$20,000 RAISED?!?!?!?!?!

Thank goodness it's over.

I couldn't eat at all the day before or the day of the gala. When I did eat something it went RIGHT through me. It was ugly.

U-G-L-Y.

Andrea, a good friend, made a giant cheque out of various Walmart stationary items...for the amount that was donated. It was perfect. My best friend, Lesley, delivered my speech for me, as I sat in the chair.

It was suggested to the planners, by Andrea, that before the shaving began, people should have the opportunity to come up on stage and cut a piece of my hair off for charity. I swear, about 50 people came up and donated for that opportunity. We went from $17,220, to about $18 and change? I don't even know. What I DO know, is that my friend Suzie, and her husband, topped it up to make $20,000 dollars!!!

Unbelievable.

The night was amazing. I saw tons of old friends from high school, I danced, I chatted A LOT, and just had a grand time. I felt good.

I've been getting a few odd looks out in public, but who cares, right?

RIGHT.

The good news is that I have a normal shaped head.

The bad news is that I am grayer than I thought.

Once again, who cares, right?

RIGHT.

Pictures are below, for your viewing pleasure. Click on the pictures for larger versions.


















The "before" shot. Seconds before sitting in the chair.....





















Two hairdressers, my best friend Lesley, and June's husband, Rainer.



















Here we go!


















With my friend (and fellow ukulele player), Sonya















It was a high school reunion, with Rainer of course. Yes, I went to an all-girls school...

Below: the cancer ribbon was shaved into the back of my head. I requested this, as another friend of mine shaved her head for cancer and suggested I do this to cut down on the remarks I'll get in public.

Baldy McBalderson

I was okay for a month.... up until today.

Appetite is off.

I feel out of sorts.

I don't think it's the actual hair part...because my hair is style-less and unhealthy. It's more the part where I have to sit in front of 150 people while my hair is shaved off. Although many people may think the opposite, I really don't like to be the centre of attention. Maybe back in the day, but as I get older, I just want to sit in the corner and examine everyone else in the room. Take in the atmosphere, you know?

I will post a photo or two when this ordeal is done.

Originally I was supposed to tape my speech so that it could be played during the head shave, while I am up on stage. Instead, I asked my best friend Lesley to read my speech while it is getting shaved. She has this unbelievable gift for public speaking...so I have nothing but the utmost confidence that she will do a phenomenal job.

Wish me luck? Off to sleep......my last night with hair. Time to throw out the hair ties and curl serums, gels, hairsprays and dyes...

As I Get Older, I Lose Brain Cells

There were two incidents this week that restored my faith in humans. First was the cleaning blitz on Friday...where I witnessed about 500 people out picking up garbage. This was an initiative that the mayor supported where people go outside for 20 minutes and pick up garbage. It was an amazing thing to see. The second is when I saw two people give up their seats on the TTC. You'd think this was a normal thing to see, but honestly...no one is that astute or unselfish. I've seen little old ladies standing in front of punk-asses that are seated. Disgusting.

This past week I was at my company's AGM. I run the event for 80-100 people....this is a huge undertaking. HUGE. I never sleep the week of the event, and when I do, I end up dreaming all about what could or has already gone wrong.

I got through the week and then suffered from a 2 day massive headache.

I ordered these cool pewter key chains for the event since it was our 60th anniversary and this is the last year of using our present logo......

On my way to Mountain Equipment Coop yesterday, I was on the bus...and decided to do some moving around of personal items. I removed my work pass card and my building pass card from my key chain ring, and placed them into my Metropass wallet thingamabob. Then I added the cool key chain to the ring with my other keys. As I was doing this, I was dying of heat, so I stood up and opened the window. I finally got to the store, bought some items and then walked back to the subway. Wallet thing was gone. GONE.

Bus pass. Gone.
Building pass card. Gone.
Work pass card. Gone.
Zip Card. Gone.

It must have been on my lap when I stood up to open that fucking window. I even looked back when I was getting off the bus and didn't see anything...but this is probably because I was sitting on the back wheel well. If it slipped off my lap, it would have fallen down the front of the wheel well onto the floor in the aisle ahead of me.

Tomorrow I will go to the lost and found. Who actually thinks it will be there? If it IS there, I will be impressed. I don't even care about the bus pass part. I just want the pass cards. They are costly to replace.

So is my brain. I'm going to have to replace that soon too because it has been failing me lately. The part that pisses me off, is that I had JUST moved the passes over to that wallet seconds before. If I had just left them ALONE, I'd still be travelling the city with my damn pass. Instead, I had to buy tokens for the rest of the month.

Dumb. Ass.

The last dumb ass move I made was around the time that my dad died. I withdrew $100 from the bank machine and walked away. Problem was...I never took the money with me. Went back and..surprise-surprise. It was gone.

Maybe it's a reminder that I need to slow down....who knows.

If you are reading this and have done something really stupid lately, please comment about it. I need to know that I am not the only dumb ass around.

World's Strongest Dad

I dare you to watch this video and not be in tears a minute in.

What a phenomenal man.

Psssstttttt

Ok so someone, and I won't mention any names.....[coughLaurellecough].... has been nagging me to update this. Apparently it's been 13 days or something since my last post.

I decided to discuss an issue that I see every single day living in my building. In the mornings I take the stairs down, since I don't want to have to deal with everyone's annoying habits, such as some able-bodied person taking the elevator from the second floor to the ground floor. Talk about fucking lazy. It's 10 stairs. Or, how some people don't even make eye contact with you when you get on, as though it would be the most difficult thing to smile or even say hello.

However.

The WORST thing is when someone stands by the control panel in the elevator and makes sure that they are pressing the "close doors" button before you even step over the gap of the doors to exit. Let's think about this, honestly. Say there are 3 people on the elevator and the two people ahead of you are getting off the elevator before you. The amount of time that you are saving my pressing that fucking button is...about.....2 seconds per passenger. Multiplied by 2. Woo hooo, they saved a WHOLE 4 seconds. Drives me so insane that if I see someone doing that before I get off, that I press the UP button on the wall upon my departure, so that there is a delay.

Is life realllllly that fast-paced that people need to do that?

Unless, of course, you are having a poo-attack. In that case (from what I hear) it's okay to do that. Because 4 seconds can mean the difference between washing your jeans or not. So I heard.

Confession?

" Bless me Father for I haven't blogged; it's been 19 days since my last blog, and these are my thoughts."

You can take the girl out of the Catholic church, but you can't take the Catholic out of the girl, I guess.

So quite a bit has happened since the last entry.

Laurelle starts chemo today (Wednesday) and she will be having this treatment for 6 months. Her appetite is coming back slowly, but surely. The sweet tooth is coming back too - yah!

June is a friend from high school that I lost contact with once we graduated. I could kick myself, because she was such an amazing person. They say life shouldn' t be full of regrets but I regret that I lost contact with her and others from high school, every day. I have since reconnected with those that I missed, but I will never be able to enjoy June again, in person. Her husband is organizing a gala for her, to raise money for cancer research. I decided to go, and have been trying to sell tickets on his behalf.

Here is the link:

I have decided to shave my head in support of both her and June, and to raise funds for the Canadian Cancer Society. I would have shaved it just for Laurelle, but I wanted to help more than that. I have amazing people in my life and they have been more than willing to help out. Cancer seems to have touched almost everyone's life lately. Every day I hear about someone that has lost a parent, sibling, grandparent or friend to cancer. I'm hoping that in 20 years, our kids will be talking about cancer like we talk about the plague or polio. I hope it's something that has a cure or a vaccine. It's such a terrible disease.

Anyhow, as I was trying to figure out WHEN I was going to shave my head, I thought it would be cool to maybe have it done at June's Gala. As I thought about it, I started to think that it wasn't such a cool idea since it was taking away from it being her night. I didn't want to make it about me, even though I was raising awareness and money. My Facebook status that night stated that I had decided to go ahead with the head shave. The next morning, June's husband, Rye, had emailed me to ask if I would do it at the gala. It was almost meant to be. He said that I know as well as he does, that June would be all over this idea. She wasn't much for the spotlight and always wanted others to shine.

How could I say no?

So, I made a goal of $3000 and set up this website less than a week ago. I am already up to $1900. The support has been tremendous.

People keep asking me if I am nervous... but I am not. At all. I actually can't wait for it to come off. I just need to invest in some cool hats for work to draw the attention away from my head in public. Other than that, take it all off. I'm ready. I'm not even sure that I will dye my hair again after this. It's so damaged from 6 years of dye. Time for a rest. I'm nervous to find out how grey I am though!

I spoke to a friend named Shannon who shaved her head 4 months ago (for cancer) and she gave me some tips, so I am well prepared. The most important tip is to have the cancer ribbon symbol shaved into the back of my head....this way strangers will know why you have chosen to shave your head.

Personally, I will be telling people that I shaved it off due to having the worst possible case of head lice. I love to see reactions, so that will be a bit of fun, non?

Here is the website for the head shave. Please donate if you haven't already. I thank you, Laurelle thanks you, and June would thank you if she was still here. She is probably looking down at us, smiling. When you look up the definition of "inspiration" in the dictionary, there should be a picture of her beside it.

Rye encouraged me by saying that even if I only raise a dollar, that is a dollar more than the Canadian Cancer Society had before I started this venture. Very true.