**Edit-Or shall I say “Tons of edits”. This post has changed quite a bit from the original. I MUST call attention to the fact that I am also wearing my NEW GLASSES in this posts photo. Yup. I went with the “Naughty Librarian” pair. They rule. Now, I really must work on not tinkering with posts once they are up. You poor, pestered, feed readers! What I must do to you! I can’t help it, it’s like picking at a scab. Walk away from the keyboard, Loralee. Now. You can do it!

I know many of you will run shrieking from the length of this post. For those less drama-infused, you will just scroll down and let your eye take in a few of the more pertinent words in each paragraph. This is more a post written for me to look back on in future years and (Hopefully) measure my progress. You could just skip it, but you will be missing a ROCKING photo of me in sweats and tiara.

Don’t let the title of this post scare you. I’m not going to stand up on a desk and go all “O, Captain! My Captain!” on y’all, but I do want to talk about the phrase made famous by cardigan-clad Robin Williams. Continue reading →

Welcome, welcome!

I know what you are thinking. “Wow. Such a brave, daring, bold move, Loralee!” Ok, I deserve it. As one reader put it “I was expecting your url to be something like ‘www.superstealthysecretblog.com’”. So, I realize that this is rather anti-climatic for many of you. It’s sort of like a Kindergartener announcing they are running away from home and they go to the end of the driveway with their blankie and a PB&J.

When I bought my URL, I didn’t have determined, weirdo people trying to find me all the time or I probably would have ditched the Loralee and Looney Tunes altogether. My main reason in making the hoopla was that I have people that bookmarked my blogspot site and haveno concept of search engines, nor will they ever, so just changing to .com is enough of a deterrent. I love the whole “Looney Tunes” thing and really wanted to keep it.

Don’t be afraid to link or change or rolls or links on your page to this blog. I have a pretty good ip blocker on this site and my old one and am not expecting any trouble.

This site isn’t done, I have a lot to tweak and add. Jessica (“Kerfloppy”) redesigned my banner (GORGEOUS, huh?) and she is going to play around some more, but I wanted to get back to the meat and potatoes of blogging which is to actually post n’ stuff. So, here we are. Let’s move on to something I really want to talk about. (I will bitch mightily about WordPress and its photo function at a later date. GRRRRR!)

Michelle, Brigitte and I participated in a 5k this morning!

MY FIRST 5K!!!!

Note how I did NOT say, “I RAN my first 5k this morning!” (Yah, that was NOT going to happen) I did manage to run about a third of it. It was cold and rainy and the beginning of the course was up a VERY steep hill. My poor lungs just couldn’t quite take it, so I walked at a brisk pace for a lot of it. I haven’t been to the gym in a couple of weeks so I am proud that I finished the darn thing at all. My time sucked a duck six ways from Sunday.

45 minutes.

Sigh.

At least I managed to beat Michelle’s 5-year-old, Gracie across the finish line. Her 8-year-old, Abby kicked my butt, but I guess I have to have a goal to aspire to, right?

The run was to support organ donation. This is a very important issue that is close to my heart. It also affected the lives Bridgy and Chelle. Bridgy’s mom, Josie, was the recipient of a liver. We were all very worried for her when she got it, but she is doing very well now. She even participated in the run/walk today. She came in last, but she DID IT! Bridgy and I met her at the finish line with open arms.

Chelley had a beautiful niece that was tragically killed last Easter in a car accident and her family unselfishly donated her organs.

I was not able to donate any of Matthew’s organs when he died because he had to have an autopsy. I thought they were able to use his corneas and heart valves, but I was mistaken. The day I found out was very hard on me. I cried and cried. When we were asked about Matthew donating in the hospital I hesitated for about 15 seconds. It shocked me because I feel so strongly about it, but even I hesitated. It is a hard thing to sign consent to as a parent, but I really regret that they weren’t able to have Bug donate anything. It would have helped me to know his death had at least helped another little baby somewhere.

The reason I am so pro-organ donation is that one of my best friends passed away in 1994 while waiting for a heart/lung transplant. Scott Wolfer was the first friend I made at my high school. He was two grades ahead of me, but in my math class. I talked to him because he was wearing a “Phantom of the Opera” t-shirt. We were fast friends from then on. I don’t know why we clicked so well, probably because I was a shy, fat girl with unfortunate double-processed hair, and he was blue and wore an oxygen tank all the time. We were OK being rejects because we had each other. I wish I had a photo of Scott to post, but my box of high school memorabilia was destroyed by rain.

We had five wonderful years of friendship and I will never forget him.

Maybe it is because I was so young, but even when he was on oxygen 24-hours a day, I never really thought he would die. But he did. He died waiting for a call that never came. It will be 17 years this June since my friend passed away. He was only 21. So many people die waiting to receive transplants.

I hope this post puts a more personal face on something that is often far removed from public awareness. If you haven’t given thought to being an organ donor, please reconsider and sign up. Have your donor status put on your drivers licence and make sure your friends and family know of your wishes. You can’t imagine what the agony of waiting and hoping is like and you don’t know the blessing and impact you could have on many, many lives.

EDIT***