ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Our volleyball tournament was tonight.
We'll suffice to say this: "Next time. NEXT. TIME." Haha.

Afterwards, I accepted the challenge passed on to me by Kalyn: The viral sweep of ice bucket douses, all in the name of raising awareness and funds for ALS research. The ultimate goal? FIND A CURE.

Amidst the handful of skeptics and those otherwise reluctant to participate for whatever reason, I personally find it endearing to see the newsfeed on my preferred social media outlet -- Facebook -- saturated with video snippets of people dousing themselves or handing that favor off to someone else, in support of a cause. Is it literally every other post just about? Yeah. Does that really bother me that much? NO.

Does it seem a bit narcissistic?
Probably. Sure, we're all posting footage of ourselves doing this, but hey, here's an interesting read I found about this current phenom:

>>> What An ALS Family REALLY Thinks About the Ice Bucket Challenge <<<

This is one of the few times I really want to speak up and tell the naysayers to just... calm down.
This gal says,

"... here’s the deal: We are in for the fight of our lives with this monster, and the very LAST thing I want is for people to give quietly, anonymously, and then slink away. Raise the roof! Raise a ruckus! Call all sorts of attention to yourself! I will be happy for you and every Facebook like you receive, as you nudge ALS an inch or two closer to the collective public consciousness."

Okay. She wins. The ALS-affected win. Douse AND donate, I sure will.

And I did.


In case you can't hear, yeah, I did nominate quite a few people [someone told me the limit was 3? woops] - I guess we'll call it 3 groups of people, as opposed to just 3 individuals:

1 - volleyball team: Becky & Chad [Jessica already did it]
2 - My IL darlings: Ali, DeShawn & Tim [Marianne also already did this]
3 - My better half Rob. Not really a group on the last one... hah.

Anyway, 1, 2 & 3 - you've got 24 hours to accept AND donate. GO!

Oh, and just in case you're still one of those critics who think this too is a fad equitable to that of Gagnam Style or The Harlem Shake, c'mon.. really? Those two things benefited the greater good of mankind .... how, exactly?

>>> Here's ALS, in REAL TIME. <<<

 

Yeah. I'm on board, 100%. If we as a collective group of humans can find a cure for this, I'd say our efforts now, regardless of how funny we and our friends think the videos to be, are worth it.

 

Happy Wednesday!

 

xo | cmd

Thundersnow & Icenadoes .. What?!

C'mon, Midwest...

..... calm down?!

We all knew, if we'd heeded at all to the predictions of the Farmer's Almanac, that this winter would be pretty brutal. At least we were warned.

Today I heard a new term: thundersnow. I wasn't exactly sure what that meant, although it's pretty self-explanatory in all of its unofficial existence as a real thing. Sadly enough, it's a preeeetty accurate description of exactly what's going on in the Midwest this week. At least it is in Ohio.

We woke up today to roads that looked wet, at most.
Nope. Wet-looking roads this week are actually panels of ice disguised as drivable surfaces. Traffic everywhere was a jumbled mess of brake lights and dormant speedometers, dotted with flashing police lights to mark all of the fender benders. You win, winter.

icy roads. everywhere.

To compound the slick roadways, Cincinnati is presently suffering a plague of potholes. Between the ice and the giant tire-hating gaps, the traffic map I found of just our area alone looks... awful.


looks legit, right?

Need a street view of that?
No problem:

potholes, aka road acne

It's like a game of Frogger out there trying to navigate any local streets without bouncing in and out of these stupid things. Our poor cars :(.

Fortunately, I spent most of my day indoors with the office staff, away from the debachle that is driving around here. Lizzy even bought us lunch, because she's super sweet and generous that way.

perfecto!

^ So maybe that wasn't the best choice considering my fitness goals, but in my defense, I think I managed to at least neutralize the threat at the gym tonight. I'm feeling it for sure today, but in that satisfying way that reminds me this will all be worth it.

Staying off the roads is my mantra today, so tonight it's just relaxing with Rob & the pups.

Be safe out there, drivers!

xo | cmd