Bygones and Paula Dean

I always love the month of June. School is over, the sun is out, vacation approaches. Days are long, laughs and memories are plenty. This June has not disappointed. I turned 36 this month. Never would I have imagined being excited about entering the late thirties, but after this year, I am ecstatic. I am so very thankful to have had another birthday. Next year, I will have 3 birthdays to celebrate... 1. 6th sobriety birthday (May 5) 2. 37th Government birthday (June 6) 3. 1st No more cancer birthday (Dec. 12). Yes, I will be accepting presents.

Not much to update on with the cancer journey. I had my last treatment May 23. It was the easiest round by far. I had prepared myself for the worst, so it was a pleasant surprise to return to normal within a week. I still receive infusions of Herceptin every three weeks until January. This is a medication that targets my specific cancer type, but it doesn't cause the side effects that the other chemo drugs cause. For that I am very thankful. When I went to the doctor on the 13th, my blood counts were still trying to recover from the last round. This means I am still without sushi and pedicures. Once my blood counts climb, I will be on track to continue my reconstruction. My hair has started to grow back just this week. It feels like a fuzzy peach. They say most people's hair comes back curly...If this is the case, watch out Lionel Ritchie!! I will need some Soul Glow.

 July is CARWASH MONTH!!!! if you take your car by Sparkle Wash on Belair Road and choose fundraiser wash, enter our code, $4 will be donated to Sherbert Punch Cancer Fight. The proceeds are going Directly to The Lydia Project ( an organization that helps women facing all types of cancer and their families). The code is 4062!

June has been an interesting month for headlines...The NFL player, Jodi Arias, Oklahoma tornadoes, DOMA, James Gandolfini (my get out of jail list now has an opening. don't judge). If you have read my status posts lately, you know that our local headlines about violence, robberies have me heated.

I am writing today, because the Paula Dean story has me heated as well. I have thought long and hard about how to tackle this subject without offending anyone..I hope I do not. However, If I do...there is no money to get or endorsements to lose, so...I am coming from a positive place and I hope that comes through.

When I applied for my nursing license in 2011, I had to give an inventory of any run-ins with law enforcement. Most jobs require the applicant to list any convictions, but this application wanted any and all arrests. In 1995, I was arrested in Athens. I was 19 and acting even younger, with no thoughts of future plans or consideration about how my actions affected me or anyone else.  After obtaining legal counsel and months of back and forth, the charges were eventually dropped. As a 33 year old college honor graduate, mother of two, I had to return to Athens to collect court documents and records. The clerks and secretaries didn't care that I had changed or that I had gone on to do anything good with my life, I was a record number, a 19 year old trouble maker, drug addict. My past was in my face. I had to answer for my mistakes in a very serious way. It was one of the saddest, scariest days of my life. I had to write a letter defending myself to the board of nursing and wait. I was (am) no longer that sad little girl who said and did things with no regard for others, yet my entire career was hanging on whether strangers thought I deserved a shot. Paula Dean has a big mouth, no doubt. But I personally know that being judged, based on my past, when I have done painful work to change myself was heartbreaking and scary. God has forgiven me for the harmful things I have said and done. My parents have forgiven me. I still have work to do on forgiving myself, but at some point, those things should not be able to be held against me, and the same can be said for Paula Dean. I still have amends to make, and I am still working on forgiveness and keeping my big mouth closed. I am so grateful that God doesn't bring up my transgressions from 20 years ago.

As I step off the soap box, I hope I am an example of the fact that people CAN change. Now where can I find some of that Strawberry Paula Dean cake?? 

Here is the link to Lydia Project! See ya at the Carwash!!
http://www.thelydiaproject.org