The week I wished I could forget!

It has been an emotional week. First of all I had to fly to St. Louis Monday morning and then drive over to a small little town for a meeting. Did you just ever have one of those meetings where every thing that you suggested for their flyer or catalog the client rejected or thought you were out of your mind? Will this was that type of meeting. So after finally getting the manager to "see it my way" and I don't know why he wasn't trusting my judgement, I mean I have led them right the past two years, I just wanted him to take me out back and put me down. We were in a middle of a cow pasture after all (no, I'm not joking). I had to call my friend Mike just to ask the question "why did I do this job". For Mike to remind me "it's the 5 star hotels we stay in and the wonderful dining and the first class accommodations". Which none are true, but at least it made me laugh during the hour and 15 minute drive in my Nissan Rogue rental that was on it's last leg.

Tuesday, I had appointments in the St. Louis area. Most likely my favorite day. I did get my flu shot. Can you believe it - I'm in MO and was able to get my vaccination. Thank goodness! I had to set up for a show that evening and ran into all my buds, what a great way to end the day with Pizza and beer and buds.

Wednesday, the PPAM had their show in St. Louis and then we loaded up and headed to KC, KS. First of all I allowed a MN Viking to ride with me. Trouble! Just joking - Curt needed a ride since he couldn't get a rental once in town since he's license was expired. We had a terrible thunderstorm all the way in the 3 hour and 45 minute drive but it was worth it as we headed in and got set up and then headed to my favorite eating place in the entire state - Jack Stack BBQ. WOW!

Thursday, PPAM had their show in KC, KS. What can I say about this day, except in all my days of doing this job I've never had this happen to me. I had a man named CB come into my booth and he asked me what a product was and I told him it was the Go Green Bag Holder. When I explained that it was a holder for reusable bags to place on your grocery cart, he just went off on me. Called me a "true huggin, Obama lover" and then gave me the hail Hitler salute. I had to ask the man to leave my booth. What has the world come to, when you have crazies at trade shows as shallow as this. I reported him to the association but what is worse, he made me so angry I cried. Then I became angrier that I allowed him to get to me. OOOOOO!!!

I finally made it home on Thursday night with a big sigh. I was ready. Friday between chemo, work, radiation and everything else, I was trying to make sure I had everything in for the fundraiser on Saturday.

Let me talk about Saturday. It's been weighing heavy on my heart. My friends know that these walks mean more to me than anything. I would walk to the moon and back to make sure we raise enough money to find a cure for cancer. On Saturday was our fundraiser Pretty in Pink. So many of my friends have donated money, items to assist me in making sure that we get what we need to make the money to raise what we need to walk as a team. This year I've asked some very dear friends to help me out. But I was made to feel very "unwelcome" by my team captain on Saturday morning with one of my donations and then again on Saturday evening with another by the fact that he didn't even acknowledge the song that I had professionally written for us and all downloads are going to our team. We could have at least played it that evening or announced that you could purchased it. We did put a piece a paper with the info in the bags we handed out but I think hearing it would have helped. Now, it wouldn't be so bad if these would have been "oh, tj I didn't realize" but these were things we had spoken about in previous team meetings. One of them, he said I didn't give any solutions and it seemed as if he was saying I had presented a problem. He upset me so that I actually had to walk out of the last 30 minutes of set up. The L man was so surprised when I said "let's go". Oh, he was happy to have be get home and rest more, but I was so upset we couldn't really enjoy our time together. The team captain sent me a text but I wouldn't even respond and then he had one of the team members call me to make sure I was going to show up that evening. Which I was, I just needed to clear my head and I told her that. The event was nice and we raised some nice dollars, I don't know how much.

My thing is I had to remind myself why I do this. I had to pull out my remembrance necklace and look at the pictures of those that have died from this terrible disease we call cancer. I got the picture of Sharla and said "this is the reason, , so another person doesn't have to die of this disease, to find a cure for cancer". I don't do it to be friends (I do it to meet others, that are after the same goal), or to get happy feelings (which by the way, I do!!!), I'm doing it to stomp out cancer. I tucked that picture into my purse and took it to the event with me. They did a touching tribute to Sharla. I remembered all this and the night was okay. I'm still going to have a long talk with Jason and find out where the communication "line" went down. I still wasn't comfortable with what took place but you know what, life isn't always fair, and I for one should know that! Seriously!