Help me by volunteering for Relay for Life!!

Hey everyone!!! I'm writing because I need your help!

As many of you may or may not know, my mom's family is from Jersey County and is active in that area's American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event every year. They started shortly after my cousin's 2-year-old died from a form of brain cancer several years ago. One year, my mom convinced me that since I liked staying up late that I would enjoy participating in the overnight event, so I went.

I loved it. It was filled with educational opportunities, fun and games, and most importantly, hope for those struggling with cancer and for those who know people who have been personally affected by it. Look at your own life, and I guarantee you know at least one person who has been diagnosed at some point in his or her life.

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My closest friends (both at school and at home) should know for sure. For those of you at home -- Wasn't it devastating to find out in college that one of us had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma? Wasn't it scary? Didn't you feel helpless? Thank God he's doing better now and let's hope it stays that way, but don't you wish there was something you could have done to help? For those of you at school -- Didn't it scare you to learn that the professor you always joked with about loving "Brokeback Mountain" was having a hard time fighting colon cancer? Again, thank God he fought it and is doing much, much better. I don't know what we'd have done without that guy!!

My point is -- there is something you can do to help fight cancer and possibly prevent this from happening to even more people you know. It's a great way to honor those who have already struggled as well. The best method is through education. By helping with Relay for Life, you can educate others about the causes and symptoms so that we can help people avoid getting cancer or help them get an early diagnosis so they can fight it.

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Over the years I have tried to do a little more for the event than just hang out with my mom's team. With Alpha Sigma Alpha at EIU, I formed three teams for the Charleston/EIU event.
Coming back home, I wanted to get even more involved.

This year, I have volunteered to be on the Jersey County Relay for Life Steering Committee as the Mission/Fight Back chairperson, and I need help gathering a committee of volunteers. Hopefully, THAT'S YOU!

Here is a little about the committee and what we will work to do, from now through the event in May at Illini Middle School.

ABOUT THE MISSION/FIGHT BACK COMMITTEE

This year, cancer education is spreading beyond the Relay event. Formerly, nurses and other medical professionals manned a tent during the event where participants could earn "relay bucks" by educating themselves about cancer. This year, the committee will be on-the-go rather than cooped up in some tent.

Relay participants will fill out pledge cards this year, saying what they, as individuals, plan to do to fight cancer. It will be our committee's job to help people think of ideas or encourage them to think of their own (they can volunteer for a cause, they can help someone who has cancer, they can eat healthier, they can spread the word about cancer awareness, etc.). We will make sure everyone fills the cards out, then we will collect the cards during the event.

We will present educational opportunities to our team captains so they can keep participants informed.

We will plan, prepare and give a Fight Back ceremony during Relay for Life. We must also recruit an area survivor or caretaker to be an inspirational speaker at the event. We must come up with ways to educate people during the event via themed laps, games, etc.

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The idea is that one person can't do much in the fight alone, but that many people doing their own thing really adds up.

I know that many of you are not in Jersey County and/or may not know anything about Jersey County -- but please consider participating with this. It's for a really great cause, and though there are other relay events in Madison County, etc., it doesn't really matter WHERE you help -- as long as you do, you're doing your part to battle this serious disease.

Thanks for listening.
If interested, contact me at laminette.griff@gmail.com.

My Top 10 Movies -- July 1998

Looking through some old stuff, I came across a list I made a long time ago...

Since this weekend is the Oscars, I decided it would only be right to share my favorite 10 movies back then (on July 27, 1998 apparently):

10. Scream 2 - ??
9. Scream - WOW, the Scream movies were having a good year with me...
8. What About Bob? - Can't blame myself for this one.
7. Face Off - WHAT?!??! ew.
6. Independence Day - I had a fat crush on Will Smith
5. Men In Black - TOLD YOU (I was obsessed with the song too...)
4. The Fifth Element - Hi I'm Laura, and I'm a member of the Bruce Willis Fan Club. (not really)
3. Liar Liar - Good movie!!
2. Dr. Doolittle - WHAT?!!?! talking animals, eh?
1. Armageddon - Bruce Willis.

Apparently I judged whether a movie was good on whether Will Smith or Bruce Willis was in it.

That's all for now...
ENJOY THE OSCARS!!

Bonnaroo 2008!!

This is going to be such a blast...



So... I'm going!
This will be my first year at Bonnaroo, but I'm super mo' excited. Mostly, David and Justin have gotten me super excited. I remember being here and being miserable last year while they were in Tennessee having the times of their lives, and I can't wait to see how the other half lives this year. EEEeeeee!

I can't wait to see the Allman Brothers Band mostly, but there are sooo many others I can't wait to see either.

Because I have duties as a journalist, I have decided to document my journey from the initial artist announcements (Feb. 6) to the day I come back and take that first wonderful shower after a weekend of being dirty dirty (June 15-16) on a Blogger blog.

To make that blog Telegraph-reader friendly (and separate from this one), I have dedicated a separate address for those posts. You can read them at http://bonnaroovirgin.blogspot.com

I'm learning about so much music I never knew about before but happen to enjoy quite a bit, and I'm trying to psych myself up to use a porto-potty for four days, so it should be pretty interesting to read about.

Enjoy, and (about that porto-potty thing...) wish me luck!!

I've got the sickness

I should have figured that the germ infested newsroom I work in would eventually get me sick. I started feeling a little iffy last Saturday, but I took a pill and figured it was no big deal. Sunday night I started really feeling shabby and by Monday, I was calling off work to get a day's rest, in hopes I would feel better.

When I kept getting worse instead of better, I finally went to the doctor on Wednesday and got on antibiotics. I had a throat and sinus infection. I missed Monday through Thursday at work, and felt shabby when I went back to work Friday. My voice was still gone.

I have still been going to bed early every night and have been sleeping with a humidifier and although I'm back to work, I'm still not 100 percent.

It's made me incredibly grouchy and I haven't done well being around people a whole lot lately. I think maybe I should lock myself in my room for a week until I get all of my voice back and stop feeling like crap. :( Sadface.