Mission Accomplished #Weekend Coffee Share 11-11-18

Good Morning, Everyone!

The day is just beginning. Get yourself a cup of coffee, and I will catch you up.

Mission accomplished. I had two live performances to do this week. Well, not exactly performances. It was more like presentations. There was the televised interview with Linda Frank, writer and LTV host of The Writer’s Dream. She had sent me a couple of pages of possible questions and highlights I may want to include. When I had asked when the assignment was due, she chuckled and said it was not homework. Just be yourself. That’s a little too much leeway for me. I stressed and scribbled for weeks. The interview actually went very well. Linda was a fantastic host, and we had a wonderful conversation. The video will be aired within the next few weeks.

Just yesterday, I stood in front of an audience of metastatic breast cancer patients, their caretakers, physicians, and support professionals. I was the keynote speaker at the Long Island Metastatic Breast Cancer Conference at Hofstra University. The event was sponsored by the Susan G. Komen Greater NYC organization and Northwell Hospital. I had spent a lot of time preparing to sound fresh, positive, yet grounded in the realities of this insidious disease. There were slides to scroll through at just the right cue. No matter how many times I rehearsed, I could not trust myself to remember the just right way to say something, or not get off on a rant. I held onto 4×5 index cards with the speech taped on them. It might not have looked professional but was a key strategy to pace my points. In the end, I got a big applause and, later on, terrific feedback from the participants and organizers. Hopefully, this will open up to other speaking opportunities and workshops. It is supposed to get easier, right?

If we were having coffee together, I would tell you that I can now breathe and relax for a minute before I tackle a much-neglected house and husband. It is a bit chilly here, but the wind finally lay down and perhaps we could go for a sail this afternoon. The days are numbered before the last two boats get hauled from their slips. My sister and brother-in-law are visiting this weekend, so we will definitely have a few laughs together.

If we were having coffee together, I would report that I am also gearing up to participate as a latecomer in the NaBloPoMo challenge this month. This may be a good thing or crazy ambition to better my writing practice before the holidays arrive. Stay tuned.

If we were having coffee together, I would like to take a pause and reflect on the men and women who serve our country. We are blessed with a diversity of people who value our freedoms and democracy. Thank you, American veterans, for being on the front lines for our nation.

The day dawned. Time get moving. Once again, thank you, Eclectic Alli for managing Weekend Coffee Share. Have a good week, Everyone. Make it great.

Antoinette Truglio Martin is the author of Hug Everyone You Know: A Year of Community, Courage, and Cancer. The memoir is a wimpy patient’s journey through her first year of breast cancer treatment.

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