Category Archives: Life

Shesconnected Toronto 2012

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

Okay I’m just a little bit giddy this evening. It may be due to having been awake since 4.30 AM, but that normally results in my being more ‘zombie like’ rather than ‘totally stoked’.

This weekend I have the privilege of speaking on the Facing Cancer Together panel at the Shesconnected Toronto conference. This place is like my networking dream come true. Firstly it’s full of interesting and smart women. Secondly everyone GETS IT:  sometimes I go to local networking events in Ottawa, which are actually really excellent except that no one understands what social media is about. Blogs, twitter, facebook (and a million others) leave people stumped. So okay, that’s fine as in there’s no competition for social media in that group of successful women, but I do appreciate companies that appreciate what a blogger or social media person can do.  (I’m not going to go into what we can do right now, but it’s largely about relationship building and sharing stories – bringing that all back to the brand)

Anyhow. The train pulls in this morning around 10 AM after a four and a half hour ride from Ottawa. I attempted several sleeping poses on the train including the pretzel, the slouch, the sit back, the fist stack and your classic window lean. (Maybe I slept 20 minutes.) I boot it to the hotel with my luggage, drop my stuff, splash my face – and BAM! I’m down at the conference before you can say “YippiDoDah” six times backwards.

This conference is a mix of brands that love the social media or want to develop themselves in that line of marketing (blogging, tweeting, etc.ing) and bloggers who generally have an established, interactive and impressive audience.

[Bumpyboobs’ side note: my audience may not be huge, but you are all so very impressive – which is why I love to follow your stories too; you get me laughing, thinking and enjoying the good company.]

There are also new bloggers, and companies only just getting started with the social media. Basically it’s about learning and connecting with the women and the brands.

Right – five “HadOdIppiys” later and I’m at the FacingCancer.ca booth greeting the awesome ladies of the Fc.ca, Look Good Feel Better and the CCTFA community. Everyone is in a perfectly lovely and happy mood, and there is no stress whatsoever about completely lost signage that is somewhere in Toronto with the delivery guy who failed to deliver. None whatsoever. 😉 (But it did show up eventually, and oh my goodness our booth looks beautiful!)

I decide not to be super supportive, and instead drop my stuff and go walk around the conference. The conference was really cool; in the course of five minutes I’d hunted out a brand I was curious to meet – they are called Elephoto, and they are quite possibly going to feed into my photobooking /  photocalendering / photomugging / and  photokeychaining addiction in the future. They’re a Canadian company, so I can skip the over-the-border charges, plus they seem quite good quality. Anyhow, we’ll see how that goes. I have this weird love of printing – whether it be books (see my MA baby here), pictures, or business cards, and the sight and touch of high quality paper strikes me deeply with satisfaction.

Weird, or what?  That’s like having a G-rated fetish.  If I can meet some Moo.com reps tomorrow, then my weekend will be complete.

But anyhow! Between the talks on social media, I did go back to the Facing Cancer Together booth to hang out, and cheer them on when the banners and goodies finally did arrive. And while standing there bloggers would come up and inevitably be ask if they had heard of the Look Good Feel Better program, and told about this new intitative of online support called FacingCancer.ca – some ladies just take a pamphlet and say thanks. Others stop for a moment – and if they stop, even for a moment, then you know they have story to share.

Every time I popped back to the booth, there was another woman letting us know how cancer has touched her life, or the lives of those she cares about. Every single time. Which only confirms how important it is to have these conversations, and share the message that support is out there – actually, it’s right here. . . and it’s available for everyone, even if ‘supports groups’ aren’t your thing.

Anyhow. Tomorrow is the panel at 4 pm where we’ll discuss online communities and finding support, plus why blogging is awesome for your well-being. It will be a day full of talks, and hopefully full of interactions and introductions.

It is such a good conference, and like I’ve said, I’m really so happy to be here.

Cookie Comforts

Posted in Food, Fun, Life by

Ah, sometimes when cruising through life we just need to stop and enjoy a cookie. That’s my mantra: have a cookie and a cup of tea, things will seem better. So this morning I paused in my workday to whip up – literally, it took 10 minutes – some cookies. Gluten free chocolate-chip cookies, and tresssss delish! The only thing is, I didn’t write down the receipe and put in way too much sugar (could have done with about 1 cup less).

Here are some guidelines if you want to try this yourself.

2 eggs, 1/2 cup ish melted butter, 1 cap vanilla extract, pinch of salt and some sugar (A bit of white and a bit of brown, but not too much overall! Maybe coconut sugar would be a nice alternative?). Mix and set aside.

Some gluten-free flour mix (no clue what’s in this, but it’s from Bulk Barn . .. it tastes quite beany raw, so I suspect lentil flour mixed with other stuff) – maybe 3/4 a cup, ground almond –  I don’t know.  1 – 1.5 cups ish? (I just shook it out of the mason jar).  pinch of tapioca starch. Bit of baking powder (gluten free), few table spoons icing sugar (gluten free? – though maybe cut this entirely since these cookies are too sweet),  bit of coconut flour . . 1/2 cup? I have no idea. Chocolate chips to your preference . .. I didn’t put in many.

Mix it all together till it’s wet but not too wet. (Ha! This is such a poorly described recipe!) and spoon out into balls on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Bake at 350 about 8-10 minutes. Yummy!  You can freeze any leftover dough for later cookie cravings.

Compassion, Cabbage & Cramps

Posted in After treatment, Bumpboobs, Life, Love by

Cramps suck! This morning as Zsolt and I were on a mission to buy organic free-range eggs from the local Loblaws, I began to feel a pressure inside my abdomen. At this point I distinctly remember passing a diner filled with Sunday-morning patrons, all of whom were enjoying the Sunday 3.95 breakfast. Zsolt was astonished that the restaurant was so crazy full, with more and more people coming down the sidewalk to go in, but I told him that in Canada breakfast is a big deal, and we honour this meal with a special Sunday observance and marked down menu prices. So we were off to get some eggs, and maybe a bag of rice because I bought a cabbage in the market yesterday for one dollar, so my mind is all, “you gotta make cabbage layer!” while my body is all: “you’re not going to do anything productive today!” and it let me know this just as we were passing a diner.

Anyhow, that’s when it started. I don’ t know about you, but I’ve got different sorts of periods aches . . . some are about a sore back, some are about the ovaries being tender, this one . . . I don’t know what it’s about, but I do know it’s damn painful.

Starting slowly, this pressure built up and up till by the time we’d crossed the intersection toward Loblaws, it was sharp and radiating from my front to back. Lord.

So I say to Zsolt: “we need to turn around.” And he offeres no protests – instead we turned around, and he rubs my back as we walk back toward the flat.

Finally we reach the flat and I’m relieved. Sometimes this stuff becomes so intense I think I might pass out, but then I never actually do pass out  – because I generally hit the bed in time. Actually, this threatening lack of consciousness is mostly about the anxiety, because when this radiating of pain starts to happen, I just think “What the frack is my body doing?!” And the worst starts to creep across my thoughts . . . so no matter how many deep breaths I’m trying to take, they all end up short and tense, thus the sensation of passing out. Basically, I have mini panic attacks because I don’t want to get sick again, and it’s hard to trust the body after the shit it put me through already.

On the other hand, if this is what it takes to have a baby and know the process is working – then okay, great. But who knows? I only hope.

Anyhow, we get back to the flat and here is the entire point to my post: We get back, and Zsolt is incredible. He puts on the kettle and gets out the hot water bottle as I crawl into bed. He makes me a cup of tea. He comes into the bedroom and rubs my back a little, then sits next to me as I clutch the water bottle and strokes my bare leg. Then after maybe an hour passes, he tops up my tea and defrosts the chicken soup – bringing it to me in bed on a tray.

Ah. Today my man took good care of me. I guess over the past several years, he’s learnt ‘how best to comfort my wife’ and when the pain was throwing me into panic, he was remaining calm and attentive. It was reassuring.

I really think that before medicine comes love. Love knows you’re scared, it sits with you, and it wraps you in its warmth. Today Zsolt was so very good at taking care of me, and I’m so very thankful for that.

As for the cramps, I’m not in pain like before but am totally knackered and rather uncomfortable. However, while at the grocery store today ( A different grocery store, not Loblaws and no organic eggs. This was much later in the day after several hours in bed I went to a friend’s place to watch people bake. Part of this experience involved going to the shop to get the missing ingredients),  my period cramps were thrown into perspective as the lady at the till was pregnant and suffering pregnancy pains. She was bending over and trying to breath, saying she felt like passing out. When I asked if the store couldn’t at least get her a stool, she said that she’d asked and they said they didn’t have one – so this women is checking out items and obviously suffering. Where was the love from her store? I don’t know and I’m sorry it was lacking. It just seemed totally wrong.

After that I decided that I’m lucky regardless of cramps or whatever; I’m just lucky to have been given what I needed when I needed it most. A little compassion goes a long, long way.