September Walk-a-Thon

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. Danielle signed up to participate in the Ovarian Cancer Walk to raise money for research and to raise awareness. (I signed up with D.)

Daughter is quite good at organizing.  She organized me by sending me a schedule so that we were on time to the event. 

This is what she sent: 

Wake-up: 7am
Leave your house: 7:45am
Be at my place to pick me up at: 8am
Breakfast at Ricks: 8:20-9:20am (should be plenty of time to relax and enjoy a nice breakfast)
Leave for Raleigh (40min drive): 9:20am
Arrive: 10am
Sign in: 10:15am
Walk Starts: 10:30am

We followed her timeline to a "T" and were quite pleased to actually show up early to the event. The light drizzle did not dampen our spirits.

The DJ played some great music which helped keep our energy up.

**Awareness Raising Info**: Ovarian Cancer symptoms are easily mistaken for benign conditions. The symptoms can be a subtle as heartburn. The most universal symptom is bloating. --But as women, feeling bloated is rarely something that would cause us to raise an eyebrow. 

Early detection and treatment is the only way to beat this. I recommend that you know your body and pay attention to symptoms that are unusual for you or that last more than 2 weeks. 

Ovarian Cancer Alliance

My biggest recommendation: 

**Keep your annual exams with your gynecologist**

Talk to your doctor about:

1. Having an annual blood test for serum CA-125. This can be an earlier indicator of a problem.

2. Getting tested for the genetic mutations that increase your risks. Knowing your results gives you the opportunity to work proactively with your doctor to decide preventative measures. 

A Labor Day Mini Vacation

Hubby and I used this three day weekend to go to the beach! Yay! I haven't been to the beach since July 2010.  Before that, I hadn't been to the beach in years. YEARS!

In my childhood, going to the beach was at least an annual event. If we were lucky, we got to go several times each summer.

I have so many wonderful beach memories it seems wrong to try to list them. It would be like I'm choosing one memory over another. When we were kids, Mom and Dad got my sisters and me up in the wee hours of the morning before sunrise. For Dad, the time of arrival was half the fun. If we were going to "go to the beach" we were going to be there "all day". Getting in the car before sunrise got us to the beach before lunch.

My favorite times to go to the beach were "off-season". The beaches were less crowded and the weather more breezy and comfortable. This summer was so hot I couldn't bear the thought of a visit to a place without shade. But this weekend, the weather was perfect. So Hubs and I made a spontaneous trip east.

Where We Write

As I mentioned on Sunday night (Monday Morning), I've joined a Blogging Campaign.  It's my first time so I don't know what to expect. So far, I have been exposed to a core group of bloggers that share some of my interests. In turn, bloggers are also introduced to me. The theory is that if I share an interest with these fellow bloggers, we may also share an audience.  So, there are several bloggers that are shown in the "Following Me" category on the left sidebar.  If you enjoy my blog...or blogs in general, you may enjoy their blogs as well. 

So...after you read my blog post(s), you may want to check out the blogs of my colleagues. I can tell you is that I have read each of the blogs of my followers and I am hooked. The only downside I can see about the campaign is that now I have even more really good bloggers that are grabbing my attention.  Which is not really a downside. I find myself wanting to read not just the most recent post(s) but as many previous posts as I can read in a single sitting. Yeah, like I said, I'm hooked.

In addition to finding pure enjoyment in these new blogs, I'm following, I'm finding new sparks of inspiration. I read a blog and I'm like: "Yeah! I get that!" And I want to go home and write.

So, today, I'm giving a shout out to Megan of the blog: Paws Fangs and Smiles. Specifically, the first post of hers I read was: "Where Do You Write?".  The blog had a photo of a really cool desk.  A really cool desk (go take a peek and come right back). Anyway, it got me thinking...where do "we" (the royal "we") write? I've written in many places...and I will mention them as we go on. But I find that I find it fascinating to see where others write. 

A while back I stumbled upon this post:  "Where I Write" by Nova Ren Suma. This post stuck with me. It moved me somehow. I ran across the post earlier this year and thought: "Cool. I'd like to write there". Then several months later, I had a vague memory of a post I'd read about an NYC writer's loft. I wanted to read it again. --I wanted to imagine myself there. I needed the visual to get back to what I imagine to be my zen place.  I did not immediately remember where I had seen this. After several days (yeah, days) of wracking my brain and combing my Internet history logs, I started to think I would not find it. I became possessed to find the blog.  Well...my work to find and bookmark this blog is a gift I give to you. 

Since Nova wrote this particular post, she's written several others that are about different places that she's written.  I'd love to visit every one of those places. You'll see that Nova has published several YA novels. They are now on my list of books to read.

Coincidentally, on Sunday, another of my new blogger friends, Kimberly Zook of Zook Book Nook, was also thinking about where writers write.  Her post "Writer-Mamas Favorite Places" also resonated with me.  I especially like her photos of where she writes. With several photos, I was like..."Huh...I do that too".

This post is longer than I planned and I still have so much I want to say. Like, I want to tell you about my visit to Margaret Mitchell's house. I saw the desk and the typewriter where she wrote Gone With The Wind. --Actually, the furniture and the typewriter may be replicas (I can't remember), but the house and the window...all real. 

[They did not allow us to photograph....so I have to use photos from the Margaret Mitchell House Museum site.]

And, of course, I can't resist a photo of Carrie Bradshaw sitting at her window...writing at night. (Or is she really reading blogs?). I really get that though.  Writing at night. My muse strikes and doesn't let go until 1:00 a.m. many nights. 

I promised to tell you about where I write...but, I haven't been able to find a single photo of me writing. Or even of my prior writing desks...and I've had a couple.  So, I will have to keep looking and share with you another time. I did, however, find a photo of me from MANY years ago. The photo is from my Husband's and my first apartment.  I was sitting at our entertainment center talking on the phone. I found very many photos of me talking on the phone.  None of me writing, but many of me on the phone...go figure.

Anyway, I've put some labels on the photo of some items we actually owned. Some of the items are making a come back as "Retro", which goes to show: I was cool before cool was retro.

A Bouquet of Newly Sharpened Pencils

Creative Commons

Don't you love New York in the fall?  It makes me want to buy school supplies.  I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.

One of my favorite lines in one of my favorite movies:  You've Got Mail.

It does not feel like fall here but school is starting back and that always makes me think of fresh starts and school supplies.

I want to give a shout-out to all the teachers I know. I'm surrounded by people who either are or were teachers. One person I know is entering into her first year of teacherhood (high school I think). Another has become a pre-school teacher. I know two kindergarten teachers and a retired English and Spanish teacher.  As well as a teacher who now specializes in English as a Second Language. In the blogging community, I've also found a couple of teachers that I feel like I "know" on some real level. As Kathleen Kelly said: "The odd thing about this form of communication is that you're more likely to talk about nothing than something. But I just want to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings".

I do love school supplies. Around this time I can find some really cool notebooks and organize things.

Many years ago I had the opportunity to teach.  Interestingly, I thought I would be a teacher when I first went to college. I wanted to teach high school English. But then I took a required course Freshman year and knew I would not be able to commit to the major. In fact, I dropped the class and started looking for another major.

Many years after college and well into my professional life (banker), I took some time off from the career track and pursued my desire to actually teach school.  I taught 7th-grade math in a school with a largely "under-served" population. I learned at least as much as the kids did.  --Probably more. I also learned how I would do it differently if I had the chance to teach again. I feel I better understand some of the realities that my students and their parents had to deal with. Their reality makes it difficult to really expect homework to be meaningful. 

Let me say I'm totally proud of the year I was a teacher. And I feel even more love and respect for our career teachers.

I also really love the movie "You've Got Mail. I found a published script right here: Script of "You've Got Mail". I was doing a search to make sure I had the quote above right.  I found that just reading the script made me fall in love with it again.

I leave you with this sweet email. 

Subject: RE: Brinkley Date: 9/16/98 7:28:50 PM Eastern Standard Time From: Shopgirl To: NY152 I like to start my notes to you as if we're already in the middle of a conversation. I pretend that we're the oldest and dearest friends -- as opposed to what we actually are, people who don't know each other's names and met in a Chat Room where we both claimed we'd never been before. What will he say today, I wonder. I turn on my computer, I wait impatiently as it boots up. I go online, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: You've got mail. I hear nothing, not even a sound on the streets of New York, just the beat of my own heart. I have mail. From you.

Celia Rivenbark's New Book



Celia Rivenbark

I want to give a shout out for Celia Rivenbark and her new book that was released today. Her new book is: You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl: Observations on Life from the Shallow End of the Pool. Several months back, I wrote a blog that included discovering Celia Rivenbark at a local Independent Bookstore. I loved the title of the book "You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start in the Morning". I basically read the first chapter right there in the store. Of course, I actually bought the book.

I felt like Celia gets me...or I get her. Neither of us would be mistaken for a "cookie-cutter" mother of the year. I felt like I was reading a kindred spirit when she explained why she yells "BOOOOO" whenever kids claim their perfect attendance award. I mean, I totally get that. Perfect Attendance? Let's put school and life into perspective, shall we?

When my daughter was in elementary school, they got all uppity because she was tardy once or twice (a week) or so. I drove my daughter to school each day...so often the tardiness was a reflection on me. I still remember her sweet voice saying, "Mom. You have to come inside to sign me in when I'm late." I'd be all "What makes you think you are late?"  She would say things like, "We are the only ones in the parking lot, Mom". So...I would park illegally and walk my cherub into the school office to "sign her in". The sign in late sheet was basically the school's record of me acknowledging that "Yes, I know my daughter is late (again)".  The sheet also required an explanation for the tardiness.  I couldn't use the "she missed the bus" excuse (after that first time). And, I never actually wrote, "Because, duh...I'm late," or "We're not morning people".  I usually wrote something like "traffic". But one day...I simply wrote: "You don't even want to know".

So, like I said, Celia gets me.

Tonight I went to another local independent bookstore to hear Celia read and talk about her newest book that was released today. My hubby went with me...and I grabbed his arm several times when the hilarity was just so right on. My favorite essay that she read was about her daughter's science fair project that was entered into the Science Fair competition. No spoiler alert here.  Suffice it to say Celia's impressions are dead-on funny.

So...I'm putting the word out.  The goal?  Helping Celia Rivenbark's book make it onto the NY Times Best Seller list. That could be really cool.