This Bitch Session is dedicated to the bozo in the black SUV who blew the stop sign in the school district of St. Francis, Wisconsin, and just had to get ahead of the school bus I was behind. No one was hurt and nothing was damaged … fortunately.

This Session is about the fact that this knob just had to drive way too fast, in snowy conditions, with a cell phone glued to his ear. There were school kids in the area and with three inches of new snow on the ground, the streets were slick. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

Doesn’t it just make you wild when you see something like this? Evidently this individual had to be somewhere so important that it had precedence over the safety of children.

Unfortunately, I see this far too often. People just don’t think or don’t care. You choose.

Notice something? If you’re a drinker (even socially) you’ll find that your drinking habits have changed. Chemo will do that for you. Not such a bad thing, either.

I wasn’t much of a drinker before I got cancer but I’ve been known to throw back a few … sometimes a few too many. However, I’ve discovered that the meds I’d had to take to combat the cancer doesn’t particularly like liquor. Started out when I was on Tamoxafin nearly eight years ago. Hubby and I went to a wedding and I had two … count ‘em TWO … glasses of wine over a three hour period. I was absolutely smashed. Fortunately, it didn’t hit me until just before we left, so no one noticed. But … man … that was a wake up call.

End result? I learned not to drink so much. My limit became either two glasses of wine or two beers … when I did drink. Usually it was just easier not to bother. I became a favorite person with my social group because I was nominated the designated driver.

Even after I came off the Tamoxafin and moved on to Femara, I continued my light drinking. Sure, I still over-indulge upon occasion … and usually lived to regret it. However, the lack of drinking liquor isn’t a big deal. It’s a small price to pay for continue good health.

And, on the plus side, I lost quite a bit of weight. Booze is very high in calories.

And remember to repeat after me …“YOU ARE A CANCER WINNER”

I’m in the midst of doing a mass mailing to bookstores all over the country. They’re flyers that I designed and printed out (gotta love the HP 2410 Photosmart printer) over the past couple of weeks. They’re just tri-folded flyers with my book information … coverart, blurb, reviews, author information and a tagline along with the coverart of my upcoming release.

I’m not sure how effective this mailing will be. I’m adhering to the marketing suggestions that someone has to see your name and/or book cover six times before it really sticks. I have other promotional efforts out there, so I’m hoping this mailing will ring a few bells when it comes to recognition.

I’ve been fortunate to have family members willing and able to help with the assembly line of preparing these flyers. They were very simple. Just a triple fold, an adhesive dot to seal them, print out the labels, plaster a return label and postage. The longest process was inputting the addresses.

Hopefully all of these efforts will help. Promotion is time consuming and I know a lot of people dislike it … but so far, I’m enjoying it.

I’ve been hearing a lot of complaining about the cold and snow this winter.

“When will it end?”

“We’ve never had this much snow!”

“-10 degrees? You’ve GOT to be kidding.”

Oh, Wah! Excuse me … we live in Wisconsin! Its a prerequisite that we’re going to have cold weather, snow and ice. Your streets have three inches of packed snow/ice? Think of those poor guys who were out there for 24 hours continuously plowing this stuff. The city had to make the decision to keep the main streets clear and get to the side streets when it can. Not enough salt on the streets? Take a look at the salt piles at Jones Island (here in Milwaukee). What started out as mountains have dwindled down to foothills. And it still only February.

I didn’t do a lot of complainin’ this winter. Number one … its winter. Number two … you can’t do anything about number one. Its the nature of the beast. We’ve had 75 inches of snow so far this season. One of my loops sent around photos of upper state New York. They had 146 inches of snow in TWO WEEKS!

We have no room to complain. IMO.

I think I might have written something similar to this in the past, but I think it bears repeating. Fear is a debilitating emotion. A natural one, of course, but one that can paralyze you.

When you first hear that “C” word, something inside of you freezes. Probably because our society tends to puts an automatic death sentence to anyone who is diagnosed with it. Nothing can be further from the truth. I know a lot of people who were diagnosed years ago and are still doing well. My mother-in-law is a classic example. She had breast cancer over 50 years ago, was treated under what is considered primitive by today’s standards … basically slash and burn, but she’s still alive and kickin’. One of my role models, by the way.

There are so many options right now when treating cancer. This is where I can use myself as a classic example. I’ve gone through chemo, radiation, chemo twice more, Herceptin and now Tykerb and Xeloda. Five different treatments and Dr. D says that there are still a lot of options. If this last one doesn’t work, we go with something else. I’m nowhere near ready to hang it up. I’ve got far too many things to do with this life.

It’s an attitude you gotta cultivate and believe in. No one else can take this burden from you and no one else can really understand what you’re going through. Certainly puts a lot of things in perspective, though, doesn’t it?

Do keep that in mind. This treatment ain’t workin’? Okay, we move on to the next. One of them will kick cancer’s nasty little ass. You just gotta have faith.

And remember to repeat after me …“YOU ARE A CANCER WINNER”