Boston 3-Day for a Cure Weekend!

In late January 2008, my stepmother Kathy died after her metastasized breast cancer reached her brain before her doctors could build her up enough to withstand another round of chemo. No complaints with the doctors, she had a particularly aggressive cancer. After crying hysterically for many days and being generally miserable, I got angry. It wasn't fair that a terrific person (no evil stepmother, she) could be taken so long before her time. So, I decided I had to do something to fight back, since she no longer could. I started out that first year as a crew member on the Boston 3-Day (Pit Crew, whoot!). I have participated, as crew and as a walker, in at least one walk each year. This year, I got my 5 year anniversary pin.

I just crewed Boston and (work permitting) will be walking in Philadelphia. This past weekend, pouring rain, thunder and all, was 3-Day weekend. No amount of soggy sneakers can dampen the spirits of the happy pink people, and it is so uplifting to spend a weekend with my 3-Day family. The whole community gets involved in some towns:

And you get to spend time with all sorts of characters:

Even the occasional stray alligator.

Sure, the soccer fields we were sleeping on flooded, turning air mattresses into water beds, yes, the mosquitos have a particular love for my blood, and no, I don't like using port-a-potties (in fact, I spent the entire weekend doing everything in my power to avoid using them), but it's all worth it, and it does make me feel like I'm doing something to reclaim my voice. I didn't have a choice about losing someone I love to cancer, but in some small way, I feel like I'm helping to make sure that some day, no one will have to face this disease or the gaping hole it can leave in families.

Each year, with my feet quaking in my sneakers knowing what's coming, I hope that this is the last year we have to walk, that we'll get the call saying that they've found a cure and we can hang up our sneakers. Maybe there could be one last 3-Day... just a party in pink tents, no walking required. Didn't happen this year, at least not yet. Here's hoping that day comes soon.

A Dark Knight Rises and a New York Weekend

This week, my second must see movie of the year, the Dark Knight Rises, was released. A group of us scored tickets to a midnight screening to the final chapter of perhaps the greatest superhero movie trilogy that has ever, or will ever, be made. I absolutely loved the movie (yes, it plods a teensy bit in the second half, but the ending is amazing) and the experience of seeing it with a theater full of fellow fans. While the entire case is amazing (Gary Oldman is perhaps the most under appreciated living actor), I have to give special points to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who really is the main reason that the plot manages to hold together. Of course, Christian Bale is an amazing actor and he and Michael Cain play off each other so well, as always, but there are enough plot gaps that they needed an assist to make the movie work. I won't go into details, since this isn't a movie blog, but the quality of the acting was astounding.   Our post-film euphoria was short lived, though... while we were having fun watching a movie, a different theater in Colorado was having a very different evening. Even though we were on the far side of the country, there's a little bit of survivors guilt (why them, and not us).

Already, the newspapers are talking about how dark and violent the movies are, etc. The thing is, people all over the world have watched these movies, and loved them, and only one person stocked up on guns and gas canisters, dressed up in body armor, booby trapped his apartment and killed people. Shouldn't we all be trying to find out what caused this one person to commit mass murder, and not trying to blame it on a movie that millions watched without killing anyone? Also, why is it that someone can go out and buy multiple guns, and explosives, and gas canisters, and gas masks, and body armor and no one anywhere pauses to think maybe he might be planning something violent. I know the NRA would have kittens at the thought, but just maybe it would make sense to have a system that generates a "This looks weird" alert when a cluster of purchases like this is made. Because, not for nothing, but Mexico is in the middle of a drug war, and you're still statistically twice as likely to be shot in the US, and I think that's a problem.

On a different note, last weekend, I took a quick hop down to NYC. Not really time for a full-up trip report, but who would have guessed you'd see something like this:

in the Bronx? New York is full of contrasts. Also, is it really that unusual to cross stitch on a train? I had about seven people come up to me and comment about how strange it was to see someone not my grandmother's age sewing. I guess the hard rock, sci-fi fangirl, engineer cross stitcher demographic is a bit sparse.