17 minute mile

Today I participated in the Great Race as part of a fundraiser to purchase laptop computers for disadvantaged local youth. The program is through Family Services of Western PA - the foster care agency that jb and I were looking into. I walked the 5k and raised $150 towards my team's laptop purchase.

My time was 55 mins - not exactly burning rubber. Still, it was a lot of fun and jb promised to do it with me next year :) and I'll have a time to beat next time around.

The course started in Oakland and we walked down Fifth to Blvd. of the Allies, through downtown to point state park. At the finish line they had bananas, oranges and smiley cookies for the racers - breakfast of champions.

Afterwards we went to Six Penn for the reception and presentation of the laptops and now I'm home on the couch nursing my blisters.

Deep Fried

I'm feeling much better. My trip to Austin was a bit rough on me, but I did get to see some old friends from my HRC days. I had brunch with Marti and Sanaz on Sunday before heading to the airport to catch my flight. Marti and I did the campaign training program together back in '02. Six years ago - my goodness!

Since returning home I've caught up on sleep, work and getting my ass kicked at scrabble. Yesterday jb and I took Talula to the park for a hike - and she walked most of it herself, as opposed to last time. Today I was back at work - ugh. My brain has been fried lately.

I'm trying to get my mom and the kids to visit before I have to head to CA for campaign work. I hope it works out!

Live Music Capitol of the World

I'm in Austin, TX for the Out and Equal Summit this weekend. Hurricane Ike is hitting the Texas coast but Austin weather is pretty stable - hot and a little windy. The hotel is filled with people evacuating Houston and Galveston.

I facilitated a session at the summit this morning (it was pure crap - I don't think I even formed complete sentences) and now I'm back in my hotel room eating take-out and feeling lousy. I really hope my trip home is uneventful and the weather doesn't keep me from getting back on schedule.

I realize this post is also crap but I'm so tired I want to cry. At least today has a theme - crap. Naptime.

Cradle of Civilization

jb's eye is doing better, but we found out she has an ulcer on her cornea - yikes! She was perscribed eye drops that have to be administered every hour - even at night. That's as much fun as it sounds like.

Still, this didn't keep us from going out to celebrate Daniel's birthday. We celebrated over dinner and drinks...and as we were finishing up they announced that there would be a trivia contest that evening and the winners would get 50% off their tab. So of course we had to stay and win it - three rounds, ten questions each, two cookie-tinis - and victory. The iphone photo is a little grainy - but I couldn't resist posting the look of pure joy on Daniel's face after we won. Daniel is in the middle.

eye wide shut

Yesterday jb's eye began swelling and watering uncontrollably. We waited it out a few hours and then went to the emergency room because she was in quite a bit of pain. We ended up being at the ER until after midnight - but there wasn't much they could do for her. While we were there they gave her magic eye drops that made the pain go away, but couldn't write us a prescription for them and instead recommended tylenol for the pain- right, by the handful, maybe. They did give us a prescription for antibiotic eye drops and a "corneal abrasion" diagnosis. On top of all that I missed a sister call from Korea while my cell phone was off in the hospital - boo.

Poor jb's eye is still not looking so good, but hopefully it will be better tomorrow. We can't get in to see the opthamologist until Tuesday due to the holiday weekend. She's not really used to being incapacitated and isn't really comfortable with being taken care of - especially by me. This makes for a difficult patient. Luckily, difficult patients are my specialty.