Sisterhood of the Secret Handshake

kookiesmom- much of the wisdom in life is knowing how long the dog's chain is

christi- yes, like christi I beckoned from BOT  

ALL- If this thread moves, it moves as the entire thing, your favorites still work, it's pretty much same ol' same ol'.  I saw this with elimar's thread for 40-60 year olds.  She made that thread because there was an "older" group and a "younger" group but nothing for those in between.  At first she put it under the Younger grouping, and then asked the mods to make a new heading for 40-60, and we all said yes please to the mods, and they moved the whole thread.  (Timely too, because the new guidelines came out right after that, and its the 40-60s who are getting the most screwed so...)

Just one day you will come here as usual and at the top of the page instead of saying: 

Forum: Growing our Friendships After Treatment: For those who have finished treatment, but want to continue growing your cybersister friendships.

It will say something like:

Forum: Rude Bitches Who Curse: For those who have finished treatment, but want to continue growing your cybersister friendships and let it all hang out.

:::giggle::::

and the Forum will have a warning so those delicate flowers who would be offended by us rude bitches will know to stay out.

Maybe it should be:

Forum: BC.org's HBO content version: For those who have finished treatment, but want to continue growing your cybersister friendships with profanity and good grammar. Viewer discretion advised 

oh yeah kmmd- all my spelink and gremar goes out the fcrikeyucking window during TX... all bets are off then... good point.  I also think I can tell when my posting friends are hurting when I see their writing suffer.

OK normally I would never share or post this letter but since you're all involved with the effort, here's the letter I wrote to my contacts just now (and I will post the pics too.... workin on it)

Hi-

This year feels a tiny bit like 9/11, when I couldn't do all that I wanted to do to help.  I am going to be honest here, as I have learned to be with the troops since 2003.  Everything is harder on everyone because of the economy and age, and already there is just no... time.  I know you already know that.  For myself, in the last year I had a baby, then breast cancer, and the lawsuit they have been delaying for 3 years on the restoration of the home I own that was destroyed 6 years ago was thrown out of court about 3 weeks ago.  So this has kept me pretty busy to say the least.

The FDNY firefighters have had similar loads, cutbacks, new restrictions disallowing sales of their tshirts, health issues...

And so have the troops, in every way and only more so.

So I have to apologize to you, because this year I haven't even been in touch with you.  Usually I get to know my contacts and make the connection between myself and the firefighters, so you really know that we're WITH you.  We make the human connection, people to people, via the Internet, so you will know more about who we are and why we love you, and you can feel it more every day, because you'd hear from me.  That's the real point of my mission- to let you know that no matter what you see in the news (and I know you see the news), to break through the BS and let you know that back home, everyone everywhere in all walks of life, in every city and town is thinking about YOU, loving YOU, and hoping for your safe return.

I had to prioritize to get things done, and I know  you know what that's all about, so I can relax a little there.  So instead of taking the time to communicate more often and more effectively, I just "took care of business" over here to make my big push for Christmas.  The troops need to know we care EVERY day, but it's been my experience that Christmas is the hardest time of all for the troops.  I'm Jewish and even so, I know what it means to be alone and far from home at Christmas.  Everyone stateside is a little heartbroken at Christmas, knowing our troops are "over there".  Everyone feels helpless and useless, because we have no way to show the troops we care.  There is no way to personally deliver the message, although there are some good organizations now.

Thanksgiving is rough, but seems not as tough as Christmas, at least for the troops, while over here, hardly anyone can eat turkey without thinking of the troops making it all possible.

Well, that is, except for ME.  He he he.  I got YOU, personally.  You got ME, personally.  And the FDNY firefighters, especially from my home houses, that is Ladder 20, Ladder 5 Engine 24 & Marine 1,  they trust me to get the message to you- and back to them, and that, my friends, is my mission.  At Thanksgiving, I feel GOOD because I KNOW when I am planning for the troops, and everyone helping me also feels GOOD because we know, the troops are going to get our message: We Love You, We Care About You, We Think About  You EVERY second of every day.

This is how we are demonstrating that love this year:

There are 5 contacts, 3 in Iraq, 2 in Afghanistan- you know who you are.

Nora has been in Iraq and "with" me and the FDNY firefighters for 4 Christmases, so she knows all this already.

Jim in Iraq thinks I am a bit of a flake (c'mon, admit it) because his predecessor gave him to me, and I have only written him like twice, and very confusing emails.

Sonia in Iraq seems a righteous chick who has been quick and efficient and trusting, I hope we have more time to chat now, I do

William in Afghanistan is taking Renee's word (always a good idea) and quietly waiting to see what happens next

and for Scott in Afghanistan I have something to prove.  Somehow last year he got NOTHING from me and the FDNY firefighters, even though I sent him some FDNY gear specially donated from the firefighters, but I didn't know  it didn't arrive, so I threw out the insurance receipt.

This brings me to an important point: I NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU HOW MANY BOXES YOU RECEIVE PLEASE!!!!!

If you dont get everything I sent, I can get the money back to replace it, but I need to know!

This is what we're doing this year:

Popcorn (chocolate covered, sent with love from Hampton Popcorn) is going to Sonia, Jim and William- in fact it should have arrived already, anyone get popcorn yet?  Nora's had popcorn twice already, and Scott has a warehouse full of self-popping popcorn he's sick of already.  Thing is, the Hampton Popcorn people WANTED to send their popcorn to the troops, are offering a 30% discount for any troops who want to order gifts for the folks back home, and they also threw in some of the shipment at their own cost.  They love the troops.

Cookies... for all five locations... amazing cookies that New Yorkers literally stand in line for hours for (last year I wanted some and gave up on a 3 hour line), Italian cookies from a bakery 2 miles from Ground Zero that's been in business since 1894, packed with loving care (I kid you not) again specially for the troops- they do NOT do this for anyone else.  Plus, cards that explain who the cookies are from and the love we have for you- hundreds of them- because everyone I talk to wanted to get in on this, a chance to communicate directly with the troops, person to person.  My fellow breast cancer patients saw what I was doing, Kari in California wrote 100, Patty in Oklahoma wrote 100, and Meg put me in touch with a youth organization in Minnesota and those kids wrote 300 cards for the troops.

Distribution: (each box about 35 pounds/approx 600 cookies)

Scott 9 boxes of cookies

William 9 boxes of cookies (plus popcorn)

Nora 6 boxes of cookies

Sonia 6 boxes of cookies (plus popcorn)

Jim 3.5 boxes of cookies (plus popcorn)

And once again, Veniero's the bakery stuffed their boxes and threw in cookies at their own cost.

PLEASE COUNT THE BOXES YOU RECEIVE AND LET ME KNOW HOW MANY MADE IT???!!!!  I have all the receipts.

So, you see, I may have been quiet (be happy for that, those who know me know I talk a lot, see?) but I have been busy every day thinking and working on getting this message of love out to you- WITH the FDNY firefighters.  On 9/11 anniversary, I was with the firefighters - and also the troops, as a group of red beret soldiers was with us at the 9/11 Mass.  One of their father's was an FDNY firefighter lost on 9/11, his whole unit came to Mass with us.  All the firefighters light up when they see me, because they know I will bring them news of the troops they love.    Which brings up another request from me:

PLEASE SEND BACK MESSAGES AND PICTURES AND VIDEOS - WHATEVER YOU CAN MANAGE OF THE TROOPS WITH THE GIFTS

My mission is dual- to let the troops know that we love them, especially the FDNY firefighters, and to let the firefighters know the troops GOT THE MESSAGE.

You wouldn't believe what it's like when I come to a firehouse with the printouts from the troops.  They get on the speaker and announce there's letters from the troops and ALL the firefighters drop whatever they're doing and assemble to read the letters, look at the pictures, if there's video I bring my computer and play it for them.  This- this makes them smile.  That's my job.  That's my commitment since 9/11.  I don't fight fires, I don't run into burning buildings, I am not trained to save anyone's life, I can't defend or attack anything, I am not an ironworker, on the whole I am pretty useless- except that I can maybe bring a smile to a soldier, sailor, airman or marine's face and let them know they are loved at home, and I can maybe bring a smile to an FDNY firefighter's face that he or she knows that the troops know they are supported by the firefighters of the FDNY.

This is what I ask of you.  Let me know as much as possible you got the message, please.

There are no pictures or any formatting in this email, to make sure it arrives without being caught in a filter.  I will send next an email full of pictures of all the people- including our postal workers who really went the extra mile to make this happen today- and if you could get pics of the boxes that arrive in the soldiers' hands, that would just make their day.

This was an amazing day.  At the bakery, with the postal workers, everywhere I went I'd ask, "Do you know what this is about?" and they'd say with a BIG GRIN, "WE'RE SENDING LOVE TO OUR TROOPS!".

So... LET US HEAR FROM YOU/SEE YOU PLEASE!

Love,

Rachel and the FDNY firefighters, and the bakers and the postal workers and women and children all across America, and the world- we love you. 

kmmd- yes, I totally agree.  That's why I invited 'em here. 

Leggy dahling, to be fair, a Charles Manson sighting in some backwoods area where I am camping, that alone is enough to dry me up and blow me away. ::::snicker::::  However, it is tru dat about remembering why you are no longer dating someone when you date them again... Sometimes ya just wish ya had a cork... for his mouth... but a nice toy on the other hand... well that's sweet... and SWEET!  What an adventure.  And nice that the dogs were cool.  

On Chemobrain... I was reading on my Mommy list an article about stress causing temporary damage to the part of the brain that controls memory.  Now I am looking for the article and finding many (googled "stress brain memory") there is also this pretty extraordinary article from the Franklin Institute (we have some Ben Franklin aficionados  here, right?)

http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/stress.html

Fascinating - when I read each paragraph I realized there are implications not only for chemo and rads, but also Tamox and some of these SEs we've been talking about...