Thought of the Day...

Big storm is coming through Detroit right now. I have a window seat to some entertainment.

Why do people run with umbrellas when the wind is 50mph and rain is coming in on the side? They just get more wet and look like goons with their legs flailing.

The good part is that someone lost their umbrella and it is now covering a drain in the parking lot. So imagine people running with an umbrella that is blown out backwards and barreling towards this huge ass pond in the parking lot.

I love it!

Sun is Good.

Even though my body is not what I want it to be (and never has) for some reason sunless tanner makes me feel better about myself.

My whole life I have never been able to really tan. I have flashbacks from college where I decided to lay out by the pool with a few friends and burned within 45 minutes. I looked like phantom of the opera - half my face was swollen and my entire body was in pain. I think this was the last time I wore a bikini. There was a time when i was 18-20 years old that said "screw it, I don't care what I look like" Course, at the time I was 50lbs. lighter than I am now.

Now I'm actually trying real sunless tanner, not the lotion combined stuff. I have a tan, I have color! Not a ton of color, but I don't feel like Casper and you can't see every vein on my body. I wish I would've caught onto this a few years ago.

Cancer Sucks

So Saturday I went to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in downtown Detroit. My friend Robin wanted someone to walk with and for a good cause I was game.

I don't want to offend anyone, and my following comments are not against the men and women that have had breast cancer, their families, etc. They were the reason I walked and it was very emotional for me. So here goes:

First of all, I had to pay a $40 entry fee just to walk the 5k. If I had $40 I would have gladly donated, however, I could only afford $20. I went to this event for what it stood for - the survivors and the memory of others that fought this disease. Robin had to loan me $20 so I could at least get a number. Over 30,000 people showed up to this event. So $30 per person ($40 if you sign up on the walk day) that's over $900,000. Ok, so figure most of these people got donations - you have to figure that they easily made over 1 million dollars that day. What blows my mind is that most of this money goes to underwrite the event and to raise awareness. It's not used for the scientific research needed. In the past 25 years, we are not any closer to a cure.

The vendors. I think it's great that companies donate for this cause. The vendors passing out their products seemed more like a marketing ploy. Example - pink snack bags of Sunchips. The marketers are hoping that if you eat the bag and like them, you'll go to the store and buy them. The pink marking on the bag is an extra incentive for you to buy. Waiting to walk Robin and I could have wandered around, but we decided to wait until after the walk to check out the vendor tents. After we finished, the vendors were packed up. I could have used some Sunchips after 3 miles of walking.

Overall the event was like a Monet. From far away it looks fantastic, but up close it's a big jumbled up mess.

I have to give credit to the person that came up with the Pink campaign. It is giving awareness to a deadly form of cancer. At the same time, I feel like wearing pink is the cool thing to do. Reminds me of those songs for the starving kids in Africa. All the celebrities were behind it because it was the in thing.

What about heart disease? I heard it kills 10 times more women than breast cancer. Or what about lung cancer? 2 times more. I guess lungs just aren't sexy enough.

Reversal of the Mind

Most of you don't know about my grandmother. She is my last grandparent, 87 and dealing with dementia. It has been something we knew in the back of our minds for years that it was progressing. This past year the disease has really taken hold and now we have almost lost her completely.

My mom took grams to the family reunion on Sunday and to everyone's surprise knew her sisters and brother. She was even asking where "Greg and the babe" were (my brother and nephew.) Monday was another ball of wax. My mom walked into her room at the home and she had a doll in her arms. My mom couldn't believe this and when she told me I couldn't believe it either.

Grams thought the doll was a real baby.

I had no idea that the mind would do that. No idea. It's still hard for me to comprehend.

I read an article on USAToday.com regarding Alzheimer's and how it's affecting people that are in their 40's and 50's. To be honest it scares me to death. I can't even fathom what it must be like for someone to know they have this disease, and know that they will mentally fade away. I'm also wondering if I will have this disease. They say by 2050 the number patients will quadruple. QUADRUPLE. Can you imagine?

I don't think my grandmother realized it, we all denied she had it and now it's too late. We have photo albums, but no stories behind the photos. She was our source to the past. So I have a question: if you knew you had dementia, would you create a legacy for yourself? Do a scrapbook, create a kind of autobiography - anything to leave behind before it's too late?

Are you ready for the summer?

It's been a few weeks, I know. A few thoughts:

• Sunless tanner does work as long as you don't overdo it. I bought Banana Boat TINTED sunless tanner. It works pretty good. I was afraid I would look like an oompa loompa. I don't think i've ever looked this tan. I've always looked like Casper.
  
• Having a tan doesn't make all my imperfections stand out as much. (story to come later)
• I got excited this morning over buying gas for $3.03 a gallon. Scary to think i'm used to this price. I'm very thankful that if I play my cards right, I can drive for two weeks on one tank of gas.
  
• Leaving your A/C at a higher temp saves money. I don't really notice the difference if it is a few degrees warmer. As long as it isn't 90 in my apartment i'm happy.

And finally,

• THE HOFF. Some of you have noticed I didn't post anything about the Hoff's burger episode. I will be the first one to admit, I love how people make fun of him. And secondly, the fact that he thinks he's a huge star. However, I couldn't ridicule him for being an alcoholic. It isn't something to laugh about. I feel bad for his daughters. The fact that they have to deal with crazy parents fighting over custody, and then on top of that - the drug and alcohol abuse. With that out of the way:
  
  Have you seen his autobiography? They are charging $24 for it!!! I plan to keep an eye on the bargain bin. It's bound to show up there by the end of the year.