Relay for Life

The event went over so well!

Relay for Life events are held all over the country to raise money for the American Cancer Society. The one hosted here at NAU was last weekend. Leading a team can be a challenge when it comes to motivation and fundraising but the event itself is nothing but FUN. We arrived around 6:30pm (about half an hour later than I had planned...) to get registered and start setting up 'camp'. Some teams bring tents and everything in case people want to sleep. Personally, I think sleep at relay is nearly impossible so bringing a tent seemed pointless. We did gather about 5 sleeping bags and camping chairs for the event. Of course, no one actually slept in the sleeping bags! They made a great place to stretch out and play games. :)

Technically the event started at 7pm and was open to the public until midnight (after which it was registered teams/people only). They even added team competitions which came in handy when it was getting well past midnight!! The idea, as a team, is to have at minimum at least one person out on the track at all times. We had a fairly small team but it was enough for us to keep the walking in progress and have a great time too!

Wii MarioKart! ... I came in last :P
So at the event, teams set up 'camp' and have their own little fundraisers. Almost everything is only a dollar or two. Some of the fundraisers are well known and people always look forward to them (like the Jail! .. you pay a certain amount to put someone in 'jail' and then they person has to raise 2x that amount from those who pass by in order to get released!). You could play games, get a pedicure, have snacks, pot a plant, make a craft, the list goes on! I have lots of pictures to include too! At the beginning of the event, there are ceremonial type things and you walk about 1 mile in silence and in the (almost) dark with luminarias lighting the path to remember those who have suffered with cancer. It was a very emotional few laps.

The final count is supposed to come out tonight, but we've been told that this year's event raised more than $50,000 in total for the ACS!!
A few of us put Chris in jail for $5 and he had to raise $10! Then... somehow... he made us feel bad and we walked around helping him raise his $10. BUT when we came back with $5 (which is all he needed to get out at that point) we wouldn't give it to him until he either sang 'I'm a little teapot' or get his face painted!! He turned us down!! Soo... we took a lap and thought we'd come back when he wanted out more. By the time we came around again he had raised his $5 and was out! Sooo.... read below to see what happened ***


**I gave the extra $5 we had raised to Chris to use to help 'bail' out another person that needed some cash and WHAT DID HE DO?!??! He used THAT MONEY to put ME IN JAIL!!! Brat!! Well, at least some of my friends (including Chris) kept me company while I raised bail money. :)


This is my friend Emily... she and one of her roommates were the Event Chairs for this years Relay and they did an AMAZING job! I can't imagine putting together an event like this and doing such a great job AND raising so much for the ACS.

Here was the schedule of events:

5:30pm Team Captains Check In and Teams start setting up their site
6:30pm Survivor and Caregiver Reception Begins
7:00pm Opening Ceremonies
7:05pm Survivor Speaker
7:20pm Survivor/Caregiver lap followed by Team Laps
8-8:30pm Mr and Mrs Relay pagent
8:30pm Dinner is served (Spaghetti for $1)
9:30pm Luminaria Ceremony
10:45pm Jazzercise
11:45pm Team Competition - hula hoop
12:00am Taryn Shaw Performs and Midnight Pizza served
12:45am Team Competition - Scavenger Hunt
1:00am Bad Jacks Hip Hop Dance Team: Perform and Teaches
2:00am Steel Pans: Percussion/music
3:00am Team Competition - Limbo
3:00am Stop the Music Fundraiser
4:00am Team Competition - Musical Chairs
4:15am Leah Nobel Performs
6:00am Breakfast served (muffins, fruit, and doughnuts)
6:20am Closing Ceremonies

6:40am Final Lap

7:00am team's pack up


After the event, a few of my friends and I hit IHOP for breakfast (yes after 12 hours of relay and NO sleep for about 24 hours). It was very tasty and I had to laugh at all the funny looks I got because of my face paint! :P

Just for fun!

Okay so I decided not to think about stressful stuff and instead... thinking about old-school things that I remember from back in the day!

White bib-overall shorts (this picture is a skirt but its the closest thing I could find): I wore them in the early years of high school but I remember I would refuse to wear them with the straps up. As was the trend, I would always fold the 'bib' top down (or with only one strap up) and wear them like shorts (of course, then someone tried to pull them down!). In high school I had a couple mood rings but I remember one that was a frog (like half the other stuff I had back then). The backpack purse: I had a black one similar to this that I used to carry around. I remember it got stolen at school once and I panicked and someone found it in the bushes and turned it in... nothing was missing and to this day I don't know who did it. Beverly Hills 90210: I didn't get to watch this at home in St. Johns but I remember that every summer I would spend time at my sister's house in Phoenix and I was hooked! The summer before my senior year of high school, I watched lots of them and caught up on some that I had missed.
Orbits... don't ask me WHY we drank these but we did because they were 'cool'. I even think I remember trying it the first time and thinking how gross it was that there were these slimy little balls mixed in the drink but I couldn't resist buying them later because they were new and fun.


The Topsy-Tail! I remember loving to put my hair up like this way back when. At some point I switched rooms (I think when I was in like 8th grade??) and I got to have a phone in my room. I felt very spoiled and I remember spending literally HOURS on that phone in high school... and Yes it was an old-school rotary phone! Remember this? Crystal Pepsi? I was totally part of the fad and bummed when they stopped making it. I also remember getting the original NES a while after it came out. I think I only had like 4 or 5 games including Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt (yep, I had the orange and gray plastic gun), Double Dragon, and who knows... Slap bracelets were fun and I even remember when they were 'banned' at school because they decided they were too dangerous. The Fanny Pack: yes... like many I had several of them. I distinctly remember having a neon yellow one that I used all the time. Then a red one that came with a pair of jeans that my Mom got me from the JCPenny's catalog.


Scrunchies: yes I still have some of these buried somewhere. I think I wore them up to a few years ago. The Babysitter's Club! When I was little I tried to collect them all and I would read them SO fast! I had a running list of all the #s that I had so that my Mom could find me the ones I still needed. Of course, this included the special editions too (like the mystery series). I remember thinking Guess Jeans were the coolest thing ever and I was so excited when I finally got a pair. I think I wore them until I had REALLY outgrown them. Pound puppies were another childhood fav... I actually had the exact same one that's on the left side of this picture.



Of course there are tons of other fun/crazy/what-was-I-thinking things that I could post but those are some I found pics of quickly. Oh and as I was reminiscing about 90210, I couldn't help but remember the little poster of Luke Perry that I used to have in my locker or the Brad Pitt poster from Legends of the Fall that I used to have on my wall.

Fun stuff :)

5 weeks.... :/

Okay... I never thought I would be nervous about graduation because it's not like I haven't been in the 'adult' working world before but with all the job concerns, just thinking about it gives me butterflies and not the good kind. The company I'm going to work for just laid off 30% of the office where I'm starting (phx). So far my offer/contract still stands but knowing what's been happening does not make things easier for this summer. Then of course there's the concern that once I start (assuming I start as planned) then will the economy have bounced back soon enough for them to avoid future layoffs? ugh... I've considered going for my MBA just to have a fallback but the program starts in early August and with me not having a start date until November, chances are I wouldn't know about the job soon enough to know whether or not I should go through with the MBA. I admit, things could be FAR worse! I still have my offer and start date and I know a lot of people just lost their jobs entirely. I'm thankful for what I have, I don't mean to seem ungrateful... just trying to not be concerned about the future.