I guess first and foremost has to be because the place just doesn't have the same feel without Chrome. He was a guiding force for me here and my footsteps here tend to echo a bit more loudly without him.
For those of ya'll worried about my eternal soul after my little temper tantrum towards God a few entries back, don't worry. He and I made up. He forgives, just like all parents forgive when a child has melt down.
I've also been extrememly busy doing something very near and dear to my heart. As some of you may know, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Last year I designed a little reminder graphic for people and offered them to anyone who wanted one. In one month's time I sent out over 800 of them. The letters I got from survivors and family members really touched my heart. I had said then that if the reminder saved one person's life then it was worth all the time it took to make and send them out.
This year I designed a new one and did the same thing. I sent it out to my graphics and tags groups, extending the offer ... "No one will be turned down! Request as many as you want. Use them in email, print them and tape them to your bathroom mirror, laminate them and use as bookmarks, make buttons out of them, print them and make fridge magnets, whatever it takes to remind yourself and your loved ones to do those monthly self exams".
I got letters from people that had requested last year's, saying they just had to have this years. I got letters saying they missed last year's and needed this years. Tons and tons of letters and requests. Literally thousands of stories came pouring in.
The one that touched me the most and rocked me out of my chair was the one from Lynne. She wrote to say that last year she requested and received one of my tags. Since I had gone through "the trouble" (her words, not mine) of making it for her, she felt like she was obligated to make an appt with her doc for a physical. She was 57 at the time and hadn't ever had a mammography and never did the monthly checks. She'd let a few years slide by between pap smears, as some of us are apt to do. Life gets in the way, ya know?
So Lynne kept her appointment despite the nervousness and trepidation and the doc found a cyst in one of her breasts. Luckily it was benign cyst. While she was there, the doc noticed that she hadn't had a colonoscopy, which is recommended once one turns 50. So she went ahead and had that scheduled. During the procedure they found a huge malignant tumor in her colon. The doc said that had they not caught it when they did there wouldn't have been any way her life could have been saved.
Lynne remembered the phrase I kept repeating over and over about the simple little tag "If it saves just one person's life it's worth my time" and she wrote to tell me that it was definitely worth it. That my tiny little reminder made a HUGE difference in her life and the lives of her family members. No, I'm not vain enough to think that my graphic actually saved her life, but it did put her in the situation in which her life was saved.
Ok, yeah, that sent chills right through me. :)
Soooo when I made up this year's graphic and sent it out I shared Lynne's story, along with my own. My Maternal Grandmother lost a sister to breast cancer. My mother's older sister is a five year survivor, having undergone a mastectomy and radiation therapy. My mother had a scare, but luckily it was a cyst. Yep, I'm in line and honestly it scares the crap out of me.
I sent the offer out to the five groups that I'm on and asked the members to please pass the offer around to other groups or people they felt might be interested. I did something almost underheard of in the tagging community, which was to offer up a tag for general request without expecting a thing in the world back for it .. no tags of appreciation or anything like that. Imagine my surprise to learn that my offer had shot through Yahoo Groups, MSN Groups and some AOL Groups! Dayum! I was stunned and so excited! The more people who see that reminder the more gentle nudging we can do. Yeah, it's not the same as donating lots of money or finding a cure, but I tend to do things on a more personal level anyway.
I had hoped to top last year's total of just over 800 requests, so I started a month early, Sept instead of October. I sent the original offer out to my groups on Sept 1. By Sept 2 I had over 1500 emails ... that's EMAILS, not requests. Most emails averaged requests for 4 or 5 people, sometimes up to groups of 20 or 30.
Ummm yeah ... can we say "holy shit!"? Yeah, I thought we could. I stopped counting at around 4,700 requests and I still have about 500 or so emails left to even open, with more trickling in each day. Thank heavens there are LOTS of repeat names coming through. Sue and Karen seem to be very popular names. Whenever I get requests for a name already done it's just a matter of hitting Reply on the email, attaching the requested reminders and sending. But dayum, that's the most mind numbing part.
Next year I'm posting those puppies on a website and people can download their own!
Here's what the tag looks like this year:
You may also have seen Trinity's little ribbon reminder she is now signing her entries with. I did that one too but it wasn't offered up for general request.
Ok .. in other news ... I'm so excited about DS5 starting! I got hooked on last year's and this year it's going to be a bit different. There will be tribes and it will more closely follow Survivor .. well as close as it can online. Raw and Angeline are Co-hosting this season.
Check it out!
Yeah, wish I had the balls to enter but damn those people are cut-throat and awesome writers. Besides, I'd never make it past the application part. My entries are too sporadic. I may play along at home, doing the IC's just to see if I can hang with it.
Anyway ... I'm off to bed so I can dream about more Pink Ribbons dancing before my eyes. Yuck.
Until next time~
bisa
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