Good Morning, Sunshine...

There's something about sunshine that makes me a little giddy. The warm blanket hug of sunshine on my face and hair, the way a fuzzy kitty's head smells after she's been basking in the window for a little while... It's good stuff.

Yeah, it's not very warm yet. If I told you that today's high was going to be around 50, many of you would probably shiver out of empathy - 50 isn't that bad when it comes to Cleveland, not after weeks and weeks of sub-zero temperatures anyway.

My Brother-in-Law is coming to visit us tomorrow, and we're going to see a Cavaliers game with him. It should be pretty good! I'm not interested in basketball in the slightest unless it's the Cavs, and I'm seeing it in person. Snobby, huh? Nah, I just think watching a bunch of athletes running to and fro on a TV screen is boring.

Last year, I made a March Madness bracket and busted it on the first day. Don't care.

Spring is definitely coming - I'm anxious to rip the plastic off of all our windows and mop all the floors/walls/everything so that our house smells like sunshine and Murphy's Oil Soap. I don't think we're at that point though, I'm afraid. Not quite. I really miss the outdoors, though. I miss the smell of sunscreen, I miss eating ice cream outside with bare shoulders. I miss a lot of weird things, but you know exactly what I'm talking about because I bet you've experienced and enjoyed a lot of these same things.

You know that feel, bro. You know.

I can't believe we're less than two months away from the Breathe Deep CLE event, it's surreal. I have such high hopes for this thing. We have 15 people signed up and a good chunk of money raised already but we need more. I want this thing to be EPIC. I know it has the potential to be - if you think about how many people are impacted by lung cancer in some way - or hey, even cancer in general... Come give us a shout out. Walk a few miles (you can borrow my shoes, if you want!) and eat a bagel. Hug someone, ask questions, learn things. It'll be fun. My hopes are so, so high.

Remember what happens on this episode of Saved by the Bell? Well don't worry, I'm not going to go on a speed bender and break down in Mark Paul Gosselar's arms (unless he's available?). I'm just a little scared. I'm afraid of failure. I'm reminded of a time when I had a birthday party and only two people came. One of those people stole some of my presents. Why was I friends with her, again? Never mind.

It has to succeed, it just has to. I'm not saying this because my name is all over it - I just want people to come out, take a walk, and learn things. Understand what a huge impact lung cancer has on us all.

There was a time in my life when I liked sweets and candies and overall horribly bad, processed foods on the regular. No, seriously. A "fancy" dinner for me used to be frozen peas, Shake & Bake pork chops, and instant mashed potatoes.

My favorite lunch was Bagel Bites. Ew, right? I did crave them with one of my treatments, but it was a one time thing. They're cardboard saucers with "cheese" and some horrible sauce. If you aren't familiar, be glad.

My point anyway, was that I also used to hoard Cadbury Creme Eggs. I hadn't had one in ages, so I decided to get one. Hello terrible chocolate with gritty sugar filling! I'm kind of sad I hate them now, but in a way, I'm really not. I don't need that stuff.

My love for marshmallow eggs will never die, though. I'll probably buy one this weekend. Maybe. I think we're going to have a "traditional" Easter dinner this Sunday, with deviled eggs and ham and that sort of thing. In other words, leftovers forever!

Past Tense

Nil sa saol seo ach ceo,
Is ni bheimid beo,
ach seal beag gearr.

Lyrics (Gaelic) from Aisling's Song, The Secret of Kells

I caught myself speaking about bicycling in the past tense today, and it really bothered me. I was talking to a friend about ways to grab quick carbs and calories and I linked her to some energy cubes and told her;

"I used to use these on all of my rides."

Then I thought, what is this "used to" BS, huh? I can still ride. I will still ride. I do that sort of thing all the time. I'm like the Browns, I feel like I'm in a "rebuilding season" right now. First of all, I've been sleeping - lots. The only thing I can figure is that there's some sort of epic battle going on inside of me. (At least, that's what I hope)

No more saying "when I used to ride".

I also tend to split my life into BC and AD eras, but not how you'd think.

BC = Before cancer
AD = After diagnosis

That's sort of how things are described by me, when I'm speaking about things in the past tense. I don't think that's unhealthy or anything, it is what it is. On the day I was diagnosed it was like a meteor struck the earth and my surroundings, absolutely everything changed and will never, ever be the same again.

We're now officially "gearing up" for this 5k walk/run in Cleveland in June!! Please sign up, make and/or join teams and you'll be in for quite a treat! You can also donate to me directly, if you don't feel like participating.

And now, for my tangent of the day: Have you ever heard of Fordite or Detroit Agate? I want a piece of Fordite jewelry. I'm going to buy this one in a week if it's still there. From the pendant's page:

"Also known as Detroit or Motor Agate. Originally, Detroit auto manufacturers would tow cars on a rail and pallet system through the paint booths. Over time, the paint over spray would accumulate on the rails and skids, requiring the crews to remove the accumulated paint from time to time to avoid mechanical failure of the system. Some of the workers got the bright idea of taking some of this material home to cut and polish for jewelry. And so was born Fordite!

Cars are no longer painted this way, and haven't been since the 80's. Fordite is a generic term that refers to any chunk of accumulated over-spray paint. All Fordite is, by definition, a recycled use product.

The Fordite material used in this pendant was sourced from Detroit and is from the Ford assembly plant in Wayne, MI."

I have seriously put in in and taken it out of my cart 50 times today. I don't need it, so I'm not buying it. Yet. 

Breathe Deep, Cleveland!

I've been talking off and on about hoping to have some sort of event in Cleveland to raise funds for lung cancer research. After nearly a year of planning, I'm happy to say that our dream has been realized, and that Cleveland will have a 5k Fun Walk/Run to raise awareness and funds for lung cancer research!!

The website is a GO! 

When: June 27th, 2015
Where: Edgewater Park

Event Page
Event Facebook Page
Event Twitter
My Donation Page

I know a lot of people are doing a lot of different fundraising things, but I ask you to send a dollar or two my way. My goal is steep - and if I meet it I'm going to go even higher. Lauren Hill has inspired me to raise as much as I can for lung cancer research. If you don't know of her story, click here. She has raised over one million dollars toward cancer research. If we're being honest, I want to do the same. If you know someone with deep pockets, send them to my donation page!

Honestly, though...I'd be happier if a lot of people donated a little - instead of one or two people donating a lot, but I'll take it all.

MOVING ON!

I had a weird dream last night. I blame pain medication.

I was abducted. I don't know if it was by humans or aliens, but they appeared to be human. They took me to a place that seemed to be some hippy-dippy "New Age" healing center. They gave me radiation therapy with gemstones that were unavailable to anyone else. I was told I could choose one person to give the knowledge to, and enough gemstones to start the process of developing more stones.

I chose my oncologist. When I returned home (I got the feeling I never left Earth but who knows - this was a dream after all) I was scanned and was cancer free. Cool, huh?

Anyway, I did a bad, bad thing yesterday. I didn't take my chemotherapy meds. Intentionally.

Why? I really didn't want to throw up this morning. The nausea medicine I was given to take in place of Zofran at night before Zykadia actually does work, about 75% of the time. The other 25% I'm very sick for 10-45 minutes. I take medicine to help me stop throwing up, and then I fall asleep. I'm not entirely sure, but I think I slept most of the day yesterday.

Yes, I'll take them tonight and again the next night and so on. But honestly, it's starting to affect my job a little bit. If it's working, I will pick this treatment over my schedule - barfing or no barfing.

I'm a little afraid to be weighed again. I feel like I at least get one good meal in a day - with some snacking here and there... But sometimes I don't. Lots of times, it's completely my fault. I have frozen fruit in my freezer. I could make smoothies. My goal is to work on that.