Where is my mind?

I’m not feeling well today. I want to write an entire blog using only Emoji’s: a raincloud, a cough machine, a devilish dog, a child sneaking candy, a burgundy nurse with arm muscles like Popeye.

It’s just a cold, but another cold is not what I needed right now. Yesterday was the last day of the official #WhatWouldYouGive challenges, but it looks like the campaign will continue as more team members give up abilities into August. We might extend the whole thing even longer, because why not? We haven’t cured ALS yet, despite all the talk you hear about breakthroughs.

Breakthrough is a funny word. And every time I read an article using that word it reminds me of when I worked in book publishing and we called every book groundbreaking. They weren’t. But you can say whatever you want when you’re trying to get people’s money and attention. Read More>

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What Does The Team Say?

It’s Day Four of the #whatwouldyougive challenges, and as was the case last year, my favorite part is reading the reactions of the team members to their loss of abilities. I’m contending with my own latest issue, which is the almost complete loss of my voice — not a result of ALS, but of a simple cold. The dictation software and I are struggling today, and every time I try to use my hands to correct a mistake, I feel like they might as well be webbed. Hitting a single key correctly is nearly impossible. So I’m extra happy to share the words of some of our incredible team members. Read More>

|Categories: Life | Tags: , , | Permalink

Summertime

Scarlett is staying home from camp today. When I asked her to get dressed, she ran to her bedroom and got back under the covers. She was wearing my nephew’s underpants, and two of his T-shirts, and seemed far too comfy to get moving. I mostly understood. It’s been a busy summer, and not at all the kind I used to have when I was a kid growing up in Oak Park, Illinois.

In those days, we didn’t do camp. We played outside, often right in the middle of the street or the alley, we went to the pool or danced in the sprinkler. Basically we entertained ourselves along with the other neighborhood children for three months, and sometimes we went on vacation to a Holiday Inn in Indiana or Ohio, or to my uncle’s cabin in Wisconsin where we swam in the lake and hooked wiggling minnows and leeches onto fishing rods that we cast out into the shining water over and over.

Scarlett’s summers are different. Read More>

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