Category — Physical

This October, I’m flying to Tampa to do something I’ve always wanted to do.

I will walk 60 miles in three days to fight breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death for all women, and the leading cause of death in women between the ages of 40 and 55. Both its cause and the means for its cure remain undiscovered. Currently, one million women in the U.S. have the disease and probably won’t know about their potentially fatal illness for another five to eight years. Breast cancer has challenged 2 million survivors in the U.S. Increased awareness means more survivors.

I’m taking on this challenge to do something big that will help raise awareness and help in finding a cure. I want to make a personal difference in the fight against breast cancer. I want to help raise millions of dollars for breast cancer research and patient support programs.

My personal challenge starts today. Over the next five months, I’ll be spending many, many, many hours in training. By the time the walk starts on October 19th, I will have logged enough miles to take me from Chicago to California. I’ll track all of my training and progress here so that you can share this with me.

There will be times when I won’t feel like training. Or my back will hurt. Or I’ll just be too tired. Then I’ll think of all the people that I love who have been affected by breast cancer. I walk for them. I walk for our friends, sisters, mothers, grandmothers, aunts and cousins. And I walk for our daughters, so that their daughters won’t have to walk for their grandmothers.

As a condition of participation, I’m committed to raising at least $2,200. So, yeah, this is a plea for your emotional and financial support. A dollar for every mile that I’ll be covering (one way or the other) would be wonderful, but I’m grateful for whatever contribution you would like to make.

My personal fundraising goal is $5,000. If you help me reach this goal, I’ll dye my hair hot pink for the walk. That’s right.

.: From this                                       .: To this

And if you’re my dad? Match the donations I’ve raised, and I won’t dye my hair hot pink for the walk.

.:

This is so much more than ‘just a walk.’ It’s a way for me to make a difference, for all of us to make a difference, to raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund.

Join me in taking this journey.

In August of 2003, I started taking classes to earn a BS in Marketing. Since then, I’ve been a full-time student with a full-time career. It was a challenge in the beginning for sure, but once Mark and I got married last July, it went from ‘challenging’ to absolutely freakin’ nuts. For some reason, I thought it would be easier. You know, blahblah two-standing-as-one blah blahblah. Stupid me, I didn’t know how much of a job full-time wife was. Anyway, my last term will start June 4th and end August 3rd. In that eight weeks, I’ll complete my last three classes. Then I’ll sleep until August 7th, at least.

After that, I plan on being footloose and fancy-free, and working on this list: (Friday) Fifteen Things to do After the Completion of a Degree.

.: Sleep, glorious sleep. Lots of it.

.: Cook something for dinner, real food that doesn’t come out of a box and get mixed with milk, butter and powdered cheese. Or for that matter, real food that doesn’t come out of the freezer onto a cookie sheet. Also, eat dinner before 9:45 p.m. Hopefully, before 7:45 p.m.

.: Finish all of the unfinished projects around the house. Some things? Started last year when we moved in. Still unfinished. Shameful, I tell you. Maybe next Friday I’ll focus on fifteen half-started home projects. Here’s a preview:

.: Stain and re-hang the handrail going up the stairs
.: Re-do to upstairs bathroom
.: Paint and finish the upstairs hallway
.: Hang the new tracklighting over the fireplace

.: Read. A lot. This and this and this and this and thisandthisandthis. Oh, and this.

.: Get some use out of the gym membership and kick-ass running shoes purchased in February of this year. It’s surprisingly hard to stay motivated to workout alone after 16 hours out of the house at work and school.

.: Reacquaint myself with my bead collection, and turn out some necklaces and bracelets.

.: Spend time with all of the friends I’ve neglected over the past semesters. I have some great friends who have been so patient with me since I’ve gone back to school, and I miss them.

.: Do something with the 10 ft. x 15 ft. patio wasting away out the back door. My goal is to buy some plants and plant-stands, giant pots and planters, and a bench or table and chairs so we can extend our living space out the back of the house. I’m going to need some help with this one… I’m green-challenged.

.: Teach myself more about web design and development. There’s so much I want to know, it’s overwhelming. I want to know about HTML, CSS, XML, Java, all of it…

.: Me Time. I totally earned it.

p.s. I know this list has only 10 items on it, but if you count the sub-lists, there are 21-ish. Work with me, people. I’m sleepy.