As I write this, I’m about to make my musical debut/reprise –at an open mic night about a week and a half from now. I’ll be performing my newest musical parody lyrics to a tune from “Camelot” entitled “I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight.” I’ve been singing that song for years, usually to my husband, and occasionally after two or more drinks. I saw “Camelot” on Broadway when I was six years old, and it remains my favorite musical of all time. Recently, when an old friend

People continue to ask me if I’m “over” cancer. Or if I’m “OK now.” I still don’t know how to answer them. I remind myself that polite questions about health do not require an entire confessional about how I’m really feeling. But the truth is, I DON’T know if I’m “ok now.” There’s a joke that has made the rounds of the cancer posts and blogs that goes, “When do you stop worrying about cancer?” The answer is, “When you die from something else.” I have written reams about heali

If I could choose just one thing I wish people would stop saying to me, it might be this -- “You’re such a strong person.” There were a whole lot of things people said during my cancer treatment that didn’t work for me. This was just one of them. In fact, I wrote an entire piece called “ 10 Things Not to Say to Someone with Cancer, and What to Say Instead.” It’s on my blog somewhere, and I think on TikTok as well. I wrote this in April of 2021, during the first anniversary m

Last April, my newsletter posting was entitled, “Am I Cancer Free?” Since April is the anniversary month of my breast cancer diagnosis in April of 2020, I’m usually asking myself a lot of questions about where I am post-cancer treatment in April. Now it’s October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Almost five years since I completed treatment for Type 2 breast Cancer. I don’t like “awareness months.” If people have to be forced into being aware of something, how reachable are th

In 2019, I wrote, produced, and starred in a one-woman musical show on my 65th birthday. I still hate looking at the DVD. I was at my highest weight. Nothing I wore (and yes, there were several costume changes) looked good. I looked like a fat woman singing. We all know what happened in 2020. The COVID pandemic. By this time Ernie and I lived in a downtown high rise with its own little gym and swimming pool. I chose the building largely because of its athletic facilities. I h

I was definitely gaining weight back. As I moved through several job changes, I needed more variety and larger sizes in my business...

1972 - 1982 In the fall of 1972, I started freshman year at Northwestern University. I’d survived long enough to make it to college!!! I...