May 9, 2006 | Forget talk; walk the walk!

Lest you think I haven’t been training–just because I haven’t talked about it much–let me just tell you: I have been training. And lo, I have the callouses to prove it. My feet may never recover.

I’m feeling a nice surge of renewed commitment, because this week I crested the $4,500 mark. That’s pretty cool. Y’all are pretty! And generous! Except you… yes, you, in the back. You haven’t donated yet. What, you don’t love the boobies? The boobies are love. Support the boobies. (Need a reward for your donation? Go buy one of my 3-Day shirts and you’re making a donation and a fashion statement at the same time.)

In the meantime, I am struggling with my new body.
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April 14, 2006 | Forget talk; walk the walk!

Spring has sprung; I’m healthy again; my Rykas are broken in; I finally bought myself a knee brace. Training is now officially in full swing.

[Now would be a good time to go make a tax-deductible donation, but only if you 1) have boobs, 2) like boobs, or 3) love someone who has boobs.]

One of the things I hadn’t really thought through, when I signed up for this, was how much TIME it takes to train for an endurance event. It’s one thing to say “I’m going to exercise every day.” It’s quite another to undertake a regimen where, ideally, every workout is several hours long. I have no idea how people who work normal schedules could possible manage training.

The other thing I hadn’t realized was how much of my town I’d be seeing.
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March 25, 2006 | Forget talk; walk the walk!

After much whispering together, inform me that you’ve both decided to take the entire contents of your “donate” compartments and give it to me for the walk. When the pooled amount is determined to be $10, wait until your brother has wandered off and solemnly pull an additional bill from your “spending” compartment and inform me that “every dollar counts, so take this one, too.”

When I ask how you’d like your donation appear on the honor roll, tell me that “It should say Chickadee and Monkey, OF COURSE,” and after some thought, add, “and we want it to be in honor of your friend Julie, too. So she gets better soon.”

Then rescue me from my rapid melting into a puddle of ectoplasmic goo by remarking, “I bet you don’t want to sell me to the gypsies NOW, do you, Mama!”

February 24, 2006 | Forget talk; walk the walk!

Um, the surgical nurse called me today for my pre-registration whosiwhatsis for my biopsy next week, and told me that according to my paperwork I am having “mass excision” as opposed to the “core needle biopsy” that I thought I was having. This is causing me to “freak out” and also use extraneous “quotation marks” in reaction to the “reality” of a doctor using a “knife” on my “real and very much attached-to-me breast.”

And then I read that Amy’s mom has another lump and I decided I should just shut up already and by the way, these boob things are highly overrated and more trouble than they are worth.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying I’m SURE you’ve donated already or been to my CafePress store to buy a 3-Day t-shirt, but if you need MORE motivation, FINE.

A hearty thanks to gorgeous model Stephanie for demonstrating that you can enhance your rack while helping the racks of others!

February 13, 2006 | Forget talk; walk the walk!

(Not that I’m not enjoying wallowing in the self-pity of that last post, or anything, but….)

A big shout-out to my homegirl Holly (or Vermont Holly, as those of us down with the uber-hip New England lingo call her) for sacrificing a large portion of her weekend to help me with my latest project while I niggled and nitpicked and generally made myself an annoyance.
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February 9, 2006 | Forget talk; walk the walk!

I thought I’d give y’all a preliminary update on my preparation for walking 60 miles this summer. Because I know everyone is just DYING to hear how I’m doing, like UNABLE TO SLEEP AT NIGHT wondering if I’m really doing this thing or if I’m still just mostly sitting on the couch eating oreos.

Well I am here to tell you that I am only eating oreos AFTER my workouts. So.

I am also here to tell you that I am sore AND it is extremely cold outside in February. (Apparently I am here to tell you a lot of extremely obvious things.)
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January 26, 2006 | Forget talk; walk the walk!

I just got back from a meeting to discover that I have officially crested the $3,000 mark.

In case you’re interested, I’m currently in second place overall for funds raised for the Boston event.

Thank you all so much; it means more to me than I can say that the response has been so amazing.

January 22, 2006 | Forget talk; walk the walk!

… to bring you something completely different.

I’d like to introduce y’all to my friend Julie. I’ve known Julie for… hmmm. About 9 years, I’d say. We met on an infertility support board before there were resources like that on every internet street corner, like there are now. Back then, there weren’t a lot of places like that to hang out. We were a small, fairly tight-knit group, and although I joke about my friends inside the shiny box, Julie has truly become one of my dearest friends over the years. Friendships born in times of adversity are all the sweeter when life gets better, and that much stronger when times get tough again.

Julie’s son is just a few months younger than Chickadee, and has an affinity for vacuuming in the nude. (I know this because I’ve seen pictures.) Somewhere on Julie’s harddrive is a picture of the time Chickadee unrolled the entire roll of toilet paper while she was sitting on the pot, and then while she struggled to decide what to do with that enormous wad of paper, her butt fell in the toilet. (That’s a good blackmail picture, too.)

This summer Julie was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I’m still angry.
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