Take two.  I wrote this entire blog and then dumped it because I forgot about one of Weebly's little quirks.  <sigh>  Ah well.

At any rate, I'm back!  I got home from the hospital on Tuesday (at least two weeks and three physical iterations ago) and have been busily recuperating ever since.  Recuperating in my case means that I have been doing a lot of reading (for pleasure), napping (as determined by the percocet and my general body's needs), yakking and hanging with my friend, Erik Kieser, and eating whatever I want that is also soft and not spicy.

God bless, Erik.  Who would have known that day, almost 30 years ago, when we fell in (platonic) love over discussions of green blood, the nature of God, the passionate beliefs of our young faiths--that he would end up being my care-taker in our middle years?

Well, God knew.  But who else?

At any rate, those coversations have been part of the very fabric of my soul lo these many years.  I'm so grateful for Erik in so many ways, not the least of which is the way he pulled my feet into bed when I honked up the whole "getting into bed after surgery" equation on my second day home.  It's excellent having Erik here to help me noodle through things as I continue to gear up for the fight of my life.

Erik is here also so that Dan could go back to work while I was in this more delicate phase of my recuperation.  I think it's been good for Dan to be back in the work saddle, but that's just my observation.  It's good for things to be as normal as possible.

That's part of my mantra these days.  "Be Normal."  I got it as a piece of advice from my sister-in-law, Candy (a cancer survivor) and it feels right in my bones, in the conviction of my heart, in my liver (where the tumors lurk even now).  It may seem counter-intuitive to be in the aforementioned "fight of my life' and to have one of my chief weapons be normalcy.

At least part of my reasoning is that as "Cancer Girl," there are a limited number of things to live for--defeating cancer, researching my disease, marshalling my resources.  While as Laura (see About Laura to the right), I have all of Cancer Girl's motivations and weapons PLUS an amazing life to enjoy here and now.

So, I'm back to it.  Blogging, writing, working on various projects and...in a few weeks...golf.  The blog will concern my fight against cancer when it makes sense.  I imagine I'll be touching on political topics occasionally.  I know I'll be writing about the curious crossroads of my faith as a recovering fundamentalist facing this part of my journey with prayer and a non-traditional understanding of what it means to be a believer, to be a Christian.  And I suspect I will be working up a manifesto of sorts, like the one I had about qualities I was looking for in a President, about what life looks like from this side of a cancer diagnosis.

And I'll probably still gloat when I manage to beat someone at golf or cards.  I might rant when a politician or celebrity does something particularly boneheaded.  And the Sunday Question will be back this coming weekend.

Welcome back everyone.  Thanks for the prayers, the flowers, cards, emails, gifts and most of all, for giving me a life so rich, I can't help but want to live it and live it and live it.

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