(I meant to post this yesterday, but my mom was here in town, so things got away from me!)

It’s October, and that means that it’s Breast Cancer Awareness month! As many of you know, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2000 - she found the cancer through a self-exam, and it NEVER showed up on the mammogram (so do your self-exam!). She has been in remission since August 2000, and she is an incredible woman!

There are so many things that we can do to help prevent the risk of breast cancer - exercise, watching what we eat (somethings are good for us - others not so much), and maintaining a healthy lifestyle that includes breast self-exams (BSE) and mammograms. Throughout the month I’ll be posting things that will help us be more aware!

Here are some links to national sites about breast cancer: FitSugar

Don’t forget to stop by The Breast Cancer Site to click - this helps give free mammograms to underprivileged women, and it’s so easy to go click once a day: The Breast Cancer Site

Here are my other posts about breast cancer: Breast Cancer Posts

Here is one post that I want EVERYONE to read: Inflammatory Breast Cancer

If you have any questions about breast cancer or my family’s personal experience with it, I am VERY open about this topic, and will answer any questions you may have - please don’t take this subject lightly!

Breast Cancer Awarenss Ribbon Gifts originally uploaded by The Taif Healthy City Programme.

As many of you know, back in March my dad was diagnosed with Autoimmune Hepatitis. He’s had to change his diet and exercise in an attempt to keep it from making him really sick, and he’s also been on prednisone for almost 6 months.

Well, today my mom called me. Daddy went in for his checkup, and they said that he’s in remission!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I get to see Daddy tomorrow, so I can give him a hug for being (sorta) all better!

I’m Lindsey, and thanks so much for stopping by Suspension of Disbelief. You might want to know a little bit about who is writing all this babble on this blog, so I thought I’d share a little bit about myself!

I love living in the South. Born and raised in Georgia, live in Florida, school in North Carolina – it just doesn’t get better. I went to undergraduate school in Winston-Salem at Wake Forest University, and graduated with my BA in May 2006. I double majored in theatre and English – too much reading for my own good! After briefly dabbling as a business school graduate student, I took a year off from school and just enjoyed life working as a barista at Starbucks and as the assistant project manager for E. Webscapes (I’m still working at both of these places, though I was promoted to Shift Supervisor at Starbucks in November 2007). Now I am in the MFA in Performing Arts Management program at North Carolina School of the Arts, and will be doing that until 2010 - yay grad school! When I get tired from all the school and work, I just go home and cuddle with my ADORABLE kittens, Oscar (Peterson) and Miles (Davis)!

I’ve been blogging since August 2004, and I’ve been on WordPress since February 2005 . . . I consider my blogiversary to be February 24, 2005. I opened my first website, the now defunct site Doodlebug, in July 2004. It had a paid member’s area (Doodlebug Designs) which offered design services for email stationary on several email platforms. Unfortunately, my interests shifted and I no longer had the time and energy it required to maintain Doodlebug Designs along with my other endeavors, so I closed the doors for good in March 2007. I also switched my hosting over to Blogs-About Hosting in December 2006, and have been very happy with the service I receive there!

As with most people, everything hasn’t been rosy in my life. In May 2000, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has been in remission since August 2000, and she is an incredible woman! In February 2003, my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer (he has been in remission since March 2003), and in March 2006 he was diagnosed with Autoimmune Hepatitis. However, throughout all of this, our family has only grown closer to each other, and to God.

I am a strong Christian, and am committed to my faith. I was always raised in a Christian home, but didn’t realize just what it meant to be a Christian until I gave my life to Christ in July 1998, when I was newly 14. In high school I was a co-president of Brothers And Sisters In Christ (BASIC) and for all four years of undergrad I was a devoted member and leader in Living Parables Christian Drama Troupe. I also have a faith blog called Reading Red Letters. My favorite Bible verse is Jeremiah 29:11.

My whole life I have loved reading. When I was a little kid, a lot of kids’ parents would punish them by taking away television, not allowing them to go play with friend . . . nope, not mine. My punishment was that they would take away my books. It was the ONLY way they could get me to mind, LOL! Since graduating I have found that I am reading a lot of frivolous books (read: chick lit), which I can only attribute to exclusively reading real literature and theatrical works for the past eight years of my life. Chick lit authors I like include Sophie Kinsella, Sue Margolis, Jennifer O’Connell, and Carole Matthews. I am an active participant on Bookcrossing, and I HIGHLY recommend all readers check it out!

I have loved music since I was a small child – really, as long as I can remember. My dad has loved music his whole life and he just kind of passed it down to me I guess. My favorite music is old rock’n’roll and R&B from the 1960’s and 70’s (thanks Daddy), but I also listen to current popular music, hip-hop and rap particularly. I’m game for pretty much any music, as long as it’s not country. My all time favorite band is The Beatles, but I also love the Temptations, Chicago, Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson, and Ludacris (yes, random). A more extensive list includes:

Beach Boys, The Beatles, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Black Eyed Peas, Blue Man Group, James Brown, Burlap to Cashmere, Busta Rhymes, Caedmon’s Call, Carole King, Ed Cash, Chicago, Cirque du Soleil, Eric Clapton, Nat King Cole, Cream, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Dave Brubeck, Dave Matthews Band, Miles Davis, dc Talk, Bob Dylan, The Embers, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Stan Getz, Al Green, Hair, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Jars of Clay, Jay-Z, Jefferson Airplane, Elton John, King Floyd, The Kinks, Gladys Knight and the Pips, John Lennon, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Ludacris, The Mamas and the Papas, Bob Marley, Maroon 5, Medeski Martin and Wood, Missy Elliot, Lee Morgan, Nappy Roots, Nelly, Nickel Creek, Outkast, P.O.D., Paco de Lucia, Paul McCartney, Art Pepper, Oscar Peterson, Pillar, Pink Floyd, Bud Powell, Queen, Rent, Santana, Will Smith, Snoop Dogg, Star Wars, Steppenwolf, Sweetwater, James Taylor, Tchaikovsky, The Temptations, Thelonious Monk, Chris Thile, Third Day, Three Dog Night, Justin Timberlake, TobyMac, War, Wicked, Stevie Wonder, Victor Wooten

I’m also big into movies, though I don’t know as much about movies as I do about music. I guess I’m a music aficionado, but just hold an appreciation for movies. I am a HUGE fan of Netflix ;-)! My all-time favorites are Star Wars (V, VI, IV, II, III, I) and the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty. More recent favorites include Men in Tights and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. I also love television. My favorite show of all time is Sex and the City, and I also really enjoyed OZ and Friends.  I’m a pretty big Law and Order junkie too, including SVU and CI. My TiVo Stevo records a variety of shows for me every week, including Oprah, Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, Heroes, Lost, Medium, Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, ER, and Private Practice.

Being from the south, cooking has been a big thing for me. My dad was raised on a farm, and when my parents got married, his mom taught my mother everything she knew. Which was a lot, LOL! I still have a ways to go, but I’d like to think that I’m pretty good at what I do for my age. And my friends are always coming over when I say I’m cooking! My favorite meal is fried chicken, rice and gravy, and zipper peas . . . ooo buddy! And, like the good southern girl I am, I am obsessed with grits and sweet tea. I’m a huge coffee drinker, which has only gotten worse since I started working at Starbucks. Used to be that I had my black coffee every morning and went about my day, but now? If I get something right before or after my shift, it’s free, so of course I have to take advantage of that! I’m also interested in learning more about wine (red wine in particular).

And in case that wasn’t enough info about me, I am ALWAYS open to questions. I love responding to questions that people ask me on my blog! So, wanna know something? Ask!

A couple of brave souls asked me questions this week, so here ya go ;):

Goofy Girl asks, “What’s the most valuble experience you’ve had so far?”

I actually feel like I’ve been blessed with many valuable experiences. I come from a very loving and supportive family, I was educated at one of the best private high schools in the nation, and I’m currently attending one of the top 30 universities in the nation. There have been so many doors opened for me, that it’s hard to pick just one valuable experience. But hey, this is my blog, I can write about whatever I want! So I’m gonna give you the top few most valuable experiences.

A kind of broad one - every June when I was growing up my dad would have to go to a convention for work for about a week (usually the week of my birthday, June 7). This particular convention is always held in a different city, so every year Daddy would bring Mama, my brother Bo and I along with him! Though this took place over many years, I’m going to lump it together as one valuable experience. Some of the places we went include New Orleans, Washington State, Yosemite National Park, Las Vegas, San Antonio, the Grand Canyon . . . all sorts of places that I was studying in school. I really felt like school came alive for me because I’d study about a place, and then a couple months later, I’d go there! I can’t emphasize enough the value of travelling with children. There are probably a lot of things that I missed because I was younger, but the experience of feeling like what I was learning in school was important was priceless. I think that my sense of patriotism and my respect for our nation is a direct result of travelling with my family when I was young. Plus it doesn’t hurt that we almost always got along, so the trips were always a lot of fun!

While I have had very valuable and wonderful schooling in the past eight years or so, I was raised in very rural (very hick) south Georgia. I attended a very poorly financed public school until I was ten years old. There were some good things about that (like the fact that I was the most motivated, and therefore viewed as the smartest, student . . . literally, in fifth grade they gave me a plaque that said I was the smartest student in the school, how ridiculous it that . . . if you know me now, then you’ll know just how uneducated everyone else is, cause I’m not that intelligent), but I think that one of the reasons that I value the education I have had is because I know what it could have been like had I not had the opportunities that I have had. Many students who are educated in the private school system take for granted the top notch education that they receive, and they feel entitled to the opportunites and opened doors. I don’t feel like that at all. God has blessed my family in being able to provide this education for me, and I see that because I know what the other way feels like too. Are there things I am still blind to? Of course . . . I HAVE had unique opportunities, so there is an element where I don’t know what it feels like to truly struggle. But I feel like I know that there is struggle, I’ve seen it firsthand, and there’s an understanding there that a lot of people miss out on.

A very difficult experience that I’ve has changed the course of my life is the fact that both of my parents have had cancer. When I was a sophomore in high school, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy (radical on one side, simple on the other). This was devastating for our family, but not one of us regrets that it happened. We had always been close, but we are so much closer now because of all that we went through. She passed the five year mark this past fall, and is still in remission. Then, freshman year of college, my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. This was almost more terrifying than when my mom got sick, because I was at college, and I couldn’t see Daddy and hug him. It was a very difficult semester for me. He had his prostate removed that spring, and we will soon be upon his three year mark of him being in remission. A lot of people said that they felt so bad for us since both my parents have had cancer, but all four of us have said that if it had to happen to any family, we’re glad it happened to ours. God knows that we are strong in Him, and that we love each other very much, and where this might tear a family apart, He knew that we could handle it. Both my parents are in great health, and if you met them in real life, you would NEVER know that they had been sick. It’s truly a miracle.

And I can’t not mention the valuable experience that I am currently having. MagicMouth Productions is a theatre company that two of my best friends have started this year, and I feel so blessed that they have pulled me in with them. They’re still the two co-founders, but the three of us are working as a team to get this production company up and running, and to get this amazing show on the stage. We’re creating a new, innovative form of theatre . . . we’re combining theatre and “magic show” in a way that has never been done before. I’ve never felt so impassioned about a task that’s been given to me, and I know that this is going to be something truly great. I’m currently in the middle of one of the most valuable experiences of my life, and that is awesome.

If you’re still reading, I’m impressed, LOL! I’ve got one more question to answer, and this one is a little bit more light-hearted. Running2Ks asks, “What made you start blogging, and what keeps you going with it–what do you like best? Is it what you expected?”

I’ve have ALWAYS been a writer. I was entering state-wide writing competitions back in the first grade (and won)! I’ve kept a journal since I was seven, and I wrote a book in middle school (think Baby-Sitters Club - it was 160 pages). But once I got into high school and college, I began doing so much writing for school that I didn’t have a chance to do much for pleasure. In high school I began to get addicted to the computer. It started with The Sims, AOL Instant Messenger, and doing the layout for my high school newspaper (I was Editor-in-Chief). In college I found my way to an MSN Group (Sunshine Sigs), which got me turned on to graphic design. This led to me starting a website, then starting an online business, and then it’s kind of taken on a life of its own. About a year ago I somehow stumbled upon WordPress and thought that it would be neat to have a little blog to post updates to my website with. Well, once I figured out how the thing worked and got started, the writer in me got going, and it turned into the blog that it is now. I didn’t really come into blogging with any expectations - I just figured it would be fun for me to do, and if a couple of my friends read it, great! But now it’s turned into something that I truly enjoy doing, and I love the connections that I make through blogs, meeting new people, and just the community that blogging has. I feel honored that people actually read my blog, have an interest in what I have to say. I am so thrilled to have taken on the Thursday Thirteen because it’s such a cool little community. And to be honest, all this blogging has got me wanting to write again - really write. Once I graduate, I am looking forward to getting back into creative writing, possibly even writing another book, or revamping the one that I did before. So yeah, all that from blogging, haha!

Alright, I’m sure everyone’s had enough of me, so I’m gonna go now. Just some food for thought! I’d love to answer more questions or discuss more topics, so please, keep them coming!!!