guess it’s appropriate that I begin Chasha 2013 on the first weekend of summer vacation. I’m actually typing this while on a train from Boston to New York. I’m using a blue tooth keyboard to connect to my ipad, using the wifi service on board.

I started my first diaryland blog (a word which I had yet to hear of) on Windows 98, connected to the internet via aol dial-up. My my how far I’ve come.

Technically I started this in 1982, in my Orphan Annie (movie version) diary with a lock which never worked. We didn’t even have a home computer yet then. No Atari either. Or cable. How can I stop blogging/journaling/diary writng now?

My summer began one day early this year, as I had to fly from my home in Phoenix to Boston for my brother’s wedding. After a wonderful weekend reconnecting with the family, I am off to New York to play for a few days before heading back to enjoy another long, friend filled hotter than humanly possible Arizona summers.

I could keep going, but I would rather have separate entries for separate topics. And, you know, more entries.

Posted in Uncategorized

Food: The Challenge

•July 15, 2012 • Leave a Comment

As I mentioned a while back, I feel like I really need to up the ante this time to make sure my cancer stays in remission. I really don’t think I’m cut out to be a vegan. It’s so limiting socially as well as limiting in the food itself.

I could possibly be a vegetarian, but with having to limit my tofu (more on this later), I’d be concerned about getting enough protein.

I do think, however, that I can be a pescetarian. For the record I hate that word (or any manufactured combination words except for “fugly”. Fugly was a long overdue addition to the lexicon).

For those of you who haven’t heard that term, it means no eating the meat of land animals (beef, chicken, pork, lamb, etc). Sea food is fine, be it regular fish or shellfish. Which is good, because giving up sushi permanently would be really hard for me. It’s hard enough to give it up for months at a time when my immune system is chemo-supressed.

So I am giving myself a challenge. From now until October 4 (my birthday), I will refrain from non-aquatic meat. I will re-evaluate at that time to see if I miss anything.

Nemo can run, but he can’t hide…

PS. Oh yeah, the tofu thing. There is a lot of conflicting information out there about soy products and breast cancer. Soy contains plant estrogen, which may or may not be related to human estrogen. Some studies suggest that soy can contribute to cancer for this reason. Other studies have shown that soy actually prevents cancer. As my tumor tested negative for estrogen receptors, this most likely does not apply to me either way. Just to be save, I limit my soy by not keeping any in the house.

Posted in Goals
Tags: , , ,

I’m So Honored!

•July 15, 2012 • Leave a Comment

I was tagged by the well-traveled novelist Julie over at The Read Room with the Lovely Blog Award.

While I had sworn off memes a while ago (after they all but took over my LiveJournal blog a few years back), but as none are here yet, I give you this as a special treat.

The rules of this Award are:

1. Give credit to the awesome person who nominated you,
2. Describe seven things about yourself,
3. Nominate 15 other bloggers.

After careful consideration, my top seven factoids are:

1. I am a collector of what I call “Daily Doses of Awesome”. These can be anything from a friend making a comment that underscores their very essence to a particularly funny auto-correct incident.

2. I danced in an Ethiopian Music Video. I have still yet to see the video, as the producer and the videographer had a falling out days after we filmed.

3. I speak Spanish, but usually speak it badly. I speak it much better after 2-5 glasses of Argentinean Malbec.

4. When I was a child, I was my brother’s imaginary friend.

5. My friends are the most important people in the world to me, especially the ones I met in college.

6. My best friend described me (when I asked her to) as Wonder Woman, but does not know why she said that. I think it helps that I was sitting in front of a Wonder Woman magnet.

7. I still listen to 80′s hair bands.

And my nominations…..

You know what? I’m not real interactive with most of the blogs I read (note to self: Change this). I don’t feel comfortable saying “Hi, I’m Chasha, here’s homework. So instead (and in the spirit of all of us helping get our words out there), here are a list of the WordPress blogs I follow:

Sparrow’s Ramblings

Nice Shoes, Bitch

The Read Room

Happy to Live Now

Under the Duvet

Made for Victory

Holly Michael’s Writing Straight

Awakening

In My Opinion

Clotildajamcracker

Kitschy Random

Truth and Cake

Il Camino Real

They Call Me Jane

Proficiency Paradigms

Living Dilbert

Daily Economics and Econometrics

Ice Cream Headache

Which reminds me, time to update my blogroll widget.

Posted in Humor, Writing Prompts
Tags: , ,

Back on Wheels

•July 12, 2012 • 4 Comments

Back in May, I joined Roller Derby.

I’m still not sure exactly how it happened. I was with Wendy and Rob at an art gallery that had photographs from a bout, and we all started joking that I should join. The idea of creating an alter-ego and designing a whole look and persona for her is definitely something that is me. I’ve always loved being creative with costumes for Halloween, or for any other sort of theatrical productions. It was not surprising that my closest friends saw my essence in those pictures.

My first thought was that I was too old. Somebody from the league overheard that and told me that they have lots of girls older than me (which is very true). I think at that point I filed it away as a fun thing to do some day. I didn’t take it very seriously, and we didn’t really talk about it any more.

It was soon after that I discovered my recurrence and had to go back into chemo. I think there’s something about being stuck heavy limb’d and fatigued on the sofa that makes you day dream about gliding on wheels. I really started thinking about it at that point and began to research it on the internet.

I also realized I needed a therapeutic outlet. Smashing into people fits the bill for that quite nicely.

I then found a local league and joined.

I hadn’t been on quad skates since I was about twelve. It took me a good two weeks to be able to just balance. And two more to learn how to stop.

I was one of the slower, less skilled of the new girls, but there were others far worse off than me.

Then I had my medical issues and had to miss about a month of practices. I still came to watch so that I knew what they were doing, but I didn’t get to try it myself.

So yesterday I felt really out of it when I tried to keep up with their drills. Everybody was talking about how later that day would be our first practice on the obstacle course that is part of the test we need to pass before we can be drafted to teams. I debated whether to even do it. I literally had not been on skates for a month and had barely gotten comfortable on them before that. I had all but resigned myself to the idea that I was probably just going to repeat the beginners class (the Cherry Posse) in the fall.

Turns out it was the best thing I could have done. While my time was slower, I was able to do everything, and even did things better than several of the other skaters. That was exactly the confidence booster I needed. Speed is just practice. I can totally do that, and now I think I’m still a contender for passing this test next month.

Posted in Inspirational, Life
Tags: ,

Writing from the Heart?

•July 11, 2012 • 1 Comment

I have readers again, I’m so happy!

This all begs the question of how much to share and how much to keep to myself. I’ve always preferred to write anonymously. I have changed all names in my entries about people in my day to day life, including my own. Still though, I am fairly sure that if anybody who is close to me were to find this here, they would recognize who I am fairly quickly.

It’s not like there is anything here that is a big secret. I just write free of self-censorship when it is “Chasha” writing and not me. I have written under my real name as well. I kept a blog during my travels to Argentina mostly as a way to share my experiences with everybody at the same time and not have to worry about whom I’ve told what. It quickly took on a life of it’s own, and really is what got me to start this here blog, as I had largely abandoned my writing.

I tried to start a blog when I got sick last year, but soon after I started treatment it became apparent that my computer was seriously ill as well. I just didn’t have the patience to have everything I was writing scramble itself when my cursor decided to wander, and by the time I got my new computer I had lost the momentum.

I closed that blog and moved the entries here, mainly to have something to fill the gap. Any of you who are reading my archives and getting confused by the chronology, it is because I imported that other blog after giving a much more recent update.

So here I am, once again anonymous and once again writing on a somewhat regular basis. When I imported my old entries the other day, I was a bit surprised at how open I had been about some very personal things I was going through. On one hand, those were some of the most honest things I had written. But also, those have been Out There, published for anyone to see. I flirted with the idea of taking them offline completely, but realized that they had already been out there so long it didn’t matter anymore.

So will I get that personal again? Only time will tell.

Posted in Introspection, Life, Rambling, Technology
Tags: , , ,

Bicycle: A Love Story

•July 10, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Ugh, it’s supposed to reach 109 degrees today.

I know I signed up for this when I moved here, and I’ll still take this over a Michigan winter any day, but this year it feels more oppressive than usual. I’ve been complaining a lot more about it than in past years.

I’ve come to realize that the difference is me. It was this hot last year, and the year before, and probably for as long as I’ve lived here. I would adjust my lifestyle accordingly. I would stay indoors during the peak sun hours. I’d shift my life into the evening time.

After nearly a year of riding a bike as my primary mode of transportation and LOVING it, I resent the heat much more. I had to stop riding regularly around the end of April (summer came early to Phoenix this year). I was still able to get in the occasional early morning ride, but it’s not the same. True, I can still go to the gym, take a spinning class, ride the recumbent bike, really follow any of the advice that non-cyclers think they are being helpful when they give me. Trust me, it’s not the same.

When I ride my bike, I’m ten years old again. I feel the wind on my face. My community seems friendlier and safer. I’m completely unaware of the exercise that I’m doing (unless I’m riding uphill) and fully present in my body. I feel a sense of freedom that is unmatched by anything else I can do in my daily life. The only other place I feel that way is when I’m hiking in the mountains, which takes time and planning.

I love that I never have to worry about finding a parking space (or paying for one) no matter where I go. I love never having to figure out how much gas I am using. I love even more filling the tank on my car and realizing that I haven’t filled it in more than a month. I would say I love how much money I save, but the truth is I spend it on upgrades for my bike.

The secondary benefits are great too. I love how my physical condition has changed. I can do so much more without tiring. I’m in probably the best shape I’ve been in since I was a child. I can hike on the challenging trails that I had avoided for so many years. I drink less coffee.

I also admit I love how much it floors people to find out how much I ride. I want to convert all of them to cyclists so that they can do it too.

Posted in Life
Tags: ,

Blogging Days of Yore

•July 10, 2012 • Leave a Comment

I have arrived.

Getting my own url has made me take more ownership over my blogs. I spent most of today importing the old ones from other sites, and realized I have no excuse for how infrequently I’ve been updating. There was a time when I rarely went more than three or four days in silence. I think I’ve become too much of a perfectionist. I have all my blogs up now, the great ones and the sucky ones.

It’s a good thing too, as diaryland (where this all started) appears to be dead. The entries themselves are still posted, but the main site appears to be gone. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before the rest disappears as well. It’s a good thing I have everything backed up on my computer!

Even though I haven’t actively used the site in years, I’m a bit sad that it’s gone. I think it was much easier to find a community of writers ten years ago than it is now. I love all the options out there, but we are a bit more isolated. WordPress is a big city address, diaryland was a small town where everybody knew one another.

So I guess that makes LiveJournal a suburb? They had the worst format but the best writing prompts.

It’s easier to stay in the cerebral realm of site comparisons when the real meat of the day was in wading through my head through different phases of my life.

I wouldn’t relive 2001 for anything!

And look, I’m rambling! Ah, nostalgia.

Posted in Introspection, Nostalgia, Rambling, Technology

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