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Some awesome things that have been happening: I can wear mascara, finally. (I have a full set of eyelashes!) It�s always been my favorite, and I went 6 months without, so no -- I will not downplay my excitement. In case you didn�t hear, my second mastectomy was a success . Probably should�ve opened with this one, but gawrsh I love mascara. I am far enough along in my healing to wear a specially-fitted breast prosthetic. Which I realize is one of those things you might wish to leave out on a blog that�s read by your parents and maybe your high school teachers. It�s sort of like talking about a shopping spree at Victoria�s Secret: a cool thing, but a keep-to-yourself thing. But it�s also sort of exactly NOT like that. I have cancer. (cancer card! It�s happening!) I do (and write) what I want. Anyway, it�s great fun because when I go out, I no longer need to decide between the very unbecoming one-boob look or futilely stuffing a wadded washcloth into my bra. It�s a massive relief to we...

If the massive Pink Ribbon flags hanging from the streetlamps up and down Main Street didn�t clue you in, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Towards the end of September, I began to dread the arrival of �Pinktober.� And this is why - I find everything about it incredibly polarizing . There are your tutu-clad marathon fanatics who welcome the onslaught of everything pink with eager enthusiasm. And then there�s the vexed anti-pinkers who find the current theme of Breast Cancer Awareness Month to be both alienating and misdirected. So where do I stand in this Sea Of Pink? Where do I fit into this equation as a young breast cancer patient still undergoing treatment? And what more can I possibly offer to the dialogue already being had on other (much more lucid and far-reaching) cancer-related blogs? I�d rather not piss and moan about things. Negativity like kills my vibes, ya know? But still. I think this whole Breast Cancer Awareness rigmarole is something worth addressing. Last mo...

I originally wrote this piece a couple of months back, while recovering from my first mastectomy . Then I got crummy news  about my cancer, and this post seemed totally irrelevant so I never published it. I've been saving it for the right time. Which is now because the writer-y part of my brain is kaput, and I am so overwhelmingly TIRED.  "Be kind. For everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about." Yes. I did  just open this post with an authorless quote that sounds like it was swiped from the Pinterest board of a delusionally optimistic sorority girl. And yet. Read it again. Because it's actually kind of important. When people see me in a bandana trying to wrangle a Hershey bar out of my toddler's death grip, they already know my battle . It's visibly obvious I've been through chemo. Either that or my fashion sense is tragically rubbish. But most people (I hope) assume the former. This does have its benefits. Strangers are ever so nice to...