Postcard Before and After #1

Postcard of Before and After in the Same T-shirt

Feel free to print this image as a postcard or 4" x 6" photo at 100% and send around the world. 
I'm working with the truth and, of course, untouched photos.
I spent my late-teens writing to penpals sending lovely colored envelopes and one-of-kind collage and watercolor postcards.
Thank you.

Post from June 19, 2014 - Aorta Pulse Hypersensitivity: The Human Metronome

Aorta Pulse Hypersensitivity:  The Human Metronome

Thin as I've ever been

under the weight of puberty

pulsing loudly in my body and mind

the sound of the universe or a heart working overtime

my hips tick-tock back and forth like I am a human metronome

weakness in the spine is where my body is disjointed

hard to keep my footing as my torso and hips move to the pulse, but without a purpose

lying in my bed I feel as if I'm in my little ship

the wake of the waking attempts to lull me into sleep

in the bath you can see the pulse through the skin like a tom-tom drum kicking from within

every high and low of the heartbeat adding a new layer to the experience of time

In 2013, a cardiologist confirmed that what was overwhelming me was a hypersensitivity to the aorta pulse.  He studied medicine in the military and said it was not uncommon in thin soldiers.  He said they used to just cut men open to see if it was a aorta aneurism or just a hypersensitivity.  They checked mine with an ultrasound.  It has taken over a year to become less sensitive to this odd rhythmic feeling.  It was complicated with the amplified sound of hyperthyroidism.  

Post from January 29, 2013 - Recuperating in the Backyard

Violet

Gerber Daisy Blooming in January

My Favorite Type of Daffodil

Daffodil in Profile

This flower had a wonderful warm scent.

Let's be truthful, when you come home with twice as many grey hairs than you had two months prior, you are forever changed and not any younger.

Post from January 4, 2013 - Christmas 2012

Me holding my nephew August on September 1.  This can be the Madonna and Child?

Anise cookies I improvised and Frenchafried.

I decorated the house with holly from the yard.

Gingerbread Cookies with Sugar on Top

The earrings are a gift from my brother.  The are from Anthropologie.

Orlan received a new jacket for Christmas.  Ado just wants to go out.

The large Christmas tree I single-handedly decorated.

A couple days after coming home, I fit my smallest bras.