gratitude and my life

I love days when I feel recharged by work, as opposed to drained by it. I wasn't terribly thrilled to get up out of bed at 6:30am this morning - Adam's been having some deep-coughing issues for the last few days, and his coughing and wheezing woke me up on a pretty regular basis last night. I have a new phone, and the unfamiliar alarm sound was jarring. But I did it, I got up out of the house only 15 minutes after I'd intended - and still made it to work 15 minutes early. I had time to DO things before my morning meeting, and at the meeting I created an actually manageable to-do-list, rather than an overwhelming list of vague wants and desires.

The reason I am recharged is because of the Walk for Independence - this has been both the most frustrating project AND the most rewarding for me. We had some issues getting up off the ground - all stemming to my vision being distinctly different than the executive director's vision. I felt like I wasn't being trusted to run a good event - and she felt like I was letting what was important to HER slide through the cracks. But now that we've got some stuff decided, we have momentum, and we actually have people registering, both of us have relaxed and can just enjoy the show.

I am personally gratified that my pleas to my friends on facebook have come through in such an amazing way. I wanted to raise $260 - because I couldn't quite get all of the food donated, and I felt bad about that. $260 covered the cost - I asked them to donate even if they could only donate $1.00 - and some people did just that. I received several $1.00 bills in the mail - which actually DOES provide an entire lunch to someone, and is a very helpful contribution. On the other end of the spectrum, in the last hour, I received 2 $100.00 donations. I've received everything in between, and have basked in the funny little notes and well-wishes that have also been included.

We have 59 people registered now, with many more people saying that they are *going* to register, so I am feeling better about that too. I was afraid it would just be us at the park...but it looks like we will have some company. :)

Because of this walk, too, we even got an elevator donated to our building. We still have to raise $100,000 to install the thing, but the elevator could have cost us as much as $75,000 - and it was DONATED. All because of the walk.

I've been interviewed by newspapers, we're in the AAA magazine, we have an inter-departmental competition here, we made a fantastic video of our clients, we've harnesses the amazing support of PI staff, clients, board members, family, friends and strangers... I'm inspired. Really and truly inspired today.


In other news - yesterday was a good day too. I went to a Bridal Expo with my sisters and cousin...it was intense, and made me really glad that I am not planning a wedding like that. I am glad to have had the experience, though. We got bored wit it after a couple of hours, so headed to the MAC store at South Coast Plaza, where we did makeup trial runs for my wedding! My cousin in law has a discount there, so I got to purchase a bunch of stuff and not break my budget. She's going to be doing my makeup for the wedding, too, so I won't have to pay a makeup artist.

After that we stopped by my aunt's for a goodbye dinner for a friend of the family's - played Pop5, the BEST PARTY GAME EVER, and then I went home and did a 10 minute sparkpeople video for day 1 of my new bootcamp. I realized at the last minute that I needed to cook chicken, and all I can say is - God Bless the Crockpot. I threw in chicken with some broth, a few carrots, half an onion, a bunch of mushrooms, some garlic, and a cup of dried lentils..and this morning had stew ready to take for lunch. After I did that, I fed dogs, crocheted most of a hat, wrote in my journal, and fell asleep watching The Office once Adam came home.

Today at 4:50 I will put on my gym clothes and head to the Brookhurst gym, where I will do 20 minutes on the exercise bike, and 42 minutes of walk/jog combo (5 walk, 5 run, 2 walk, 5 run, 2 walk, 5 run, 2 walk, 5 run, 2 walk, 4 run, 5 walk). Then I'm going to go to Walmart to use my gift certificate to buy a stability ball, go home, do my 10 min. bootcamp video, take Juno for a walk, make lunches, spend 10 minutes working on my camp-to-be, write in my journal, pack for santa fe, and take my bag/spinning wheel/rosie's yarn over to my parents.

Tuesday, work and working out, Wednesday work, Thursday work til noon, then Santa Fe til sunday! When I get back I need to remember to call Adam's dad for some Juno training sessions.

I am very tired. I am looking forward to habit getting me to the gym, and the gym waking me up. I need to increase my liquid intake over the next few hours, and head for fruit if I get snacky. Luckily, I brought a bunch of oranges, grapes, and an apple with me.


my backyard lemon tree, the inspiration for my wedding!

Walk for Independence!!!

Hi,
For those of you who don't know, I work with adults with developmental disabilities at a fantastic non-profit in Orange County, CA. One of my big projects this year is putting on our FIRST Walk for Independence. The date is set for January 17th, in Huntington Beach.

This is MY baby project, and the success of it is hugely important to me, not just for my own accomplishment, but for the people I work with. We recently bought a building, and hold many of our events and meetings here, and this building - despite the fact that we work with people with disabilities - does not have an elevator. We are more than a little ashamed of this, and are trying very hard to rectify it - hence the fundraiser Walk event!

I recently was able to get most of the food for our walkers/volunteers donated by Mobile Taco Grill, but we still need to pay $260.00 for materials. I am trying to get this entire food cost donated. This means that I have a personal goal of raising $260.00 for the event.

I figure, I've got over 300 friends, right? ;) If everyone donated just ONE dollar, I could accomplish my goal! That's why you're getting this message. Please help! I figure everyone can afford a dollar!

If you can help me with my goal, you can send check/cash to Roya Sorooshian at Project Independence, 3505 Cadillac Ave. Suite O-103, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.

If you can donate more than 1 dollar, I would, of course, hugely appreciate that! Also - if you are interested in registering or volunteering for the event, please go to www.projectindependencewalk.org

THANK YOU for reading this message and for your consideration. I really appreciate it.

You can donate directly using paypal here:

video and website

I am really, really, really excited about my company finally embracing social networking sites in connection to the Walk for Independence! This is a video that we have ALL had our hands in (see if you can count the number of times I say I'm walking) - staff and clients have all contributed to this wonderful little video. Please go take a look, forward it to friends, send it to everyone you know!


Walk for Independence Video

If this encourages you to register, you can do so by going to This Website.
YAY!

the park, elks lodge, and a clean house

Sneezing today - it just sort of occurred to me that my eyes are kind of sensitive and my throat hurts a little. Time to guzzle some water.

I had the strangest workday today - met two of my interns at HB Central Park at the location where we are doing the Walk for Independence on Jan. 17th (contact me to register!!!). I got excited for the Walk all over again - it's such a great park. That's where Adam, myself, and our friends usually go to play disc golf. It's where Adam and I used to go running at 2am, when the coyotes would come out and alternately play with/want to eat Rommel. It's got lakes, playgrounds, disc golf, dog park, picnic areas, Shipley Nature center (where I worked, actually, for a few months), and across Golden West the park continues with more lakes, willow trees, the best library ever, and a humongous and fairly new Sports Complex. It's a fantastic park.

Anyways, we stayed there for a while, and designated where we are going to have everything, then I came back to the office, did about 30 minutes of work, and then it was time to rush out to the Santa Ana Elks lodge to meet with one of the parents of my clients. She is arranging it so that we can use their ballroom for free for our holiday party - so we got a tour of the place, and it was just...a whole other world. First off, you have to use your membership card to even get through the door. She showed us the ballroom, a smaller banquet room - and the meeting room. Seats set up for 400 people, with this odd podium thing in the middle for their "Exalted Ruler" (so not joking. How do I get that job title?) Then she walked us past the lounge - a dozen or so older men drinking and smoking at 11am on a Wednesday - and then into the restaurant. She knew everyone in there, of course, both diners and staff. She treated us to lunch and told us all about what else the Elks do, how to become an Elk, etc. Have I mentioned, it's a whole other world?

There is something awfully appealing about it, though - I don't know if you know how many members Elks lodges have all over the US, or how much money they raise and donate - but you can't DO the kind of philanthropic things they do without the huge amount of sheer power that comes from that many members. I was a little awed. I loved being in Girl Scouts, I can totally see why people join sororities, there is also something about being a member of a club - you know, one where you have to use your card to get through the door - that I can understand wanting to have a part in. Apparently Elks only let women join as recently as TEN years ago. In their newsletter, the Exalted Ruler and Lead Knight (yeeessss) sign their statements "Fraternally," and "With Brotherly Love."

So we did the schmoozing thing for a few hours - finished it off with some chocolate pudding from the buffet, and now I'm back here. I have 2 hours left, and a bunch of stuff to do, but my head is spinning - and part of it is from my day, and part of it is from whatever is making me sneeze.

Adam cleaned so much of the house yesterday it's amazing, and I need to keep it that way. He put away a bunch of things that were stacked up in annoying places, and although I didn't think it looked that cluttered before, without them, it looks so much better. He cleaned up the yard, washed both dogs, washed my car, did laundry, and started dishes. I hereby VOW TO NEVER PUT ANYTHING DOWN IN THE WRONG PLACE EVER AGAIN. I heard once that clutter is always formed by not putting something away right away, and the reason you don't put it away right away is to avoid making a decision. Well, I am a Decision Maker! It's what I'm good at! So here I go.

Also - with the base of the house clean like this, I can see how to go the next step and make it *pretty* - which is really what I want to spend my time doing. So I not only am going to not put anything down without putting it away ever again, but I am going to do one extra cleaning thing a day to keep it looking so sparkling.

Yes I am. I like my house like this.

Okay. Time to go do Very Important Things now.