Climb for Hospice

Yesterday I went around town approaching business owners for donations to the Kili Gala Raffle. I had a GREAT response! Everyone I approached was keen to help, and I was able to get some really neat things. THANK YOU!

I am going to get more posters copied and head into Tsawwassen today to try the same thing. Here’s hoping that business owners there as just as open to the idea!

I walked around Ladner for about 45 minutes yesterday, and by the time I got home, I was completely exhausted. It’s not until I try and actually *do* something that I realize how sick I actually am. I’m getting better, but I’m not necessarily getting smarter about taking it easy.

This morning I woke up and was feeling ok. A whole lot less coughing, and the rattle in my chest seems to have gone away. I decided to treat the dogs and go for our regular Weekend Morning Walk. I feel so bad that they’ve had to be kept to short walkies, so I was happy to oblige them today. We went out for 45 minutes, and it went really well for all of us (well, except for Luna who decided to go selectively deaf when she got near any garbage cans).

I’m going to relax, then take the girls to McDonald Beach at noon, so they can play with their Auntie Sheena and their cousins Tweed, Piper, Mr. Woo, Dexter and TWooie. It’ll be nice because all I have to do is sit on a log and throw sticks in the water. Nice job if you can get it, really.

Happy Jenn!

Happy Luna!

Happy Robyn!

*Ok, ok – so it’s not the same beach. Heck, it isn’t even the same continent! But you get the idea…

Ahhhhh, the Kili Gala. Although a wonderful idea, and one that I believe will help to raise a great deal of money for the Delta Hospice Society, it is totally stressing me out.

I am not a party planner. I know some people who are incredible at event planning, and sadly, I am not one of those people. In all honesty, I’d rather climb a mountain than plan an event.

…oh. Right. I *am* climbing a mountain.

ANYWAY…

As stressful as I am finding the planning for the Kili Gala, I have been overwhelmed by the support of our community. As you may already know, The Kili Gala will have a raffle draw with a whole bunch of really great prizes. Most of the prizes come from local businesses, or from local business owners who have their businesses in another community. The donor list is incredible! Seriously, have a look!

Gift certificates, baskets of goods, golf passes, dinner at fantastic restaurants… it’s all so very, very awesome. And the best part? Raffle tickets are going to be cheap!  My plan was for the raffle to be a big draw, and so far, it’s working out pretty well, I must say!

SO… I think you and your friends have a date for JUNE 5th! Come to the Ladner Community Centre at 7pm and partake of the Kili Gala – have some fun knowing that all your donations are going to a worthy cause. It’s Party Karma!

You can email me at climbforhospice@gmail.com (or just click the ‘contact’ tab) and request tickets. I’ll even hand-deliver them if you live in South Delta!

You can also purchase tickets in person at Open Space Yoga and Evolutions Hair Design in Ladner. Michael and Wade have graciously offered to sell tickets for me, and, well…  I think they’re wonderful for doing so.

Can’t wait to see you on June 5th – considering what we have planned (and what we’re planning on wearing), you’re won’t want to miss this…

*If you would like to donate an item for the Kili Gala Raffle, please send me an email!*

My wonderful friend Kat has made me a wonderful offer…

She will be happy to donate TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS to the Delta Hospice Society in honour of my Kilimanjaro climb… provided I bring her a video of me singing the ENTIRE song ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain‘ from the movie The Sound of Music at the summit.

For those of you that have actually heard me sing, you will know just how horrifying this idea truly is.

What’s even more horrifying is the fact that I’m actually considering it.

*Googles ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’ lyrics*

Hahahaha – ohhhh, silly, silly, silly…

Remember when I had that cold? And then remember when I said that cold was the flu? Yeah, I was wrong about that.

So, funny thing really… I have pneumonia.

Yep, thaaaaat’s right. I’m basically a pile of gasping goo right now, coughing my way through the wonderful moments of my day. On the upside, I am certainly catching up on my reading!

I went to the doctor yesterday and he got mad at me. I can’t understand why! All I told him was that I was coughing up weird coloured things, and that whenever I took a breath it sounded like I had the Death Rattle going on.

“How long has this been going on?”  he asks

“Ummm… 10 days or so?”  I reply.

I don’t often see my Doctor do a facepalm, but when he DOES do it, I figure I’ve done something really, really wrong.

Anyway, he told me to “lay low” and gave me a script for 7 days worth of  Biaxin (an antibiotic). He told me to take it easy, rest, drink lots of fluids, stay home from work (oh boy!), and if I’m not better in 2 days… go to the hospital for a chest x-ray. Guess this is serious. Meh.

Needless to say, the training is on hold for a while. Considering I can’t even stand without getting short of breath, I’m pretty sure that lifting weights or hiking isn’t going to be all that productive. Besides, do you have any idea how tiring it is to put on shoes!?

I’d *like* to hike this weekend, so we’ll see how I feel in a couple of days.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some fluids to drink…

🙂

Brand: Phytoberry Protein

Flavour:  …phytoberry I guess. What’s a phytoberry?

Tag Line: Protein and Fruit Energy Bar

First Ingredient: Protein Blend (There are FAR too many ingredients in this to list.)

I know what a blueberry is. I know what a raspberry is. I’m confident in my knowledge of blackberries. All of these berries are proudly displayed in a tantalizing picture on the wrapper of the phytoberry bar. This could prove to be tasty!

This bar is about 45 grams. After taste-testing it two weeks ago, I have approximately 43.5 grams of it left over.

I don’t know what a phytoberry is, but I don’t like it. Apparently a phytoberry is purple, though. And a phytoberry tastes like cereal. In fact, the phytoberry may be the secret ingredient in Boo Berry cereal, because the phytoberry bar has an eerily similar taste to Boo Berry cereal. Unfortunately, it is NOT Boo Berry cereal. If it were, I would have gladly eaten it.

The phytoberry bar is essentially Boo Berry jam mashed together with Rice Krispies. This bar isn’t sure if it’s a bar, a fruit or a cereal. I guess that’s to be expected when one calls oneself ‘phytoberry’. What the hell is a phytoberry!? It’s something with an identity crisis, that’s for sure.

Although the phytoberry bar is NOT Boo Berry cereal, I still find that I am being haunted by it. I think that has something to do with the fact that I spent $3.88 (before tax) on the dumb thing, and only ate about 45 cents worth of it before my gag reflex kicked in.

I’m going to have to go eat some Lucky Charms to wash the taste away once and for all. Pffft… Phytoberry. You’re not even a berry, you liar!

THE PHYTOBERRY IS A LIE!

You want to know what really scares me about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro? Sharing a tent.

“Sleeping is a problem for most high-altitude climbers due to a phenomenon known as Cheyne-Stokes breathing. While dozing, the climber breathes normally for a minute and then stops completely for thirty seconds. Suddenly, breathing resumes at an accelerated rate. One minute you sound out of breath, the next, dead. It is often more disconcerting for the tent mate than the sleeper.”

Faaaantastic!

It was certainly a successful Easter dinner! Usually, I tend to over-eat and gorge on all the wrong things, but this year I did very well for myself. No sore tummy and gastronomically-induced groaning, no Tums chasers, no multiple-dessert regrets. I ate a reasonable amount of dinner – weird!

The fact of the matter is – well, I was simply too exhausted to eat a truck load of food. Getting up for seconds wasn’t even a possibility, considering that I was struggling with the simple act of bringing a forkfull of tasty goodness to face level.

I think I need to go to the doctor.

Odd that the reason to see my GP is because I *don’t* have a visibly larger stomach the day after Easter dinner.

“So, what brings you in today, Robyn?”

“I wasn’t a glutton at Easter”

“MY GOD WOMAN! Call an ambulance! You’re SICK!”

I can’t believe I have to wait until Thanksgiving now in order to eat myself into a coma. This sucks.

But for now… I’m going back to bed. G’night.

And so, as I bravely unfurled myself from the fetal position, dared to rise from the couch-dent and leave my pity hovel, I realized that fresh air is somewhat invigorating.

Yesterday Ali and I decided to do SOMETHING, because we have been doing nothing for far too long, So many excuses! “The olympics are on… my knee hurts… I’m functioning on single-lung capacity… I don’t want to get blown off the top of The Chief and smoosh onto the Sea-To-Sky in all my gory glory…”  lame things like that. But today, we just got out there and walked. We decided to walk along the Deas Island trail in Ladner…

Or, ummm… Dea’s Trail…

Dea has such a lovely trail. Thank you for letting us walk your lovely trail, Dea!

It really is a beautiful walk. Full of the wonders of nature. Look! A rare Transiticus Busicus! How fortunate to get it on film!

In all seriousness, it IS a nice trail. It winds through Ladner for a bit, then crosses under Highway 99 by the tunnel, before leading one along the river to Deas Island Park

And once in Deas Island Park, you sort of wend your way through a quiet forest

Taking the time to just enjoy nature. Watching the birds on the river, smelling the damp, mossy forest, feeling the wind against your face as it blows through the trees, hearing the beautiful sounds of all that is natural and beau…

ALISON!!

Anyway… Ali and I walked for 2 hours, chatting and laughing, wondering how we were going to actually pull this Kili Gala off, wondering how we’ll actually manage to do this whole ‘climb-a-mountain thing’, wondering how we’ll ever afford all the gear, wondering how we’ll fit everything that we want to do into three short weeks, wondering how we can not defecate for seven days while we’re climbing in order to avoid the whole ‘used toilet paper bag’ idea… you know, the important things.

It was a really nice walk and I totally recommend it to all Delta residents (Deltans? Deltaites? Whatever.) as a nice little jaunt through the large beauty of the small place in which we live. I felt a great deal better after my walk (especially after the epsom salt footbath), and I think the fresh air did me some good.

I haven’t been eating much, and so have lost a fair deal of weight, which has led to a diminished energy level. However, by next weekend I am sure to be back at 100%, and so Ali and I have decided that we’re going to take on The Chief on Saturday. I hope.

Happy Hidden-Chocolate-Egg Day!

FINALLY! I can breathe, I have some energy, I’m not coughing up small bits of highly important internal organs… today is the day! Ali has had a fitness goal of climbing all 3 peaks of the Stawamus Chief, so we’re going to do that today. I’ve got my lunch packed, my camelback filled, my hiking boots in the car… what’s left? Oh! Better check that weather report before we head off…

Let’s see.. mmm, hmmm… Squamish – ah, here we go! So, ‘5 degrees Celsius’. Not a problem. That’s practically balmy for Squamish!  ‘Light rain’ – pffft, no worries there at all. ‘Wind warning in effect for Howe Sound’.

…wut.

Hmmmmm. I *really* want to do this hike. But do I *really* want to be standing atop one of the world’s tallest granite monoliths in a gale force wind storm?

Processing… processing…

*dials phone*

“Hey Ali. Soooo… how are things? Mmm, hmm, that’s great. Good to hear.  Yah, so, about this hike today… oh, yah, yah, I’d still love to go! Absolutely! Funny thing, though… I don’t really want to, you know… DIE or anything, so I was wondering if you may want to do something a little… lower. Sure. Sure. Yep, you bet. Mkay, see you then. Bye-bye”

So, today is the day! Ali and I are finally going to walk the trails around Ladner…

Hahahaha…. yah, so you know this cold I’ve been fighting? Apparently, it’s the flu. I DIDN’T KNOW!

But really, how DOES one tell the difference? I figured it was just a cold for the simple fact that 1) I didn’t feel like I was going to die, and 2) I didn’t WISH that I was going to die. But as I attempted to eat my lunch at work yesterday, and got winded from the process of eating a cracker, I figured something was wrong. But meh. What are you going to do, right?

So… I had to call Ali and tell her that we were NOT going to be hiking The Chief today. She was very understanding, and I believe her response was something like, “well DUH! What do you think I’ve been trying to tell you, jackass!?” or something equally as touching and compassionate. Ahhhh, good friends.

It really sucks, because I honestly want to go hiking! I did an interview with Kristine from the South Delta Leader yesterday, and she asked me if I felt prepared. I think I laughed at her. I am so NOT prepared. I’m realizing that more and more as the days go by, and it’s freakin’ me out, man.

I went to my site yesterday to have a look, and clicked on the Delta Hospice Press Release, and when I looked at the map of the route Ali and I will be taking up Kilimanjaro, I almost started to hyperventilate. “Only a crazy person would do that!” I said.

I’m feeling well qualified.

Anyway, I was able to get about 11 hours sleep last night, and that helped a lot. I’ll take one more day to lay low, and then I’m going to carry on.

This sucks.  *crosses arms*

*pouts*

Ahhh, the first post on my new site. It may take me a while to get the hang of this new place, but I’ll try to learn fast. So? What do you think? Like the new digs? Look around and you’ll see some new stuff here and there.  I’m so glad you came by!

I’m back in the world of the healthy… I think. I took 2.5 days off work, and I think it really helped. Just to sit on the couch, read, nap and drink tea was far more healing than anything that Tylenol or Nyquil could provide. However, I *did* have some Neo-Citran, but that’s just because I like how it tastes (I know. I’m weird that way). The stuff had actually expired in 2006 (you can see how often I get sick), and came out of the package as a lump of bouncy crystal log instead of cascading like a healing waterfall, but it still tasted ok.  What?

Tomorrow Ali and I are hiking The Chief in Squamish. We’re doing all 3 peaks. I think. Now, considering I get winded when I talk on the phone, this hike may be a bit difficult for me. I was going to cancel, but I thought to myself, ‘what if I get sick like this on Kili? I’d still have to carry on!’ So… I’m hiking The Chief tomorrow.

If I were in pain I wouldn’t do a hike, because that could obviously do a lot of harm. But since it’s just a cold I’m recovering from, I’ll be ok.

Ali, on the other hand, I’m not so sure about. She’s going to be hiking with me for hours as I snurffle, hack, cough, spit, choke and blargh. I’m sure she’ll have a lovely time.

Happy Faux Friday, and welcome to ClimbForHospice.com! Wheeeee!