All Summer In one Post...

and the first part of fall, too. Between training and fundraising for the 3 Day, trying to catch up with friends and family, and well, life things have been insane. Good, but insane. So here's a catchup post, to let everybody know where I've been. After this, I should be posting fairly regularly again, since the 3 Day is over and I'll have time again. At least until it's time to think about next year's event.

I spent most of my training on a treadmill. It gets boring really, really fast. This is the first pair of socks I knitted on the treadmill, they took about 6 weeks, I think. I'm immensely proud of them, since they're both the same size, and they fit the friend I made them for pretty well.

This summer, we had a ton of tomatoes. I vastly overestimated the number of plants we needed, or could really fit into the garden bed. They overflowed their supports and we lost a few. But for most of the summer, we had fresh delicious tomatoes that were such a deep, rich red it was hard to believe they were real. Along with tomatoes, I planted sunflowers and marigolds. Sadly, the marigolds never came up, but I'll try again next year. I love the colors of those simple little flowers, and I'd like to see how they do as a dye product. I also planted a little thyme plant, because it's one of my favorite smells ever. And there's a basil plant in a container that's hip-high and smells wonderful whenever I brush by it. We'll be getting frost overnight here soon, so it will be time to bring it inside and see how well it does over the winter. I might have to investigate drying my own herbs in the near future.

I went to my sorority alumna formal this August. That's me in the blue dress in the middle of the picture there. We all look a little demonic because of all the flashes going off at once. I found the dress at a local Ross, after trying on several others that just didn't work. It's floor-length, deep blue, and I felt like a lady in it. My hair was pulled back in an elegant bun, until the dancing started. It was a great night, and I got to re-connect with a lot of wonderful women. Colleen was my date, since Jim doesn't do the dancing, crowds of women, or sorority traditions very well.


Speaking of Jim, he and I took a couple of days and went to the beach before our anniversary this year (we went kayaking to celebrate officially, but i wasn't going to bring my camera out there, since i'm rather fond of it). We snuggled, walked hand in hand down the boardwalk, lost a few dollars at the slot machines, and walked on the beach in the moonlight. It was a great trip, but it led to a long, serious discussion. Jim reads the blog, and I don't know how much he's comfortable with me sharing, so I'll just say that he isn't sure what his plans for the future--our future--are, and that when the lease is up, I'll have some things to figure out, and we'll leave it at that. I'm hoping things work out for the best, but I don't really know where things will go. It's tough.


This is Nom Nom Bronto. He lives at my office on the wall of the cubicle I share with a great guy named Phil. We use a company called Bronto for our marketing emails, and they send these little guys out to all their clients. Those clients then take the brontos all over the world with them when they go on trips. The bronto has never been to a 3 Day, though, and since I hate getting my picture taken, he made a great stand-in. This is a picture of him at the very first stop on the very first day. I carried him all the time I was walking, and he was a great conversation starter. Lots of people wanted to know what he represented, but since we were usually walking, I tended to go with the short answer--he's awesome! I have a ton of pictures of Nom Nom, and one of him at closing ceremonies that I wanted to upload, but blogger isn't cooperating right now, so I'll put them up later in the week.

I'll spend a little more time on the 3 Day and then try not to dwell. I walked mostly with one of my teammates who is awesome, and did some walking with a teammate that I don't like, and can't make myself think well of. The cool teammate and I finished the walk, and we walked about 50 miles over the 3 days. It was hard as hell, I won't lie. We took a bus or a van a few times, since we didn't want to injure ourselves. But we helped raise some of the 5.7 million dollars that Philadelphia brought in, we met some wonderful people, we helped raise awareness about a disease that takes far, far too many women from us, and we pushed ourselves to do something pretty amazing.

I realized that after that, I don't have any excuses. What I mean is, I can't really tell myself something is beyond me any more. I also can't hate my body, or dismiss it. This body, this willpower, carried me through an amazing journey. I did something I didn't think I actually could, something that a lot of people can't. It was hard, and it hurt (ask me how much fun I had hobbling and treating my few blisters--and i'm in relatively good shape) but I trained and pushed my limits and found that it was harder to reach those limits than I thought it was.

I am incredibly fortunate, I haven't lost anybody I love to breast cancer. My family is full of survivors of various cancers, though, and I walked for them, and for some wonderful people who've been lost to other kinds of cancer. I walked for myself, to prove that I was "back", and I walked for the daughters I might have one day. Most of the walk felt a little surreal, and since I wasn't a breast cancer survivor and hadn't lost someone, I felt a little out of place. And then, we walked by houses decorated with signs that said things like "A survivor lives here. Thank you for walking" and "I'm a living statistic. Susan G. Komen saved my life, I wouldn't be here without the treatments they helped research." and suddenly, I felt like I was a part of this, and I was helping and making a difference. That's an incredibly powerful feeling, and I want to be part of this event for a long time. I can help change the world, who can possibly say no to that?

It's getting late, and I have to go back to the real world tomorrow, so it's time to wrap this up.
In review:
--Holy shit, it's been a long time since I wrote a real entry.
--I'll be back to posting semi-regularly again, though. I miss blogging, and I have a lot more free time now.
--I walked about 50 miles in 3 days and helped raise a buttload of money for a great cause. Sometimes, I don't suck.
--This summer I grew some things, went to the beach a few times, got dressed up for a formal, and walked a lot.
--This fall I am going to take more baths, spend more time relaxing and spinning, and knit a pair of socks for me (since i've knitted two pairs as gifts this summer. that's right. two pairs, one summer).
--I really, really want a cookie.