Mission/Obsession ... I've Heard It Both Ways

When does a mission become an obsession? Well, when your actual birthday falls within a week, either way, of the Smiling Warrior's Crazy Sock Day and you're more excited about CSD than you are about your own birthday, you have joined in the ranks of the obsessed with Houdini and myself!!  Real quick, I would like to give a huge shout out to the birthday boy, my brother, Houdini!!  I would also like to thank him for not wearing his Crazy Socks today, like he had wanted!!  I had to bribe him to hold off!!  So today he will be sporting a Superman t-shirt under his button-up Oxford.  He called me this morning to tell me that he's been practicing ripping his shirt open like Clark Kent.  In my eyes, this just means, "mischief managed."  In other words, crisis averted and socks saved for a day!!

It is true though.  Houdini came over last night to get his bribery birthday gift and we had a long talk about getting older.  For exactly 1 week out of every year, I am only 13 years older than him.  So when he talks about "getting older," I laugh at him.  Not with him, at him!!  Or at least I used to.  Today he turns 30 and he has finally realized that age is just a number.  As he was leaving last night, he turned to me and asked, "Is it wrong that I'm more excited about Crazy Sock Day than I am about my own birthday?"  I told him, "Nope, it's not wrong.  It's in your makeup."  With that, he nodded in agreement, said, "Well, I am my sisters' brother," and he closed the door behind him.

The 3 of us (including our sister, the Bombshell) live for being behind the scenes.  We love to coach, teach, encourage, promote, and support the greatness of others.  We don't want the spotlight for ourselves, but we want to know that we played a large part in getting someone else there who deserves it.  I guess you could categorize this as "learned behavior." (Thanks Mom and Dad!!)  The Bombshell has the Munchkins and her kindergartners, Houdini has his 5th graders and his volleyball girls, and I have all of the above (by proxy) and ... raising awareness with The Smiling Warrior!!

With that being said, tomorrow is the 3rd Annual Crazy Sock Day!!!!!  This is the day that we all show our support and love for the Smiling Warrior and raise awareness for Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy and GastroParesis by wearing the craziest socks we can find and posting the pictures to Facebook.  As of this morning, 1867 people have joined the event page!!  Keep in mind that this number does not include all of the schools, offices, and other non-Facebookers that are participating tomorrow.  If you haven't joined already, now is a great time to become a part of history ... The largest social media awareness event to date!!
Go here to join:
https://www.facebook.com/events/102271203267678/

We have also created a community page where everyone can post their sock pictures tomorrow.  Go here and give us a "Like" and be a part of blowing up FB with crazy sock pics:
https://www.facebook.com/CrazySockDay

If you're still not sure what to do or why you're doing it, check out this video from last year's event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHYFugf_UU4

If you're a Twit-terer ;) you can use the hashtags #CSD3 #RSD/CRPS

I have faith that Houdini will have a great birthday, now that he has his new t-shirt as a distraction.  I have faith that I will rest up and save my spoons today so that I am ready and raring to go bright (dark) and early in the morning for CSD3!!  I have faith that we will all pool our efforts to give the Smiling Warrior something to really smile about tomorrow!!  RSD and GP aren't contagious, Awareness is!!  Help us infect the world with knowledge and understanding of these debilitating diseases!!





 

Crunch Time

We are officially 1 week away from the 3rd Annual Crazy Sock Day!!  Or, as we promoters like to call it, Crunch Time!!  Time to put the event out there for more than just the networking sites!!  It's time to get prepared!!  It's time to get the visuals into the hands of the media, the schools, hospitals, medical offices, law offices, insurance offices, civil servants, favorite restaurants and bars, ANYWHERE that we can get word out about CSD3, now is the time!!  

It's also the time for me to step outside of my comfort zone in order to make it happen.  It means venturing outside the confines of my warm, secure bubble, and doing it solo.  It means shaking hands with strangers who aren't aware of how painful a handshake can be while still smiling and spreading awareness.  It means putting on my bravest face amid high anxieties.  It means heeding the pain, but forcing myself to fight through it for the good of the cause.  It means having a constant supply of nausea pills and crumbled up Ritz crackers stashed in my purse.  It means getting meals cooked, put together, and frozen so that I can eat next Thursday, Friday, and possibly Saturday (Fri. and Sat. being potential recovery days).  It means getting my house organized so that I have all of my CSD3 stuff in the same place, while still being able to either sit or lie down comfortably.  It means making sure that I get my normal 4-5 hours of interrupted sleep every night so that by next Thursday I have a plethora of spoons in my arsenal.  It means getting creative and going shopping for Houdini's birthday present this weekend (his b-day is the 23rd, and it's a big'un).  I was supposed to travel to KC this week too, but my little "cold" has kept me quarantined and I have a lot of catching up to do.

Why do I do this to myself?  Because I learned my lesson last year!!  I did not get up from the kitchen table for 5 hours at one point (that's where my laptop is).  The Smiling Warrior was in surgery and I was hellbent on making sure that every pair of socks that crossed my computer screen were sent her way.  And that was with approximately 500 participants.  We're already at 1300+ for this year, and I don't want to miss a sock!!  I will be transferring every picture that comes my way onto a flash drive for safe keeping so that I won't miss anybody's socks this year when I make the 2013 slideshow.  This is the event/star to which I've hitched my awareness raising wagon and this is the event that I will fight for, tooth and (broken) nail.

At this point, I'm relying on my autopilot to kick in during the afternoons and evenings.  I can keep myself distracted for the better part of the day, but when the fatigue starts to set in, I'm screwed.  Unless I have someone present to talk and laugh with me and help me keep my focus, it is almost impossible for me to distract my brain away from the pain and aches of RSD at night.

I have faith that I will get through this next week and CSD3 will be a success!!  I have faith that I'll set aside time to recover from the event before my ColoAngel takes me up into the mountains to play in the snow for my birthday weekend.  I have faith that this will be THE  awareness event of 2013!!!  Move over pink and red, here come ORANGE AND GREEN!!!!  Got your socks yet??