Small world

[cue the annoying music]

I grew up in Strongsville, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland that is roughly 700 miles from where I live now. I lived in the same house the entire time I grew up; my parents actually paid off a 30-year mortgage. Although located on the edge of a major metropolitan city, Strongsville is still rather small, with only 44,000 residents. Living way down here in Green Acres, I don't usually encounter people from good ol' Strongsville.

When my high school class had their XXth reunion two years ago, I did not attend but bought a copy of the program. As I flipped through it, I noticed that one address was in the same town as I live in. How odd! I looked at the name of the person, and it looked vaguely familiar. Conversations with my mother and my friend Jane helped me to remember that Mike attended school with me from elementary school on through high school, and that his family actually lived in our same neighborhood.

Fast forward to now: I decided to run for the open seat on Aidan's school advisory council and I had to submit a short bio. When the bios were distributed, I saw that the woman running against me for the seat had the same last name as my former classmate. Her bio also mentioned that they were originally from Ohio, so I thought it couldn't be a coincidence.

When I arrived at the school on Thursday evening for the PTO meeting, I asked the election proctors if they knew Lynn and one of them pointed her out to me. I went over and introduced myself, and after we exchanged pleasantries about running against each other, I told her that I thought I went to high school with her husband. She confirmed that his name is Mike and that he did graduate from Strongsville High School in 19XX. She also said that he would be arriving later so we could meet again after all these years.

Lynn does a lot of work at the school and I soon realized that she knows a lot of people. We had a good time chatting and she introduced me to many people, each time telling them our "small world" story. Shortly before the meeting began, Mike arrived. I could see in his face the boy I know many years ago and he is actually funnier and friendlier than I remember.

It was good to connect with someone from my past. And, for the record, I lost the election.

The bracelet that anxiety bought

I indulged in a bit of retail therapy this morning. But first, the background story...

WARNING: some semi-icky medical stuff is about to be discussed.

On Monday I had my annual exam, that yearly bit of poking, squishing and general discomfort. This year I had a concern about a small, hard knot (never ever say lump) that was located just below my right breast. I wasn't overly worried because it appeared to have a head on it and I suspected that it was a sebaceous cyst, but because of its location and general overall paranoia, it still had me worried. Coral, the fabulous P.A. that I see, confirmed that it was a sebaceous cyst and she could easily take care of it.

Side note: Coral also congratulated me on the 14 pounds that I have lost over the past year, then in the next breath lectured me about my lack of exercise. Sheesh, can't we just be happy about the weight loss?

So, anyway, the nurse got the area all nice and numb, and Coral set to work to open and drain the cyst. She was able to get some fluid out but then said that she couldn't get it all out, that it didn't look right and that I needed to have it looked at further. She strongly emphasized that it still might be a sebaceous cyst but that a dermatologist needed to examine it and remove it, possibly to have it biopsied. I really don't think "biopsy" can be correctly made into a verb, but I just did. Get over it.

This morning was my appointment with the dermatologist. I had scheduled it for about 55 minutes after my tutoring session ended and since the medical office is located about a mile farther than the elementary school, I had a few minutes to kill. I went into a gift shop located in a shopping center across the street from the area hospital, in hopes that I could find Mother's Day cards.

I did not find Mother's Day cards. Instead, I found a fabulous selection of Brighton accessories. While not a Brighton fan per se, I think that many of their items are very pretty. Although I tried to tell myself that I was not nervous about the appointment, I was nervous...insanely nervous. Long story short, I bought a cool little bangle bracelet and wore it out of the store. It's called the Swinging 60s bangle, which I think is a hoot.
As I told the very fun store sales associate, the only swinging I did in the 60s was actual swinging on a swing.

So I went into my appointment wearing my cute little new bangle bracelet. And the doc took a look, poked a bit and declared that it was a sebaceous cyst - albeit a very firm one- and he would get it out in a jiffy. Repeat of the numbing and lancing, and tada, it is all over. Hooray! What a relief.

So, thankfully, sometimes a lump is just a sebaceous cyst. And ironically, my new bauble cost less than the seven gallons of gasoline that I put into my car on the way home!