Thoughts as we enter October

I can't believe that it is October already. October is a special month for me. It is my birthday month and also my cancer survival birthday month. I celebrate these two special days three days apart. It will be two years of survival. Each day is a gift from God. That is truly the lesson to be learned as one battles cancer. Focus on doing one's best each day because tomorrow is not guaranteed. Telling your loved ones that you care as often as possible and letting go of petty annoyances.

I returned to teaching in late August. I have a big class this year: over 30 students! It is amazing how adding 5 or 6 bodies to a classroom makes it feel so much more crowded. It has been harder for me to learn my students names. I blame it on the size of the class but it may also be that I'm having more senior moments. They are a good group of students; they participate in class discussions and demonstrate that they have done the reading before they come to class. It makes it a better experience for all of us.

The Power of Pink Project is going along well. The backroom of Stamp Your Heart Out is overflowing with pink scarves and there are more coming. We will be collecting for two more weeks. I don't know if we will make our goal of 1000 but I'm estimating that we have over 500 now. We are getting some very cool donations for the silent auction. Cheryl, a woman that I work with, is making two stain glass pieces with the pink ribbon. She showed me one in progress and it is beautiful! My friend Marylinn Kelly donated the artwork at the top of the blog. I had it made into magnets. We will be tucking a magnet into each bag with the scarves and give one to our knitters and crocheters. I love this artwork. The woman says to me that she is on the journey of breast cancer but she is at peace with herself. One has to feel positive in order to fight cancer.

I found a great poem on cancer that I want to share:

What cancer cannot do:
corrode faith
shatter hope
destroy peace
silence courage
invade the soul
steal eternal life
conquer the spirit
cripple love
kill friendship
suppress memories

I am wearing a bracelet that has this poem to help me remember. I have had cancer, but cancer does not have me.

Play it forward,

Please support my sister

My sister Lynda is doing the Avon Breast Cancer Walk in San Francisco next month. She is close but needs our support to meet her goal. She is walking in honor of me. I was diagnosed in October 2006, 3 days before my 50th birthday. It was a challenging road but I survived due to the loving support of many people: my husband and my son, my sister and her family, my Stamp Your Heart Out family, my San Bernardino County Rancho Cucamonga Courthouse family (my support went well beyond the District Attorney's Office: judges, courtroom staff, the Public Defender's Office, private attorneys, the interpreters, members of law enforcement, victims, the clerk's office, and so many more), my Stamp Your Heart Out family (staff, teachers, and customers, especially Pat Simpson), University of La Verne, College of Law family (faculty, staff and students: Dave G., you know you will always be special), and last but definitely not least, my Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center family (every breast cancer patient should have Martha Osborne in her life. She is an angel. We just can't see her wings).

I had dark days but I never lost hope because of all of the support that Greg, Rory, and I received from so many people. That which doesn't defeat you makes you stronger. Battling breast cancer has made me a stronger and better person. Please help my sister and I help other women who are fighting this disease. Check out her personal page. You get to giggle at a picture of me when the two of us when I was twelve and she was four. Please copy the following link into your browser. If you have problems with it, email me.

http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR/Walk2008/SanFrancisco?px=3938318&pg
=personal&fr_id=1480&et=VG_E_pLhfDK_zeaGw3iZig..&s_tafId=271867

At last!

Free time to create! I turned in my grades and blue books on Friday afternoon. My jury also came back with a verdict. I can take a breath and have some time to play with my art toys. I worked about 8 hours today on the Stamp Your Heart Out blog. It debuts tomorrow and we are all very excited. I have learned so much getting it ready. I learned how to add pictures, how to do a slide show, and more.

It has been a week for learning. I did my first PowerPoint presentation in my argument for the case I just finished. I only did text; next time I will be adventurous and add some pictures. I had a scary moment when the screen went blank when I was ready to start. Luckily, everything came back with a push of a button. The jury was very complimentary so I will continue to venture into the digital presentation. Good bye to butcher paper charts!

Rory will be coming home from UCLA the end of this week. I can't wait to spend some time with him. The timing is perfect: he'll come home on Saturday and Father's Day is the next day. What a great gift for Greg. Here are my two guys at the graduation party in NYC.

It's the Big Apple

I went to New York City for Memorial Day Weekend. My nephew Jonathan was graduating from Stoneybrook University on Long Island and the Daly clan united to celebrate his success. Greg flew to New Jersey earlier in the week for hospital business. Rory and I were supposed to fly out late Thursday night, but the storms in the Midwest caused a delay and we left early morning Friday.

We arrived at JFK about 9:00 a.m. My brother-in-law, George, had arrived shortly before us from Phoenix. That worked out well for my niece Nicole who was picking all of us up from the airport. We went to her apartment in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and dropped off our luggage. Nicole and Rory headed to Manhattan to see the new Raiders of the Lost Ark movie. George's friends immediately began calling and dropping by. The food fest began immediately. We went to Rocco's. We had clams, baked clams, pupa salad, grilled prawns, and more. We finished off our snack with fresh cannolis, the quintessential Italian pastry. Rocco made the cannoli cream and piped it in as we watched. Delectable but I could feel the pounds accumulating. It was definitely not a Weight Watchers sanctioned meal.

Saturday was the graduation party and it was one for the ages. The highlight was my 76 year old father-in-law doing a "keg stand." His grandsons had commented that this very lively party was almost like a college party except no one was doing any keg stands. Grandpa immediately asked what a "keg stand" is and was told it is when someone does a headstand on the keg while someone else pours beer in his mouth from the keg dispenser. Grandpa told his grandsons that he could do a "keg stand." He did do one, which I memorialized forever with my camera. He had a bit of help; his two biggest grandsons held him up in his handstand. I'm told that the expression on my mother-in-law's face was a classic.

But the Daly's did not stop there. Out of the 100 or so people in attendance, some 50 of them went into the pool fully dressed. No, they were not thrown into the pool: they went in voluntarily.The photo ops were wonderful. The next day, I borrowed my niece's computer and burned copies of the pics for everyone.

Monday arrived and we had to decide how to enjoy our Memorial Day. We decided to head out to Coney Island. The weather was beautiful: clear, warm, with a slight breeze. This is the first time that I have been in NYC in the spring. I have always been there in late summer when it is very humid. I loved the spring weather. We walked around. The Cyclones, a minor league baseball team, has their stadium there. I took a picture in front of a statue of Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese, memorializing the support that PWR gave JR when he was breaking the color barrier as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

We went to Nathan's Hot Dogs. It was packed! Greg, Nicole and Rory stood in line for over 50 minutes to buy food. I had gone to save a table. I had a series of people sit with me while I was waiting for them. My favorite was an older couple, in their 70's. They were riding their bikes on the boardwalk and had stopped for a snack. The husband commented that the crowd at the boardwalk that day was like it was 50 years ago. It must have been a combination of the beautiful weather, the holiday, and the UGLY gas prices. There is a subway station just a block away from Nathan's, and people were pouring out of the trains.

Nathan's Hot Dogs taste better at Coney Island than they do anywhere else. Greg says that it's the water. Rory won't eat hot dogs other than at Coney Island.

We went back to Nicole's, packed our bags and got ready to go to the airport. Knowing that Jet Blue was not going to feed us on this 5 1/2 hour flight, we stopped at the local deli and grabbed some yummy sandwiches for the trip.

Once again, our flight was late. But, instead of letting us relax in the terminal, we were boarded and sat forever on the tarmac. Instead of arriving before midnight, we got to Ontario about 12:45 a.m. The adventure was not over! Rory needed to get back to UCLA for an early class the next morning. We got to bed about 3:30 a.m. I was definitely dragging the next day at work.

On our way home

I'm sitting at the Sacramento airport waiting to fly back to Southern California. It has been an exhausting but exhilarating three days. We have been going non-stop since we woke up on Sunday morning.

My first class was with Melodee of Hampton Arts. We made a travel themed book. I used several stamps that I had seen but hadn't purchased because I wasn't quite sure what I would do with them. Now I know! Melodee was very nice and gave us some good hints. She gave out a full color hand out with thorough instructions for each step. She also put the instructions up on a Power Point presentation. It really is time for me to come into the current century: trials, law school classes, and stamping classes would all be more effective with a Power Point presentation. That will be one of my personal goals for this summer while school is out.

Then we had a yummy lunch with several ladies from other stores. Everyone was very friendly and mingled while eating meals, having snacks or during classes. It was great to talk to folks from other stores in other areas to find out what is popular at their stores, and to pick up techniques from them.

Notice the little cutie in the photo who is holding my travel book? His name is Monito. He is my new traveling companion. He made lots of friends at the show and took his picture with several of the instructors. Cyn has a traveling companion also. Her name is Auburn. She is an adorable yellow Lab puppy. I heard some interesting rustling coming from our craft bags late at night. I think that Monito and Auburn may be sweet on each other.

On the Road again!

Cynthia and I are on the road again. This time we're in Sacramento. We are here for "A Class Event." It is put on by Millsrepco, Inc. The only people who can come are owners and employees of stamp/scrapbooking stores, designers, and teachers. There will be several workshops, a small projects festival, and a trade show. We are here for three days and they are going to be busy.

We flew up from Ontario about 3:00 p.m. today. We didn't have to rent a car because there is a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel. We are staying at the Embassy Suites, close to Old Sacramento and the River Walk. We dropped off our luggage in the room and headed out to explore. We both love seafood so we got directions to McCormick & Schmidt. The concierge made it sound like it was close by, but it turned out to be about twelve blocks away. The weather was warm. We shared our dinner: seared ahi tuna, oysters and stuffed salmon. It was just enough. I tried to convince Cyn that we NEEDED a chocolate cupcake but she was strong for both of us.

On our sojourn back to the hotel, we met a couple of new friends. You will be seeing them on our blogs. They are very cute and will be traveling with us.

Tomorrow will be a long day. Registration is at 8:00 a.m. and our first workshop is at 9:00 a.m. Cynthia is taking "Product Performers" with Tim Holtz, making three grunge tags. I am taking a class with Melodee Langworthy highlighting new products from Hampton Art and Creative Cafe. Late morning Cyn will be taking a class featuring Cosmo Cricket. What a fun company they are! I love their new cowboy and cowgirl papers. I don't know what I will do with them, but they are very cute. While Cyn is in the cosmos, I will be learning about Daisy Bucket Designs. But the fun doesn't stop there...in the afternoon, Cynthia will be working with the Jenni Bowlin Studio. They also have some cool products. She'll be learning how to put together project kits. I will be hanging out with Leesa from Creative Impressions. Our focus will be on embellishments. Mid afternoon we will move on. Cyn will work with Technique Tuesday and their clear stamps, making embellishments and backgrounds. I will be making a Japanese style album with Kodomo Inc. It's not anything that I've done before so it should be a great learning experience.

It will be a long day!The small projects festival is Sunday night from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. We will be making 26 make it take its. Intense crafting ahead!

You are probably wondering how I am not jumping up and down and doing major pouting because Cyn gets to take a class with Tim Holtz on Sunday and I am not. It's because I get to take his workshop on Monday! I am so, so excited. I love his art and he is an inspiration. I stood at his shoulder and watched him work at the convention for about 3 hours. Not only is he incredibly knowledgeable about stamping, he is very generous with sharing techniques and tips.

Getting started

My friend Cynthia went with me to a conference in Monterey, California this week. I had been wanting to start a blog. We took our laptops and she helped me with the basics.

We had a great time. Monday we flew into San Jose and then drove to Monterey. It was a beautiful ride. The sky was clear and blue; the weather was crisp and pleasant. After checking in at the hotel, we drove to Carmel. What a fun and quaint place. We had lunch on the patio at a small restaurant. We had been walking around around and checking out the shops and asked one of the salespersons for a recommendation for a place to have lunch. She didn't steer us wrong. I had a turkey sandwich on ciabatta bread with an oven roasted tomato, lettuce, with cheese and pesto. Cynthia had a blackened chicken salad. Both meals were tasty.

After lunch we continued our reconnaissance mission. We had a map but still ended up walking all around the small village several times. (Exercise points!) I found a cool purse made out of a license plate, with lots of crystals added to it. The plate from Hawaii and the registration tab on it was dated October 2006. That was the month that I was diagnosed with breast cancer and that seemed prophetic. It was very tempting but also very expensive. I decided to continue my browsing before I made a final decision. We checked out a place that specialized in comfortable shoes from around the world. I had never heard of many of the brands. There was a fun brown suede pair that were trying to get me to take them home with me.

We went to a pen and paper shop called Bittner's. I fell in love with a white Omas fountain pen and all thoughts of the license plate purse or the comfortable shoes went by the wayside. I bought the pen, some olive green ink, some purple ink, and a pad of wonderful paper. It is so smooth! The pen just glides across it.

We finished the day eating French pastries while sitting on a rock watching the sunset. I took this picture at the beach

That night we went to dinner on the wharf in Monterey. We ate at the Old Fish Grotto. I had paella. It was delicious with mussels, clams, shrimp, oysters, scallops, and a lobster tail. It brought back memories of the paella that my mother used to make.

On Tuesday afternoon, we went to a street fair a block from the hotel. The registration clerk at the hotel had told us about it when we checked in. Another great recommendation! We could smell the aroma of the cooking food as we walked towards the fair. There was lots of local produce and flowers. We tasted samples of apples, strawberries, blood oranges and other healthy goodies. We bought some nuts and strawberries for later.

The registration guy had given us a second recommendation, the Monterey Fish House. We had dinner there Tuesday night. As soon as we arrived, we knew that the food was going to be good. It was a small homey place that was crowded on a weeknight out of season. The food was fabulous! We had a cup of clam chowder and then split two appetizers: oak grilled oysters and marinated grilled calamari. The calamari had a wonderful, unusual smoky flavor from the grill.

It was an early morning today to get back to the airport and go through security. The drive from Monterey back to the San Jose Airport seemed shorter than when we had been traveling the other direction on Monday. It was a quick flight back to Ontario, and the adventure was over until next time.