I'm joining the blogging bandwagon...

A few of my friends have blogs that I follow, but what got me jumping on the bandwagon is my sister's blog, which she started about 3 months ago to celebrate her upcoming 30th birthday.  It is the coolest blog ever.  The way she writes it is so interesting!  Her blog website is 30by30in3.blogspot.com, and you should definitely check it out.

Okay, so she has some more formal training in writing than I do, but she has inspired me to keep notes on my life, create a record of what inspires and haunts me, and share it with, well, the world.  At least my close friends and family.

So for the past several weeks as I've been following her blog, I've been thinking, what should I blog about?  What could I possibly have to say that is interesting to anyone but me?  What central topic or theme unifies my life?  How do I define myself around a central item that will be interesting to anyone that wants to read it?  I have been feeling quite uninteresting lately.  Surgery residency is no Grey's anatomy, that's for sure.  And it takes up ALL of my time; whatever's left of the rest of my life is pretty standard.

I am currently 26 weeks pregnant, and for those of you who haven't (or won't) have the opportunity, being pregnant makes me feel like I am disappearing, becoming a vessel for the entry of another life into the world.  People pay more attention to you, but not because you are YOU, rather because you are participating in a new miracle.  You kind of feel like YOU are melting away, fading.  Your body takes over, using an ancient program that you had no idea was built into you.  Your definition of YOU starts becoming blurry.  You don't recognize yourself.  It's strange, and it contributes to the feeling of not having much to share.  I could blog about the pregnancy and the baby (how unique! I'm sure that's never been done before), but I'm already over halfway through this experience anyway....

Then Winston got sick last week.  Things got even more blurry as my self-definition took a crash dive....then came into sharp focus.

Winston is my first baby, my first "project".  When he was almost five, he retired from his career as a professional athlete.  Nine months later, we found him in a kennel for retired racers and he rescued us that very minute.  Now, I am not one of those people who believes in fate, destiny, or the like.  But this I know about Winston.  He picked us out.  He knew we were there for him, in a way I can't explain.  We didn't quite realize it at the time, but thankfully we picked up on a clue of it and decided to take him home with us.

Here's a photo of him towards the end.  He still would perk up those ears if you told him he was going to the PARK!

We had to let him go last Saturday, June 23rd as the throes of an illness we never recognized until it was way too late started to ravage his aging body.  I can't really write about that right now, I'm still processing it myself.  It was sudden and unexpected (although he was 12 and a half, I guess I shouldn't have been so blind-sided by it).  I truly felt like my world view was taking a gigantic paradigm shift.

How could there be a world with no Winston in it?  How was it possible that this being who graced our lives with his beautiful presence for the past 7+ years could simply cease to exist?  Over the past week, I have been struggling with such existential issues, and I don't really have a better answer now than I did last Saturday.  But, as we all know, time begins to soften the edges, the distractions of work, dentist appointments and yoga classes push the memories back, and each time they resurface they hurt a little bit less.

This distance has made it clear to me the topic about which I would center my blog.  I know Winston never left us.  When his spirit was released from his body last week to rejoin the energy of the universe, I told him he would always be with us, close in our hearts.  We will never truly let him go.  Today I begin this blog as a tribute to his memory.  


I am pledging today to run the Pittsburgh Marathon in 2013, in memory of Winston.  I will be raising money to support Steel City Greyhounds, the adoption group with which we have been affiliated while here in Pittsburgh.  In the blog I hope to chronicle my marathon training, tell you about Winston and his life with us, and further the cause of greyhound adoption.  This is something about which I AM truly passionate.  


AND, I hope to encourage YOU, my friends and family to RUN WITH ME and with Steel City!  In memory of Winston, who loved to run, a true gentleman with an independent spirit and a patience for things smaller and more vulnerable than himself that amazed us on a daily basis.  Start training NOW!  Help me help Steel City recover more and more retired racers and send them to soft, cushy couches all over the Three Rivers area!