MS Challenge Walk Training Pics

I have been logging many, many miles in my purple sneakers training for the MS Challenge Walk. Ruby has been walking, too, but she also joined her high school cross country team so she is doing more running than walking lately. I sincerely hope she doesn't break into a run on the Challenge Walk. If she does, she is on her own since I have determined that running is not for me. I walk pretty fast (usually a 15-minute mile) but I only run if the train is leaving or someone is chasing me.

Here are some pics from various training walks.

Beach walking

Dusky sky on evening walk

Sunset on a local walk

Walking at the Ponkapaug Bog was challenging and beautiful.

Ducks at Turner's Pond

this bench at Turner's Pond always reminds me of my Dad., not sure why but I love passing it when walking about the Pond.

I love seeing the light change throughout the day at places where I walk regularly

I have a love/hate relationship with walking at dusk. The light is BEAUTIFUL but it means it's getting darker and I may have a hard time seeing on the way back.

Kites on Nahant Beach.

Cattails at Ponkapaug

Beauty at the Ponkapaug Bog on a walk with The Librarian

One of my epic local, getting lost with the Google navigator woman telling me to take U-turns.

The kids and I after a training walk where Z road his bike, I power walked, and Ruby alternated between keeping up with me and whining about how I was too fast. Please remember, this is a girl who RUNS.

I love walking on the bike path. I NEVER, EVER get lost. :-)

Dorchester mural

Turner's Pond. I love meeting Helene and Rebecca for early, early, early walks.

I always say hi to the office park swans on my lunchtime walks.

MS Challenge Walk Training in the Woods

I did an awesome MS Challenge Walk training hike/walk on Saturday. Diane the Librarian took me on on one trail I knew and a few I didn't know in the Blue Hills. Do you want to know a secret about hiking? It's basically walking in the woods. According to my cell phone pedometer, I walked a total of...drum roll, please...

The Boardwalk in the Ponkapaug Bog was gorgeous, we walked through moss, honeysuckle, blueberries growing overhead. It smelled fantastic and the wobbling boards made it exhausting walking.

There's isn't a bad view in the Blue Hills. I feel incredibly blessed to live so close to such a beautiful natural setting.

  I love taking photos of reflections.

The bog boardwalk went on forever. We wondered about who maintains the boards. I pictured volunteer carpenters lugging boards out to the bog.

Cattails growing by the Ponkapaug Golf Course. The Librarian was not amused when I threatened to yell "Four" (or is it "Fore?" at the golfers.

The boards on the bog boardwalk were very wobbling. I understood why Zane came home with wet shoes after walking there with a bunch of kids from the AMC Camp.



















Waterlillies and other nameless, but beautiful flowers growing wild in, on, and around Ponkapaug Pond.

We started and ended our hike at an Elementary School parking lot at the edge of the Blue Hills. I made Diane pose for this picture because I was exhausted by the end of our walk and wanted to rest for a minute. We were definitely idling.

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The Ride to the Bracelets

I love my job but I have a very long and sometimes difficult commute to and from work everyday on The Ride, which is the Boston-area public transportation service for people with disabilities (a.k.a. The Short Bus).  I started Tweeting to pass the time today. If you're on Twitter and are interested in reading my Tweets from The Ride follow me: @TheRideTales. Today was kind of boring, but I swear it's not always that way! I've been entertaining my Facebook friends with my crazy stories for a couple years. Maybe The Ride heard I was tweeting about them and they shaped up their act today. The power of social media!

Although my commute home was only an hour and 20 minutes today (it's been as long as 2 1/2 hours), I came home kind of worn out. I was thrilled to walk in the door and find a package addressed to me!  Who doesn't like presents in the mail? Inside today's package was a plethora of "Join the Movement" bracelets from Aileen at the Greater New England Chapter of  The MS Society. I plan to sell them for $1 each at our 8/31 Yard Sale to benefit the MS Challenge Walk.

If you live in my area, and want to drop off stuff for us to sell at the yard sale, drop me a line! 100% of the proceeds will go to our fundraising goal for Fish Out of Water, our MS Challenge Walk team.

Good Orange Morning!

Orange is the color of MS Awareness. Ruby and I will be getting orange mani/pedis for the MS Challenge Walk in just 31 days.

Here are some orange tunes to get you in the mood:

 

  

  

  

  

Have a great day!

MS Challenge Walk Fundraising Progress

Ruby and I are hard at work training and fundraising for the MS Challenge Walk on Cape Cod, September 7-8. Thanks to the generosity of our friends and family, our Fish Out of Water team has reached the 20% milestone on the way toward our goal of raising $3000 for the MS Society!

 

Have you made your contribution yet? Remember, no donation is too small and, if you have no money to spare, not to worry. We are also happy to receive your moral support in comments, calls, and messages. And, local friends can contact me about dropping off their hand-me-downs and cast-offs for our yard sale to benefit the MS Challenge Walk, scheduled for August 31.

 

These Feet Were Made for Walking the MS Challenge Walk!

My beautiful daughter Ruby and I, have decided (about six weeks before the event) that we are forming a team to do Walk MS, The Cape Cod Challenge Walk to raise money and awareness for the MS Society.

 

As some of you know, I crewed for the event last year. Well, I have decided that I need to get out there and form a few blisters of my own and Ruby has graciously volunteered to join me. Since I know you are incredibly impressed and anxious to learn how you can join the fun, here are your options to participate and/or support the "Fish Out of Water" MS Challenge Walk Team:

 #1 Walk with Ruby and me! Each walker has a $1500 fundraising commitment which we will help you reach. You walk 50 miles in 3 days with a ton of support from the MS Society. It's September 6 - 8, 2013 on beautiful Cape Cod. 

#2 Crew for the weekend event.  You pay a $75 registration fee. You still get our team T-shirt and you get to stay with us at the amazing Cape Cod Sea Camps. You will be put to work to support the walkers, but I did it last year and it's a lot of fun. 

#3 Become a 1-day Volunteer for either Saturday or Sunday to help out where needed. Again, you will still get our team T-shirt and my gratitude. 

#4 Sponsor us or attend one of our FUNdraising events!

Watch this space for details and a pledge link as soon as I pay my registration fee or email me with questions about how you can join the team!

A Little Bit of My Kind World

WBUR, Boston's NPR station, has a new series called Kind World. The website describes it best:  "Kind World is a Tumblr that celebrates the kindness in strangers and the profound impact one human can have on another."

When they were looking for stories several months ago, the producer, Nate Goldman, asked a question about random acts of kindness on WBUR's Facebook page. I was surprised when my comment resulted in the Nate contacting me to see if he could record my story.  A couple days ago, several friends contacted me to tell me they thought they heard me on the radio. Here it is! (Please ignore the really bad haircut in this photo. My current hairdresser, Theresa at Eclipse, would be horrified.)


Now tell me your own story of a random act of kindness that changed your life...or maybe just your day.

Two Pints Down

I donated blood today. Two pints, in fact. So what? Well, I'm not ONLY mentioning this little tidbit to share an unflattering photo and brag about a selfless act of generosity. I gave blood today because I am no longer on the "can't donate" list.

Shortly after I was diagnosed with MS, I tried to give blood. I think it was at a work blood drive. When I skimmed the eligibility requirements they asked me to review and sign before sticking me, I was shocked to see Multiple Sclerosis on the list of diseases that were exclusionary factors for donating blood. HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, and Multiple Sclerosis. There were probably several others on the list, but I stopped reading after seeing MS. HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis I understood, but MS???? I was really pissed off. What idiotic bureaucrat thought that MS was a contagious disease that could be transmitted by a blood transfusion????  After the anger, came the shame. I felt like my blood wasn't good enough for the Red Cross refrigerators. I was diseased and unworthy.

I think that may have been one of the first and only times I was really ashamed of my MS. I started this blog and went public with my diagnosis right away. I felt a strong need to share honestly, hopefully, and, whenever possible, humorously, about what was going on with me. but I also felt a responsibility to do what I could to remove the stigma and misconceptions associated with this disease. I didn't feel like I had anything to be ashamed of until that Red Cross donor information sheet told me that my blood was tainted.

A couple years later, I read a post somewhere about how the American Red Cross used to prohibit people from donating blood if they had MS, but that they had changed their eligibility guidelines in 2007. According to the MS Society, they did this rather quietly but I don't think they did a great job disseminating those eligibility changes to their field offices. Doing a quick Google search for this post, I found several offices that still list MS as an exclusionary factor in the "serious illness" section, including Northern Ohio,  Arizona, and the Red Cross guidelines distributed for a Princeton University blood drive.

The eligibility requirements now posted on the national American Red Cross site no longer even mention MS, which means that it is, rightfully so, no longer an exclusionary factor. When I gave blood today, they asked me many, many questions including whether I had been incarcerated (not yet), had sex with a man who had sex with a man (definitely not in the 12 month period they asked about), and had I recently had any piercings or tattoos (never with unsterilized needles and not in the last 12 months) but no one asked me about my MS.


I am worthy and I couldn't be happier. Although I opted for the gluten-free fruit snacks, I proudly wore my sticker all day today.