firecat

Scary example of what drinking coffee after dinner can do:

I just signed up for the "Swim a Mile for Women with Cancer" fundraiser for the Women's Cancer Resource Center of Oakland, California. The swim takes place on October 1 and 2.

I saw it advertised on a poster in a shop window on Solano Ave in Berkeley, somewhere near Good Vibrations and Caffe Trieste (where

kyubi and I had our date tonight) and I said, "Hey, I can do that!"

I swam almost half a mile last Monday without great effort, and I figure I can work up to a mile by October 1. Well, actually I may not be able to do a whole mile - just because the time slots are only one hour long and I swim pretty slowly these days. But my goal is either to swim a mile or to swim for the whole hour.

I've always loved swimming. When I was in my 20s, I swam 1.5 miles a day.

I'm doing this for three reasons: (1) to raise money for what seems like a good cause, (2) to support my personal goal of swimming more often, and (3) to represent for the Health at Every Size or "fat and fit" movement and the "fat people can dare to wear bathing suits in public" movement.

I'll do a longer post later with more ways to donate, but in the meantime, the online sponsorship form is here (my nickname is "firecat"). The suggested minimum donation is $25, but I'm sure they'd accept any reasonable amount.

Oh, and - I know that the people I know support lots of wonderful causes while working to keep themselves and their loved ones afloat, and sometimes that's difficult. There is absolutely no requirement or pressure to contribute to this cause. I hope you only do it if you wanna and can comfortably do so.