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	<title>Cynthia Hawkins</title>
	<link>https://cynthiahawkins.net/blog1</link>
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	<lastBuildDate>Tue, 11 Oct 2016 15:23:07 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Here Lie the Broken Bones of Cynthia Hawkins</title>
		<description><![CDATA[One a.m. in the neurology wing of Methodist Hospital. &#160; &#160; Subtle rushes of air layer in the room, in the hallways, with the quiet humming of the lights, the machines for recording vitals, the helicopter whirs beyond the white window screen barely disguising the rooflines. The second longest time I’ve stayed in a hospital.  The first longest — the mastectomy and the reconstruction.  Two years ago now?  Three? I’ll tell you a not-so-secret.  I have a cousin, Jenny.  Here we are, pre-drama, with my mom fresh from the prairie. &#160; &#160; Sweet and button-nosed as a child, everything about Jenny, was always lovable, from the way her whole kid body scrunched around her smile to the way she braided you friendship barrettes with&#8230;]]></description>
		<link>https://cynthiahawkins.net/blog1/2016/10/11/here-lie-the-broken-bones-of-cynthia-hawkins/</link>
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		<title>Benefit Concert</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is my musician friend George Gaytan. I first met George about eight years ago when my daughter Hannah started taking guitar lessons from George.  Though her interests migrated to dance instead, George has remained my pal. He showed up with his guitar to play for me while I was recovering from a double mastectomy and tripped on my IV.  I told him he was like the guitarist in Airplane. We share a sense of humor, a love of old Hollywood, Westerns, and The Beatles.  He played a lot of Beatles tunes for me, in fact, for every chemo session I had during the last round, to the delight of not just me but every patient in the chemo lounge. So you get that&#8230;]]></description>
		<link>https://cynthiahawkins.net/blog1/2016/09/01/benefit-concert/</link>
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		<title>The Unfinished Picnic Table</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Videos: Part I:Part II:Part III:Finished: Further Instructions: Industrial Coffee Table I used a traditional yellow pine picnic table that had been sitting in the back yard.  I simply took the top off of the supports, cleaned and lightly sanded the surface so some of the old paint layers were still there.  I checked with the manufacturer to ensure that this is untreated wood.  Treated wood would have arsenic in it and would not be environmentally safe furniture for indoors, let alone to eat on.  I gave it a final clean-off with Simple Green to cut through any remaining layers of grime from being stored outdoors so long. My goal was to create a rustic “barn-wood” appearance out of the planks, so I lightly&#8230;]]></description>
		<link>https://cynthiahawkins.net/blog1/2016/08/06/the-unfinished-picnic-table/</link>
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		<title>The Patchwork Ottoman</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Instructions for Ottoman Cover measure the width and length of the top of the ottoman piece together enough remnant fabric to match that measurement plus 2&#8243; added to both width and length for seam allowance &#8212; remember, in fact, to account for at least an inch seam for the fabric you&#8217;re piecing together as well sew your pieced-together fabric with the right sides of materials together measure the end your ottoman, then the side &#8212; height and width for the ends and sides I over-shot the length by a good deal so I had some leeway when it came to staple-gunning the fabric in place on the underside &#8212; at least leave 5&#8243; plus that 2&#8243; seam allowance for where you will sew it&#8230;]]></description>
		<link>https://cynthiahawkins.net/blog1/2016/07/19/the-patchwork-ottoman/</link>
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		<title>Close Shave</title>
		<description><![CDATA[]]></description>
		<link>https://cynthiahawkins.net/blog1/2016/07/08/close-shave/</link>
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		<title>My Awesome Family</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My first week of radiation treatment for brain metastasis, my sisters did something incredible, wondrous, moving, amazing for me, and then so many incredible, wondrous, moving, amazing people have followed suit.  They started a Go Fund Me:  Cynthia&#8217;s Battle With Cancer.  Our little family is astounded by this amazing outpouring of support.  Endless thanks to everyone!]]></description>
		<link>https://cynthiahawkins.net/blog1/2016/06/23/my-awesome-family/</link>
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		<title>Hand Crafted</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My late Grandpa Cole once stood with me in his study, straightening the glasses on his nose in the pause, and told me my Uncle Dickie had taught him something important about art. Art can’t be limited by what you think it should be, he said. It has to have room to breathe, to take shape, to be what it wants to be. That was the lesson. Our semester at UTSA begins in just two weeks, and I’m all set to roll out the Creative Writing Program&#8217;s brand new core course: Introduction to the Creative Literary Arts.  One component of the class is exploring creativity itself, what it is, what sparks it, how it arches across the arts, what artists add to the community.&#8230;]]></description>
		<link>https://cynthiahawkins.net/blog1/2015/08/05/hand-crafted/</link>
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		<title>You Can Leave Your Hat On</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Oh the lure of the skating rink!  Firecracker had her birthday party here last weekend. Magenta-colored lights reflecting off the worn wax of the wooden floor, the steady, heavy whir of wheels, everything from Skrillex’s “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” to the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Apache” reverberating off the cement-block walls with green diagonal stripes directing one’s eye to the spinning disco balls. For the six years I’d lived in San Antonio as a kid before moving back as an adult, this place was my hang out for every school function and birthday party, as I informed just about everyone within arm’s-length at Firecracker’s own party: “And it looks exactly the same! I mean the carpet and everything!” I’d sent Hannah, fourteen, off with&#8230;]]></description>
		<link>https://cynthiahawkins.net/blog1/2015/07/27/you-can-leave-your-hat-on/</link>
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		<title>Unicorn Magic, Update</title>
		<description><![CDATA[You may remember my new friends in Thailand from the rescue shelter who drew unicorns to cheer me up.  Their packet of drawings finally arrived in person yesterday, and they couldn&#8217;t have come at a better time.  Yesterday, that second day after chemo infusion, was a bummer day.  There&#8217;s something about this particular chemo that, for just a few days after each treatment, messes with my zen thing.  I moved through the day on the verge of sobbing for no good reason, and when something that seemed like it could possibly, maybe suffice as a good reason materialized, I put %110 effort into bemoaning it: I&#8217;m dropping off my kid at Vacation Bible School and all the other moms look normal while I&#8217;m wearing&#8230;]]></description>
		<link>https://cynthiahawkins.net/blog1/2015/06/17/unicorn-magic-update/</link>
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		<title>Soaring</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The first thing I thought about when told I’d have to go through chemo once more was the family vacation we’d already planned for the girls. I didn’t want to be the reason, yet again, that Hannah and Firecracker didn’t get to do something fun. And boy did they deserve something fun. In the past two years, I’ve often had to say “no” to play dates, sleepovers, trips to the mall, being a part of school functions, and most definitely going on vacations due to the toll of being on treatment. And just when we’d thought everything was over but the very last of the post-mastectomy revision surgeries, we’d planned to go to Florida. The girls were elated. Firecracker even wrote about it in&#8230;]]></description>
		<link>https://cynthiahawkins.net/blog1/2015/06/15/soaring/</link>
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