I would walk 500 miles (and I would walk 500 more)

This post started out as a reply to “Tell Me About Your JDRF Walk” on Arden’s Day, but (in my typical fashion) rambled on and on until it warranted a blog post of its own. And seeing as how I’ve been kind of light on material lately, why not find my blogging inspiration from another blogger? (who has an awesome first name, by the way!!)

To be honest, this year will only be my third walk. I didn’t do any diabetes walking, or any fundraising at all for that matter, in my first 29 years of diabetes. But in the 30th year, I learned that a neighbor in my new neighborhood had T1 and would be walking, so I joined her team. Part of it was about being neighborly. Part about it was curiosity. Part of it was looking for people to socialize and connect with. And yes, I figured it’s time I do something (other than hope) to help us achieve diabetes nirvana.

Announcement: JDRF Meet-ups in NJ and NYC

Passing along this information for those in my local area….

The JDRF Mid-Jersey Chapter is hosting an adult-meetup next Wednesday in East Brunswick. It’s smack in the middle of the state, so I’m hoping to see lots of my fellow Garden Staters there.

Why I support JDRF

On Thursday evening, I attended the JDRF Type-1 Adult Meetup in New York City.  It was a great chance to meet some of the friends I’ve made online, but now in real life.  It was also a chance to meet others who I’d not known previously: like the woman who was diagnosed fifty years ago, the mother whose infant son had T1 before she did, and the twentysomething who learned of his insulin-dependence just a few years ago.

To many, JDRF is all about finding a cure.  Or at least it should be about that, they say.  I’ve read and heard the criticisms: that they throw too much support towards the Artificial Pancreas, that they are negligent in not supporting Dr. Faustman’s research, that that they’re a sell-out to big Pharma and big business, and pretty much any other conspiracy theory you can come up with.

I don’t believe it.

Your wish is granted

So there was this carnival in New Jersey. I made a wish on this machine. It was called a Zoltar Machine! It had this bobbing head that looked just like a devil and if you got a quarter in the devil’s mouth you could make a wish and I did!  So I made a wish to not have diabetes!

* * *

OK, so that’s not how it really happened.  But earlier this month, I did make a wish:  I wished that I would have a chance to meet some other people in the DOC.  While making that wish, I was also terrified that I would actually have to plan something, because, you know, I really stink at planning things.  I had resigned to the fact that this would just become another fleeting thought of mine that would go nowhere.