Trip Report Template

Big Sis In Burgundy: Me And My Big Mouth

As my last column was published, I was in Quito, Ecuador, preparing to journey to the Galapagos Islands the following day. It was a trip planned before my sister Deana was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and even if I had been wise enough to purchase travel insurance, I doubt it would have worked in these circumstances.

For some reason, there are those I encounter who don’t think that a sibling counts as an “immediate” family member. How wrong they are. Genetically, there is no closer relative than a full sibling. And emotionally, well…there just aren’t words.

I write this column on the plane ride home, having enjoyed another memorable vacation, but Deana was never far from my mind.

I arrived in the Galapagos wearing my burgundy BTHO MM shirt. One of my fellow passengers immediately asked me what it stood for. I told her it stood for “Beat The H*ll Outta Multiple Myeloma” and showed her my “No One FIGHTS Alone” bracelet and my “Faith, Hope, Love” and burgundy ribbon Inspire Ring necklace.

She commented that multiple myeloma is a very rare cancer, but that she knows someone who has it as well. We exchanged a few remarks about how once you know someone who has it, knowledge of others seems to multiply.

I then said that in the last seven weeks since Deana’s diagnosis, I have found myself becoming more annoyed about all the attention paid to other types of cancer, especially breast cancer. The conversation came to a close as we were moved to the bus.

(It was surprising to me when my sister Darrie and I set up a CaringBridge site for Deana that there was no template available for multiple myeloma, but just about every other form of cancer was available. We decided to emphasize Deana’s status as a hockey mom and opted for that template. I’ve read that multiple myeloma only accounts for one percent of all cancers. For that one percent, however, it is just as scary as for those battling the more prevalent cancers. Myeloma patients and their families deserve to have burgundy “in the house!”)

A day or so later, my new friend and I were back on the topic of my sister. She said that Deana is lucky to have me and that she herself was fortunate to have several friends who took on a similar role when she battled cancer.

A day or so after that, this kind woman revealed she had breast cancer. I felt like such a heel! I was speechless, which is very odd for me. Was there anything I could say to apologize for my remark of day one? I took the coward’s way out and didn’t acknowledge my insensitivity at our first meeting. (After reading Kathie Lee Gifford’s autobiography years ago, I have often borrowed her quote, “Lloyd’s of London would not insure my mouth!

Lindsey Clark: Trip report: Broken Top's 8:00 Snow Cliff and 1:00 Face

Erik has been spending quite a bit of time out at Broken Top this season, and is well on his way to climbing and skiing every viable ski line on the mountain. He'd had his eye on a particular line that seemed "in" this season... not really a couloir, this particular ski line was just a skinny ramp of snow wedged between two huge, intersecting cliffs. He really wanted to ski it, and we agreed that this year's epic La Nina season may be the last time in a while that it was even a possibility. We skinned across the meadow, over the moraine, and into the bowl on a sunny morning. Rounding the corner toward 9:00 couloir, I was rather unclear about the objective. "You want to ski that?" I asked, "because if so, you're on your own. I'll just stand here and watch." The line looked really steep, really narrow, rather exposed, and the snow didn't look friendly at all. Not my idea of a fun line. Of course, Erik loves this kind of stuff and soon was on his way up the snow cliff.

Essentials of Business Communication

Successful Writing at Work

Agents of Change: Reflections on a working partnership between BP Azerbaijan and the International Institute for Environment and Development

Excel 2003 programming, a developer's notebook

Let's read adventure