I am sitting here reviewing in my mind the last week and I am wondering, "is it possible that with all that I am going through, I could experience one of the most wonderful, satisfying, successful weeks I have had in years?" It would seem odd that I would consider my first week back to work (after having a wonderful 2.5 weeks off) and my 2nd week heading into chemotherapy a wonderful week. But, I must admit I had so many great things happen. It serves as another reminder that how you approach a situation is often how the situation winds up. I went into this week with a clear plan and I really lived day by day...and it worked out for me. Here are some of the highlights:
Work Has Been Great
I went back to work on Monday with a bit of trepidation. The night before I returned, I had written a "rules of the road" to myself. This was basically a set of guidelines that I was planning on taking my boss and my team through to make sure that I was taking care of myself (as well as attending to my work responsibilities) while I was dealing with the cancer. The "rules" were nothing out of the ordinary (taking off on the days I have chemo; getting out of work by 6:15PM every night; taking a hard look at all of my meetings to decide which ones were really critical; asking my team to step up and take on some of the workload that I had been doing) but I wasn't sure how people would react and if I would truly be able to put these rules into practice. The wonderful thing is that I was met with an outpouring of support when I returned back to work and EVERYONE is extremely committed to helping me make the "rules" a reality. I did manage to be extremely effective this week at work while still leaving at the time I had proposed every night. I kept on saying to myself, "Hey, months from now when I am cancer-free, I think I still am going to make these rules apply". I find my life to be much more manageable, my stress to be more in check and my productivity to be much higher when I keep to these rules.
My House is Starting to Become A Home
In the past few months, Dave and I have started to get more serious about buying an apartment. The real estate market is getting more favorable for buyers and for a long time, we have wanted to move into a bigger place. We love the location of where we live now so we had been trying to find a place within a few blocks of our current home. Originally, we had thought we would buy something early in the New Year but with the news of my relapse, we decided that the last thing we needed was to worry about buying commitments while I was going through chemo, having surgery etc. So, we decided to put off buying a place until the surgery is behind me and we have a better sense of my treatment plan. I was fine with this decision but I also realized that unconsciously I have spent the past few years going out of my way NOT to invest in our current place because I always said "Why buy nice furniture now when we are going to move into a new apartment?" or "Why replace that couch that I hate when we will have a new place in the near future?" As a result, I have slowly but surely started to feel like our home is more of a house. I love the location but don't love the apartment. I wanted an upgrade and with Dave working from home we are getting a bit cluttered. In the spirit of "every day matters" and "what's the point of waiting?", Dave and I approached our building and it turns out that a larger apartment is available for us to move into. This will afford us more space, give Dave more room to work and me more room to recuperate from my treatments and surgery. In the spirit of "starting over", we are purging many things in our apartment that we never use and we are going to redecorate. I didn't realize how happy this made me until we made the decision. We will be moving into this apartment in early February, a week after Cycle for Survival. Nothing like being busy!...And Speaking of Cycle for Survival
Cycle for Survival Continues to be One of the Most Rewarding Experiences of Our Lives
I am in awe of how the event continues to grow in terms of popularity. As of today, we have 190 teams signed up to be onsite and another 15 or so satellite teams that will be riding across the country (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Austin). We have gotten great press for the event and it turns out that in the next week, Dave and I will be filmed to appear on Good Day New York and New York One News. We will also be ringing the Nasdaq opening bell this Monday morning with representatives from MSKCC and Equinox. How exciting!
I had a moment of pure joy and satisfaction this week when I was asked to be the motivational speaker at Equinox Fitness' Annual Sales Forum Meeting. Every January Equinox gathers the managers from their 85+ locations together to talk about performance goals for the year. Every year they ask an outstanding member to share their story and I was THRILLED to play that role this year. I spoke for about 10 minutes about why I view Equinox as my 2nd family and how wonderfully supportive they have been through my four year battle and my development of Cycle For Survival. When I finished my speech, there wasn't a dry eye in the audience and I was given a 2 minute standing ovation! At one moment during the speech, I realized that this is exactly the moment that I was hoping to have...when we created Cycle For Survival 2 years ago, I NEVER thought I would be able to spend in front of a national fitness company and get them excited about expanding the event into multiple locations. I've come a long way baby! They videotaped the speech so I am hoping to get a copy to post on the blog shortly.
I visited one of my favorite cycling classes this week and the instructor Matt declared that his motto for 2009 is 2009...and Feeling Fine! I loved it and decided to take it on as my own mantra for the year. I am praying and hoping that 2009 is the year that I continue to feel great and the year that I finally kick cancer's butt.
Dave and I continue to be so appreciative of out outpouring of support we have received from so many of you. Please keep the well wishes coming and continue to spread the word about Cycle for Survival.
Yesterday was beyond words! Dave and I are about to take off for a much needed week in St. Maarten to recover and I am hoping that by the time I return home, I will be able to express our emotions into words.
