Hamster Brain and Other Maladies

As previously established, I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I will post separate, more technical updates periodically, but will try to keep these post a little less medical sounding – and more importantly – sometimes about more than just cancer (yay!). But for this post… here’s the good news / bad news of the situation.

The good news #1: so far in the grand scheme of “cancer,” everything has been pretty positive and I am extremely lucky.

The good news #2: I have amazing family and friends who have all been incredibly supportive and kind far above and beyond what I deserve.

The bad news #1: there are still a couple of unknowns. I can handle a lot of things, but unknowns? Notsomuch. I am a planner, organizer, list-maker, spreadsheet color-coder and timeline creator. Not knowing what’s next on the agenda is not enjoyable to me. Not in the least.

The bad news #2: there’s a small family of hamsters who have always lived my brain and every now and then like to take turns hopping on their squeaky little exercise wheels while I’m trying to sleep. For most of March and April, however, they have been in some sort of 24/7 marathon training. Gradually, one by one, most of them have finally worn themselves out and gone back to their tiny beds to veg out and watch Scandal or Game of Thrones like normal, sensible hamsters. All except one little fucker, that is. I’ve named him Karl. He is my nemesis. He doesn’t give two craps about lists or spreadsheets, or television for that matter. He’s just been running like he’s got nothing to lose. I’m hoping in the next couple of weeks, when the unknowns are known, he’ll ease up a little. Or maybe pull a hamstring (hamsterstring?).

No doubt the life lesson here is for me to befriend Karl and accept that I can’t plan everything. Or, for me to learn how to out-run Karl and show him who’s the real boss of my hamster-filled brain. I’m going to do my best to give both strategies a try.

But really? I’d much rather just shoot the bastard off his stupid wheel and have him turned into earmuffs.

Hello!

Out for a walk with Elsie. Dec. 21, 2012

April 1, 2015

Today is my 44th birthday and I thought it would make a good day for an inaugural post. A few years ago, I had a blog by this same name (on Blogger). Then not too terribly long ago, I moved over here (WordPress) with the idea of turning it into photo log and travel diary for the many adventures and trips I planned to take in my 40s. For now, however, I have breast cancer. So while my bigger travel dreams are on the back burner for a bit, I’m going to use this site to keep friends and family updated. And moderately amused, I hope.

So, what’s with the title? Well, my grandmother (my mother’s mother) was born Gertrude Gene, but she hated her first name and went by her middle name, Gene, instead. My mother, in what I’m guessing was an attempt to annoy her mother (a genetic trait passed on to me as well), has called me Gertrude for as long as I can remember. I answer to it without even thinking. That same grandmother also had breast cancer, so now we share more than a name. I initially thought about coming up with a new name for this site, but it seems to make even more sense now.

So, what’s with the photo? I love this picture. It was taken a couple of years ago with my dog, Elsie, on the morning of the winter solstice while we were out on the greenway near my house. At the time, I posted it to Facebook with the caption, “Today may be the shortest day of the year, but it is the day when my shadow is the tallest.” I’m a little on the shorter side, and when the photo was taken I had been laid off from my job and was in the middle of another, not-so-fun time in my life when I needed to feel a little taller. So the photo, much like the title of this site, now seems to fit even better.

Well… that should be enough to get started, I think. Thanks for visiting! Please come back again soon.

Gert