Sunday, June 20, 2010

Hats! Hats! and more Hats!

Hello everyone. CancerGirl and SuperDog have embarked on the most remarkable Adventure.

The SuperPower of Happiness is getting stronger and stronger by the hour.

CG has been thinking a lot about having been told the cancer was gone and then finding out it wasn't. She hasn't been angry with SuperOncologist, other then the day she found out, and she has thoroughly apologized for that day. :) Just kidding.

I have come to the conclusion that the reason why I am back in this position is because I started something the last time that I didn't finish. This is a ongoing theme through my life. SuperMom does the same thing, so I have my suspicion that it may be a genetic trait among the SuperFamily.

When CG and SD flew up to NJ for their SuperCousins wedding (she married another SuperHero in the fight against Cancer you know) she heard from numerous people in her family, "We love CancerGirl and SuperDog, what happened to the hat idea?" and I explained that I was in "remission" and I really didn't know if it was ok to identify myself as CancerGirl anymore. I was asking myself "How long after I don't have Cancer anymore am I no longer CancerGirl?". When CG and SD got back to Paradise, and she within 2 weeks found out she once again had to go have treatment, she began thinking "Maybe I need to finish what I started".

Hats for Happiness is getting off the ground at a sprint. On Thursday night at 10:00 CG started the Facebook group. Tonight at 10:00 PM the group broke the 100 member mark.

We are growing in leaps and bounds and are making more and more progress as time goes on. I have worries that I don't know everything there is to know about setting up a non profit. I worry that I will mess something up. I worry that this is going to get too big too fast and is going to overwhelm me.

I worried about how I was going to manage everything. Student, Wife, Cancer Patient, Sister, Friend and now I wanted to add Non Profit Org CEO? What was I thinking. I worried and worried until the past 2 days. The past 2 days have removed a lot of my worries. I have learned more in the last 2 days then I have in the last 5 years I think.

I have learned about Hats. I am not talking about the hats that we are collecting (although in a very vague way maybe I am) I am speaking about the hats I wear every day.

There is my Wife hat. That hat is sometimes beat up and worn. After wearing it for almost 10 years now, it has gotten its share of rips and holes and stains. It is worn in the spot where SH mom died from cancer, that was a very rough spot for us. There is a hole in it from where I found out 2 months after loosing his mom to cancer that I also have it. There are spots that are untouched, these are the special pins on the hat that shine of gold and gems. These gold and gems are from the good times. The day that SH and CG got married. The vacation where CG and SH collected hundreds of those tiny high bounce balls at a rest stop, put them in the glove compartment of the car, to get pulled over months later and have those hundreds of balls come spilling out onto the floor, with SH and I left with no choice but to laugh, while the cop determined if we should be committed to a institution or not LOL

There is my Student Hat, also known as my "thinkin cap". I put this hat on when I study. I wear this hat when I am on campus and while I do my work on the computer. This hat glitters brightly in the sun. It is bright, and it is shiny with very few blemishes on it. CG is a very good student. She prides herself on getting no lower then a B in any subject (except math, which CG struggles with greatly). Sometimes CG forgets to put this hat on. Sometimes this hat sits in the corner while she wears other hats.

Another hat that CG wears is her Cancer Patient hat. This hat is a special hat. It allows CG to belong to a special group of amazing men, women and children. CG wears this hat all the time, although sometimes it becomes so comfortable that she forgets that she is wearing it. It is bright Pink and Purple. The colors of CG and SD capes and equipment. CG needs to remember that when she goes in to see SuperOncologist that she is wearing this hat, and not the hat of CG CEO of Hats For Happiness. There are things that CG needs to discuss with her Oncologist, and if she takes up his limited time talking about HFH then she may not have the time or the forethought to ask important questions that need to be asked. This hat is made of armor, it has to be to fight a opponent as strong as Cancer, but it is also covered in a fuzzy fur, to show that although CG is tough enough to fight the EvilPower of Cancer, she is also soft enough to care about others and allow others to care for her.

Then there is the Family Hat. This hat is soft. This hat has many downright rips, after all, we tend to pull against those closest to us harder then anyone else. I believe that this is because we know that the fabric that our Family Hats is made of is stronger then the strongest Kevlar used in bullet proof vests, so although it tears, it will never tear in half. It will always be connected by some bond in some way. This hat has bullet holes in it. From the hurtful things that we shoot at each other in our families. But it also has patches, sewn on with love and ironed on with the heat that can only come from the flame of a family.

My friend hat is the most colorful and fun hat of them all. It is made of the patches of fabric that each one of my friends adds to my life. There is the patch of rainbow fabric for my Gay and Lesbian friends. it has the patch of fabric with the little duckies on it for the mothers that contribute their patches. It has the patches of Dora the Explorer and Transformers fabric that the special children in my life bring to me. They are not my children, but their parents have allowed them to be in my life and for that I am grateful. It has the different patches of fabric from all my facebook friends. It has fabric with dog breeds and dog biscuits on it for the other SideKick Service Dogs out there and my SD friends. It has patches of medical bandages for all my friends in the disabled community, and finally, it has some black patches for those who I know who have died of cancer, for them I wear black.

I hope that you can all share about the hats you wear and that this makes you think of what your hats are made of.

Thanks for supporting CG and SD in all the ways you do.