Ready to Roll!

No time to blog tonight. Gotta get to sleep. I will just quickly say that today I had lunch with my dear friend, Nilda. She, Sherri, and my mom are the survivors closest to me for whom I walk this weekend. I also walk for Bridget Slotemaker, who passed away last August. Being with Nilda always fills my heart, but today was an especially nice visit. She is the kind of friend who believes in you so honestly and genuinely that you cannot help but believe in yourself. Thank you, Nilda, and thanks to all of you who have called, texted, emailed, and Facebooked me today to wish me luck. I said earlier that I am hoping to bottle all the love and use it on my blisters later this weekend.

Tonight I leave you with the results of my evening in the kitchen, making, packing, and labeling 2 breakfasts, 3 lunches, and the ingredients for 2 dinners. Due to my food allergies and gallbladder issues, I cannot eat the catered food and I have to premake my meals. P-I-T-A! My mom is taking the dinner ingredients and prepping them to bring to me at camp so that I can enjoy a fresh cooked dinner each night. THANK YOU, MOM!

Okay...I am off!
Talk to you from the road!

Pack Up Your Duffle...

OMG! The 3-Day is in 2 more wake ups. This week has been insane. Between work, stuff with the kids, and getting ready for the walk, blogging has been back burner these last couple of days - Sorry. Tonight, I had to pack because tomorrow night I have to prep my food. More on that tomorrow.

Packing...The 3-Day folks recommend that you pack using a duffle bag. Sherri followed directions (as usual) last year and hated it. You have to lug your crap all over the place at check in, camp, and closing ceremonies and she wished she had something with wheels. This works for me b/c I have the perfect sized suitcase with a strap on the outside for a garment bag. This is perfect for securing my sleeping bag to the outside of the suitcase (no bungee cords allowed).

We do have our own suitcases, but we sure don't travel much. In fact, if my mother had not purchased a luggage set for us as a wedding gift, we would be using my mother-in-laws vintage baby blue pleather set with the big ass press buckles. In fact the last time I was on a plane was my honeymoon eight years ago. So this is what the suitcase looked like when I pulled it out of the basement.


Embarrassing, I know. To make matters worse, while I was cleaning it off, my 3 year old says, "What's that?"
Hoping she meant the cobwebs, but knowing she meant the suitcase, I said, "It's a suitcase."
"Oh. What do you use it for?" she responded. Wow. I told you we don't travel much.

My daughter has been so excited about this 3-Day. She has expressed on many an occassion that she intends to be a cheerleader when she grows up and she has her own pink pom-poms for the cheering stations so she cannot wait. Every morning for over a week, she has woken up asking, "Is today the 3-Day Walk?" So tonight when she saw the suitcase, she realized something she had not really thought about. The tears welled up and the lip started to tremble...and then it happened. Like an air raid siren working up from a low whine to a full wail: "i don't want yOU TO GO AWAY FOR 3 DAYS!"

Oh brother. I quickly put the suitcase away, changed the subject and decided to pack after the kids were in bed. I cannot factor in the mom-guilt thing right now. I will cross that bridge of despair on Friday. Good luck, Honey!

So after the kids were asleep, I got to it. I got all of this:


Into this:


Everything is in zipper bags and then all the zipper bags are in giant zipper bags. This is because all of our gear is transported to camp and left outside. If it rains, you gotta hope you packed well. Luggage cannot weigh more than 35 lbs. I am well under and have saved room for the air mattress pump since Sherri already has the air mattress and 2 tarps (one for under and one for over the tent). I will spare you the details of what I have packed but I managed to get all my clothes, extra sneakers, flip flops, shampoo and crap, tent decorating materials, and a pillow into one small suitcase. Pretty impressive for someone who doesn't travel much!

I will also have this with me:


That little gadget on the right is a battery operated phone charger (Yes, my phone is pink...get over it). This will allow me to blog along the way. I will update folks on where we are and when so that if you are heading to a Cheering Station, you will have a better idea of when we are expected. I also have a list of people who would like text updates. If you would like to be added to this list, you can email me your mobile number.
harmontr@gmail.com

Please remember to visit the Spectator Site. We would love to see you. And you can also read more on Sherri's blog.

More later...

Psst...over here (Gallbladder Update #3)

Psssst...can you keep a secret? You can't tell Sherri. I had another Gallbladder attack tonight. This one only lasted about 2 hours but it was NOT fun. I took about as much pain as I could take and then headed to the ER again. I was not going to let them take it out since I have the surgery scheduled and the walk is in 5 days. I was just going to drug seek! You know. Get a little something to take the edge off. Tylenol was NOT cutting it. But for the second time, I pulled into the ER lot. This time I got out of the car and headed inside as a wave of relief washed over me. I turned around and got back in the car.

I decided that I would go home and soldier up and if it flairs back up tonight, I will just drive around town until I find someone willing to sell me someone else's pain meds. I am sure the street value is lower than the ER copay. If that doesn't work, maybe I will just finish making t-shirts or blog some more.

You have to remember not to tell Sherri. She will worry. But she will also say, "It was those black beans. I told you not to eat the black beans!" You see, Sherri came down yesterday and we had an awesome day walking and getting pumped up for the 3-Day. You can read all about it in her blog. We designed and decorated team t-shirts for her and me and some for family members. We also got together our ideas and supplies for the tent decorating contest. We laughed so hard. I can't wait to post pictures. No peeking yet as you never know if the competition is reading.



Back to my point about the beans. I told you already that the surgeon gave me a DO NOT EAT list. Well beans are on it. I made a slammin' salad yesterday when Sherri was here but it had black beans in it and Sherri warned me. I told her that I have been so good about everything, I would be fine with the black beans. Well, I was right. The black beans were fine. It's the f'n Target popcorn I ate today that did it.

My daughter loves the stuff but I inevitably end up picking at it and today I "picked" at it by the fist full. The stuff is jaundiced with powdery "butter" flavor with I am sure is a milk product. Bad. I am paying for being bad, bad, bad.

So don't tell and I promise I will be careful about the DO NOT EAT list. I'm off to bed now because I have to work tomorrow and coffee is also on the list.

Wah!

Intense, in tents

So a man goes to his doctor and says, "Doc, I keep having a terrible reoccurring nightmare. First I'm a teepee; then I'm a wigwam; then I'm a teepee; then I'm a wigwam. It's driving me crazy. What's wrong with me?" The doctor replies, "You gotta relax. You're two tents."

Holy Crap! 1 week. Tonight, a little bit of panic has begun to seep in and is, so far, mixing nicely with the excitement. Enough that I am just outside the "I think I'm gonna puke" zone but within the "Holy Crap!" zone. Sherri keeps telling me that I am more than ready for the 60 miles and I believe her (I think). I am not sure I am ready for the rest of it. Make no mistake. This isn't just a couple of days of walking...this is an emotional, heavy-duty, 3 days. You've seen the commercials. Maybe you've tuned them out - but think about why people are walking. Think about all the love, grief, sadness, hope, and power of it all. It's intense. So you take all of that head on, walk A LONG way, and then sleep in a tent. (Told you, it's in tents.)

Okay. There it is. I will admit it. I am a bit hung up on the sleeping in tent part. The physical and emotional toll is actually a blessing, because I will need the exhaustion. I don't sleep well when I am not in my own bed. We have an air mattress, and I like my roomie - but honestly, after walking that far, I am afraid I am just going to want my own bed. This is not like a fear of camping or a diva thing. It's just a "homebody" thing. I don't sleep well in hotels even. I am sure I will be fine but it has been a source of tent-sion.

I do like camping, or at least the idea of camping. But we heard rumor at the expo that we are sleeping on turf, so it's not going to be truly like camping. Maybe that's the problem. If we were building a fire and toasting up some s'mores, maybe I would be more at ease. If we were doing keg stands on the beach with a 5 foot bonfire, I would be in even better shape to sleep, but alas...

Maybe Sherri will spark up a flashlight and sing John Denver songs to me and I can pretend I am back by the campfire on a Camp Chickami overnight (circa 1984 - REPRESENT!)??

We are walking together tomorrow! Woohoo. Sherri is coming down to my neck of the woods and we will do 10 miles in the morning. Then, we will get our shirts ready and plan our tent decorating. There is a contest at camp for the best decorated tent. We have some ideas that Sherri talks about in her blog (congrats on hitting the $5000 mark, girlfriend!). What Sherri did not mention is the Rock Star competition. We may have to start prepping for that too. I will let you know if we will be singing at camp.

I love Pearl Jam. Maybe we'll sing a Pearl Jam song. Present Tense?

Gallbladder Update #2

Saw the surgeon today. I LOVE him! He is funny, animated, and here's my favorite part, he's super sarcastic! I know this might be a turn off for some - sarcasm and scalpel - but it is so up my alley! So we scheduled the surgery for later this summer and he gave me a DO NOT EAT list to keep me healthy for the walk! It's not too bad actually, considering all that I cannot eat already.

Here is what I learned today...

A. There are 3 things that have most probably led to the sick gallbladder
1. having kids
2. significant weight loss
3. significant decrease in cholesterol levels

Seriously? These are my 3 biggest accomplishments! Figures.

B. There is a possibility that some of what has been considered by my other doctors to be food allergies/intolerances (can't have gluten, soy, or milk) may have been related to the sick gallbladder and there is a chance that having it removed may help this!!!!!!! THIS would be amazing! Pack up your stones, Mr. Gallbladder! You're getting evicted and Mama's having
an ice cream...
in a cone...
with jimmies!

Did you know that jimmies have soy in them - weird huh?

Yeah, I called them jimmies. That's what they are called! I don't care if you are family. You live in New York and therefore you just don't know what you are talking about!

THESE are sprinkles...

...and they are gross.

The surgeon also removed all exercise restrictions and just told me to "listen to my body". I told him that if I had listened to my body, I would not be in this mess because I would be fat, with high cholesterol and NO kids! : )

Thanks for checking up on me and the gallbladder situation. More later...