We wrapped up our birthday month at Cactus Cancer Society last night with our Birthday Bash. If you’ve never been to one of our celebratory events, let me tell you – you have to make it to the next one. We played games, raised more money toward our goal, and danced like there was no tomorrow. There are a lot of things I love about our community, but the fact that we know how to have a great time is my favorite.
Here’s some easy ways to keep the fun going into the easy, breezy vibe going into the weekend.
Eat: When I was in college and we were required to be on the meal plan, there were a few levels of meal plans. You could get something like 20 meals a week at the dining hall, 14 meals at the dining hall and a few “points” to use at the snack bar, or even fewer meals at the dining hall and more points. One of the advantages of the snack bar was that you could easily take the food to go, which you could not at the dining hall (which is nonsense, because we were paying for it anyway.) I digress. I opted for the middle plan but frankly, as a vegetarian, there were few things that I could get from the snack bar: either a sub-par salad from the salad bar, a small container of cereal with those kindergarten-sized containers of milk, or two sandwiches, which could also be eaten as a wrap. I remember going through with my friend, and she blew my mind open after ordering a wrap one day by asking for it to be pressed on the panini press. “Pressed wraps, man. Way of the future,” she said, without a single bit of sarcasm. And to this day, she is correct. And so I encourage you this weekend to eat a wrap, but don’t just pop stuff in that tortilla and call it a day: pop it in a panini press or on the grill to get a nice crisp seal for your contents. This works for an eggy-breakfast wrap just as well as it does for my favorite combination: arugula, chickpeas, and avocado with balsamic dressing.
See: If you have always wanted a tattoo and never had the chance to get permanent ink, or if you’ve been kept from getting a tattoo during treatment, there’s some really cool companies that make semi-permanent tattoos – up to two weeks. Inkbox is a website with different pre-designed options, or you can upload your own custom designs to see how your dream design would look on that exact spot where you’d like it.
Do: I’m on Facebook, for very few purposes other than to stay engaged with you fine community members in our program Facebook groups, the occasional fundraisers, and wishing people a happy birthday. But I’ve surprised myself with the number of folks whose birthdays I do not know until the day of – people I would have totally made plans with or sent flowers. And so I encourage you this weekend: text people and ask them when their birthdays are. Add them to your calendar, either the real one in your kitchen that you got for free sometime, or your phone (iPhones will add this to contact profiles as well.) This way you can seem like the most thoughtful friend ever when you send a “HBD!” with the balloon effect over iMessage.
Have a grilled, nearly-tatted, celebratory weekend,
Christina
