Football, Friends and Food

My friends at OverTime, the Bar & Grill where I moonlight as a cook, were kind enough to promote The Trip 2005 once again before I depart tomorrow morning. Even in my absence, as there is just so much to do, Monday Night Football Bingo raised additional funds to fight Parkinson's Disease. One anonymous stranger, the winner of the big pot, donated half of his booty to the cause. This kind of generosity touches me, as it has with the outpouring of goodwill for hurricane relief, but with something so close to me the chord stricken is louder...

Then, this morning I was summoned to an impromptu meeting in the conference room at job #1. Now I'm a pretty face-value guy, and I don't read too far into things, but I am well-known for disliking meetings. Much to my surprise, the 'meeting' was a gathering of folks from work wishing to send me off with a show of their smiling and supportive faces. Thank you all for what you do for my motivation! And for the complex carbs (bagels)!

Last night's shopping spree raised the eyebrow of the woman behind me in line. Six cans of black beans (no added salt), six pounds of bananas, five pounds of sweet potatoes and three ten-packs of tortillas. Bananas for the potassium (to help prevent cramping and because bananas are second only to grapefruit on the fruit scale), tortillas for a wrapper, sweet potatoes for mashing with the black beans and spreading on the tortilla, and tuna.

Rats - forgot the tuna (for protein)!

Tomorrow. 6:00 am. The adventure begins, the result being more money to fight Parkinson's Disease. Thanks again to all who have pledged thus far. If you'd like to donate, it's never too late. You can donate electronically at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.