Good morning, everyone!  Happy Friday!!  I’m sitting here at one of my very favorite places.  I’ll give you a couple hints and we’ll see if you can guess:  I’m enjoying a free vanilla coffee, I’m now on my second free donut (and I don’t pick the plain ones…first it was chocolate with cream in the middle and now it’s one with chocolate frosting and sprinkles).  I’m surrounded by wonderful light, a little bit of motivating music and (and here comes the big hint, folks), the building is full of cars…If you don’t guess this one then it’s clear you have not been keeping up with my posts! 

I am indeed at the Volkswagen dealership!!  Good job to all of you who guessed it, especially if you guessed it before I dropped the mother of all hints.  You know me well and you are a loyal Julie’s Blog reader.  Sorry, there’s no prize for guessing, just the satisfaction of knowing that you have a good memory.  :)  I’m a little irritated right now though because there’s a lady cleaning the showroom floor and she keeps shaking out her mop which makes this obnoxious noise…she is ruining my experience.  I won’t let it deter me though…I might just have to throw something on her from the balcony above.  hahahahahahaha I’ll blame the quiet fellow at the table next to me.  He obviously doesn’t know all that VW has to offer…he’s not even eating a free donut or drinking a free coffee.

Come to think of it though, those really aren’t free at all.  I’ve dropped a pretty penny here over the years so really, coffee and a donut is the very least they can do!!!  Speaking of a “pretty penny”, don’t you wonder where that phrase “pretty penny” came from?  I googled it for you, you know, just in case you really wanted to know.  Apparently it was first used in 1768.  The word “pretty” also means “considerable”, thus a pretty penny means a lot of mullah.  By the way, I just went to get some water and I noticed the other guy does indeed have a coffee with him so he’s learned of some of the benefits of being a VW customer.

Geez…I feel like my writing is totally scattered today.  I apologize, but I have lots running through my mind!  I’m thinking about the campaign…pretty much, I think about that morning, noon and night.  It feels as though it’s a second full-time job.  I really am enjoying it, but it is definitely stressful.  I come home after work, pick up the computer and work late into the evening/early morning hours planning, e-mailing, social networking and organizing.  Sometimes I worry that the pressure will cause the leukemia to return.  That probably sounds incredibly dramatic, but it’s…damnit!  I can’t finish my thought because she keeps shaking that stupid mop!!  Doesn’t she know I’m trying to get stuff done up here?…anywayyyyy, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, it sounds dramatic, but I bet it’s a pretty common phenomenon.

Everyone worries about the effects of stress.  I think for cancer patients, you always wonder when your cells decided to betray you and why.  Was it a combination of factors?  Were the cancer cells always there, lying dormant until some external factor triggered the uncontrolled multiplication?  I know I am now JuLaura, but what if there’s something in my body just waiting to morph her healthy cells into leukemia?  What if forcing myself to stay up late, to stare at the computer for hours, to put off walks with the pups and swims at the pool is sending a message to my body that now might be a good time for any dormant cancer cells to spring to life?  I know we only have six more weeks and chances are I’ll be just fine, but I think it’s interesting that I deal with stress so differently now.  Instead of simply dealing with it and moving on, I worry about it and what it might be doing to my body.

Sooooooo….last week I was nervous to go camping and whitewater rafting because I knew it would be one full weekend where I would not get anything done for the campaign.  But you know what?  It was actually the very best thing I could have done.  I totally unplugged.  Never before have I been so happy when my phone died.  I spent every waking and sleeping moment outside, I sat my stressed out butt on a raft and paddled through class IV and V rapids (without falling out, thank you very much!), I laughed out loud, I met new people, I soaked up the rain and the sun, enjoying both equally.  I roasted marshmallows and looked at the sky, I ate my meals at a picnic table and I fell asleep to a symphony of bugs.  Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better getaway.

I’m just gonna go ahead and be totally cheesy right now…many times on the rafting trip, I thought about Garth Brooks’s song “The River” (I couldn’t find Garth’s version, but I like this one too!).  I’ve always loved the song, but on the trip I just kept thinking “Wow, that song is so true…going down a river is just like living life!”  Each time we came to a big rapid, Joe (our awesome guide) would tell us about what was ahead and where we should swim if we fell in.  When we first got the glimpse of whitewater, my heart started racing, and I concentrated on paddling.  I told myself “there’s no turning back now!  It’s not like I can say, ‘you know what, Joe…I don’t feel like doing this rapid…it’s a little too big for me.’”  Everyone in the raft relied on everyone else to keep the boat rightside up.  Mostly, we looked to Joe who was quite calm with a raft full of first-timers.

There is so much in life that we simply can’t control and facing it head-on is the only way to handle it.  Of course you want to avoid the hydraulics or “holes” when possible (these occur when the “water falls over a ledge, rock, log, or other object. When the water falls off this object, it picks up speed and when it hits the water below, it rolls back on itself, creating what paddlers call a ‘hole’” (from the very handy Answers.com).  I love analogies, I love cheesy quotes and I love sharing them with you.  Below are the lyrics to “The River”.

You know a dream is like a river
Ever changin’ as it flows
And a dreamer’s just a vessel
That must follow where it goes
Trying to learn from what’s behind you
And never knowing what’s in store
Makes each day a constant battle
Just to stay between the shores
And I will sail my vessel
‘Til the river runs dry
Like a bird upon the wind
These waters are my sky
I’ll never reach my destination
If I never try
So I will sail my vessel
‘Til the river runs dry
Too many times we stand aside
And let the waters slip away
‘Til what we put off ’til tomorrow
It has now become today
So don’t you sit upon the shoreline
And say you’re satisfied
Choose to chance the rapids
And dare to dance that tide
And I will sail my vessel
‘Til the river runs dry
Like a bird upon the wind
These waters are my sky
I’ll never reach my destination
If I never try
So I will sail my vessel
‘Til the river runs dry
There’s bound to be rough waters
And I know I’ll tke soome falls
With the good Lord as my captain
I can make it through them all
And I will sail my vessel
‘Til the river runs dry
Like a bird upon the wind
These waters are my sky
I’ll never reach my destination
If I never try
So I will sail my vessel
‘Til the river runs dry
Lord, I will sail my vessel
‘Til the river runs dry
Yea

Kinda makes you want to go whitewater rafting, doesn’t it?  I personally cannot WAIT to go back!  And Class VI was a wonderful company.  We are thinking of heading to WV to do the Gauley River in the fall with an overnight rafting trip…anyone care to join us?  You will after you see the photos below!

“To the lost man, to the pioneer penetrating a new country, to the naturalist who wishes to see the wild land at its wildest,
the advice is always the same: follow a river.
The river is the original forest highway. It is nature’s own Wilderness Road.”
- Edwin Way Teale

I hope everyone is doing well.  Thank you for your support, as always.  As much as I whined about the campaign in this post, I am really enjoying the challenge, and you make my participation possible.  $50,000, here we come!!!  By the way, did you know that once we hit the $50,000 mark, we can name an LLS research grant?  I already have a name picked out, but I can’t share that with you unless we meet our goal so help pass along the word.  Share my blog,  my Facebook campaign, YouTube, Twitter and candidate pages with your coworkers, friends and family and let’s ROCK THIS THING! 

Love ya,

Julie

PS Sorry for the shameless marketing spiel at the end of the post, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do…this campaign is one of the wave trains that make up my river of life. :)  hahahahaha I’m such a dork!  Enjoy the photos!

PSS Although I wrote “Happy Friday” at the beginning, I didn’t actually get to finish it until Saturday…or technically Sunday morning.