Thursday, July 27, 2006

 

Who gave me cancer, dammit?!

Being diagnosed with cancer is like being assigned a grim reaper role. You’re handed the sickle the moment you begin telling anyone. Folks turns back the clock to 1950 and decide they’re an immigrant with limited english skills and back away in a silent panic the moment the “C” word comes out. Luckily, I have friends who play poker and lie for a living and a family that drinks too much to balance out any awkward moments. That said, I am steamed that someone out there just went ahead and gave me cancer just as I was beginning a job I liked and started to doubt my decision that my husband has Asberger’s.
There are some people and places that I’m certain did not give me cancer - like Dave Chappelle. He may be part of the cure. His Block Party was definitely the cure. Kanye West replaces my Erik Estrada poster and Mos Def is still every girls' fantasy but to corral The Fugees AND the Roots? My tumor shrinks. Doesn’t yours? I’ll start ‘splainin’ who gave me cancer and who didn’t later but for now... isn’t it fantastic to see the kids from Dayton whoop it up like they won the Lotto when they discover they're going to Brooklyn?
That was me 30 years ago. The first time I went to NY I went alone and stayed in a $45/night “Women’s Hotel” with creaky stairs, rooms with rusty beds and a key to the room that looked like it came from the middle ages. I sold my car so I could go see the famous duel exhibits at the MOMA and Met of the Austrian Expressionists. Egon Schiele replaced my Erik Estrada poster at the time. I’d be dead from cancer if I hadn’t gone. I was 18 and sold my first car to afford the plane ticket and hotel room and the chance to walk past the store that epitomized NY at the time “Just Bulbs”. Breaking the bank to go somewhere or do something that it’s important to you when you’re young is definitely a cancer cure. So protect yourself.

Comments:
Susan, When did you get makeup?!
 
You're going to use all of your feisty fire and heal quickly! We're with you! xoxoxo
 
Anonymous - you reek of my sister, TERESA!
And for the record, it wasn't even my makeup.
 
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