SO MANY WORDS!

Two posts in one day!! I win!

So, I was wandering over lunch, and suddenly a little bulleted list popped into my brain, going something like this:

Things I haven’t had time to do yet this summer:

• go canoeing
• go climbing
• play paintball
• go shooting

However, this was quickly followed by another list:

Things I have done this summer:

• jump out of an airplane
• go hiking in denali
• do the breast cancer 3day
• buy a mini
• go skinnydipping in lake minnetonka
• see puffins and whales and bears in the wild
• go to lollapalooza and about 40 other shows
• learn to breathe fire
• do the aidswalk and ms walk
• ride a motorcycle
• go to too many parties to count
• go to florida
• go to twine ball days, ufo days, lumberjack days, the spam museum, and the house on the rock
• see the midnight sun
• complete the greenie century
• ride rollercoasters
• go to a strip club
• have the best 5-day birthday party ever
• get a tattoo
• hold some really good fundraisers
• go camping
• have my picture in the newspaper at a pillowfight

So, yeah. Not much to complain about here.

Today I learned that my mom is mad at the 3day. Really! Apparently it’s because Wendy’s in a cast now, and had to have an IV for her dehydration. You’ll notice she’s not complaining about it, though.

She thinks it’s ridiculous to force us to walk sixty miles after all the fundraising and other work we put into it. Personally, and as everyone who participates in the 3day knows, you’d have to break my legs to get me to not try to walk. You know, when you see a line of 2,500 people stretched out over miles and miles, some of them limping, all of them exhausted, each with both tragic and joyful stories to tell about their reasons for participating, you fucking pay attention.

Would I walk sixty miles every year so that my friend doesn’t have to go through chemo again? Would I raise a few thousand bucks every year so someday I won’t be walking with a crowd of people wearing memorial dedications to family members they’ve lost to breast cancer? Would I remind myself every year that the reason for the pain and blisters and fatigue is the hope that someday, no one will have to suffer?

We shouldn’t even have to think twice about that. We walk because we believe.

Jenni