March 1

It all started March 1. I had a friend visiting from Boston, and her friend from Nijmegen came to Amsterdam for a night out. We had dinner at a Surinamese restaurant in the Pijp and then took the ferry over to the NSDM-Werf to Ms. Stubnitz, a real whaling vessel that houses a 3-floor dance club for half the year. We stayed up 'til 3pm, squeezed 6 into a tiny car to get back to my flat. When I woke up the next morning, I noticed IT.

A lump. A bump. A swelling. Actually, it seemed huge. Impossible that I wouldn't have noticed it the night before. I had been wearing a low-cut bodice shirt, one of my favorites. I could almost cup my hand around it. It poked through my chest, slightly to the left of my sternum above my left breast, forming an irregular triangle with my other breasts. Being admittedly somewhat flat-chested, it was like I suddenly had a third boob.

It wasn't painful, and I had no symptoms of any illness. It was just a curiosity. "How strange", I thought. I considered telling my friends, asleep in the living room, but then decided against it. We were having so much fun. If it was still there on Monday, I'd go see a doctor.