leukemia

First off, this post is way overdue. Second, if I overlooked you–please, please, tell me. It was just a silly human error, everyone’s donations are amazing. Thank you all.

Karen–a fellow swimmer and triathlete. She has done a relay tri with my mother in law.

Debbie and Billy–relatives, friends.

Andrea –co-worker, quiet but always listening. Very kind.

Tracy–co-worker, lots of inside jokes. My favorite joke–I was complaining about my high-water pants. She said, oh that happens to me when I gain weight. And we’re still friends after that.

Nicki–co-worker. She likes to laugh and is always patient to answer my many, many questions.

Donna–friend. Her husband died of leukemia in December 2005. I dated her son in school for a bit, but broke up with him because I was scared of boys.

Jodie–friend. Her daughter and I goofed off a bit in high school!

Laura and David–friends. He was a student at the school Eric is at now. Fellow Texans!

Aaron and Jill–friends. Both college buddies of ours. Swing-dancing fools.

Tony–friend. Crazy beer-loving, mead-making, liberal, but he’s still a very dear friend.

Peace,

^_^

I am currently in awe. I sent out a plea for donations for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society via e-mail yesterday. In the course of 24 hours with Eric’s flyer (tntfundraising.pdf), my e-mail, and some people passing the note along–thanks Cindy! we raised $1000! Holy cow! $1000 in 24 hours!?! And I’m still getting donation notifications! Y’all’s generosity has inspired me. I will pull from your support on the days I don’t want to bike 10 more minutes or I don’t want to get out of bed to train at all. Thank you so much.

Several of the supporters I do not know–at all. To you, Thank you! I had the following post written to celebrate the completion of fundraising, but I think this deserves a celebration in and of itself, so I’ll post it early.

A lot of people donated to help us get to the goal for this tri. I thought it’d be fun to celebrate each of them and discuss how I know or don’t know them. This doesn’t include the people who’ve donated by buying beads at the St. Patty’s parade or the people that dropped in some change at the grocery store–thanks Schnucks!

Cathy-She was my first desk-job boss. She mentioned I was anal–and I vehemently denied it. In time I’ve come to embrace my anal-ness. Cathy has been a family friend for much longer than I can remember. She is an amazing hostess and a great family friend.

Sarah Beth-We went to Baylor together and also Baylor in Paris. Here’s a photo of her enjoying Nutella and flirting with French boys. Sarah Beth is always up for a great time. She also shared the information about my fundraising with her family giving me 2 more supporters–thanks!

Grace and Steve-We’ve hung out with these people on just about every Tuesday we’ve been in St. Louis. They love to encourage us and Steve is older than Adam–Eric likes to remind him. They are great hosts and we’ve enjoyed several glasses of wine and conversations over the years.

John-I have not seen John since the summer after 2nd grade. John was a co-worker of my dad’s and he lives in Alaska. I spent a few nights over playing with his daughter Jenny when we lived in Alaska too.

Helene and family-I baby-sat Helene’s kids when I was in 5th and 6th grade.  Now they are going to college! Where does the time go! We keep in touch through holiday letters.

My parents–they support my fundraising efforts and plan on cheering me on during raceday. How boring for them!

Eric’s parents–They constantly remind me they don’t want Eric back, after his broken ankle, car wreck, and leukemia. Great in-laws and friends.

Sarah and Ted–Friends from the seminary. We were a part of their family on our first holiday with out relatives-Thanksgiving 2006.

Andrew and Daisy–Friends from the seminary. Eric was walking around when they were over he bumped Daisy on the head with his laptop while she was nursing her baby. Anytime I mention it Eric just hangs his head–he’s so embarassed. Both baby and mom were fine.

Jane–My first donater this time around. She was my mentor for my last event–she’s an excellent mentor–and shared with me the joy of walking. We walk fairly regularly between events.

Andy/Andrew/Dr.–He’s my orthopaedist. He helped heal my broken arm with my first marathon and work through Runner’s Knee (Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome) I developed. I remember meeting him and not feeling well because of my pain medication. I asked him about it and he said he didn’t know what to do because he just dealt with bones. I ended up throwing up in the examining room trashcan.

Emilia–A co-worker. Lots of fun and always stylish.

Rosemary–A co-worker. Great doodler-you should see her gallery. We both have ADHD spouses.

Carrie and Francis–Aunt and uncle. They are lots of fun–I hooked them up by catching the bouquet at another relative’s wedding and giving it to Carrie.

Carol and T–Family. Lots of fun. We go on vacation to their house and veg. They think we are nuts but it is awesome.

Kenna–college roommate. She’s getting married soon and I get to stand up to support her. And see her–it has been a while.

Peggy–Family. Has a daughter my age. Is the most energetic lady I know!

Kim–a co-worker. She brings me things to work on with a smile!

Zara–a co-worker. She hasn’t been around long. She never gets tired of “shadowing me” and figuring out this company. She’s very enthusiastic!

Tri training is going well. I was half-way to spin Monday night when I was called and told it was cancelled. Seems like a bit of wintery mix shuts down just about everything in St. Louis. It was nice to go home and sit on the couch with Eric. We’ve both been super-busy lately. He’s finishing his quarter this week and I am “tri-ing” to get in shape! So we enjoyed some wine and we chatted and read side-by-side. Shouldn’t every evening be like that?

Yesterday morning, I put on my swimsuit and bundled up. I scraped a bit of ice off my windshield and was feeling very proud of myself for actually going to the Y. As I pulled out of our complex a guy was running down the street–in 24 degree weather! I was thinking since I HATE treadmills and a run is on the docket for Wednesday, I guess that’ll be me too.

So I got to the Y and managed to convince myself that I’d left my cap and goggles at home. Then, I found them in an obscure pocket in my gym bag. Why do things have so many pockets? It is rough at 6 in the morning. I swam for about 30 minutes. I am not a natural swimmer. In fact, we haven’t gotten to the part about how to breathe or use our arms yet, so I improvised a bit. I mostly worked on several technique drills–keeping myself horizontal on the water and steam-lined. I only swallowed water a few times–so I must be improving! As I was swimming, I realized the race was in a lake. I wish the race was in a pool with plenty of room between swimmers and a clearly marked line down the center of the bottom. It’d sure make things easier. I am interested to see what it is like to swim in a lake. I’ve never done much more than splash around in a lake, so it’ll be a very new experience.

Tuesday night I breifly considered doing some biking, but quickly decided nope. I did set out all of my running gear.

This morning I set my alarm for 5am. It went off and I snoozed, then re-set it for 6am. I got up put on my gear and went out the door. My shoe snow chain thingies are awesome! I didn’t slip once. Fifty minutes later I was back home and the warm air in our apartment was burning my lungs. Eric took these photos.

I wear the bib so cars see me. It has lots of reflective tape on it–sexy, no?

I asked him what the temperature was. It was the coldest I’d ever run in. Watching the sky light up as the sun rose was beautiful though.

He said it was 11 with a windchill of 0. I’m officially crazy. The funny thing is, if I had to choose between a treadmill and cold weather, I’d choose the cold weather. I think I like running outside because there is a change of scenery. Also, I do better at judging my progress by eye-balling trees and promising myself I’ll take a breather when I get there–I usually don’t but knowing I can makes me feel better!

My donations are coming in steadily, but I’ll need more to meet my goal!

Peace,
^-^