No Relay for Me This Year

About this time last year I had purple hair and was getting ready for the Relay for Life talent show. I had planned to be involved again this year and, of course, last year about this time I was thinking about how I would start earlier and my fundraising and my team would all be much more organized this year! Well, that didn't happen! Many things contributed to my decision to sit it out this year. Although it was the right decision, I felt sad about it.

Then I get an email from niece #3 and she has a RFL web page and is fundraising for a RFL team for her college Panhellenic organization! Perfect!

Here is the link to her page if you would like to contribute. Relay is a great cause, supporting the American Cancer Society's research and support services. Some of the support services I have seen first hand this year as my good friend Kathy goes through her year with breast cancer. So all of you who were planning to support my relay team, please support my niece's team instead! The Relay is this weekend, but don't worry, the page will probably stay up taking donations for a few more weeks! I will also keep the link up for a week or so in the "click this" section of the blog on the right. Thanks!

Quick Update

Home from Relay for Life. The Aunt and I stayed up all night (with the exception of a few minutes drifting off in the chair in the middle of the cold, cold, night)! I didn't walk as much as I have in years past, but had a good time visiting in the tent. Despite feeling as though I hardly walked, my feet are currently telling me a different message! The potluck last night was a huge success with lots of people and left over food. Got home this afternoon about 1:30, took a shower to warm up and get the purple gel out of my hair, and collapsed until about 9 tonight. Dinner, a quick check of the email and back to bed for me! A successful Relay!

One really great addition to the weekend was that because I was introduced and spoke at the opening ceremonies, two students from the past (one from the very start of my career 20 years ago) sought me out at our tent to say hi and thank me for my teaching. That is a rare and wonderful occurence!

On a lighter note!

The Aunt posted some of these on Saturday. But in case you didn't see them....here we are...

The DVD is going on the big screen behind us. Donna (Meryl Streep) is moaning about her promiscuity as a young girl and her friends are trying to get her to remember the good things about her younger days as "El Rock Chick Supremo."
"You can dance, you can jive...
Having the time of your life, oooooooooh
See that girl, watch that scene, Diggin' the dancing queen. . . .
...With a little rock music, everything is fine, you're in the mood for a dance....
More pictures taken by someone from work:



I LOVE THAT MOVIE!!! And I never would have guessed how much I love singing with a microphone!! I could do a dance routine to every single song!!! But this one took a week and a half of practice. Calculus lesson preparation and grading took a back seat to "step, over, back, step" and "pull, step, circle, hip." I'd have to quit my day job if I wanted to do more dance routines! The Aunt says we should take the show on the road to nursing homes--it would be a waste if we only performed it that one time!

The other talent at the show was fun, too. Some really talented people and some hilarious people! We raised over $450. Not as much as last year, but last year it was our only fundraiser. This year we have also had a $435 bake sale and there are penny wars that ended yesterday that were hard core, serious competition. (Pennies are positive points, silver and paper are negative points so offices were all sabotaging each other like crazy!)

I'm still going to get a video clip of our act. It just wasn't as easy as I thought and the video camera belongs to a friend who doesn't post online. So I have to look at her instructions. The format of the video that she took isn't the format that I can post, apparently. I'm sure there is an easy way to convert it from the dvd to a "postable" clip, I just don't know it.

You just never know...

...what will get people excited.

Last week I worked to get people excited about the May 1 kick-off for the Relay for Life. All over town the committee was working to get streets and offices decorated in purple. I was doing the same at work. I managed to get people in a couple of offices to decorate. We also had a bake sale and although we raised about $4oo and had lots of people bringing things, it was mostly the same people who always help out and very few people helped with the decorations.

But this week we are having Penny Wars and they have gone completely out of control! Here is how they work. An office or department gets a container and let's everyone know they are playing. For two weeks they will try to collect pennies because pennies are positive points and the office with the most points wins. Here's the fun part...silver money and paper money count as negative points! So not only can you help your own group with pennies, you can sabotage other groups with silver and paper.

All day today there was email going back and forth about who was cheating, who was giving away chocolate in return for pennies, who had hid their penny jar from visitors, who had made the slot in their jar too small for quarters, trash talk between departments, pleas for pennies, etc. Also there were more and more groups announcing that they were playing. You have to realize that all of this is going on in the middle of a REALLY BAD spam storm. I must have over 120 emails a day about penis enlargement or acai berry diets. We are getting it fixed next week, but meanwhile people are still emailing about pennies! I wouldn't have expected this in a million years! They are really having fun with this. Despite the fact that we are all swamped with email junk, people are doing mass emails to the whole place about penny wars!

I guess you just have to keep trying things to find one that works to get everyone excited. This one is a keeper! Now I just have to think up a really good idea for prizes for the winning offices. (And find people to help me count coins to find the winners!)

Paint the Town Purple!

Spent the afternoon blowing up balloons to decorate the campus. Here I am in my office surrounded by balloons! Not the greatest picture since it was taken with my phone. Wish us luck on our bake sale! It's our first fund raiser of the Relay season.

Coming this weekend....Big Sur photos and the video!!!!

Purple is for the Fight Against Cancer!

Relay for Life is a fund raiser to fight cancer. We raise money and walk all night. On May 1st is the official kick-off called "Paint the Town Purple." So today I got prepared!


If you would like to donate to the fight against cancer, you can do so by clicking here and visiting my website .
Your donation will help to Celebrate the survivors, Remember those we have lost to cancer, and to Fight Back against a terrible disease.

Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back!