Your father, mother, brother, sister, cousin, aunt, uncle, grandmother, grandfather, an inspirational teacher, a close friend...even yourself.
Cancer does not discriminate. It affects us all in one way or another.
There will be a cure.
You can help.
One inspirational man I know, Peter Shannon (Artistic Director and Conductor of the Savannah Philharmonic), is cycling 120 miles (!!!) to raise funds in support of the ongoing research at the Curtis and Elizabeth Anderson Cancer Institute at Memorial University Medical Center, here in Savannah, GA.
He needs our support.
If you want to help, click here. For insight into the fundraiser and Peter's efforts, please read his letter below:
Dearest Friends,
Please please do me a favor and take a few moments of your day to read this:
There is, I'm sure none of us who haven't lost either a close family member or friend to cancer.
As for me; both my grandparents on my mother's side died of cancer within 12 months of each other. My grandfather, a successful and well respected doctor in Ireland was only 69 when he died,...he looked at his own x rays and gave himself 6 months to live. Stomach cancer.
My energetic Aunt Lilian (beautiful name!) was looking forward to retiring and relaxing and finally reaping the benefits of her hard-working lifestyle (she was an eye doctor in Sligo) with her husband. Less than a few months after being diagnosed with cancer of the throat, she was dead.
I still cant believe that we haven't a cure for cancer. But I DO BELIEVE that we will. Just as polio was cured and penicillin was discovered, so too, in the future we WILL have a cure for cancer. I also believe that it will be a creative person who finds the cure.
Music helps people be creative in all aspects of life and in ALL professions. Doctors as musicians. I can help with the music, but I need help with the next missing link to this puzzle. Money.
Help me please. I'm trying to raise $5,000 for this cause by cycling 120 miles (yikes!) on the 16th of October on my bike with the doctors and friends of Memorial Hospital.
I will be riding with Dr. Steven Brower, the director of the Curtis and Elizabeth Anderson Cancer Institute at Memorial.
Please copy and paste the link below to make an online donation on my donation page:http://memorialhealth.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=435344&u=435344-299300970&e=3776378656
God knows every cent will make the 120 miles less and less painful!
Please be generous, and thank you.
Peter.
Peter Shannon,
Artistic Director and Conductor,
Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus
403 East 52nd Street
Savannah, GA 31405
www.thesavphilharmonic.org
>> MORE INFO ABOUT THIS EVENT
...Wear
I'm not Stacy and Clinton wasn't with me most of the day (like Renee was), but I really wish that they had both been here.
Renee and I experienced an alternate reality TV show (if there were cameras) version of "What Not To Wear [the Real World]" today as we put up posters and handed out postcards to advertise the upcoming Savannah Philharmonic performance of The Dream of Gerontius, and especially as we ate lunch outside at the Kayak Kafe.
I mean, holy cow, people. When did it become en vogue to sport clothes that scream "1980's white trash (or slob) takes on a serial killer going to a live rock show"? Seriously.
Unfortunately, I don't have pics to prove it, but Renee can vouch for what I'm writing in a broad, sweeping description. We experienced this, and not in small doses either. I pulled out my dorky "grandma" pack of travel tissues because I had already used my napkin to stop myself from snorfling (fluid out of nose) and accidentally giving Renee an iced tea shower on more than one occasion. And, this was just within the first 10 minutes of sitting down to lunch! I do not exaggerate.
I could, would and, I suppose, should list all of "the sites" that Renee and I experienced today -- boy, wouldn't that be fun -- but, it's already 1:30 AM, and I'm lazy (a.k.a. still hungry and my warm pizza is in the other room, so this post is getting cut short). So, just trust me when I say that today provided a "feast for the eyes," albeit an odd, multi-colored, misfit, undesirable feast. Locals and tourists of Savannah alike: Please, pretty please, grab a good fashion mag, buy a mirror & look in it, follow Chanel's rule of "remove one item," and think before leaving the house. We also have to live with what you wear.
[To be fair, I should acknowledge that as of late (har-hum, as in the past 4 to 5 years), my fashion sense has declined along with my desire to put an effort into how I look. So, I recognize that I am likely being hypocritical here. In my defense, however, even with this pathetic trend, I somehow manage to look fairly decent each day, even when I don't care at all how I look on a Saturday. Today, on a day when I put on "scruffy, old jeans" that I haven't washed in *cough* days and threw on a t-shirt, I looked so pulled together in comparison to those many people walking down the street in their confused, ill-fitting "clothes". I don't want to say that. Okay, I shouldn't, I suppose. But, I just don't get it.]
*Strings Attached & Full Disclosure: Needless to say, somehow, Renee and I usually share (in) entertaining and sometimes outright weird experiences whenever we're together enjoying a meal. It just happens. I think we've come to expect the odd and humorous, but the experiences never cease to amaze and amuse us.
...Say
Gennette?
Juliet?
Apparently, I stink at saying my own name audibly.
Hmm. Something to work on.
Albeit the listener had been drinking (very little, I suspect), he remembered my name as "Gennette".
He's not the only one.
So, perhaps instead of saying "Juli-ET", maybe I need to start saying it as some others do, like "JULi-et" which apparently is often how people hear and say Romeo and Juliet. I dunno for sure, but I'll give it a fighting chance.
...Do
Apparently, it can be an insult to tell a seemingly almost perfect stranger that you recognize her. I didn't realize this was a social faux pas.
The skinny: Let's say that you and I are sitting down at a restaurant to have lunch. The server - a nice looking, kind woman - comes to our table to take our drink order. [Okay. That's normal.] Once she leaves to check on other tables, we comment to each other that we must know her. She's so familiar, but neither of us can pin-point it. We just can't figure out how we know her. No big deal 'cause we'll just kindly say something and ask her, right? [Right.] Upon either/both of us saying something to the affect of "You look familiar," she promptly responds "I don't know you!" and proceeds to shift her weight away from us.
Now, call me old fashioned, uninformed, casual, weird or whatever else comes to mind [Really, go ahead. I don't care. Not really.], but don't you find this reaction -- and this server's conscious effort from this point forward to keep her physical distance from us and to merely and minimally tend to our needs -- a bit odd? I thought so. But, out of respect for people who see what I believe to be harmless and almost kind inquiries as something quite different, I will acknowledge just for today that this falls into the category of "What Not To Do." Having said that, come Sunday, October 3, I'm resuming in-full my kindly-intended and genuinely curious behavior and am warning anyone that I don't really know that if I ask you "Do I know you?" or say to you "Gosh, you look familiar to me," please [puh-lease] don't take offense. I mean, really. There are better things to do with your time and energy. I mean no harm. In fact, favor: laugh a little, huh? Thanks.
I've got my "Gotta Love Guster" playlist on, my Sharpies at the ready, my "I'm gonna clean for the better part of today" clothes on, and I'm gaining the motivation to get started.
Today, I'm working hard on getting organized -- personally and professionally. In my effort to improve task/project management and time management, I hit up Google. I'm coming across really helpful information that I want to share with you.
LifeOrganizers.com - Helpful tips, tools and resources that you can use to organize the simple to complex things in your life. Need a list of recommendations and a checklist for packing for a trip, moving, or just cleaning up around the house or your desk, this is a great first stop!
Dumb Little Man (Tools for Life) - This man isn't dumb. Little? I'm not sure. Doesn't matter to me. I specifically hit up this site for time management advice. Thus far, I've come across handy tools, some of which I already knew about or was introduced to by a friend. Overall, there are great, simple, easy-to-use and effective things here. Be sure to check out the 'time management advice' site page in particular if you are looking for tools to help you with (mostly) browser-based:
-Password Management
-Note-taking Tools
-Application Management
-Time and Task Tracking
-Mindmapping
-Reminders to Take Time for Yourself!
[Addition since original post] You're likely familiar with the Urgent-Important quadrant (I'm mis-naming, no doubt) that John Covey brought to the forefront of many managers' minds. Well, take your basic understanding of it and check out this awesome, insightful and wise perspective. I guarantee a light bulb will go on, and you may even grin.
Regarding time management, I find that the following is wise advice, and although it may seem obvious, it never hurts to hear or read something again, certainly when trying to change habits and improve a situation:
The key to successful time management is planning and then protecting the planned time. People who say that they have no time do not plan, or fail to protect planned time. If you plan what to do and when, and then stick to it, then you will have time. This involves conditioning, or re-conditioning your environment. For people who have demands placed on them by others, particularly other departments, managers, customers, etc, time management requires diplomatically managing the expectations of others. Time management is chiefly about conditioning your environment, rather than allowing your environment to condition you. If you tolerate, and accept without question, the interruptions and demands of others then you effectively encourage these time management pressures to continue.
I'm definitely a perpetual "I don't have time for that" person. I may know this doesn't help anything, is entirely within my control, and I can do better; but, I haven't figured out how yet. So, that's one of today's two important projects -- Learn about how to be a successful time manager, find tools that can help me to better manage my time and projects/tasks, and implement them. It never hurts to try, right? Things can't get worse, only better.
Okay, for now, time to grab a bite to eat, get back to cleaning my fish tank, then back to this computer to work on time/task management stuff. Best of luck in cleaning up your life! I'm all ears, if you have any specific advice on things that can help or things that have worked for you.
