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April 17, 2007

Relay For Life

First of all, I want to thank everyone again for the donations to Brent's and my Relay For Life team! My school raised a total of $63,400! Brent, Cathy, Mike, Pat, and I were on the Super Heroes team which was obviously the best team ever.

The night started with Brent and me (the team captains) setting up our tent at our campsite by the track:

Setting up:

Not only was our tent the smallest one there, but it was the only one without a rain cover. Those of you who live in the Northeast (or who watch the news) know why this was a problem. We had a Nor'easter this past weekend which dumped 8" of rain on NYC and probably about that much in Hartford too.

Brent and I decided that we had no choice but to get a brand new tent, which we did.

Before getting the new tent, we went to the opening ceremony on the track:

Followed by the Survivors Lap (survivors are in the pink boas and/or purple or white sashes, the rest of us walked behind them):

View of campus with some of the team posters hanging on the bleachers:

The Super Heroes poster Brent and I made:

The food and drinks tent with donations from all different restaurants:

After the first lap, Brent and I ran off to Wal-Mart to pick up the new tent. Camping must not be a big thing in Hartford because they were all way cheaper than I've ever seen them... but also they were all lodged behind an 8' wall of boxes. Luckily, I burrowed my way through and was able to get us the best one.

New tent:

It's a lot bigger, has rain protection, and even has a special zipper for electrical outlets and another for a fan! That's my kind of camping:

It even came with a doormat which I had Brent hammer into the ground with the cute little yellow hammer that was included:

First changing my tire and now hammering in our tent? He's definitely a keeper for his willingness to perform manual labor in the name of love:

As I've told him many-a-time, I think Brent would have made an amazing hobo. While we were switching tents, he packed all our "gear" into a fantastic hobo sack. I got in the tent first and he threw it to me... a little too hard, it turns out, because I went flying backwards and landed on my back:

Yes, by "gear" I meant my pretty pink pillows and blankets.

Pat and Mike in the tent:

Brent, Pat, and Mike (doesn't Brent look like a happy little kindergartener?):

Brent and Me:

Cathy and Pat:

Cathy and Me:

Some of my pictures for the rest of the night came out a little strange because I had my camera on "Night Scenery" mode. I could have changed it, but I actually thought it was pretty cool. Here's a picture of Pat, Cathy, and Mike being Super Heroes as we walked around the track:

These next two pictures are of "luminarias." Luminarias are lit in memory of friends and family who have passed away from cancer. Unfortunately, they lit the entire track and filled up a lot of the bleachers:

"HOPE" spelled out on the bleachers in luminarias:

Brent and Me:

Mike, Cathy, and Me:

Brent having a midnight snack:

One of the bands that played:

Brent walking barefoot, despite my advice to wear shoes:

Blurred, but cool picture of the fire pit at one of the nearby frats:

Cathy, Brent, Mike, and Pat reminding you to get tested for colon cancer:

There were a number of activities like "Make Your Own Trucker Hat" which Pat, Brent and I did. Brent and I forgot to pick ours up, but it's all right because we got a super-cool keychain that Brent has on his keys right now:

Aww:

It started drizzling at some point and we were told that the "walking" portion of Relay For Life doesn't really matter, especially in bad weather, so we all took a nap in the tent:

Mike:

It was probably the worst nap of my life because, despite being burried under blankets and Brent, who sprawled himself out on top of both Pat and myself, it was freezing cold. We were some of the last people to leave at about 4:30am when I woke up to the sound of some girls freaking out outside as they gathered their stuff and started running to beat the worst of the storm, yelling about "flash floods" and something about "the worst storm in years in New Haven, we have twenty minutes until it hits!" We all groggily opened the tent door to discover that almost everyone was gone. They had ended Relay for Life early due to the imminent storm that was about to wash us all away. As Brent put it, we weren't quite sure when the exodus occurred because we were too busy sleeping for cancer. We packed up right as the torrential rain started (great timing!) and got soaked on our way to my dorm where we all crammed into my room to sleep the rest of the night.

I don't have any great pictures of the storm because I was too busy running to get out of it, but it's actually still going on now. It's not supposed to stop raining until Friday! Ugh, what is this? I hate rain.

Here are the couple pictures I took on Sunday of the small quad by my dorm getting flooded:

Also, as I discovered the next morning, Brent had decided to wear flannel pajama pants under his jeans to keep extra warm. Unfortunately, he zipped the drawstring into his fly and was apparently walking around all night like this:

Despite the terrible weather, I think we all did a great job of raising money for a very important cause. Thank you again to everyone who donated to our team!

Posted by lauren at April 17, 2007 10:49 PM

Comments

Posted by: brent at April 18, 2007 12:00 AM

Posted by: your lovER at April 18, 2007 10:42 AM

Posted by: Lauren at April 18, 2007 11:16 AM