I arrived early at 11am. I got there before the signs were up and I got extra lost, but I found my way to where they were in that huge park. I had a few goals and one of was to take plenty of photographs for the organizers (even when they were setting up) because I knew they wouldn't be focused on that. There were probably three of us with SLR's - phottoging (Yeah I know that's not a real word) around. I only got in a few shots. I'm so much of a behind the camera gal that it's hard for me to remember to be IN some of the photos. So I'm a little disappointed that I didn't hand my camera over more often for others to take pictures of my friends and me together. I think I knew a little over 30 people that were there before the walk.
A few people *really* surprised me. The first surprise I had - I found out right before I was leaving for the walk. My Bloggy Friend emailed me letting me know he was coming to the race with his wife. Many people wonder how I can be so positive about Lyme. However, THIS moment is why I'm so positive. Having Lyme truly changed my life. It changed my outlook on life and it also changed me from being extremely introverted to being able to make strangers into friends in an instant. (yes I just snapped my fingers).
Smiles change people folks. Don't you know that if you smile at one person - they are more than likely going to smile back at you? I spent a lot of my time smiling at people yesterday, but no person gave me a bigger smile than Mr. K. I saw him and smiled - he smiled back and introduced himself as my blog reader. I knew in that moment exactly who he was. Every time I saw K and his wife - they smiled at me. I smiled back. It was contagious this smiling. I spent a lot of time with them, although I'll be honest - it wasn't long enough. So you there - reading this blog - we have to get together again. Seriously.
Let me back track for a second. When I think of my friends - sometimes I take a snap shot of them in my mind. Those snapshots I carry around with me for life. Whenever I think of someone, I think of them in that snapshot. I now have a snap shot of K in my mind (and fortunately for me - on my computer because I used my camera to actually take it!). And I don't know if you can see it - I can - but through his "frown" he's actually smiling! It cracks me up! He looks like Michael Rosenbaum! Tell me I'm not the only one that thinks this - (I see you all - madly googling - Michael Rosenbaum - without hair people - ala Smallville era). Whatever would I have posted about K if you hadn't come to see me. Seriously. It would have been such a dull post. Chuckles. Ask him - I laugh and smile - a lot. It helps. There's no need to be sick and grumpy. Be sick and happy. I can't change the sick, but I can change my attitude and I did.
PS: K - I'm so proud of you - I'm not sure if you've seen the official results, but you finished FOURTH in your age group - He finished running 3.1 miles - 5 minutes faster than I walked 1 mile. Be proud there pal - you did it.
Moving on - I work in a pre-school and two children and their Mom came to support me. They also knew someone that had been affected and when the Mom found out about the walk and that I had Lyme she registered. I was so blessed by this simple act of kindness - that this was one of the moments I cried. I pretty much spent the entire mile walking with this family. I'm not posting pictures of them because I did not ask for permission. I really try not to post pictures of folks without their consent. However if I see them this week and they say yes - I will gladly post a picture of them. They are so adorable :}
A bunch of us know a guy named Pete. Pete & I are the ones that hosted the Under Our Skin screening in May 2012. Well, we've really been missing him here lately. So Meredith and I took it upon ourselves to come up with an idea to show him how much we miss him. I haven't seen Pete since the screening. So we had this idea of holding up words. Do you know how hard it is to direct people to hold words? Um, very. I think they rearranged about 3 times and finally we got it so that everyone was in the picture - and the sentence made sense! His Mom is sending this picture to him since he doesn't have internet or phone access right now. Speaking of Mom's - My Mom and brother came! I didn't know they were coming so I got the shock of my life. My Mom took this photo of the group. Thanks Mom.
After the race - they had three things. The first was the Bouncing Bulldogs. Now these the world's best jump rope team - They were simply amazing. Yes the whole group was jumping over one rope.
There were also the awards for the competitive 5K
And TIC-NC did a small presentation.
Overall I had a great time! This is me with the sign I made to walk with there photographed by my friend Melisa.
No comments:
Post a Comment