This past weekend was incredibly busy and I realized I have listened to the American Girl song “I Like Your Style” a couple too many times. Some of the little girls were giving me strange looks when I was accidentally singing along. They don’t know that this was my third year at the show, and the song hasn’t changed. Anyway, this weekend also made me realize that even though I’m feeling better and better, I still have my limits. This was probably a good lesson to learn before I visit Drexel next weekend because I know I’m going to want to fit as much as possible into two and a half days. On Friday, I got up earlier than usual to be at Cool Kids by 8am to load everything necessary for the American Girl Fashion Show and head to White Marsh to set up! By the time all the preorders were filled, dolls were ready, and the raffle items, merchandise (everything from doll chairs to tshirts and hair ribbons) and cupcake stand centerpieces on the tables were all set up, I was exhausted! There were a couple times during the day that I just had to sit down and rest, which kind of took me by surprise. I hadn’t really thought about it, but over 7 hours of setting up is pretty tiring! We finished around 3:30 which is not the best time to be on the beltway, especially on a Friday. I didn’t get home til about 5:15. After dinner, my sister had a basketball game and I was mostly asleep by the time they got home. On Saturday, we spent the morning outside then I went to the afternoon fashion show with my mom. I was the photographer for that show so I spent a lot of time walking around but during most of the show, I found an empty chair next to the runway. I made sure to get at least one picture of every girl, though I’m sure their parents took some too. After the show, I was talking to some of the other volunteers and one of them had been at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society event I spoke at last month. It’s funny to keep seeing people who recognize me because I don’t recognize them from the audience. I love how connected the cancer community is though; it seems like everyone lets their circumstances bring them together. I volunteered for the show this morning as well since Susie was in it. Today I was in charge of collecting money for the doll hair salon. Let me tell you, some of these dolls really needed it, especially dolls that came with curly hair, which became a big ball of knots on some of them. Stylists from a local salon came in to do the dolls’ hair and even the dolls with hair cut by their owners and seemingly endless knots looked great after! I really should have taken some before and after photos. I took the dolls back to the girls as they were ready. A little girl was helping me for some of it when she wasn’t watching the show; I don’t remember her name but she was really cute and she told me all about how she got scissors for Easter. And lots of chocolate, of course. Susie did a great job in the show, and if she doesn’t grow too much she might be able to participate next year. American Girl sends the outfits in certain sizes, so the models have to be either 6x or 10. This year, she was Isabelle, the Girl of the Year. The models from all four shows combined raised about $50,000 for Cool Kids! Thanks again to everyone who contributed to that total! My dad won two baskets of stuff in the silent auction today, including lots of restaurant gift cards (we don’t eat out very often so it’ll be interesting to see how long it takes to use them) and a Kindle Fire HD, which is all set up with 2048, the only app he was sure he wanted. I’m glad I only volunteered for one show each day because I don’t think three days of being as tired as I was on Friday would be good for me. The weather this weekend has been gorgeous and it was great to spend a good amount of time outside! I’m not looking forward to the week of rain ahead but hopefully it’ll be all clear for next weekend. May is looking like a busy month! Besides Philly, I’ll be heading to Massachusetts one weekend and Camp Sunsibs (it’s like Camp Sunrise, but for patients’ siblings). Sunsibs is at North Bay, where Susie and I have gone for Camp Friendship (another oncology camp) in the past and we are so excited to go back! I thought writing two posts in a week would make this a lot shorter but I guess I still had plenty to say after such a busy weekend. It’s great to be able to participate in more and more normal activities, even if my energy isn’t quite back to normal. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!
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AuthorI’m Karen. I was originally diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in August 2004 when I was 10 years old. When I was working on my college and scholarship application essays two years ago, I wrote about my journey. Although it was a rough few years, it became such an influential part of my life that I can’t, and wouldn’t want to, imagine my life without having had cancer. I called it the worst best thing that ever happened to me. Archives
April 2022
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