Doing what we can...

Alzheimer's is a horrible disease that has taken the lives of my great grandmother Ma-ma, my great-uncle Jun, and my great-aunts Grace and Dot; all of which were my Annie Boo's siblings and mother. Not only has it taken the lives of so many that we loved, it as stolen so many precious years we could have shared with my Annie Boo. In December, she will turn 90 years old and though she is physically still here, she mentally does not know where she is, who she is, and certainly not who any of us are.

She is a far cry from the woman that was always perfectly coiffed. Every detail exactly as it should be from the Chanel suit, the designer shoes and handbag, to the carefully selected accessories. Never seen with a hair out of place or without her signature red lips, even at midnight in the check out line at Kroger. Every now and then she has a lucid moment where we see a glimmer of the woman we so dearly love. Something as small as an exciting tone in her voice or a heartfelt laugh. It is these moments that pushes us to do what we can to prevent others from living the cruel reality that is Alzheimer's.

This morning, Shari, Adam, Maison, and I participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer's in honor of my grandmother. Our team, Team Boo, which was the 3 of us plus my brother, raised $2450 for Alzheimer's research. We really appreciate everyone that supported us with donations. Our team ranked 15th in dollars donated with just 4 people!

Maison warming up for the walk:

At the starting line:

Walking through the fair grounds at Fair Park:

Maison hugging the elephant bye:

It was a very emotional experience but one we all thoroughly enjoyed. We will definitely have a team next year and hopefully earn more money to help end this horrific disease.

Christmas in the Park or Cluster F in the Park?

On Dec. 19th we went to the "Christmas in the Park" event at Fair Park.  Shari was a host this year so we were a lot more involved than we were last year.  We went Friday night to help decorate which was a complete 'cluster F'.  The person in charge didn't know what to tell each person to do and there was no 'game plan' as to where the decorations were going.  There were at least 20 people there to help and about 15 of us were standing around doing nothing.  We were there a good 30 min before anyone found anything for us to do which was to wrap lighted holly around posts and tie red bows to the top.  We stayed about one more hour before calling it quits.  There is only so much time you can stand around until you start thinking of the 100s of things you could be doing instead...like being at home with your 7 week old child or in Shari's case getting a few more billable hours in before your year ends on Dec. 20th.  Anything seemed like a better use of time than standing in a empty pavilion in the one of the most crime ridden areas of Dallas.

Saturday night Shari was supposed to be there early but she opted not to go help after the lack of organization the night before.  Adam and I went to her condo to get ready for the party.  We had some wardrobe issues that delayed us from getting there on time.  I never tried on my dress before heading to Shari's.  Apparently, my fab (yes, that is sarcasm) post-prego bod doesn't exactly fit into the formal I wore on New Year's Eve last year.  So instead of putting Shari's hair up, which was the whole point of going to her house before the party, I spent an hour trying on every formal in Shari's closet.  After trying on a dozen dresses and several attempts to convince Shari I just wouldn't go she forced me to wear a black dress of hers, her underwear (DON'T ASK!!!), her 5 inch Charles David heels, carry her hot pink clutch, and told me to shut my trap, have a glass of wine, and then go get in the car. 

Andrea and her husband Matt and Lori and her husband Arthur had been waiting on us forever.  We finally got to the party at 10:30pm and we were supposed to be there at 8:00pm.  NICE!  They couldn't find Shari's host name tag and she didn't hear them call for the hosts to come up to the stage so that they could introduce them to the guests and thank them for their charitable contribution.  What is it about this party that it is jinxed with issues (see last year's post "Can you bail on a charity event?") ?  You hate to not participate in charity events, but maybe next year we should find a new holiday charity to support...

Can you bail on a charity event?

Shari and I went to the Christmas in the Park charity ball on Saturday night. It was held at Winfrey Point on White Rock Lake. When we arrived there was a rather large line of people waiting to get in. We didn't know if they were trying to build hype so people would be thankful once they got in and would stay longer, or if there was some sort of issue. We eventually made our way to the front of the line after waiting about 20 min at which point a policeman told us the party was being temporarily shut down by the fire marshal because the venue was over capacity. The entry fee to this event was an unwrapped toy so Shari and I are both shivering in the freezing cold holding Cabbage Patch Kids in our cocktail dresses and heels while we awaited our fate.

At this point we were 4 people from the front of the line but had no idea how much longer the wait would be. I urgently needed a bathroom and really wanted to leave but, can you bail on a charity event? While we stood there and discussed our options of how we could ditch our CPKs and race to the valet line we were made! The partner that had invited Shari came outside to see how bad the waiting situation was. His wife has been on the board of this event for 9 years so it's not like we could ditch the party after we had been spotted. He did politely take our CPKs inside so that they wouldn't freeze to death but unfortunately we weren't as lucky. We waited a total of 45 min before the fire marshal finally agreed to let more people in.

Once we got inside we realized that it really wasn't that crowded and questioned why the fire marshal would shut down a party that clearly wasn't that happening to begin with. We found out that someone had tampered with the fire alarm and that was more of the issue than the number of occupants. In the end the whole party was a bust. The scene was lame, the wine was bad (like airplane quality bad), the venue was drafty, and the band didn't play anything that had been popular post-1978.

The only highlight of the evening was running into our orthopedic surgeon who was quite delighted to see both of us walking. He snidely remarked that it must not be soccer season...I stood 45 min in the freezing cold in heels for this???