Random Thoughts

So I heard back from Hot Surgeon today. HA! HA! Swimming is allowed! In fact his direct quote was…”Knock yourself out and do the things that you enjoy!” Hmmm…doing the things I enjoy would probably include him. But I digress to a place that you, gentle reader, probably don’t want to digress to.

My mother called last night and asked if I’d joined my new gym yet because she wanted to “help” with it. On one condition. That I not join a gym until after chemo and the port is out. You see…she’s afraid that I will “over exercise”. My response to that was…”Hello??? Have we met??? I’m not exactly the ‘over exercise’ type. Not to worry.” But she does so I asked if I got the all clear from Hot Surgeon if that would make her feel better. So this morning when she called I got to gloat.

See I think part of beating cancer is keeping up the appearance of normalcy. Doing the things that you normally enjoy doing. I enjoy swimming. So since I haven’t been able to do it all spring…well…it’s just been killing me. Not to mention that the longer I avoid extracurricular activity the pudgier I get. Yeah, yeah, yeah…everyone says “Don’t worry about that right now. It’s the chemo and the steroids that they are pumping directly into your heart that is causing you to gain weight.”

Well…that might be right. But really I think it’s probably from sitting on my arse a lot more than I normally do because I can because “I have cancer”. Or eating that extra pork chop because “my red blood cells need it.” WhatEVER True. Your red blood cells do NOT need that extra pork chop and neither does your bra fat.

In other unrelated thoughts…I am a Bachelor/Bachelorette fan. I admit it. I’ve watched this stupid “reality” show since its inception. My favorite bachelor still remains Bob Guinney…that is, until he became “The Bachelor” and subsequently became a total man-whore. But I digress.

So this season we have Ali… a twenty-something girl who left her job at Facebook in San Francisco to become the newest in a long line of love-losers. As I’m watching it this season and hearing all the guys (and Ali) on it talk about how they came to the show to “find true love and a wife” I’m struck by the fact that America has totally bought into the unrealistic thought that finding true love should be easy and clean. When in all actuality it isn’t. Life (and thus love) is messy. It’s not all helicopter rides over the Hollywood sign or jet trips to Vegas.

What I want to see is people put in real situations. I want to see on the first home town date this year the guy tell Ali…”Well I had planned on taking you on a tour of my town, grabbing a romantic dinner at this great little bistro around the corner and then later meeting my family. But instead my sister who has cancer really needs me to come over and mow her lawn and trim some of her trees. So if you don’t mind…I thought we’d do that and then grab some dinner before meeting the rest of my family.”

I want to see them miss their connection flight at La Guardia on their way to Barcelona and see how they deal with the stress of a missed connection and an iPod that’s now on the blink.

I want to see Ali get a horrid case of food poisoning and see the guy she’s with deal with it. Because, let’s face it, guys don’t do “sick” unless they are in it for the long haul. And even then it’s a tossup.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure out of 25 hand selected guys there is probably one or two truly nice men who aren’t as shallow as they are perceived on the show. But when you’re jetting between tropical paradises and make-out sessions in Hollywood hot tubs…when do you get to see if the person you’re with is truly empathetic or just sympathetic?

Okay. That is all. I’m off my soap box today.