Heart Walk 2006

Wooo HOOOOO!!!!
Oh man that was so much FUN! I got to see SO MANY of my favorite nurses, including Shanda, Mel and Tiffany who were at Nova's funeral, and Jane and... man there were so SO many! It was awesome to see them all again!! I saw Mika and Gina, and I got to see Lisa again, and meet her son Daniel, and her friend (whose name escapes me dagnabit) and I finally met Kim and Jacob and Mackenzie, and I met Keisha and Ramiah. I also saw Jennifer and Aiden, thank goodness, because I've been trying to get a hold of her but her email addy went poof when my moontown email account went to the shitter. Terra and Aiden were holding hands and flirting, oh my god it was adorable!

Pictures are forthcoming - and also a bit of video, which brings me to the other thing that happened!

Several months ago, shortly after signing up for the Heart Walk, we were invited to what they called The Heart Walk Kick-off, which basically was a chance to meet people and get a feel for ways to raise money and stuff. The night before I had a dream that they were going to call me up to the front and make me do some sort of motivational speech. Of course, that didn't happen, but it's made me a little wary about things since then. Well, I knew that they had again chosen to use our story as part of the opening speech, like a motivational thing, and that they wanted me up on stage - like they did at the Kickoff. You know, "this is Erin, here's a 10 second summary of her situation..." Erin smiles and they move on to the next story.

So when they called me by name to the stage I said to Kara, "Oh, lord, I didn't know they were going to call me up and introduce me like that!" And she says, "Oh you won't have to speak, just go on up!" So I did. At which point they put a microphone in my hand...

Lenise Ligon (a local TV anchor - she did the TV interview with me) talked a bit and then told me to tell my story... on the stage, with a microphone, in front of SEVEN THOUSAND PEOPLE! So, I did. I think... I don't remember what I said, I might have told them about what I had for dinner last night, what do I know? I was too freaked out to think, or remember! But Lisa's nifty lil camera does video, and she's going to email it to me. If I didn't make a fool of myself, I'll post it :)

Three miles is a lot longer during the day, in the sun, in a huge unruly mass of bodies, than it was the few times I walked 3 miles at night. Man, it was long, and hot, and FUN! I enjoyed all of it, every bit. I ended up right beside Lenise Ligon for part of the walk... It was cool to just be able to talk to her like we were, oh, not friends but, you know, not like she was some sort of icon either, which is how I'd have felt about it if I'd found myself walking beside her last Saturday!

Someone (I can't remember WHO right now daggum it!) said they think I've found my calling. I think they might just be right. I was in my element, although I have to admit that there are conversations I'm a little unsure on the details of. There was so much going on that I think I didn't process certain information very clearly, because I was trying to have so many conversations and do so many things at once.

Especially whatever I said on stage. I really just can't remember!

I don't even care though, I had such a good time, and I raised awareness, and Team Nova raised over $5000, and I got to see friends and my beloved nurses (I wish Kandi and Jessica and Scott and Vivian and Dianne and Shawn and... and everyone else, just ALL of them, had been there! I missed you guys, but I know, someone had to work last night and today) and it was really good family time too.

As my kids would say:
Awesomness.

Thank you all again for being part of it with me! And thank you Erin and Gretchen for the last minute donations last night!

I'll get the pictures up ASAP!