Put That in Your Dot Com and Fax It

I am in a deeper funk than Rick James.

The Great Gray Beast is about to be devoured by lions and lambs and leprechauns and such, and I'm rooting for them - especially the lambs - but I'm not feeling as relieved as I should be. The Great Gray Beast sucked it out of me but good this year.

Y'know who DOESN'T hate February? My mom.

She has her reasons. One of them is that for the last twenty years or so she's spent the full month in warmer climes. That would sure be enough for me. But that's not her biggest or best reason. Her biggest and best reason is that her birthday is in February - tomorrow, actually, and she is - if it's possible - even more of a child about celebrating her birthday than I am. I'm sorry. Did I say birthday? She prefers birthmonth.

Anyway - in honor of Mom's birthmonth I thought I'd share a quick conversation we had yesterday. The backstory is that I told her about Beth and her campaign and Mom wanted to make some caps. She asked me for patterns, as many of you did (thank you!!!) and I told her what I told those of you who asked: there are so many patterns out there for every ability level and taste... for you computer savvy folks I followed that up with - just google chemo cap patterns. I told Mom basically the same thing then told her I'd look for her - what was she thinking about? She said, "My girlfriend down here has a computer - we can look it up. What do we do?"

I could hear her pencil scratching. "Now, should she just type in "chemo cap patterns dot com?"

"No - have her do a google search on chemo cap patterns."

"Google. Spell that."

"G-O-O-G-L-E"

"Ok. She'll know how to do that."

"Yes - she should."

"Google. Got it. Google dot com."

"Right."

We talked about other things and ended the call. When she called yesterday, she very excitedly told me, "Hey, Tam, we dot commed those patterns and we found one we liked. Then we went down to the office (they stay in a condo on the beach) and they printed it out on their fax machine. So my friend and I are gonna get started on these in the next day or two."

God love 'em.

That woman brought me a smile through the funk. And it's not even my birthmonth.

Gimme a Head With Hair

This is my friend Beth.

I know, pretty, right? What do you notice first when you look at her? Is it her sparkling eyes? Her sweet smile? It might be. But my best guess is that the first thing you noticed was that gorgeous crop of copper curls. Yep, Beth has some pretty hair.

Around Thanksgiving, she told me about St. Baldrick's. She told me she was thinking of shaving her head in exchange for contributions to this excellent charity that supports childrens' cancer research. She'll also be donating as much of the actual hair as possible. Now my own hair woes have been extensively discussed here. I'd shave mine bald in a heartbeat and have threatened to do so on many occasions. Beth, though. Damn. I mean LOOK at that hair! But she told me, "I believe in this cause. I want to contribute. I don't have money. But I have hair. It's the least I can give." Well that shut my shallow self up. I immediately stopped trying to talk her out of it and asked how I - someone whose locks are not so glorious and valuable - could contribute. She gave me two options:

1. Sponsor her. Tom and I intend to do that although, like her, money isn't something we have a whole lot of. Our contribution will be small, but the ocean is made up of drops of water, right? If you'd like to contribute as well, Beth - and I - would be infinitely grateful. She's set up to accept contributions as small as $1.

https://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/bethchroninger

I'm betting if she sees a couple bucks as a result of this post she might be coerced into sharing some after pics with us and maybe MAYBE even some during pics...

2. Make chemo caps. I am in the process of madly doing that now. If any of you knit or crochet and would be interested in contributing in this way, please let me know and I'll hook you up with pattern links as well as a way to get them where they need to be.

Now go back and look at that picture again. Imagine her without hair. Still pretty beautiful, huh? Maybe, though it scarcely seems possible, even more so.