So excited!

Tomorrow at this time we will have gone through the opening ceremony and will be a couple miles into our first day of the 3-Day 60-Mile Walk for the Cure journey!  I can already feel the excitement in the air, see through the tears, feel the hugs, and sense the camaraderie among the participants - walkers and crew alike - of this great event!  I have been jittery all week with excitement!  I have packed, repacked and packed again!  The weather has changed and it looks like we might get rain on both Saturday and Sunday... hopefully not but at least it will not be hot.  The temps are going to be in the mid to upper 60's, which is perfect for long walks.

At the bank yesterday I was talking to the teller, Terry, while doing my banking.  I currently have VERY PINK and VERY  NOTICEABLE  fingernails, of which I am VERY self-conscious about!  They are BRIGHT.  In fact, they are so bright I will not need to use a flashlight at camp! I told Terry I was walking in a breast cancer walk this weekend and flashed my nails at her with a big grin on my face.  (I felt the need to make an excuse for the color of my nails!)  She asked if it was in Portland and I said no, it was in Seattle.  She said, "Oh! Is it the 3-Day?!  I have always wanted to do that event!"  She said she just didn't have anyone that wanted to do it with her so she had not signed up.  You can guess what happened next!  I told Terry my team was always open to her and anyone else that wanted to walk and she should totally sign up and do it in 2012!  I gave her my contact information and the web link to read about the 3-Day.  I told her she could certainly train during the year with me and my friends.  As it turns out, Terry is a five-year breast cancer SURVIVOR!  She is a floater with the bank and just happened to be at my branch and I just happened to be self-conscious enough about my nails to make a statement about them!  I truly believe we were meant to meet and I really hope Terry decides to join us next year!  We will certainly embrace her and make her the VIP of our team.  After all, that's what this walk celebrates the most ... the SURVIVORS.

My teammate and friend, Ginger, and I will be leaving this afternoon to make our way to Lynnwood.  I can't wait!  We will spend the night at my relatives' house with my sister-in-law, Edith, who is also my tent mate this year.  The three of us will get up VERY early tomorrow morning, drive to Seattle and check in by 5:00 AM!  It sounds awful right now but I know we will be so excited that the time won't bother us.  We will meet up with our other teammate, Pam, at the event and will start what promises to be an amazing, wonderful, emotional, exhausting, rewarding, memorable journey together!  All three of my walking teammates this year are first-timers.  It will be such a joy for me to have them along.  I will miss my daughter being by my side this year but hopefully she can walk again next year, or at least be on the crew.  Unfortunately, Brittany's job wasn't able to let her or Michelle (they now work together!) take the time off to be on the crew as they had planned.  However, both of them, as well as my mother and my friend, Linda, will be at the closing ceremony on Sunday evening!  Closing is another very emotional part of the journey and being a part of it forever etches a special place in your soul.

Here's to a fantastic weekend ahead! Go Pink Thunder!

Thanks again to all of my supporters for enabling me to take part in this amazing journey once again!  xoxo