Running a race is very much a metaphor for life and all of its milestones. The ones you plan on and especially the ones you don't.
You spend a lot of time working up to something. You get nervous before the big day. You face your fears, you hope you "studied" enough and that all the work and hours you've put in were enough, and finally, the big day comes. The day you've been training for. Whatever that is. And that's when you see what you're made of. And it almost always surprises you.
Because you do so much more than what you thought! Every time.
Every day of our lives, we're in training for something. Getting a promotion. Having a family. Getting married. Every day's experience contributes to whatever milestone lies ahead. And sometimes milestones in our lives happen whether we plan for them or not and they're not always the happy kinds of milestones.
Like finding out you have cancer. Like one of my dear friends, Rose, a former co-worker and former roomate.
We were producers and our company was closing our bureaus. Mine in Tampa, hers in Chicago. They gave us the option to move to the New York headquarters. We jumped at it and decided we'd get an apartment together and take on the big bad city like two Mary Tyler Moores, hats and all. We shared all of the ups and downs that came with moving to an unknown place and working together and sometimes competing, but we stayed friends. We both moved back to our hometowns and got married and started families.
In 2007, she found out she had a tumor. She was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. She battled the cancer in the way I knew she would, boldly and with reckless abandon. She went through chemotherapy. She went through radiation. She lost all of her hair. Her four-year-old noticed her new "haircut" and told her he liked it. She's a fighter and today she's cancer-free. She tells her story so much better than me, go meet my friend Rose and watch her story, she was on FOX News channel.
Why am I telling you this?
Because I am running for her this June in San Diego at the Rock and Roll Half-Marathon that benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I am running with my favorite virtual sisters in the world, The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans as part of the Team In Training program. And I am running for Rose and for all who battle cancer.
The fun part is that right here, I vow to do some crazy to raise some money. Because I have to raise almost $3,000 and I am at the very very beginning and time is ticking. I'm starting to panic!
Won't you consider going over to my page right here and donating? In the next two weeks, I will let YOU vote for what CRAZY I will do IF AND WHEN I reach my fundraising goal! Yes! You decide! You decide just how silly I will be. And there is not much that I won't do in the name of fundraising for causes I believe in! (Just so you know!)
Some of you have already made suggestions that will go on the list. They are:
-dye my hair purple for the race
-get a (temporary) tattoo. Some of the girls on the team have talked about getting actual tattoos. I think I know how my husband feels about this one, but I love me tattoos (I have two.)
-get a mohawk. Unfortunately, I won't cut my hair to do this, but I might be willing to make a faux-hawk out of the existing hairs.
-eat mushrooms. *gag* I hate mushrooms with everything inside me. But someone my mother in law suggested this one, I really thought she liked me! and so here it is on the list.
I will blog and vlog and tweet about what I do so you will see it all for yourselves if you care to.
In the meantime, suggest away here in the comments below! And please help me reach my fundraising goal! Again, my fundraising page is here! I will open up voting 2 weeks from today!
Love and hugs!
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Tuesday
Mile by Mile, Step by Step; Some Crazy for Some Good
Monday
Speaking of Cocktail Napkins...
If cocktail napkins could talk, they might thank the millions of people who have spared their little tiny lives from drowning in a sea of cocktail sweat by writing their phone numbers down on them.
But sadly, in recent years, the population of tiny cocktail napkins has become distressed. Because it's being neglected. The one reprieve that the cocktail napkin once had is gone because the cell phone has taken its place! People don't need cockail napkins for a vehicle of a number exchange. Instead, the number bypasses the napkin and goes straight to the phone!
The cocktail napkin is sad.
The cocktail napkin is afraid.
It no longer has that glimmer of hope of escaping into a back pocket or a purse. Now it just waits. Waits for your glass of water, your frothy beer, and then it will take its place under your glass and then as a wet, wrinkled up mess, take its final trip into the garbage.
Think about this as the cocktail napkin drowns underneath your cocktail, beer, or water while you're sipping away happily.
Friday
It Started Out With Panic Over a Cocktail Napkin
We broke up. Our lives went on. We moved to separate ends of the earth. But he always stayed with me, somehow. Somewhere.
Sometimes when I hear him on the other end of the phone I close my eyes and remember how desperate I once felt listening to his voice and wishing he were closer.
Then I remember that he is now. And has been for the past 5 years.
We look like this now:
All I have to do is look at my children. That's the best anniversary present ever.
Happy Anniversary, honey. You're still my favorite.
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Wednesday
Weigh-In Wednesday: No Whammy No Whammy No Whammy...
I woke up with a migraine and my child as the devil incarnate.
And then the scale said I gained a pound.
(No whammy no whammy no whammy no whammy...)
Triple whammy!!
So right about now is that place called "Moment of Truth." The one where I would like to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over my head.
And evade the gym.
And stop counting my points.
But do I ? No. No I don't.
Because there are perfectly good explanations for what happened this morning. First (and because Weight Watchers told me when it noticed I gained a pound this week), weight-loss doesn't always happen on my time. Which kind of stinks, because, you know, we have this weigh-in on Wednesdays and all, and I'd really like the scale to reflect all my hard work in time for it thankyouverymuch. But this week it didn't. Even though, since last Wednesday, I have run 7 miles, done a Body Pump class, spin class, and swam twice. Obviously the exercise isn't a factor since there was exercise on 6 of the past 7 days. Training for Team Shrinking Jeans and the half-marathon in San Diego and my triathlon in April has officially begun! For the next three to six months, I will be working my tail off. No question about that. It's game on!
As far as eating goes, I am pretty sure I stayed within my points, but I went to a church retreat with my mom over the weekend and they fed us their own stuff and it was either eat that or starve. I am pretty sure I was able to count the points and even if I didn't, I earned 27 activity points and hadn't even touched them, so I would hope that even if I counted wrong, I had extra to spare.. but who knows? (I did ask God to help me count the points...) But who knows if I counted an egg souffle right? And well then, nature happened upon me yesterday... (you're welcome.) So it could be all of those reasons, or one of those reasons or none of those reasons and who knows, I could see a drop in the scale by tomorrow. We'll see.
So for today, my migraine medication is working. My kids are eating breakfast, which is defeating the hungermonster which is in turn restoring them (especially the one that was a complete lunatic 5 minutes ago) to their normal, even-keeled selves. And I'm going to move on. Because this is already turning out to be a better day, even if the first 20 minutes of it really stunk. And how can it not be a great day? I'm celebrating 5 years with my husband on Friday! And we're going away for the weekend! Woohoo! (That should be interesting for my points situation!!)
Chim chimney chim chimney chim chim cherooooooooooooooooooo!
Wow, it's the end of this post and things are already looking up! So if you've have had a rough go today like me, I promise it'll get better! Just keep on keepin on, cause we're in it together. And if you had a kickass day already, hurrah for you!!
So have a nice day! And get thee to a runnery!
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Thursday
The Great Clock Experiment Part II
It's working!! My gosh it's working!!
Earlier this week, a grumpy zombie "me" went out to buy an alarm clock with fun ambient sounds so my 3 year old would know when to get out of bed, instead of waking the whole house up at 4 a.m.
Since he's been waking up at 4 and 5 a.m., I set the "rainforest" to come on at 6:30, so that if he was up and he was playing in his room, it wouldn't completely feel like forever. He came out at 6:31 proclaiming, "I heard the music! I heard the music!" Now, I have no idea if he actually got up at 6:30 or if he was playing in his room for a while, but the point is, he stayed in there!
Victory!!
The second day, we set it to 6:45 (15 extra minutes of sleep, whooo-eeee!!) He came in at 6:46 proclaiming, "I heard the music! I heard the music!"
The third day, we set it to 6:45 again. This time the music actually woke him up! And he was mad about it! "Mommy, can you buy a longer clock? Because the sun's not up yet and it woke me up." HURRAH!
So we're going to try 7 a.m. tomorrow. That's like the holy grail. Oh if "past-me" could just see me now. If "present me" could go back and tell "past-me" that I actually wake up before 7 every morning, "past-me" would never believe me.
But here is the biggest benefit of said alarm clock experiment. He didn't really know what time it was before, so now he has this little bit of empowerment. He now has the knowledge that if he wakes up at 4 a.m. and the "sounds" aren't on, it's not time. Which means he doesn't get out of bed, come into our room, interact with a grumpy one of us who marches him back to his room and tells him to wait for this unknown amount of time. And he doesn't get frustrated thinking time is up when it really isn't (5 minutes later) and do this every 15 minutes until 7.
In fact, when he wakes up, he's so excited he waited until the music came on and feels like he accomplished something! And in return, everyone is actually happy to see each other in the morning! There are no hard feelings, no one's frustrated, it's like the rainbows are shining and the birds are chirping!
Why didn't I do this before?
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