It's difficult to take good photos of yourself when you've got short arms.  This is about my 10th attempt and I deem it good enough to show off the new (thank you, Blessed God!) short haircut I got today.

It was actually quite the lovely experience.  The hairdresser (Nazzy) normally does Dan's hair and I don't know why I didn't figure out before now that she's great with short women's hair as well.  Her assistant welcomed me, got me a glass of water and then gave me the most marvellous shampoo including a neck rub.

The neck rub made me slightly nervous because she had strong hands and I didn't want her to accidentally dig into my port implant, but she missed it so all was well.

Then Nazzy chatted and snipped, snipped and chatted and I left the salon feeling a LOT more like my usual self.  (Although apparently, upon reviewing this photo, she added some girth to my nose whilst taking off hair...not sure how that happened!)

Prior to the haircut, we had a great visit with our friends, Ken and Lynne Secrest.  We talked about everything under the sun, getting caught up on each other's lives...and it was nice to not be talking cancer, cancer, cancer.  They are dear friends and a joy to be around.

After the haircut?  Dan and I wandered the mall, enjoyed a late lunch at PF Changs, picked up some baskets to house our ever growing collection of DVD's and then came back home.  Where I promptly napped for 45 minutes.  Fortunately, there is enough left over from the dinner I cooked last night to feed us this evening.  So we're in for the night.  As the last whisper of Laguna sunset spills into the evening sky, I'm quite content with a day of life, friends, caresses and beauty.

And a big nose.

We're figuring out the in's and out's of chemotherapy (and, as a new friend of mine calls it..."chemo hangover") these days.  So the blog that was my "almost daily" blog will inevitably become more sporadic.

As am I!  (Sporadic that is...sometimes awake, sometimes asleep, sometimes hungry, mostly not...ah well, each new circumstance can only be taken as a lesson at this point.)

Thanks for checking in, for emails and calls.  When my energy comes back (sometime next week, I'm given to understand), I'll be a better communicator on the personal and blog levels.

In the interim, I'm reading, watching t.v. (nice special on Ron Howard's career on A&E today) and generally laying low.

That's the title of a song that's been on my I-tunes list recently.  So very apt for me.  Dan retrieved me from the madness that is LAX last night, waiting for me at baggage claim with a cheerful smile.  Despite the commute time to pick me up!  (How lucky am I?)

Then we visited (and watched Three and a Half Men reruns) while I wound down.  To sleep.  To dream.  And what a difference in the quality of my rest when I'm not sleeping alone (even crossways) in the king sized bed.

I rose early (3:00 a.m. Hawaii time and 6:00 a.m. in California) and played golf with a friend of ours, Tom.  Dan and I usually play with Tom and his wife, Renee', on Wednesdays.  But today Tom and I were on our own. We discussed everything from past bosses to current politics (an unexpectedly similar voting decision) to life and golf.  In between, we had a great round.  Tom shot a 79 and I shot a personal best, 93.

So...I'm thinking at some point tomorrow I'll get on the horse and start the research process into California Propositions.  I'll spice it with a bit of Presidential campaign commentary.

But for today, I'm going to relax after a dinner with Dan.  Hang out.  Go to bed ridiculously early (for either Hawaii or California time).  And enjoy coming home.

We're having a pajama day today.  That translates to watching movies, checking out golf games, ordering food (in Dan's case, sweetly fetching coffee this morning), and just being at home in our not-so-little house with the two of us and no fixed agenda.

You'll forgive me for a brief blog today, but the couch beckons and pajama days are so very rare.

As I "blurted" yesterday, I spent the day at the Ending Violence Against Women policy summit in Los Angeles.  I was honored to be a facilitator for one of the workshop sessions--"Effecting Positive Change From Lifespan Perspectives."  The workshop focused on identifying gaps in service for female victims of violence in marginalized or underserved sectors of the greater community: LGBTQ women, girls, elderly women, disabled women and immigrant women.

Before the workshop began, we heard from two speakers who outlined the global and local issues of violence against women.  I heard a number of horrifying statistics yesterday.  One was that a woman falls victim to a violent act in the United States once every 15 seconds.  That's five women since I started this blog entry.

The other, perhaps more staggering, statistic is that one in three women will fall victim to a violent assault over her lifespan.  1 in 3.  That's higher than the rate of breast cancer.

In the plenary session, listening to the speakers--it was a bit overwhelming to consider those numbers.  The problem seemed so huge and unmanageable.

But once we got into the workshops and started delving into the issues of underserved populations, my sense of being overwhelmed by the numbers was reversed.  The policy summit attracted professional women (some of them survivors) and men from across public and private sectors who had a depth of experience that was truly impressive.  More importantly, they had a passion for effecting change and the creativity to design new ways of solving the issues.  I found them downright inspiring.

I've been absent from the nonprofit world for about 18 months now.  It was humbling and rejuvenating to connect with people who are determined to make a difference in this world, right now.

One way you can make a difference is to follow this link to sign the Unifem Petition to end violence against women.  It's a small gesture.  But if you add your voice to the voices of hundreds of thousands across this planet, it may be just enough to give one woman hope.  And hope is what it takes to survive violence.  I know.  I'm a survivor.

Got up at 5:45 a.m. this morning to play 9 holes of golf with Renee'.  I know many of my friends and family get up at "O'dark-thirty" to go to work...so I'm not complaining.  Just commenting that I was up with the larks.

Dan was not yet awake when I left (a very unusual turn of events).  Dan is not a lark.  I hope I didn't bug him too much as I left.

It was not a good game overall for me, but I did book 17 putts, 1 less than a 2-putt average, so at least part of my game was working.  I was in the water once and all over the place with my tee shots.  Not surprising being that I just had a lesson this past Sunday.  This means that every time I stood over the ball for a tee-shot, I kept thinking, "Now what was that about my shoulders?  Oh, yeah.  I need the right shoulder down, the club relaxed in my grip.  Turn, don't slide...Oh, shoot, I forgot to close the club face on my follow through!"

I had two great tee-shots.  The rest were...shall we say...inconsistent.  Renee' on the other hand had a great day.  And I'm glad for her while being the tiniest bit jealous (because I AM competitive, it's true).

One of the nice things about golf for me is that I do a lot of thinking while I'm on the course about how playing golf with a good attitude is like living life with the same.  Today, for example, I wasn't hitting as far as I was used to hitting.  So, I compensated by pulling out longer irons on the tee.

"Ah-ha!" I thought.  "Just like life.  I could spend my time being frustrated because I should be able to hit a 9-iron to this green.  Or I could listen to my observations of the round so far and play the game I brought rather than the game I expected."  Much more humane to play the 8 iron and let go of the "shoulds."

The other general observation I've gotten from golf lately is that it's a process of learning.  Even if I play the same course every week (or twice a week like Dad does), I never end up in exactly the same spot when I tee off.  Doesn't matter if I'm hitting the greens or not...I won't be in exactly the same spot twice. 

I can use my past experience to remind me how the green breaks, say, or what my chip shots have done in the past from the right side of the green.  But it's a new shot.  And sometimes, it's fun to try new things.  And if I miss the shot, I learn from it (I hope), chalk it up to practice and move on.

Why is it so hard to be so forgiving of oneself in the practice of living?  Why is it that we try so hard for perfect even though we're never going to get there?  I don't know the answers to that question.  But I do know that the more I play golf, the easier it is to remember that life is not a game of perfect.  It's a game (like golf) of being here now, dealing with the situation as it is (not as I wish it would be) and swinging through.

Sometimes you hit 'em straight and long.  Sometimes, you have to yell "Fore!" 

Even if you're Tiger Woods.