Put Down the Device

I have a beef. A pet peeve. A bone to pick with all those people who text, surf, browse or otherwise engage their electronics while talking to other people.

Nothing is ruder than someone who talks on their phone at a restaurant. In fact, the only people who have any business even answering their phone are people who are on call for work (or parents if their sitter or children are calling them)  If your phone rings while you are at dinner - send it to voicemail. You can check the message later. If there is something incredibly pressing chances are the person will try calling you back and I'll concede that if the same person calls you 3 times in ten minutes chances are it's important and you should then answer....but get up and leave the table...please.

And by God, if you are on the phone STOP EATING!! Have you ever been on the other end of the line with someone who is eating. You can hear them chewing and it's just plain nasty. Almost as bad as someone chewing with their mouth open or talking with food in their mouth (and for those sharing the table with the offending on-the-phone-whilst-eating person it IS that bad)

The other day I was watching Anderson and he had on Danny Devito. (He's doing the voice of The Lorax.) Right at the beginning Danny talked about a thing he does in which he takes a picture of his foot in places or with people and tweets it. So he took a picture of his foot with Anderson and the audience and decided to tweet it. For the rest of his time on the show he spent it with his head down, looking at his phone, while Anderson talked to him and while the audience asked him questions. He'd look up every now and then but for the most part he stared at his phone.

Seriously??

I'll be the first to admit, I love my computer and am on it a lot but there's a time and a place folks.

Anyhow, enough ranting now.

My mom and I went to the captains rally for the kick off for the 2012 Relay for Life. We talked about the events they have on Relay night, ways to make it better, etc. We also talked about fundraising strategies and ideas.

Fundraising is hard. Especially when you're doing it year after year.  It's difficult to get people to donate year after year. And yet, unfortunately it's needed year after year. One of the things we talked about is that for many of the people participating in the relay for life, it's a very personal thing. They know someone who's battled cancer, lost a loved one to cancer or fought it themselves. Obviously, for me it's personal because I lost my Dad to cancer and because I am cancer survivor. But for those who are not in the thick of it, it's easy to get complacent, to see it as something that happens to other people and to not feel it as personally as others do. The trick to fundraising is to make it personal to other people.

One woman said she carried a picture of her husband around with her and would show it to people when she was asking for pledges.  She said in the beginning she was polite, nice and unassuming when asking for pledges and finally one day she said "screw this shit" (her exact words) and started telling people her husbands story, even the parts that make people uncomfortable. Because the fact of the matter is, cancer is uncomfortable, and if it takes you making a person feel awkward for 5 minutes for them to donate then do it.

Another woman had a picture of herself getting her head shaved at the relay and the story of how she lost her best friend to cancer.  All the heart wrenching details.

I've never understood the mentality of being afraid to ask people for donations. I'm shameless when it comes to that (as you've all seen). I'm not asking for handouts for me. I'm not keeping the money and going on a shopping spree. I'm not begging like some bag lady on the corner, I'm asking for money to support cancer research.

Did you know that Herceptin, the maintenance drug I'm on now, was first used in 1998 and approved for metastatic breast cancer patients in Ontario in 2005. So the drug that could potentially prevent a recurrence for me has only been used in Ontario for 7 years.  These are the kinds of things that are discovered and developed in part with the money we raise for the Relay for Life.

So yeah, it's personal to me.

And because I'm not afraid to ask....if you would like to make a donation you can do so here

I'm working on another quilt. I'm submitting it to the silent auction on Relay night for our team. I'll post a pic when it's done. I hope it turns out nice.

Back to work!