...and boy am I exhausted!
I just wanted to give everyone a little condensed version of the highlights from the MS Walk this past weekend.
Friday morning, my teammates (Rita, Sam and Christy) and I started walking at around 8am. I knew we were in for a long day, so of course I planned a craft project for the difficult second half of the day. About a mile or so after lunch, I got out 4 ziplock baggies with each of my team members names on them. Included inside was: a foam pirate hat, glittery letter stickers to spell your name, glitter glue and multi-colored jewel stickers. As we walked, we decorated and personalized our pirate hats and then put the ridiculous things on our heads and kept on going. For some reason, there were alot of pirate jokes and "Arrrrgh mateys" coming from passers by. About 3 miles from the day's finish line, we were picked up by a friend and former team member, and driven about a mile (the most difficult mile of that day). She dropped us back off - secretly - so that we could march across the finish line together with pride (so... we only walked 19 of the 20, who is counting?).
Saturday morning, at 7am we began the dreaded climb up Torrey Pines hill. I didn't have any blisters to complain about, but, the tops of my feet were so bruised I could hardly walk. After taking lots of Motrin, I warmed up just enough to hobble on up the hill with my team. Day 2 is usually a much slower paced day for us, so we bring lots of distractions. We had a TV trivia game, paddle ball toys, yo-yos and lots of singing. This brought us all the way to lunch - just barely. Once there, we were able to enjoy a sit down, fully catered, real chairs/forks/glasses/napkins meal courtesy of the contest that our team as a whole won for raising the most money in the month of July. After lunch, Rita decided that she'd had enough and called for our friends to pick us up and take us to... well.... a bar. The mimosas were WONDerful! The owner of the bar supplied us with complimentary champagne and orange juice and a lovely spot on the patio where none of the other walkers in the event could possibly spot us. We met several friends while there including Julia who drove down to have dinner later and celebrate the walk with us.
Which brings me to Saturday night. Now, Saturday night is always a lovely buffet dinner with lots of wine and yummy desserts - in addition, Saturday night is very emotional. They call it the candle light ceremony and turn off the lights and have people stand up with their lit candles as they call out groupings of people. First group to stand with their candles are those with MS, then if you have a parent or child with MS, a grandparent or aunt or uncle with MS, and lastly, a friend of the heart with MS. By this time you can imagine the emotions and crying going on. I don't know why every year I insist on wearing make-up because by the end of it there isn't any left. The evening was touching and inspiring and I left it feeling very connected to that group of more than 300 people in the room. Scientists and researchers are so close to finding a cure! There are more clinical trials going on for MS medications than for any other disease - we just need to keep up the momentum by throwing money at it.
I keep saying this, but, if they had a sign-up sheet for next years walk posted at the door for people on their way out from Saturday night, I bet they would get every single person in that room.
Sunday morning was super easy... comparatively. We needed only to walk 9 miles in a 3 hour period, which would have been easy had we not stopped for coffee, an icee, french fries and a philly cheesesteak sandwich. What? We were easily distracted and hungry! Our little group of 4 made it by a margin of about 10 minutes to the staging area before the final 1 mile to the finish line, where the entire group would march together. We donned our white or yellow shirts, got in line, took a ton of photos and marched together as one across the finish line.
Now, I hope that those of you who donated don't take offense to the fact that we only walked about 40 of the 50 miles. Those mimosas were SO worth it! I also hope that everyone reading this might consider joining me next year - it is only 40 miles after all...
Thanks to everyone! Smooch!
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We're heading up to Santa Monica Pier for the Free Friday Night Movie on the Pier. Grab tickets from the table at CDC or ask me... While its a bit of a late evening, its great fun, free and proceeds from the evening go to a cancer relief fund. We usually have dinner at home, get the kids into p.j.'s and sweatshirts, then drive up to arrive at the pier by 7:15 - the movie starts at sundown. We also bring blankets and beach chairs (although if you rent chairs at the pier for $5 each the donation goes to the relief fund). The movie this week is Open Season (rated PG for "some rude humor, mild action").
Head over to my tangarang blog to download these lunch box notes I just designed in honor of the start of school!
