I had hands down the time of my life last night. It seems crazy because I already had an awesome life-changing experience on Sunday and on Monday afternoon—read more about my topless shenanigans here.

​I saw through my Instagram lifeline (seriously, if you have breast cancer or support someone who does and you are NOT on Instagram you need to close this blog RIGHT NOW and sign up for Instagram and start by following me @thetimebetweenis and I will hook you up but good!). If you are on Instagram and need a friend, follow me, too.

Ok, are you back now? Thanks for connecting:).

So, I saw on Instagram that there was a BREASTIE event in my city (of New York) through an amazing woman’s Instagram page Paige_Previvor (follow her, too, like NOW, please). What is a “breastie” event—it is indescribable. It is finding your tribe, it is finding people who get you across age, across background, across everything.

I attended last night, at 7 p.m. (almost my bed time, yeah I am a wild woman like that), and it changed my life. Honestly. I now have 35+ new best friends (hi breasties!) and I love them all.

It was held at The Little Beet and it was FREE. I had gotten my ticket and then canceled my attendance because hello, I am unemployed right now and broke and Paige reached out to me to say “Why did you cancel?” and I told her (no shame in my game), “I am broke right now, I do not think I can afford the event,” and she said, “COME—all of my events are FREE!” and I was like, wow, ok, I can afford free.

My only investment was my red dress that was $15 from Amazon.com because I was not going to my first Galentines event without wearing red and nothing I own fits me because I have to be a skinny bitch to continue to survive (more on that in a future post).

I tend to appear to others as a very extroverted person but in reality I am a mix of extrovert and introvert. Going to a dinner without knowing anyone in real life has in the past been a challenge for me. I assumed I would be older than most of the attendees and I just did not know if I would feel that I fit in. I often do not fit in - I tend to be too much extroverted or too much introverted in social situations and occasionally make faux pas that would make you cringe and cry for me … Hey, it happens.

I walked in last night with low expectations because that is how I roll. I would like to go back in time and bitch slap myself. I had one of the best nights of my life full stop. It was amazing, welcoming and warm. I did not notice too much that some of the girls were young enough to be born by me (hey, I am turning 42 this year) and were stunning like models and should be on the cover of Vogue because all I noticed was how much we were holding each other up and supporting each other and just overall being awesome.

I have so many photos to share and I just want to say that having the opportunity to meet these women and share my story with them (because a bunch of us got the chance to stand up and talk about “whatever we wanted” and I just spoke from my heart and felt so much love for it that I am punch drunk still today from it) and to make what I think will be true in real life friendships. If you are in the New York area or wherever these events are held in other cities, I urge you to leave your social anxiety and fears to the side and come on out, be embraced, be loved, be fondled (maybe) and let your inner goddess flag fly. You are beautiful, you are whole and any decision you have made about your health, your body, your life is the right true one (thanks Ally).

FanGirl Alert
I met so many amazing women last night, but I want to take a moment to also spotlight someone who is a personal hero to me, the founder of AnaOno, Dana—please check out the work she does for the breast cancer community and the metatastic community she is amazing and I was so blessed to meet her and spend time with her. find out more about what she does for breast cancer patients of all stages for undergarments, bathing suits, and more here. If you know someone who needs a mastectomy, preventive or otherwise, and you want to help support them, buy them this. I had just written about how hard it was for me to miss the AnaOno fashion show as so many of my inspirational women that I follow and learn from and then boom, Dana was at this event and I got to meet her anyway!

I could write books about all of the women I met and fell in love with—so fitting it was Galentine’s Day. Paige, her mom, Ally, Dana, Tish, and MORE... See the photos at my blog for more spotlights.
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Also, important to note is that for these events, everyone is included—previvors, survivors, BRCA positive, BRCA negative, breast cancer, no breast cancer, cancer, no cancer … Well, you get the idea.