2.21.2012

A February Weekend

Believe it or not, there were more exciting happenings this weekend than the Unfriendly’s jumping into a first place tie with Macy’s on my List.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Nathan & I missed all the fire hoopla next door because we went to a gymnastics meet on Friday night with my mom and my cousins Amber & Mary.  We had tickets to the Pink Out at Oregon State University, which is an annual gymnastics meet in support of breast cancer research.  My grandmother was a breast cancer survivor, as well as two of my aunts.  I know several more women who have been affected by the disease; some have beaten it and some have not.  You would be hard pressed to find a person who doesn’t know a woman affected by breast cancer.  Breast cancer awareness is so important, and there are just too many women out there who do not make their own health a priority.  Every woman should know how to do a monthly self-exam, but so many don’t.  Or they know how, but they just don’t do them (I confess, even knowing all the risks, I am often guilty of this, and that is the kind of habit that we women need to change).  The more awareness we can raise and research that we can fund, the closer we are to a cure.  And I support any organization that supports that.

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One of the most amazing highlights of this gymnastics meet was that we made the big screen fan cam not once, but TWICE!  We actually did not see it happen the first time, I only know about that one because my friend Stephanie texted me from the other side of the arena to tell me that she saw me on it.  I was so disappointed!!!  Those who know me know that it has been my goal to get on that screen for the last four years.  I couldn’t believe that it had finally happened, and I MISSED it!!!  Luckily, during the next rotation of warm-ups, the fan cam caught Stephanie and her boyfriend, and as we cheered for them the fan cam turned to zoom in on us next!  I credit our fantastic pink outfits and pom poms!  I am still waiting for my call from Hollywood, but never fear, it will come (someday).

One thing I had really been looking forward to at this meet was that UCLA was competing, because they have a gymnast from the 2008 Olympics on their team named Samantha Peszek.  I was really looking forward to seeing her compete, because how often to do you get the chance to see an Olympic gymnast perform in person???  Pretty much never, at least in my world.  I came away majorly disappointed though.  She only competed in one event (beam), and she fell off.  Her routine was great (and difficult) up to the point that she fell, so it’s not even so much that she fell, but more that she didn’t do any other events.  Seriously, she’s an Olympic gymnast and you’re telling me the only event she is good enough to do for UCLA is beam?  Yeah, right.  She could probably dust their other gymnasts on every event.  BUT, OSU came away with some great performances and tied for the win with UCLA, and that was good enough for me.

The other exciting thing from this weekend was a trip that we took to Portland on Saturday, to see the most magical Disney musical of all time:

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I bought these tickets in December, and I am so glad that I did.  My mom took my sister and I to see this when we were little kids.  13 years and several musicals later, it still held a place in my heart as the best I ever saw.  When I found out it was coming to Oregon, I had to buy tickets, even though it was a major splurge.  I am so thankful that I did, because it was just as magical as I remember, even though I am all grown up.  I had been concerned about our seats being off to the side and far back, but they turned out to be fantastic, and the performances were amazing.  I particularly liked Lumiere (the enchanted candle) and Gaston, but all the performers were fantastic.  Belle had the perfect voice, she sounded so much like the Belle from the movie.  I walked around the whole next day singing “Be Our Guest” to myself.  If you have never seen this musical, do yourself a favor and find a way to see it.  The traveling Broadway tour is presented by NetWorks, and you can find tour dates and information on their website here.

I hope everyone has a fun rest of the week.  I will be spending mine working, harassing Macy’s, and trying to run off this excess holiday weight.  Ladies, in honor of breast cancer awareness, let’s all do ourselves a favor and make sure to do a self-exam this week.

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