Halfway through radiation!

I continue to go to my daily radiation treatments every morning. They are quick and easy, and I continue to have no troublesome side effects. I am napping more, but have good energy otherwise. I continue to walk with friends, and play frisbee and volleyball. I'm still sitting out some of the volleyball games when I get tired, but seem to be doing fine at frisbee, even though that's more running around. Maybe it's because volleyball uses my arms more and they still are fairly weak. Maybe I should start lifting weights.

When I started treatments, I picked up a Janet Evanovich book "Two for the Dough" in their waiting room and began reading it only while waiting for treatments. I made a little sticker chart from a recipe card that I use for a bookmark, and I put a new sticker on it after each treatment. I'm also about halfway through the book, thanks to a couple of backed up mornings where I had to wait 15 or 20 minutes before getting called in.

This week, I went with a couple of friends to go see a daylily farm: the Harmon Hill Farm in Hudson, NH. They had hundreds of varieties of daylilies, as well as a few liliums and coneflowers mixed in. They've been selling them for over 20 years and do a big mail-order business. 

And I picked up my new reading glasses this week. I was the only person waiting in their waiting room, and the technician comes out, looks around and chuckling, says "You don't look like a Katherine!". I was confused at first, thinking well, most people call me Kathy, then realized she thought I was a man. This happens often to me, and I stood up to go with her and she then said "Oh, actually, yes, you do!" and nervous laughed some. I told her she was making gender assumptions, and she apologized with "Oh, sorry, it was because I saw your short hair". I let it go that day, but now I feel I should write the office a letter. If she is making me uncomfortable with her assumptions, imagine what is she doing to transgender folks, people transitioning, bald chemotherapy patients, people who can't grow hair for other reasons like alopecia, men with long hair, women with short hair, people with unusual clothing, youth who are exploring gender expression, or whomever else doesn't fit her annoying assumptions. I really don't understand why gender is used at all. She could have walked into the waiting room and called "Katherine" and when I stood up, said "Hello. Please follow me." Why introduce gender into that interaction at all?

Next time you are addressing somebody (either one person or a crowd), see if you can figure out a way to do it without needing to specify a gender. Sometimes it is pretty challenging, due to limitations of the English language (like ma'am and sir labels, with nothing equivalent to say if you don't know or it doesn't matter), but it is worth it. You will include so many more people comfortably in the conversation! 

My sticker chart, halfway done!

My friends Carol and Jenn, exploring the daylily field with me.

I think this one was my favorite!

They had a few types of liliums, and this one towered above the daylillies.

Each little plant had a label with its name, and some of those were quite fun.

This one is called Big Honking Flaming Floozy.

Some of the names made political statements, like Pray for Peace, and this one: Eggs Ain't Poultry. 

I wanted to buy some based solely on the names!

Here's me in my new glasses, wearing what I had on at the eye doctor's office.

And here are my glasses against my purple office wall, to highlight the purple color, with my gelled hair to give myself a new hairdo. The stuff is too smelly though, so I think it will be tossed out!