Return To Me

Steve and I get all kinds of tempting offers to go hang out and have martinis or
whatever, but this time of year it's just not that possible. We'd love to, and we know that if we keep turning down invitations they'll eventually stop, but we can't afford the time away from our responsibilities right now. After April, we'll have plenty of time to socialize. Maybe.
It's hard to relax with so much going on! Every time we sit and unwind, our minds are going 50mph trying to figure out what needs to be done next.

On the fundraising front, things are going very well. All I need is more people. That figures.
Huge plans, for a big radio publicity push all next week, and a live radio remote the night of the event. And we're having a telethon, with phones that a local cellular store will be activating for us. First of its kind in this city!!
We have a record number of participants signed up, and the committments from many many more people who are planning on being there. My god, it's going to be huge.

Last year's event was documented with a really great DVD that a local videographer put together for us. He focused on the Cancer Survivors and the Wings of Love project that was put together for them. A local gal supervised a group of sewing volunteers who sewed these shawls that had the shape of angel wings. They produced over 100 sets of these "wings," and the wings were presented to each Survivor as they checked in at the Relay event. Everyone loved them, they were so honored to get something that was put together specially like that. I assumed that the Wings of Love volunteers were doing the same this year, and unfortunately I found out a month ago that they had decided it was too much work. Desperately, I searched around for something to replace the Wings because I knew this was something very important to the Survivors. Everything I researched was too time consuming and expensive. And with all the other details of the event needing attention, I couldn't dedicate every day and night to the task.
So I received, by surprise, this amazing rag quilt from Tabor Iowa. It was perfect. Something done by hand, with love, by someone who's always been so special to me. I love telling people the story of befriending Brandy, going thru those awful things that we did, then somehow losing touch and then reconnecting many years later. So every time I show someone this awesome quilt from her, I get to tell the story again. I can't convey how important this gift is, really there's no words for it!
To be sure that this quilt goes to someone very deserving, I am offering it in the raffle that is for the Cancer Survivors only. People might buy tickets for it, but I will ensure that it will go to a Survivor. Someone who has faced death and beaten it down. Someone who needs the warmth of such a special item, and who would truly respect the message of the ribbons sewn into it. It won't be folded up and put away, it will be proudly displayed for everyone to see it.
When I see that quilt, I think of all the loved ones we've lost to Cancer and how it represents what we're fighting for; a cure so we won't lose another friend, mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, or sister. I still feel the awful pain of losing someone a year ago to Cancer, and I can see the pain in Steve's face when he talks about his mom. His cousin's funeral card still sits in our kitchen, and once in a while the realization that we've lost so many in recent years to Cancer just overwhelms us.
Time to stop all this pain.

Pity Pity

Well, we had big plans for the weekend, but then Steve's oldest daughter dropped a bombshell. This was the reason why she had to have that "one on one" conversation with him. She has been attending Arizona State University since last August, and she has now decided that she doesn't want to anymore. I'm torn. Steve is too. We can understand completely if she is leaving the college because the major she's chosen, architecture, isn't what she wants to do. We both understand that one COMPLETELY.

But. And that's a big but. She has this boyfriend here in Havasu, who is a total asshole. We call him Mitch the Bitch. He throws hissy fits if he doesn't get his way. He complains and berates Steve's daughter if she stays down in her dorm room on the weekend rather than driving the three hours to come here to see him. She had to blow off plans with us on Christmas Eve because he needed her to clean his house. And most of all, he doesn't want her going to college. He works for his mommy and daddy doing plastering, and I'm sure he knows that college will enable her to get very far away from his bleak future. We know he isn't right for her, and we've had talks with her about this. She set our minds at ease by telling us that Mitch is not permanent and that she knows school is more important than any boyfriend.
So when she broke up with the Bitch recently, he kicked his efforts into high gear. Started driving down to see her in Phoenix, adopted a dog that he knew would make her feel obligated to stay with him like it was their own little baby or something. And of course he got his tentacles on her. Made her believe that ASU was not right for her. Talked her into leaving ASU. We don't know this for sure, but we suspect that's what happened.

Once Steve's daughter broke that news, we just fell into a depression. We know there's a chance that she'll change her mind and stay at the University, but it sucks to have to worry about it. We found ourselves lying awake that night, plotting the Bitch's untimely death. Mitch the Bitch, that is. We had no desire to go and do anything positive the next day, we just wanted to sulk. So the McCain trip was out. Eventually we got the motivation to go for a motorcycle ride. Then after that we decided to take the boat out to a nice quiet spot on the lake to stay the night. We got into our parking spot shortly before the sun set, and we had a simple dinner.
Here's the neighborhood we stayed at:



It was an exciting evening, because the cove was visited by Great Horned Owls, ducks, Javalina, and Burros. We heard them all, as we sat on the back of the boat. We had one flashlight, which had dead batteries. So we relied on the little candle that I brought. No big deal. It was cool to sit in the dark and listen. And forget about the stress at home.

We cruised around on the boat until 2 this afternoon, which definitely is the longest we've stayed on the boat. Almost 20 hours. We just didn't want to come home.