On the Subject of Spare Change.

I've turned my spare change jar into a collection jar. It's one of the giant Gallo wine jars, and it's still got the sticker on there from when it still held Chablis instead of my loose coin - haha, no, I didn't empty it myself, thank you!

Anyhow it's got a lot in there right now and it'll only keep growing through the year. Today I put the change from my lunch in there:

A dime.

Not much, right? At some gas stations nowadays you'd be lucky to get a couple pieces of Bazooka gum or a Fireball. Or if you find yourself at a Cracker Barrel, an old-fashioned Peppermint Puff, or a sugar stick (if you buy ten of them, that is).

It's that time of year again where the pink comes flying out of seemingly out of nowhere - in some parts of the country some cities have done or are gearing up for their 3-Day walks. Our local craft store has scrapbooking supplies, feather boas and blank shirts, foam visors, and bandannas ready to be embellished and personalized with glitter glue and fuzzy pom-poms and anything and everything a very craft-gifted person could think of to work with. Cards, cookbooks, jars, and fliers start popping up on message boards in various places around town - other runners/walkers pushing for final funds (or like myself, getting a jumpstart on next year!) and support. I've been sparingly checking the internet the past few weeks as I've been super busy with the new job, but I've been averaging about 2 or 3 new emails from all the awareness organizations I've been following now, and it's like this every year! (It really should be like this year-round but I'll spare you that tirade and say one day I hope we'll get there.)

But anyhow I found time to do a little bit of grocery shopping this week (where the pink reusable shopping bags are now out, too for just a buck or two!!) and to my surprise, one of my favorite  annual fundraising events has started: the Yoplait "Save Lids, Save Lives" run!

I don't know what it's like around the rest of the nation but these are limited time runs in our grocery stores where the distributor, Yoplait yogurt, decks out their yogurt cups in these pretty pink lids. Peel them off, clean them up, stash them until you're ready to mail them off, and lick that stamp like it was covered in Mixed Berry or Key Lime Pie. Each lid sent in generates a donation of ten cents to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. Yoplait has pledged to donate up to $1.6 MILLION dollars (they guarantee at least a minimum of $500,000 anyways, which is still really awesome) through these little pink pieces of foil.

For more information, head on over to the Yoplait website. :)

On the Subject Of Being Adaptive.

Good morning and I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while. This is just a quick entry, I'm on my father's laptop right now.

I'ts been a very interesting week with the new job as they've got us sent out of town and shacked up at a hotel. This coming week will be the same deal. I was curious to know before hitting the road to see what kind of walk/run-friendly routes the town has and if the hotel had a workout room. To my happiness, yes it did, but the town's main route is a long strip of free-/highway that I don't feel comfortable walking or running along, even in the bike lane. My only other option would be going off into the hilly desert brush to get a good session in.

The only problem I have nowwwwww is the age of the equipment and the fact that there's one machine and I do have to share it with a coworker but other than that I was able to get a lot of miles in when I returned to the hotel from my training site during the week.

It also helps that my position at work is a very active one; I had originally been wearing the last shoes I'd gotten for my previous job - cute little black, sporty, work-appropriate sneakers, but after my first full day on that hard concrete I switched to my running shoes and it was an extremely good thing I did. This week I'm going to pack a pedometer because I don't see myself spending as much time in the office doing computer-based training as I know I am going to be out on the floor being active with my future staff's counterparts at this store.

As for that, I love the crew where I am training and I wish I could pack them all up in my back pocket and take them home with me because they are a wonderful group of people and do their jobs very well. I'm grateful for this opportunity I've been given and I love the atmosphere of the staff at this place and it gets me very excited to hope that my store, when it opens, will be about the same. I may see them during the final construction stages of my store and some words have been going around that we may actually get to keep some staff transfers. They are excited for me as well both in my new store and my personal ventures and I love the support they've been providing me during this short time I've been there. It's just been a really enjoyable week, getting a lot of learning in and I've been keeping busy off the clock as much as I can and getting some good rest in as well.

...It also helps that our hotel has a jacuzzi so when I get out of the weight/exercise room I can go soak my feet. ;)

This next week should be about the same so if you don't hear from me until next Saturday please don't be alarmed!

:D

On the Subject of Random Acts.

So I'm a big fan of the television show Supernatural. I only started watching it a couple of months ago, and I'm ready to get caught up on the 5th season before the 6th starts. There's this character on the show, an angel, Castiel, who is pretty much one of the greatest characters ever aside from the brothers Winchester themselves. Cas is played by the incredible Misha Collins. I remember him as Bret from ER back before I stopped watching it, and I think he was in Girl, Interrupted too. Misha and the rest of the cast of Supernatural are very, very in touch and hands on with their fanbase, and it's really a very beautiful thing.

Well anyhow, today, Misha took a run for his non-profit organization, Random Acts... raising money for three orphanages in Haiti and flood relief in Pakistan.

He ran for 83 kilometers - about 51.5 miles - in 11 hours, and the total amount raised through this moment in donations is nearly $30,000, and that's not including all the pledges-per-km that are being calculated and collected and what not, though I have heard in a few places the combined total is somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000 (one pledger put forth $50 per km!!!!). We may not have the actual, complete total raised for a few days because donations are still pouring in and so are a few pledges.

I'm awfully impressed at the speed and effort put forth into the Random Acts project, from the initial donation effort for the earthquake victims in Haiti to the now world-wide effort by everyone involved. It's an overwhelmingly fantastic and uplifting movement.

Misha inspired me today to continue with my effort for this run and Tuesday when I report for my first full day of work with my new job I'm going to be asking the HR directors and my hiring staff what I can do to be a part of giving back to the community further than the store's service, and how they might be able to help me with my own run. Every day has been getting easier and more exciting for me to work towards my own goals and simply being able to see (and be a part of) a cause like Misha's gives me this ridiculous amount of courage and determination. I hope that you'll take a second to give the organization and what it stands for a look, and decide to do some random acts of your own.

:)