just an ordinary goddess…

Hi! How’re you doing? Great, I hope! You look fantastic.

I know, I know, it’s been such a long time since we’ve spent any real time together, but you know how things are, right? People get busy and next thing you know weeks and months have passed and you haven’t had a deep, meaningful conversation with the blog readers in your life. I’m really sorry about that, honest. But, well, I guess I just haven’t been in much of a place to catch up.

Truth is, I’m still really not, but I kinda wanted to tell you about this cool thing I’m going to be doing in a couple of weeks. And if you happen to be in the Los Angeles area, I hope you’ll stop by during this cool thing, because it’s really not about me. It’s about people who need help. A lot of help.

Vegan Bake Sale for Haiti - Proceeds Go to Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) - January 31, 2010

I’m going to have a few things there for sale, things that got rave reviews when I brought them to various holiday parties.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Treats; Peanut Butter Cookies; Chocolate Ginger Cookies

Hey, guess what? If you’re in L.A. and you want to help out, you can totally do that too, even if you don’t bake. VeganPr0n has all the details. If you’re not in L.A., that’s cool. There are other vegan bake sales across the country.

Oh, man, I gotta run. It was great seeing you again, even if it was only for a minute. And you really do look fantastic – I love that hair color on you.

Hopefully I’ll see you on the 31st!

Cool guy Shawn Powers – good friend, fellow UCFer, Linux Journal editor and just all around great guy – lost his house (and everything inside) in a fire. Thankfully, his family is okay. Unfortunately, they lost their pets in the fire.

It’s never a good time for such a horrible thing to happen, but the middle of a cold Michigan winter is amongst the worst times of all to lose your house.

The good folks over at Linux Journal have set up a fund for donations for Shawn and his family. If you have a few dollars you can spare, please swing by and drop some money in the bucket.

Thinking about you, Shawn hon, and keeping you and your family in my heart and in my thoughts. Take care, darlin’.

As many of you may know by now, yesterday Molly Ivins passed away, after a long struggle with breast cancer. She was 62.

It’s sobering to look at her age, to realize that when she died, Ms. Ivins was younger than my mother is now.

My commitment to this walk is even keener. Not only am I doing this in honor of my mother – a wonderful woman who’s had too much of life’s darker side kick her in the head – but now in memory of a keenly sharp woman who’s life work was to skewer the pomposity and over-weening arrogance of those who purported to be in service of the American people. She called ‘em like she saw ‘em, and she saw ‘em as clear-eyed as anyone did, and clearer-eyed than most.

RIP, Ms. Ivins. You’re already missed.

It was only yesterday that registered for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and set up my fundraising page. Already I have $150 in donations, which is already over half of what I had when I tried the APLA Half-Marathon (I was horrible at fundraising).

Yeah, I’m jazzed. Whee!

(Yet more proof that it really doesn’t take much to make me happy. Such a simple girl, am I.)

…I’ve lost my ever-lovin’ mind.

I know that comes as no surprise to anyone – except the surprise that my mind ever came back for me to lose it again – but, well, I’m throwing myself in over my head again.

“And what is it this time, Carol?” you may ask, slowly backing away with furrowed brow.

I’ve signed up for the the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

Oh, stop with the eye-rolling.

It’s not until September, so I have eight months to train and raise money. And, unlike my try at the APLA Half-Marathon, I have a larger circle of people from whom to beg money, plus I am making sure I have the right shoes. I certainly learned my lesson, after injuring both ankles during my half-marathon training. In addition, this will be walking, not running or jogging, which will be much better for my poor, beleagured joints.

Organized training will start in February, but I think it’s time to start my own training. Because while I love to walk, 39+ miles over the course of two days are still a lot.

If y’all are moved to contribute RIGHT NOW, then I can accomodate you: go to my fundraising page and click on the “Click here to support me” button. Also, a button will reside at the top of my link column on the right until the donation deadline (which I don’t know what it is yet). And if you like to see your name scrolling on a webpage, my fundraising page will feature the names of those who contribute.

Now what have I got myself into?