Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!

ok, so my name is Margaret (no secret)
M
A
R
G
A
R
E
T
I would really like to know why, why WHY people call me Marcia
Yes, Marcia.
A lovely MENSA candidate from UBS ,who already lacks skills in follow up and spelling, has, in an email that is also addressed to my bosses, called me Marcia instead of Margaret:
it's in my email address - MARGARET
it's in my email signature - MARGARET
it's in the end of the Email - MARGARET

She's not the only one.
This summer, during the process of refinancing, the gem of an admin who was assigned to assist with my paperwork put my name on all the documentation... you guessed it- Marcia
Marcia Garcia
and if you read it with Spanish pronunciations, you'll see that is rhymes.
Mar - SEE - ah Gar - SEE - ah

The phone call:
"Why on earth would my parents do that to me? They didn't - as you can see from all the documentation, tax forms, affidavits - it's Margaret."
"well... I'm sure it's a common mistake"
"Oh it is, when people aren't paying attention or providing the customer service that should be provided."
ALL of my documentation has Marcia Garcia.

I went with another mortgage company

Count down to Tucson!

Less than 36 hours to go!!
And...
Drum roll.....
As of tonight, thanks to everyone, We've raised $5410
I KNOW!!!
HOW BRILLIANT IS THAT!!!!
I have so many people to thank and I don't have a clue how to best say it.
This charity and this event hold a dear part of my heart and soul and to be able to succeed for the Society and for myself and for you!
To be able to celebrate this charity and talk about this charity and just help bring visibility to this disease - I'm humbled and honored to represent The L&LS.

Thank you so very very much!

$920 to go!!!

Wow - I can't believe how quickly and wonderfully folks ahve responded!
I'm so touched and the donations are still coming in!
I really want to reach my goal of $5000 by friday - SO CLOSE!!! =)

My Bike and I on a podcast!

So one of my Pal's from Broken Sea Audio Production, David Sobkowiak has a little project and by little I mean HUGE. He is podcasting 30 days in a row and for 2 of those casts are about ride and the charity.
Upon listening, a few of my facts are off - so for that, I"M REALLY SORRY!

IT was fun to do and fun to talk about!

Thanks David!!!
You can listen to Part One by clicking here

So close!!! It's almost time!

So thanks to the Strauss', I'm so FREAKIN' close =)
and very excited. $255 from my minimum of $4200 and $1055 from my goal of $5000!!

So yesterday was the official end of training - b/c in 12 days we'll be in Tucson!

Yesterday was a really tough day - it was slated for 93 miles.
The temperatures were slated from 45 to 65 degrees with winds keeping the temp in the 40's with a very low relative humidity.
For those of you with chronic asthma issues, you know...
ok, so cold air is not so great on the lungs.
Dry air also not a good.
the two coupled can cause some issues.

I got up yesterday know full well and I took my time and took great care, but with the wind cooling things of tremendously, exerting myself as I was, I felt like is was breathing ice fire. it was cold and made my chest tight, it was dry and burned with each inhale.
So, wafter 30 miles I had to stop and upon looking at my queue sheet (our directions for the ride) I saw that I had 8.3 miles of River Road in Maryland to ride before reaching our next Pit stop. River Road is rolling hills, in the car it's like a roller coaster. I knew I could do the miles, but trying to breathe and feed my body with O2 was going to hurt me. I was already feeling that burn in my chest and my ribs were tight. I was with 3 of my teammates and we called a support vehicle to pick me up. While waiting Binni suggested to take a break and skip the next 25 miles of serious hills and see if at White's Ferry, I'd be ok to get back on the bike. DINGDING - we have a winner - that was the bext suggestion and I though long an hard on that. Anne, our trusty support goddess and fellow cyclist picked me up and we followed along the route and stopped at the pits and cheered folks on.
When we reached White's Ferry - yes, a really ferry - I gave it one last hard thought. once crossing the ferry it would be 5 miles to the lovely trail that would take me straight home and I know the trail well enough that if I got into trouble, i'd be ok.
SO I mounted up, got on the ferry, which was a little anticlimatic but fun and started along.
About 4 miles in, the burn was back, so I slowed down significantly, took the hills very easy and gve myself mini goals "ok, just get to the turn on to Rt 15" "ok, just get over the bridge at Rt 7" "Just alittle bit more to the trail"
AND YES mother I was riding with people. the folks I was with are super fast but they were keeping an eye out for me - What a team!
Once I got to the turn on to the trail Rob (the dynamic duo Karen & Rob) stayed with me b/c it was getting harder and harder. So again, really easy on the up hills and on the down, I took advantage of gravity.
Once I reach Partlow's in Ashburn, I sat down and I was spent - i think 50% of my energy was spent trying to deal with this cold crappy air, So i did the smart thing and called it a day, but I stuck around and helped my fellow teammates and saw an old friend on the trail (Hi NICK!).

Turns out the cold took some other folks out but we knew, it's no biggie, we needed to be fresh and rocking for Tucson!

All in all , it was 47 miles of 93 - half =)
but with the asthma and temperatures Bridgett agreed I should get bonus miles and I can say I did 75 =)

MIL! M!

1000 (one thousand) is the natural number following 999 and preceding 1001. The letter A does not appear in the English spelling of any number lower than "one thousand".

It is also the sum of the donation Alan and Virginia Strauss of Oakton, VA have shared with The L&LS!

I'm so excited!!!

Well, what a difference 2 days make

Ok, in 48 hours a whole bunch of wonderful people have helped raise almost $1000!!!
WOW! I know, right!
Some folks are even linking me up to there blogs and websites! very exciting

The Folks @ BrokenSea Audio Productions have very graciously started spreading the word about the event and charity - AND they've even built me a page on their website!

Who are these guys - well, as someone you know, I've delved into the fun world of Audio Dramas and finally putting my voice and smart ass wit to some good constructive use. BrokenSea is one of the production groups I've have the pleasure of working with. They are a keen group of audio drama fanatics who create podcast and free download stories in audio format.Included in our line up is original fantasy, sci-fi, horror, drama, comedy and fan-works and audio versions of great films (like Planet of the Apes and Logans Run). You can hear me on Johnny Quest, Body Slam Alley and a soon to be released project.

Donation update $2040

Yeah!
Yesterday I did something bold and decided to email everyone in my contact list about the event and the fund raising. I was on a mission.
And it succeeded - close to $800 in donations yesterday =)

It was a bitter sweet day though b/c while fund raising for a blood cancer charity, we lost our family pooch to blood cancer. (there is a post below about it).

SO - what path does that put me on?
The search to raise $2160 in 2 weeks and this weekend, to spend some time iwth the nephews who asking "where's clevie?"

Family's best friend

Tonight, our family had to say good bye to our family's best friend Cleveland. He would have been 13 in a few weeks. This morning he was fine but by mid day he wouldn't drink or walk much and then he wouldn't move.

Turns out he had an acute hemangiosarcoma on his kidney and it was bleeding into his belly. At that point, even with treatment he wouldn't have much more than a month or so.

he was a really great pooch, and always hogged the bed and always pounced on you when you opened the front door and would just love on you to no end.

I'm gonna miss my moochie.

1001!

I hit $1001 in donations on Saturday - HOORAY!

I also hit the nebulizer again - it was a rough morning.
It was cold and dry and we were up in the mountains again - so beautiful.
But for someone with asthma, cold and dry air can be like breathing sandpaper.
I was very careful, watched my breathing, kept hydrating like crazy, made sure my core was warm, i had a balaclava on, kept my head warm. But conditions were just right to set off a lovely attack. It took a while to recover and I had some great people around to help.

I still get really embarrassed when that happens - I'm pretty independent and stubborn, I know. So to be put in a position like that - i just don't want to be a bother, I don't want to disrupt anything or anyone's plans. It didn't help that I've hit a stress level that I'm not comfortable with, in life and in work - there is a lot going on and I worry: needing the new car, refinancing of the condo, taking on a little part time job for extra cash, 3 back to back weeks of big work events, raising the $5000, a very limited response to my 240 letters asking for donations, training for the ride. When the asthma attack hit - I was so mad that it happened, so mad I couldn't control it, so mad that it has to be this f***ing hard. This long laundry list of shit in my head of what I couldn't do just kept going through my head and fueling the anger, that really wasn't anger, it was more of a disappointment.
I had a moment, in short. A moment where i wish it wouldn't be so hard.
But if I didn't have to work for it - it wouldn't be worth it.
just like the quote i put on my donation letter:

There are too many people praying for mountains of difficulty to be removed, when what they really need is courage to climb them.

After a little lung treatment and a little rest at home, I got on my trainer that night and finished the last 40 miles - thank GOD i had a bunch of movies to watch.

I'll be back on the bike this week and next Saturday I'll do it again - I'll go and ride. I will keep asking friends, family, strangers to help support the L&LS. I'm not going to give up on the charity, on the event or myself.
I'm not giving up.
www.active.com/donate/tntnca04/Garcia
donate big
donate often
=)

officially flipping out

So I have $825 in donations
min. I need to have $4200 by november 7
yeah
i'm flipping out
I sent 170 letter
120 emails
45 phone calls
825 dollars (which $135 i put in)

officially flipping out - it'll be ok, but I'm very worried