Dreaming

Last night I had the strangest dream...
I sailed away to China,
In a little row boat to find ya,
And you said you had to get your laundry clean.
Didn't want no one to hold you - what did that mean?

Old 80's song aside, I really did have a strange dream last night.  Or was it this morning?  It was a combination High School, Renaissance Faire, work and movie dream.  It was very odd and yet now I can't remember a bit of it.  Funny how dreams do that to you.  I keep a notebook and pen next to my bed so that I can write these things down but I never seem to wake-up fully enough to do this.

I did once write down something about a lion and a circus train.  But when I woke up and read it, it made no sense to me.  Something with a lion and feathers.  A Griffin maybe?  Heck if I could remember.

My real life dreams are just as complicated.  I want to someday have my own animal sanctuary/rescue.  I want to be a pet behaviorist.  I want to be a lawyer or maybe a judge.  I want to have my own business.  I want to be a baker, or an artist (but I'm not terribly artistic) or maybe own a bar.  I want to have a family, or maybe not have a family.  I want to move to the Pacific NW but I want to stay here.  I want to not have to worry about money.  I want to be a writer.  I want to be thin.  I want to be a belly dancer.  I want to win the lottery.  I want to start my own non-profit to help cancer patients and their families.  I want Firefly to come back on the air with new episodes.  I want a lot.  I dream a lot.

I got a lot of dreams.       
    

Sharing a link

I read this today and was truly inspired. (click here)

I'm not going to get into religion or personal beliefs here, but I did want to share the above link with anyone who wants to see it, because not only is it a brilliant post, but the discussion that occurs within the comments also contains some really wonderful information.

There are so many haters out there. I stand on the side of Love. I hope you do too.
-A

Desert Heat

Holy rollers, I know I live in the desert but it is SO hot outside. Current temp. is 102 degrees, and temp is expected to be around 112 on Thursday, the hottest day expected this week.

This is the 1st Summer since I've moved to AZ that I've felt like maybe living somewhere else would be a good thing. It's also the 1st Summer that I've had a dog. I don't think that's a coincidence. In Summer's past I've been able to stay out of the heat, much like I stayed out of the cold during the Winter in the many years I lived in Wisconsin. The main difference being here, in the heat, you don't have to thaw out your car before you drive it or worry much about driving conditions. Oh, and the days are sunny and not gray. There are a lot more differences I could name but I won't go into all of them, I'm sure those of you that live here or there know what I mean.

This Summer, however, I've got Sophie. My beautiful, loveable Miss Sophie. Who needs to go on Walkies. And darn it, where's my phone? I wanted to send a pic to attach to this post via my phone and it's downstairs so I'll have to use one already in my library. But I digress.

I walk Sophie briefly in the morning, then feed her. I walk her again during my lunch hour, one of the excellent perks of working from home. And then I walk her again in the evening, or sometimes John walks her. We started fostering Sophie in October last year, so it was already cool. Our lunchtime walks used to be nice, long and leisurely. Not anymore. Now it's a game of staying in the shadows as much as possible and coming back before sunburn or heatstroke can get us. Fun, right? Ha.

She's smart, she sticks to the shadows as much as she can. Luckily for her, she's little and close to the ground so shadows made by bushes alongside the buildings work for her. For me... not so much. And I can literally feel the sun burning into me. It's so uncomfortable. I just told my co-worker, it's like being hit with a laser or something, or maybe like being an ant under a magnifying glass. I swear I can feel the rays penetrating my skin and damaging my cells. Ugh. This will be the year I get wrinkles, I just know it.

Is 30-something too young to become a Snow Bird?

-A

Under Pressure

Do do do do do do do.... I've got the Queen / David Bowie song running through my head now. I may have to find it online and play it, just to get rid of it. Do do do do do do do. Do do do do do do do. Pressure!

I'm starting my fundraising for El Tour and I actually already have about $500 raised. It's not showing on my page yet because it's being moved from my previous event, PF Chang's, and from my Coyotes Hockey "challenge" page that I was using until the Stanley Cup was won by the Blackhawks (Yay! Congrats Blackhawks!) but it will be there soon!

My minimum is only around $1200 because I'm a Survivor / Honored Patient, but I've set my own goal at $2,000. So if you know any wealthy people looking to make a donation to a good cause, send them my way please!
http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/tucson10/astockinger

I'm happy to take donations of any size though, large or small. I think the minimum the site allows for is $5.00 and hey - that's $5.00 more than I had before. I have something like 170 friends on Facebook. Can you imagine how cool it would be if each of them donated $5.00 to me? It'll never happen, but it'd be cool if it did! That would be... what? $850!! That's what!

Yeah, that would be cool. But even though I always put it out there, most people don't donate. Even the ones that say they will. And I'm always like - Really? $5.00? You don't have $5.00 you can spare to fight cancer?

Oh well. Story of my life since I got sick. Raising money is hard. I hope the cycle training is easier.
-A

Fighting Cancer 1 Mile at a Time!

Jo Anna (Rt) and I, both blood cancer survivors

So I've completed a 1/2 Marathon, and I was going to sign up for another one this year, but I just wasn't motivated. Though I should expand on that; I wasn't motivated to do TWO 1/2 Marathons this year. See, I'm already signed up to do one in San Antonio with my friend, Brenda. But I was also going to sign up to do one in San Francisco, with Team in Training. Only I just couldn't get myself motivated to do it.

What is my problem?, I thought. Why does this seem so hard? Ok, well one reason is it's really frakkin' hot outside these days. But still, I have a gym membership, and I can go out when it's cooler early in the morning. But somehow I wasn't going, and I wasn't sending in my paperwork to sign-up, which I'd had sitting on my desk for a couple weeks. Why?

Then I figured it out. I was bored. I was sort of, Been There, Done That. So I decided to try something I've never done before - A Century Ride!

A century ride is a 100+ mile bike ride, and they take place all over the country. There's one this Fall in Tucson, which is just a hop, skip and jump away, and it's a very popular event so there will be lots of people training for it here locally.

So I signed up! I'm in, I'm totally in. And I'm excited. My friend is even on the Board of Directors for a local charity that provides loaner bikes for people who are completing a cycling event for charity, like I'm doing, so that I don't have to find $500+ to buy a new bike. The woman who formed the charity lost her husband to Lymphoma, and started the charity in his name. I've got the applications and I'm really looking forward to getting on my "new" bike. Apparently if I really like it, I can buy it, but if I decide that cycling is not for me I can give it back and it'll go to some other lucky person who is cycling for charity. How cool is that? It's uphillintothewind.org in case any of you are interested.

So that's my plan. And it means I'm fundraising again, and you can make your donation here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/tucson10/astockinger


I'm sure you'll want to donate, because it's a great cause and it's one way to say: Cancer Sucks! Take that, Cancer!


Thanks in advance for your support. Together we can help save lives.
Amy

I was on Vacation, dammit!

I've eaten like total crap the last 6 days, and that includes a great deal of wine with dinner most every night, and my excuse is - I was on Vacation, dammit!

But at a time when my body is the heaviest it's ever been, there is a little guilt.  But only a little!

So we had Starbucks for breakfast nearly every day, and I had Kopp's custard for breakfast one morning, and again at lunch the same day... so what?  And so what if we went to a great Italian restaurant twice for dinner and had mushroom and cheese ravioli in a rich sauce, and dessert (Kopp's, of course)?  There was a salad with dinner so we did get some veggies.  That time anyhow.

Most days I slept late and only ate 2 meals instead of the usual 3, so that helps cancel out some of the not-so-good-for-me meals, right?

Yeah. Who am I fooling? This Friday morning I'm headed to the gym and will be working out and counting calories in the weeks and months to come. 

It's time for a change.
-A

Dancing at a Wedding

So my husband describes another girl as "gorgeous" and I'm totally jealous. I've never been gorgeous. Pretty, cute, maybe even beautiful on occasion, but never gorgeous.

Yeah. Not really feeling great about that, but can't talk about it because then I may come off as insecure and needy, and there's nothing more unattractive than that.
-A