Repeat Mammogram--Scary!

I woke up Thursday morning and wandered into the kitchen for breakfast. As I sat, bleary-eyed, eating my cereal and berries, the phone rang. It was someone from Greenville Radiology telling me that my recent mammogram had changed since the previous one. I needed to go in and have further tests. I felt as if I was in a dream, writing down directions and instructions in slow motion.

Luckily, they had a cancellation that very day. I had just enough time to finish eating, walk Mini Me, shower and get over to the Patewood Medical Campus. As I wandered through the neighborhood, I wanted to tell anyone who'd listen that I had an abnormal mammogram; it seemed like telling the story might weaken its clammy hold on me. No one was out, though, so I didn't get to test out my theory.

We arrived at Patewood just in time to register and be whisked back to the Breast Center, where they separated us, the mammography waiting room being reserved for patients only. As I waited, I looked at the two or three other women sitting in the tastefully upholstered armchairs lined up along the walls. It seemed to me that we were all isolated in our own cells of terror, even though none of us were screaming or crying.

Soon, a female staff member came to escort me to a beautiful dressing room with a small tv, a mirror, and a dressing table complete with upholstered Parsons chair. I exchanged my blouse for a mammo gown, and she showed me exactly what was worrisome about my mammogram; a dark area indicated a mass of tissue that might or might not be something ominous. Then, she explained that they needed to take more films and see if the offending tissue would flatten out--meaning it was okay--or if it would stay stubbornly firm, which would warrant a trip to ultrasound.

We took the films and I went back to the dressing room to await the results. In just a few minutes, the tech returned and told me the tissue had flattened out. She even gave me a letter stating that my new mammogram was without significant abnormality.

I dressed and went to tell Gary the good news.

Patewood was fabulous. The speed and efficiency were the best I've ever experienced. I liked the process of staying in the dressing room while the films were read. Best of all was finding out my results immediately. I would recommend Patewood Breast Center to anyone. I've had mammograms in multiple facilities, and this was the best experience ever.

Birthday Today!

Today is Gary's birthday. We're off to the movies, a trip to the Greenville County Museum of Art, and dinner at a new-to-us Italian restaurant. Our plan is to skip lunch in favor of popcorn and candy at the movies. Plus, there's a lemon cake in the fridge downstairs and ice cream in the freezer.

New Yahoo Group for Women Who Want to Own a Business

I just started a Yahoo group for South Carolina women who want to become business owners but just aren't quite sure how to go about it. I hope it will foster some interesting discussions, give great hints, and generally promote women-owned businesses in South Carolina.

Subscribe HERE.

New Gateway Laptop

My old laptop developed a nasty habit of dying with no warning at random times, although it did seem to die more frequently during Scrabble games I was winning than during ones I was losing. Anyway, I needed a new computer, so we bought me a Gateway NV53 with Windows 7. I'm typing this blog entry with it.

Great computer, fun operating system, although the new Word interface is a little difficult to get used to.

Making Jewelry at the Crafty Hands Club

The Lake Rabon Crafty Hands Club met yesterday and made jewelry, mainly necklaces and earrings. The craft appears deceptively simple. It takes skill and vision, just like any other art. In this case, you need good eyesight as well as vision--some of those parts are tiny!

It's an addictive craft. Once I get the beads out and lay them on the black mat along with my limited set of tools, the rest of the world seems to drop away.

At lunch, we feasted on homemade cookies. Then, we went back to work on our bead projects. It's been a long time since we had a postprandial session. I was gratified that we worked so intently and produced such professional-looking pieces.

Technology Gets the Best of Me

I set up an event with Schmap-It and set it to Tweet every hour until the end of the month. Everything was going well. I was getting tons of hits on the event map and things were moving along smoothly until I got a message from a Facebook friend that the Tweets were also going out on Facebook every hour. I had opted to let Schmap access Facebook as well as Twitter and it was tweeting to Facebook. I ended up having to delete the entire event; I hope that stopped the Facebook tweeting.

I guess I'm not the tech wizard that I thought I was.

The Secret in Their Eyes--movie review

On a lighter note than my last post, we went to see The Secret in Their Eyes last night. It was great! I give it a 5 on a scale of five. It's an Argentinian film, so be prepared for subtitles if you go to see it.

A court employee sets out to write a novel about an old case that has niggled at his mind for years. In researching the book, he reawakens old passions and tears open old wounds.

I loved the Argentinian flavor of the film as well as the artfully-painted, three dimensional characters.

Trouble in Paradise

Well, I do believe the honeymoon is over. After almost three years in South Carolina, I've finally come across some antagonism in the ranks of my close acquaintances. I've experienced occasional rudeness before now, of course. You can't help but find some harsh personalities in the course of daily interactions with the general public.

This, however, is the first power struggle I've had to deal with close up and personal. It will be interesting to see if my Texas way of handling things works here in the deep south.

Russian Spies--Victims of Downsizing?

I've been loosely following the story of Russian spies deported from the US. Some have lived here so long and under such deep cover that they have grown children--US citizens--who didn't even know their parents were spies.

I keep trying to imagine what it would be like to live in a foreign country for years, work at a normal job, raise a family--all the while waiting for the call to come alive and do your clandestine duty for the motherland. I have to believe that's the kind of operatives these spies were, moles who wait for a command to go out and destroy a predetermined target. Because, if they were the kind put in place to provide ongoing information, they had to have been doing a terrible job. None of them appeared to have jobs that would afford them any more access to top secret information than I possess. And believe me--I certainly don't have access to anything that could be remotely considered secret.

What I think probably happened was that these people came to the US, burrowed down into the fabric of American life, and then--Boom!--the cold war ended. All of a sudden, there wasn't nearly as much call for spying as there had been. But, what are you going to do? Leave your nicely feathered US nest to go home to Russia and try to make a life in the chaos that reigned over there as Communism fell and near-anarchy rose? My bet is that these people just quietly kept on with their lives and waited for a call they knew wasn't likely to come. It finally did come, though. It's just that the slightly accented voice on the other end of the line said, "You're being traded," rather than, "Carry out your mission of destruction silently and swiftly." What a shock that must have been!

Timken Center Presentation A Success

Gary Melara's presentation yesterday at the Timken Center in Clinton, SC was very well attended. The staff had to pull out an extra chair or two as stragglers piled in. Afterwards, several people expressed an interest in exploring business ownership and we were invited to speak in other counties as the need arises.

We are both dedicated to helping as many people as possible get into businesses that meet their individual goals, needs, and expectations. It's the best way I know to get this country back on its feet economically.

Gary Melara to Speak at the Timken Center on Wednesday

Gary Melara will speak on Self Employment Options at the Timken Center, 1840 Torrington Rd, Clinton, SC on Wednesday, July 7th at 10:00am. It's open to the public, so y'all come!

On Twitter Autoresponders

I just read a blog post trashing Twitter auto-responders and the people who use them. First, let me say here and now that I don't have a Twitter auto-responder and have never used one. Honest!
With that little bit of housekeeping out of the way, I believe I can safely comment on the phenomenon. Here it comes. Are you ready? I don't think there's anything wrong with using an auto-responder on Twitter! To me, it works this way: out of the blue, person A follows person B on Twitter. Then, person B sends an automated thank you to person A. What's wrong with saying thanks for the follow? Especially when you don't know the new follower from Adam?

The problem--for many people--apparently shows up when the automated thank you comes with a link to person B's website. Sensitive Twitterers don't take kindly to having links foisted on them, it seems. What I can't understand is why it's okay to just jump up and follow someone, which is--in effect--like eavesdropping on their daily conversation, but it's not okay for the person being eavesdropped upon to share a link in response. Etiquette in the information age gets curiouser and curiouser!

Re-Published The Dark Side of Town on Kindle

I re-published The Dark Side of Town Kindle edition yesterday and it's already available for download again. Kindle made a new royalty arrangement that required re-publishing. Hope the change didn't inconvenience anyone!

Kindle has changed--and greatly improved--their publishing platform. Check it out; it's bright, friendly, and easy to use.