The Philly Breast Cancer 3-Day was Fabulous!!

Holy COW! (check out the photos!)

I cannot believe that another Breast Cancer 3-Day event is here and gone! WOW! (I posted about it on the team blog as well - so be sure to check that out as well!!)

The walk was fantastic, at least I thought it was. For those that missed the details, it was a 60 Mile Walk over the course of 3 Days. Hence the Breast Cancer 3-Day. Now last year this same walk was the first weekend in October, which happened to be a rather warm, if not HOT, weekend down in Philly. Well, let me tell you, it was DAMN COLD this past weekend! OMGosh, I would NEVER make it as a penguin, Pink or otherwise, in the real world! I am in HUGE trouble this winter! I thought last winter was cold, I have a feeling that this one will be worse! anyway, back to the walk...

Being the ever so graceful, swan-like, ballerina-esque person that I am, (NOT!-you will usually catch me tripping UP the stairs!) I sprained my right ankle two weeks prior to the walk, i think it was over my own feet, either that or the rug in the doc's office has it in for me; I personally am going with the rug theory. I believe this is part of the reason my team nickname is HOMER (as in Simpson, DOH!). ANYWAAAYY, I was trying to take it easy on that ankle this past weekend. Apparently I did a pretty good job of that, because every OTHER part of my body hurts! Like I said....swan like....do swan limp? or creak every time they stand up? do swans even stand up? ok...sorry...

GEEZ PEOPLE!! It's 1 am! So much for well rested! my fingers are little icicles! I need to get some practice in on my writer or it's "OFF WITH HER HEAD!" tomorrow! Although she won't be there!! PHEW!! YEAH! Ooops! did I type that out loud? that's ok. I think that i am the only one that reads this anyway! whee!

more another time! 1 am!? geez!

WOW! THE DC 3-DAY was AWESOME!!

I was on thee FABULOUS Camp Logistics Crew Team! What a great team! Everyone was happy to help each other out even with our YUCKY job of garbage collecting. And let me tell you, 3200 people make an awful lot of garbage!! Especially at meal times: a lot of garbage very quickly!

I posted a slide show of all the pictures I took on the right ----->

Here is a link if you would like to see them a little bigger: http://picasaweb.google.com/thepinkpenguins/WashingtonDC3DAY08Crew#

Be sure to copy and paste so that you get that sneaky little # in there. I am pretty sure that you do need it. I am not really sure if it will work right if you just click on. Let me know.

Our Adventure began on Thursday October 2, 2008. This was Crew Day. Everyone on the Crew needs to get there a day early so that they can meet their team, learn what their duties are for/on their team; either as a team and/or an individual. The key phrase everyone on any team hears (ALL WEEKEND) is, say it with me now.....BE FLEXIBLE, and of course HAVE FUN. I know that my team had a TON of fun. We were all laughing and joking all weekend long, somehow I didn't think that hauling trash, setting up & taking down tables could be that much fun - but with my team, everything was a laugh riot! What a wonderful and caring group of people. OK....sorry about that...a bit of a tangent, I digress. Thursday.....

Once we found all of our Chemo Warriors (Team name), introduced ourselves, parked our cars in long term parking at Patomic Mills Mall, found the vehicles we were assigned from the 3-Day (a box truck, a passenger van, and a (GRRRRrrrrr) Ford F150 Pick-Up Truck [with breaks that didn't work because the key was not far enough into the ignition....huh? read that one again didn't 'ya? yeah, that is actually what the guy from the 3-Day said after he took the truck out and probably didn't get the same problem. We got a good laugh from that one!]), we headed right out to Camp. And let me tell you, what a great site this was for the 3-Day! Close to a highway and train, yes, but absolutley gorgeous! If you didn't hear all that highway and train noise you would never even know they were there! I have trouble remembering how to pronounce the Name of where we were, so I probably cannot spell it worth a damn either! I will give a shot and try to correct it later! Occoquan (?) Regional Park. If you get the chance you should check it out. Little rolling hills. Very Cute. Anyway....We are an advance team so we needed to get there ASAP because we needed to get the grid for the tents set up and done before the sun robbed us of our light, and can I say HEAT!! OMG!! It was so cold that night, a lot of it was because it was so darn windy! (I have a feeling this is going to be the coldest winter of my life. Ugh! & I thought last winter was bad!)

Ok....obviously A) I am long winded, big surprise, I know. B) it takes me forever to tell a story. C) I am a bit of a scatterbrain....jumping from one topic to another, and D) I will have too add to this later - my lunch break is over and want to post the photos. Let's see if I can manage that.

Family....maybe not;

Ok, I just have some musings, thoughts, whatever I need to get off my chest. I probably shouldn't add them here, but, at the risk of being the rude one, oh, wait - I think I already have that moniker, so, what the helck, I will anyway. It's my blog. I found myself wondering this same thing last year as well as this year. And I do realize that chosing to do this walk is my own undertaking. I really do try not to ask my family for much as far as this goes, (at least I hope that is case) like I said this is my thing, not theirs, and therefore not their responsibility. I ask for donations to the garage sale(s) that I have, hoping that this in some way helps them as much as it helps me. My mom always, always helps with anything she can. She is awesome like that; as a matter of fact so do my sisters. Their support is different, but it is always there. They help out when they can with what they can and it's always more appreciated then I think they realize. Even my Niece, whose husband was over-seas last year, serving in Iraq, was able to donate money, a lot more then some people who could have afforded it more then her. I think that today, yes, just today. I am bitter. And I really dont think that it has anything to do with my family. I believe that it may have started with a guilt trip that I got from a family member (they are the only ones that can send me on that kind of trip; and not even all my family members can do that. Otherwise, the only kinds of trips I take are vacations, stamping/scrap booking weekends, long week-ends, get-aways to the spa, shopping at the mall, etc. You get the idea. No one can make me feel guilty.).

So this guilt trip had me thinking about (money in general) and all the fundraising I still need to get done. And how I wish I just had the money to pay that $2200.00 myself and not have to worry about getting all this money together. Then I thought about fundraising last year, and even though it was a chore, yes I will admit that it can be chore, it's not only meant to "raise money" it is also meant, and most importantly, to RAISE AWARNESS!! Especially when it feels like there is no one there supporting you. When you go around to businesses in your own home town, where you have lived your whole life, and they treat you like you have leoporsy as soon as you ask to see the manager about a fundraising opportunity. Not too mention that I sound really young on the phone, so for me to call and try to set up an appointment to speak with any of these people is just as much of a moot point, they think it's a prank phone call. The newspapers are the same way. It's amazing how people treat you when all you are trying to do is raise money. And you don't even want their's!!

(They even haggle at a garage sale when a complete comforter set in fine condition (queen size, sheets, comforter, pillow cases, shams - open the whole thing up so they can see, no holes, eleastic in good condition) is marked $5.00; am willing to go down to $3/$2 the lowest and they want to give me .25! Yes that would be twenty-five CENTS!! HELLO!? PEOPLE all the profits are going to SUSAN G. KOMEN! can you give me a break? UGH! That is one story I will NEVER get over.)

But I digress, while I was fundraising last year, I did have fun, and the whole point is to SPREAD THE WORD about BREAST CANCER and to MAKE PEOPLE AWARE. The more fundraisers we did, the more BREAST CANCER WAS TALKED ABOUT, and the more people became AWARE OF BREAST CANCER and THOUGHT MORE ABOUT BREAST CANCER.

Maybe, just maybe, with all the Walkers and Crew members throughout the country holding fundraisers, this reminded some women (AND MEN!!) and they went home and did a Breast Self Exam (BSE). Maybe one of those women found a lump, went to her doctor; they found out that lump was breast cancer. What if this this woman was only 23? What if her wedding was the next weekend? What if SHE were your DAUGHTER? Luckily, however, they had caught it early enough that they were able to treat her and save her life.

Hey, CHECK OUT THE NEW PICTURES KIDS!!

Ok, they have no fun fonts to choose from, so this one will just have to do :)!

Over there--->>> (for those that know me and love me, you know how much trouble I STILL have with left and right....or is right and left? oh, whatever....heh, heh, heh...), on the right, you will see that I posted some photos of the pins and charms I have for sale. The pictures really do not do them justice! At $2.00 these are a STEAL! Let me know which ones you would like, how many, and if you would like the charms on the cords or not. The pictures with the ruler and the dime are to give you and idea of size, I am sorry, but I become rather fond of them both and they must stay here with me. (Besides, they have both developed huge egos from being in all these photos; they have become virtually impossible to deal with. I am thinking of taking the dime to the nearest Ice Cream Shoppe right after my stop at the closest Catholic School!!) If you would like to pay by credit card, I will send you an invoice with the total and you can pay from that.

Thanks so much for your continued support!

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