TWTW - Q6

Friday MFD called after work and asked if I wanted to pack food for recovery houses at Caring for Friends. He's been putting in a lot of hours daily in volunteer service over there and I've been meaning to get over so I said sure. It's less than five minutes from our house so I hopped right over. I should have known it would be a MFD special in which I agree to do something and it takes three times longer than I assume it will. LOL and any of you who have been on one of MFD's three hour tours, you're probably LOLing also. It was fine though, we packed food to 80s tunes for over 350 people for five hours with an extra pair of hands helping the last hour. I hobbled my ass home at about 11, drank a shit ton of water and fell asleep around 1. Anyone interested in helping, Caring For Friends needs volunteers daily to pack and get food out to people it regularly serves as well as the influx of food and need due to Covid-19, shifts are 9:30 and 1:30 I think. Friday night is recovery house packing. Drivers needed to drop off food to home-bound people. 

Saturday My 43 year old body was feeling the effects of standing on a warehouse concrete floor for five hours in totally un-supportive athleisure shoes. I was up early then back to sleep for a little. I continued old person activities with sorting my vitamins for the week. Seriously though Saturday is the best day I've had in a long time. I did a few loads of laundry, hung some out, and spent the majority of the afternoon in the sun with the dogs alone at the house. I didn't worry about a bunch of shit I can't control or argue with (too many) people on the internet or try to do too many things and  It was glorious. I even saw a cardinal, which I never ever see. MFD came home and grilled burgers. I made fries in the air fryer with almost expiring potatoes and played 80s movie trivia with the fabulous Pola Frost on facebook live. 

Sunday Gray and rainy. I kicked the day off with sour cream based lemon blueberry muffins. We had an all household member clean event in which Vincent and I worked on the top floor and MFD the basement and everyone pieces of the main floor. I read and snacked after that and rounded out the weekend with Frank's facebook live concert to raise money for Food4Staff which was great. I had my phone propped up as I was doing the dishes and felt like crying a little because it's so nice the way people have come together virtually but it doesn't replace seeing and hugging people. I was up late watching some MFD special show in which there are battles and kingdoms and shit like that. 

I meant to do this post this morning but got busy working early. Also quarantine posting schedule. How was your weekend? 

Thursday Thoughts - should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind

1. Yesterday I started to feel weird right before 2 pm and I realized it was because I had not eaten any holiday treats. I cut myself off cold turkey from Christmas cookies and felt the pain. Yikes and a fucking half.

2. I have no idea which end is up this week. I can't get my schedule in order either. Just keep swimming just keep swimming. I do know my hair appointment is on tonight's schedule and thank God.

3. If anyone near Lower Bucks County is looking for volunteer opportunities in the new year, please consider the organization MFD volunteers with, Advocates for Homeless and Those in Need. They are in need of volunteers period, but definitely in need of anyone who can work an overnight shift on Code Blue nights - see MFD's Christmas video here. The next volunteer training is January 4 at 7 pm in Fallsington. Sign up here to volunteer.

4. I've been thinking about what I want out of 2018. I love the symbolic clean slate the new year represents, although we know logically that every morning is a clean slate. 

5. I will of course be attending the Women's March on Saturday, January 20, the anniversary weekend of last year's March, which I attended in D.C. I'm going in Philly this year. The official Women's March crew is gathering on January 21 in Las Vegas to launch the collective 2018 Women's March agenda: Power to the Polls (remaining info in this point is from the Women's March website). Why Nevada: Nevada has recent experience with some of the most pressing issues facing women in our nation today, from gun violence to politicians accused of sexual assault. As a swing-state that will shape the Senate in 2018 and as home to a strong activist network, Nevada is the perfect place to commemorate the Women’s March and continue building our electoral power. If you can't make it to Nevada: Women’s March Chapters are organizing exciting state-specific anniversary events, from marches to legislative actions to community events to voter registration drives. Check in with your local Women’s March Chapter to learn about their anniversary plans. What will come next: This anniversary event in Las Vegas will kick-off a national voter registration and mobilization tour targeting swing states to register new voters, engage impacted communities, harness our collective energy to advocate for policies and candidates that reflect our values and collaborate with our partners to elect more women and progressives candidates to office. 

6. I'd always like my plans to be this though.

7. I was lacking a silver nail polish (Essie No Place Like Chrome) so I used an Ulta gift card to get one. Ho ho ho. In case you didn't know, I lay a large part of the success of my weekly self-manicures at the feet of Orly Bonder. I've been using it for many years. 

8. Should we talk about how brutally cold it is or nah? Too early in the winter for that? I actually like winter, I like all the seasons...but my like is temperature conditional. Temps in the teens? Go fuck yourself, winter. Me on the train platform every morning: 

9. Reminder:

10. Ecard of the week:

Last Thursday Thoughts of 2017. TTFN. Are you working this week? 

Sharing Stories - Why I Relay

I lost my source for this - I think it's Relay Canada's. 

Last Wednesday was the final full meeting before Relay For Life. I've been a team captain many times over, served on a Relay For Life committee for a few years, participated in three different Relays, and hell I even chaired a Relay for a few years. The basics of Relay don't change, even when you change locations. I skip a lot of monthly meetings in lieu of reading the minutes and stalking Relay on Facebook. 

The very last thing I felt like doing was leaving my house to attend a volunteer meeting that would start 15 minutes late and where things I've heard and said myself hundreds of times would be repeated. But I went. I wanted the map of the event and I wanted a Wawa hoagie on the way back. As forecasted, the meeting started 20 minutes late. I was annoyed, hungry, wishing I was at home...then three ladies stepped up to talk about why they Relay. Sharing why you Relay is a big part of Relay For Life.

Via

I sat and listened to a woman who had to stop and collect herself while talking about losing her Dad to cancer. She just wants everyone to be able to spend Father's Day with their dads. Next, a woman who was so full of fire after beating cancer that she could barely get the words out. 

I am a person who tears up at things like this. I always have been and I always will be. I teared up for those people and their stories, but also for my people and their stories. 

With her mention of Father's Day I teared up thinking about Laura's dad not being here on Father's Day for what will always be too many years in a row when we seem too young for that. I thought about how many family members are no longer with MFD and his cousins who are missing parents far too young. 

I thought about my Grandmom, an 80 year old woman certain she was going to beat pancreatic cancer, but also of how vulnerable, tired, and afraid she seemed when she thought you weren't paying attention. An image of my hand in hers flashed in my brain. I thought about looking down while I was holding her hand every day for the week she was unresponsive in hospice. How familiar a sight it was to me, that hand, how I had held it as a child, a teenager, a young adult. How she liked to hold hands and would rub yours with her thumb. How weird it felt to hold it now. How similar our hands were. How I wish she died circle of life style without the terrible pain that came along with the cancer but how that cancer is what made us much closer over her last year than we would've been otherwise. 

I thought about all the people who have lost loved ones to cancer over the years I've been doing this. Far too many people for me to name here, that's for sure. Not to mention those who got it, beat it, are still battling it - my father in law, Mrs. S, my Gwen, Lisa...again, far too many to name. 

I snapped back to the meeting in time to listen to a report from the Hope Lodge and how one of the patients staying there while he got treatment said that the volunteers and the Relayers give HIM hope. Just like that, I was back in the present and I was smiling, clapping, and thinking of the survivors in my life. So many people who have kicked cancer's ass. Their stories are incredible. 

I was reminded that physical attendance gives me something that meeting minutes do not - the ability to identify and empathize with other people. 

You volunteer and raise money against a disease that's painful, sad, heartbreaking, infuriating, hellish, and a million other bad things, but so much good comes from your experiences too. If you think about it, it's weird that anything related to cancer can be rewarding, but it is. It sucks to live a bad outcome. Losing someone you love and watching them suffer in the process hurts. But watching a survivor emerge victorious from this life or death battle is really fucking something too. It makes your heart soar, even if you don't know the person. 

Relays are 24 hours because cancer never sleeps. Last year was my first 24 hour Relay, I had only done 12s before. I loved being on the track at 2 a.m., walking slowly, reading the names on the luminaria bags and thinking how each bag is someone's story. Yes, it's a long day. It's usually hot. It's a lot of walking.You have to set up and break down. Your feet hurt. You likely smell. Some people are annoying. You don't sleep. But those things are nothing compared to battling cancer every day. Really. Nothing. And nothing compared to what you take away from the experience.

I think this is 4 a.m.

So that's why I Relay. For the people who've gone head to head with cancer and won. For the people doing intense battle now. For the people I've lost and the people you've lost, and for our ability to share their stories. To have a place and a time to do that surrounded by other people who have been there. To spend a day with framily raising money for a great cause. I find it cathartic. I hope if there's a Relay near you and you've never experienced it, that you go walk a lap, buy a cupcake from a team, tear up at a luminary ceremony, smile at a survivor. Be a part of the community for a minute, or an hour, or however long you'd like to stay. 

Thanks so much again to everyone who donated this year. I'm at $1,325 raised so far and still pushing on. If you'd like to donate, please click here, and if you're local, stop by Bensalem High School on Saturday, June 21, from 11 a.m. all through until Sunday at 11 a.m., walk a lap with me and see what Relay is all about.

Linking up with Kathy for Humpday Confessions.

 Linking up with Shanna for Random Wednesday













Linking up with Liz for Fitness Blondie's Blog Hop: