Book # 1: The Breast Cancer Book

When we first thought up 10 x 40 I would never in a million years have imagined that our first book would be The Breast Cancer Book: What You Need to Know to Make Informed Decisions by Ruth Grobstein. But under the circumstances, it was the perfect book to begin with. Written in accessible language, with excellent summaries in each chapter, and extremely helpful decision trees for each stage of treatment, this book has been a huge help in gaining a better understanding of what's ailing me, what I can expect in the days and weeks to come, and in figuring out what questions to ask the doctor when we go to see her on Monday.

My friend Christine Harrington put me onto another great resource which has also been a huge help, the Susan Komen Breast Cancer website which has a number of brief video tutorials on various topics. These videos address just about any question one might have about breast cancer.

You Guessed It . . .

Ok, so the Cubs winning streak couldn't last forever. They got spanked today by the league leading Milwaukee Brewers, 13-4. We'll see what happens tomorrow in the rubber game of the match.

Experience #6 - Athens folks visit / National Women's Studies Association conference

Yesterday, some of my colleagues from Women's Studies at OU, Julia Friday, Judith Grant, and Kim Little visited Chicago from Athens. It was so good to see folks from home! They were in town for the National Women's Studies Association conference. I presented a paper at the conference called "Queering Karen Carpenter: Feminist Political Discourse on Sexuality Through 1970's Rock n Roll" which compared The Carpenters and punk as complementary responses of alienation and destruction in the wake of the lost hope and failed project of the 60's. This is part of the book I will be working on during my sabbatical year entitled See Jane Rock: Popular Music as a Site of Feminist Discourse.

This was not your mother's NWSA conference! I attended several fantastic presentations ranging from Girls Rock! Chicago (a one week music camp for girls held in August which I plan to attend and observe), to how to use blogs and podcasts effectively in the classroom, to Jay-Z videos as subversions of masculinity. After Friday's sessions we all went out for dinner to Mama Desta's Ethiopian restaurant, mentioned earlier in this blog. We had a great dinner and laughed alot!

Cubs Win Again!

Dare I say it? The Cubs have won again -- that's right, no losses since we've arrived here! (k.h.) Tonight's win was a 6-5 thriller over the division leading and regional rival Milwaukee Brewers. The Cubs are now 6.5 games behind, which I think officially puts them in the race (at least that what I heard a sports talk radio guy say the other day. Ok, he said 6 games, but it's close enough, don't you think?)

Performances #1 and 2 (Congress of Starlings and Julie Loyd) Beer #3 (Mad Hatter)

Last night Kate and I went to see my guitar teacher's band (Congress of Starlings) at a great little bar / restaurant called Uncommon Ground. They're an interesting blend of folk and not-so-folk, great sounds and vocal harmonies. We enjoyed a few glasses of a tasty pale ale called Mad Hatter, beer number 3 on our list of 40 if you're keeping track. The opening act was Julie Loyd, a folkie with a lot of energy, sort of in the mold of Ani Difranco. Loyd was kind enough to point out some open seats for us even though we were late, but not as kind to others in the audience when they talked during her set. Hate to see what would happen if she got actively heckled!

Experience #5: Breast cancer

I think that all of you know by now that right before we left Athens I was diagnosed with breast cancer, that it's small, at a very early stage, and not invasive. In many ways it is fortunate that we are here in Chicago, as there is an excellent breast cancer center at Northwestern. I'm meeting with a surgeon there next Monday, July 2, most probably moving toward a lumpectomy perhaps a week or so after that.

In preparation for the visit, Kate and I have both been reading a lot of material about breast cancer, trying to become better informed so we can make good use of the meeting time with Dr. Khan. I was going to put several breast cancer books I've been looking over on our 10 x 40 booklist, but Kate suggested that it would be good to finish each one first before I added it in! In any case, we've learned alot that we didn't know about how cancer is staged, graded, and otherwise classified.

The lumpectomy is day surgery. The basic idea is that they're trying to cut out the cancerous tissue leaving a margin of healthy tissue remaining. Looking internally, they'll get a better idea of the extent of the cancer and whether radiation is necessary or not. If so, that would entail short daily visits for about six weeks. Sometimes radiation makes people tired, but because the breast is being targeted I will not have nausea, lose my hair and other symptoms that people with cancer in other parts of their body experience while on radiation. With luck, I will be done with all of this (except for the tamoxifen) by the end of the summer -- just in time for the Cubs to win the pennant, right? (They did win again today, 6-4, sweeping the Rockies!)

Cubs are on a roll since we arrived!

Did you notice that the Cubs have won every single one of their games since we arrived in Chicago? That's right -- 7 in a row, and they are currently winning 8-3 in the top of the sixth. This doesn't really fit in any of the 10x40 categories, but it could if . . . the unthinkable happens this year! That would be a once in a century experience!

old town school of folk music - experience #4

Today I went to the Old Town School of Folk Music and it was fantastic! I'm in a women's acoustic ensemble class and a music theory for guitar players class. You really can't go wrong with the Go-Go's and Joni Mitchell now can you? The people in the classes were really friendly. Kate and I may go see the teacher play at a neighborhood bar this Wednesday if we have any energy left after unpacking our stuff which is finally arriving tomorrow. Yay! After several days on the air matress neither one of us can wait to sleep in a real bed again! Do you think that should qualify as a new experience in the 10x40 categories?

Experiences #2 and #3: Holy Covenant Church and Pride Parade

We started out the day at a great church service at the Holy Covenant Methodist Church, situated along the el tracks on Diversey and Sheffield, about a mile from our new place. Today's service was a welcoming one, part of Chicago's month long pride celebration. Great music, ethusiastic minister, very nice congregation -- we really liked it alot.

After the service we walked a few blocks toward the lake and watched a HUGE pride parade -- it lasted several hours and featured amazing floats, raunchy dancers, earnest legal groups, prim parents of queers -- you name it, they were there. It was a beautiful sunny day and thousands of people were there watching the parade, giving it the feel of a giant street festival. We left after about three hours and the floats were still coming. All in the all, the entire day felt like a great welcome to the neighborhood.

When I was a teen about 30 years ago I took the bus down to this area on day to visit a friend. The bus stopped early and the driver told everyone to get out. As I got off the bus and started walking the rest of the way to my friend's apartment I realized that I was in a march of some sort, and then realized further that it was a bunch of gay people -- my introduction to public queer organizing, I guess. Even though they had to shut the street down, my first gay pride march was just a shadow of the one that we saw today. Seeing the diversity of folks out there today (race, age, religion, etc.) made us feel like the Religious Right just isn't going to win this battle.

Restaurant # 2 (Mama Desta's Red Sea) and Beers # 1 (Castle Lager) and # 2 (Windhoek Lager)

I can not tell a lie. The mysterious and not entirely pleasant smell that greeted us upon entering Mama Desta's Red Sea restaurant concerned me. However, in the past Susan has been easily discouraged from eating Ethiopian food, so I kept my mouth shut and was very glad I had when the food arrived. The real highlights of our sampler platter were the mushrooms, split peas, and lamb, but everything was good (with the possible exception of the spinach, which we had not ordered but simply arrived on our extremely attractive shared platter.) We each tried an African beer - Castle Lager from South Africa for me, Windhoek Lager from Namibia for Susan. They were nearly indistinguishable, but happily also good. We'll definitely be returning to this distinctive neighborhood eatery!

Experience #1 - Dyke March

Highlights of the Dyke March included -
Susan wearing a "Power to the Pussy" Sticker
Several topless women with electrical tape covering their nipples (not the best fashion choice actually since it was cold, rainy and windy) and
The general fun of 200+ lesbians tromping down the middle of the street in a wide array of costumes and carrying a variety of signs (my favorite of which was "Jesus loves whores")

sticker shock!

Oh my gosh! Things are quite expensive in the city! We went out to find a cheap t.v. stand and desk surface and were the victims of extreme sticker shock -- even though we went exclusively to second hand stores! While we haven't given up on finding better thrift stores, we're pretty much resigned to going out to Ikea tomorrow to tide us over in the meantime.

Restaurant # 1 - Duck Walk

Although somewhat skeptical of a restaurant that markets itself as "Best of Chicago 2004" (and this on a take-out menu rubber-banded to our front door), we were pleasantly suprised by the fresh and spicy Thai food provided in our $5.50 lunch box (cucumber salad and chicken pad thai for Susan; spring rolls and veggie pad thai for Kate.) Located at 919 West Belmont, the service at Duck Walk is terrific, the portions generous but best to go during off hours as the restaurant has only slightly more seating capacity than our Ford Focus.