Our Ladies of Perpetual H.O.P.E.: you make me wanna walk like a camel

So I did something interesting yesterday. I walked 5 Kilometers in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Which is different than the Breast Cancer 3-day Benefiting Susan G Komen for the Cure. By about 2 and half days and 57 miles! But hey, I read somewhere that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a easy 5K fun walk! So I walked. Me and 35,000 other people.

It’s been a few years since I have attended an event with more than a few hundred people and I had forgotten, apparently, that I distrust crowds. Crowds are basically mobs awaiting the proper stimuli. And a mob is a riot just waiting for the starting pistol. Not that I think tens of thousands of people wearing pink* are going to start turning over police cars and breaking windows and burning courthouses**. Especially 5K type of people. Now marathoners and 3day walkers are obviously half unhinged, so they should be watched closely!

I probably shouldn't make jokes because some people see absolutely nothing funny about the cult of the ribbon. Both sides have their fair share of zealots. Of course every important event in human history began with a handful of zealots; we simply change the names of the winners and the honorable to ‘visionaries’ and refer to the losers and madmen as ‘madmen’.

I had to look up my local newspaper online to find out how many people were at this event and the article was accompanied by five pages of comments.

One comment and response I would like to share. The first person seemed to have a pink ax to grind and was complaining about how breast cancer gets all the attention. Among other things he said:

how about instead of singling out breast cancer we do the right thing and just have cancer awarness.

To which phxguyintx responded:

Go ahead. No one is stopping you. Let me know how it works out. If I'm in town I'll walk/run/bike/ride/whatever.

I believe phxguyintx is not only correct in the fact of his response (to the best of my knowledge the SGK Pink People have not yet implemented any laws saying that all charitable events must be about breast cancer) but also in the tone of the response. No defensiveness, no anger. Although, to be honest, I suspect that phxguyintx is NOT his real name!

I will be doing another walk soon for another cause and will have lots to say about it. Until then we have to remember our 3day ladies here at Team H.O.P.E. and Simply the Breast. Remember awhile back when I talked about the temperatures dropping below 100? Well a few days after I wrote that the temperature went back into the triple digits. Now they are back down and will supposedly stay down until next spring. In fact this morning it was 45 degrees on my back porch! That’s just too dayum cold for us desert people!

But after asking you to feel for our ladies out in the heat; I guess asking for sympathy for their poor shivering bones would be a bit much!

Oh – speaking of being cold. . . . . As you may or may not know – we are celebrating happy hour and ladies night at Sneakers Sports Grill this Friday night. Sneakers has a great outdoor patio. (Last time I counted there were 8 TV’s on the patio and all of them were tuned to some sporting event or another! I was going to complain until Jeannie pointed out that this is a SPORTS bar. Oh. I guess that makes sense. And at least there are less TV’s on the patio than in the rest of the place. If you like TV sports at your sports bar then Sneakers is definitely the place to go.) As I was saying – Sneakers has a nice outdoor patio right next to a manmade lake. (please don’t feed the ducks) One of the features on the patio is an outdoor firepit. And Friday night there will be a fire! And Team H.O.P.E. and Simply the Breast will have MARHMALLOWS! I still haven’t ever made homemade marshmallows and I’m guessing this isn’t the week to learn how. Maybe next year.

I still haven’t told you about our signature drink have I? Sneakers will be proudly serving Nipple-itas! It’s a luscious little pink drink that isn’t a margarita and isn’t a piña colada but is better than both! When I first told my husband about this drink he asked, “Isn’t that a cactus you cook with?” No, dear, that would be Nopalitos. Although it is interesting to note that nopal pads have aeroles, which are never to be confused with areolas.

I think I will close up now before we get into something too goofy or too vulgar.

Hopefully we will see y’all Friday Night!

* Actually most people were not in pink. The official Komen shirt is white with those pink and green symbols that look like ribbons with heads. (I would show you but I guess Komen is very adamant about trademark infringement.

Okay – I just looked it up and if I am critiquing a logo as opposed to using it I am allowed to show y’all. Not that I am critiquing, or being critiqual. I’m just glad that we were able to get Mr. Winchester to make our logo and not whomever SGK hired!

But as I was saying before I so rudely interrupted myself – the official t-shirt is mostly white. Teams are allowed to design and wear their own team shirts – but these were not supposed to be pink; which is only to be worn by survivors. Who knew there were so many rules?

Apparently there is no rule against dying cactus pink. Or maybe it was trick photography!

** If anyone were inclined to riot it would have been over the fact that there were no port-a-potties along the route. Not a single one. And because this is down town – the court house and other government offices were closed. The police department was open but they had a sign on the door stating that they would not let you use the restroom. And the two cops in front of the door looked serious about keeping people out!