Mad hatter

I wore a hat all day today for the first time.

I've always liked the look of hats, but been too chicken to really wear one myself. Women who wore hats seemed to have a particular flair and sophistication. Something that I never felt I could pull off. I don't have a whole lot of choice now. This cancer thing is pushing me into zones I wasn't comfortable in before.

Another issue with hats is that there is no hairline. It can look weird (there is that word again) to have a hat perched on a hairline-less head. I've purchased a few wide headbands that I could wear to conceal that and create a line. Today, I just put the hat on my head and was done with it. It felt okay. I wore makeup and earrings which helped the confidence factor. Something about lipstick, you know?

Physically, things are going great. As predicted, I was pretty sore from the pilates on Monday. I have Exercise TV on my cable's On Demand system. There are dozens of exercise modes with hundreds of workouts to choose from. Today I did a 20 minute pilates just to get a little exercise in there. I'm going to try and do pilates 3 times a week on top of the cardio I do pretty much every day.

My taste buds are pretty much back to normal as well. That metallic taste has faded. Funny, that taste doesn't seem to make me want to eat less! I'm learning to load up on veggies and legumes and consider meat as a side dish, if anything. I wrote yesterday about how much I'm coming to appreciate cabbage. I could also devote a whole post to beans! And no, they do not give me gas. (TMI? Maybe, but that is the first thing that people mention when I rave about my new found love of beans!)

I had a funny conversation with a friend of mine, a guy friend. We were at the elementary school and a mom walked by with purple highlights in her hair...in a shade that matched her shirt. I commented that her hair matched her shirt. I also noted that I notice two things a lot lately on other people...hair and boobs. A few seconds went by and he said, "Now you know how its been with me all this time." Too funny! But its true. I can't help but notice this on other women. Okay, gals...don't feel self conscious next time you see me. I really won't be looking at your chest, I swear! I talked with another survivor who would go up to women and actually ask them their bra size as she was considering her reconstruction options. It's funny how you lose the shyness about it when you are so focused on it medically.

So I'm just living life until my next round of chemo, which is October 1st. (A week from Friday.) What a way to kick off breast cancer awareness month, eh? Speaking of that, I got a really cool travel mug today at Supercuts of all places. It's black with 4 or 5 rows of rhinestones at the top. It says "Fight Like a Girl" with pink boxing gloves on it. I couldn't pass it up. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff right now. Maybe I'll get sick of it. But for now, I'm digging it. It's my first BCA month being "in the club" that I never thought I would be in. I think back to last October when I was looking at my40th birthday. How life can change in 12 months! I wonder what life will look like in October 2011?