Category Archives: Life

Dreaming of blog posts . . . and leg hair

Posted in Bumpboobs, Fun, Life, Life despite cancer by

Before falling into sleep I sometimes compose blog posts in my head. Last night I was thinking to myself about leg hair, and how I should write about it here. My post idea was basically this:

“This winter I shaved my legs once. Zsolt is the only man I’ve ever encountered (intimately) who is cool with hair on my legs – heck, I go out in the summer with week-long unshaven legs ever since finding this blessing of a man. I suspect it’s because he’s from Europe . . .or that he just a guy who doesn’t care.

He was also one of the first guys I’d met who would throw down the dance gauntlet before anyone else had hit the dance floor. This wasn’t even contingent on pre-drinking. It was only contingent on there being cheesy eighties pop music playing. The first time we ever went dancing was in Nice, France. That time he definitely wasn’t sober. Zsolt had this signature dance move he does that involves him pointing at you with both hands stretch out, then letting that “point” circle around the room. It was noticeable and hilarious. Now I pull that point-finger move far more often than he does, but it will always remind of me of when we first met.

I have this memory of being about 13 years old and attending a pool party. My legs had stubble. And being a typical teenage girl, I of course chased boys around the pool all night threatening to scratch them with my semi-hairy legs.

“Touch my leg!” I’d say.

And they’d run.

This is a case of being high on hormones. That’s also how I met my husband. Hormone high = mighty courage.

My next scan/x-ray/whatever is scheduled for May, and I’m thinking of pushing it two months back. Part of me fears everything, and is scared the cancer will gets frustrated with being ignored if I push it back. A larger part of me doesn’t want to allow cancer to once again ruin an important time of the year. From May till the second week of July we have important stuff happening.

Last year our birthdays were heartbreaking occasions.

So this year, I’d like to wait on whatever news – good, bad, or unchanged – may be coming. I just want to wait. That means I need to call the oncologist. Dr Canada seems to get that I want to live well. But still, asking for anything other than protocol is scary business for me. Maybe I’ll grow my leg hair for courage, and hit up some hummus & olives for a temporary hormone high.”

And that is the post I was thinking of writing. Not actually word-for-word, but something along those lines. Surprisingly this isn’t the stuff that keeps me awake at night. What keeps me awake is the building bunch of projects I have going on – including my book launch!

Now, here we are at the end of this rambling post.

Good morning!

Running Nowhere Fast

Posted in Bumpboobs, Life by

Have you ever had that dream where the bad guy is chasing you, so you want to run away – but you’re getting absolutely nowhere? That’s how I feel sometimes. Mostly when I have a hot flash, but sometimes it simply happens without any hot flashes at all.

Like today. Today I feel like I’m trying to run somewhere and not actually moving. Admittedly, in the literal world you’d never catch me running. I’m allergic to running . . . well, if a person could be allergic to exercise, I’d be allergic to running and baseball. But in the metaphorical sense I want to run as in move forward with life. I love those moments of success and celebration, I also love those moments of rest and reflection, and give me a bit of time to write to make it all totally lovely – but to get to those moment, I apparently require these moments of taking the metaphorical lego pieces and building a life one tiny block after another tiny block, and my face is so close to the construction that I can’t even see what I’m building.

Oops. I jumped metaphors.

Running really hard but going absolutely nowhere.

Today that is how I feel.

Tomorrow may be different.

Probably I just need more chocolate. I will now test that hypothesis and go make myself some low-sugar cookies. Cause a girl needs her cookies .

Growing Up Online via Websites

Posted in Articles, Blogging and Other Fun, Life, Writing by

There’s been loads of work happening behind the scenes at Chez BS. That’s the name I just made up for our apartment. We’re not working on the apartment…well, we did just paint one wall yellow recently thanks to my awesome friend who gave me a “wall of paint” for Christmas… but what I mean is, we’ve been working on our businesses.

Zsolt is still piecing together Easy-Patent. There’s a lot to be done as a start-up business. One very important thing is to get clients. He’s working on that. Another very important thing is to have a professional online brand. I’ve been working on my identity online, too. There’s me as a writer, blogger, bumpyboobser, self-publisher, book lover, Ottawa liver, traveller lover, crowd funder… so that’s all a little bit scattered. My challenge is to unify those identities online. (Since in ‘real life’ they are already unified, as in – all of it comes in one package: me, Catherine)

In both cases, a very good starting point is to have a very good website. So that brings me to the point of today’s post. A little while back, the Zsoltster discovered a website builder called *Strikingly. We’d been using Wix and Weebly before this, and they were nice – but Strikingly truly does appear striking on the screen in a way that others haven’t yet managed. You know how all the cool websites have these beautiful scrolling features? Strikengly’s like that.

Anyhow, Zsolt went ahead and began building his Easy-Patent website there one day while I was away. When I got home later on, he showed it off and was really, really proud. One, it is always adorable when a loved one is really, really proud. And Two, it looks great. (Kinda hard to believe he could do something so lovely online without me there to guide him. But there you have it. The man did good.)

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So, he has this gorgeous website ready to go, and because of that he is feeling a lot more confident in his brand. By the by, check out this awesome infographic I designed for him to send to clients. That’s another post for another day about the awesome infographic building program I used.

CatherineBrunelle.com is getting a makeover as well. As Marie recently told me, I need to bring together my different stories in one place. That place is going to be my touchstone online. So, like Dr. Z (i.e. the Zsoltster), I started building my website on Strikingly. It’s not done yet, but if you want a sneak peek – check it out here.

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It’s so easy to start creating all these different projects and stories online. And because it’s so easy … blog idea – poof! It exists! Ebook – poof! It exists! Globe circling book tour – poof! No, just kidding on that one … because it’s so easy, it’s also easy to end up with fragments of one’s self all over the place.

In making these touchstones for our businesses, I feel like we’re growing up online. My only qualm, which is a big point to note, is not being able to bring the blog Bumpyboobs into the new website. But maybe one day 🙂 Until then, it remains where it is, since it’s doing such a fine job.

*Anyhow, we enjoy using Strikingly so much, that we decided to go pro plan. That’s a big deal for us. I never go pro plan. But just before doing that, I found myself an opportunity to exchange a year’s worth of free pro plan service for one little blog post on this business that I already loved. So, here it is!

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Now how is that for growing up in the blogosphere? Someone wants me to write about them? Okay, I’ve gotten that before with random mailers, but in this case – I’m super excited!

So, new websites and stories coming together 🙂  2014, I am hopeful.

*I should say that Wix is useful in that it has some nice layering options and flexibility, though the text sizing ticks me off to no end! Weebly is good for multiple pages and a blog (super useful) but the templates are starting to get dated. Strikingly‘s basic plan has good options (though limited in how much can be changed), while the pro lets you play with html, which will be empowering – but even at the basic level, the interface is clean and doesn’t spasm with the text input – sparing us some arguments as I write copy for Zsolt – plus the design is really fresh. What it needs is a way to bring in one’s blog, and then it would be like the super hero of web builders. I was asked to give a review of my experience in exchange for the pro plan, so there it is pros and cons! Obviously I find it very much pro overall. It’s fraking beautiful.