Sunday, October 19, 2003

$620 TIMES TWO!

Our office team walked this morning in the five-mile Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event that took us up and down the lakefront between the museum campus and Navy Pier. The day was gorgeous, and (last I heard) there were 40,000 people participating in the walk. I raised $620 in pledges from my family and friends -- which comes to a whopping $1,240 thanks to my company's dollar-for-dollar matching pledge. I don't know what our team raised in aggregate, but I'll let you know as soon as I hear our final numbers.

Part of the event involves a tribute wall you can decorate with pink ribbons customized with the names of people touched by breast cancer. I bought ribbons for my mom, both grandmas, my sister's mother-in-law, a dear family friend and all the women mentioned by the people who sponsored me. Both of my grandmothers survived their breast cancer and died of other causes, and everyone else in my life touched by breast cancer has beaten it. Mom is celebrating 15 cancer-free years this month!

After the walk I headed across town to Alcala's Western Wear to get a real cowboy hat. I've wanted one of my own since I wore a fabulous one in a show years ago, and a recent article in the Trib profiled a guy at Alcala's who is known for expertly sizing and shaping hats to fit every face and head perfectly. And the article was right. I bought a black wool Stetson that looks so kick-ass on me I want to sleep in it, and I bought an ultra-cheap straw beater hat I could maybe wear line dancing and not worry about losing it. So I'm now the proud gay owner of two authentic cowboy hats. And to celebrate getting both of them on sale, I stopped at my favorite Mexican restaurant for a tasty barbacoa burrito. Mmm!

And as I write this, I've learned that the giant spider outside my window doesn't like ladybugs. And that ladybugs can escape from spider webs.

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