We Day

What a day!

My fabulous husband took the reigns today in the hospital, which allowed me to attend We Day. We Day is the annual signature event for Free The Children a.k.a the thing that we all work so hard for every fall. It's a pretty big deal and this is my first year that I haven't done it. My goal was to be back at work by Labour Day, but the universe had other ideas! Anyway, I was lucky enough to be able to attend and it was amazing. I shed a few tears as I entered Rogers Arena - Gate 2 brings back so many memories of tearing my hair out about Registration - but quickly composed myself as I looked nuts. Much to my delight, I ran into a few former coworkers almost immediately. I realized that I hadn't thought through what I would say to people. Usually I try to plan it out and have a standard statement I can easily regurgitate, but I was so excited to be there, that I really didn't think about what to say. So the first couple of people I saw I kind of awkwardly stumbled through Eleanor's condition. It was a little like starting to sing without a proper vocal warm up, and what came out was a "mee may myy maaah moh moooooo" of baby cancer nonsense. I got better at it as the day went on.

We Day 2009 was my best We Day. I was the Issues lead for the Honoured Guest team. This meant that any one with a problem came to me. It was awesome. It consisted of me delegating tasks to others and passing off problems I couldn't solve to the official Issues team. I spent most of today in a similar capacity with Amy, who was heading up the Volunteer team and solving most of their issues. We escorted sponsors to where they needed to go,  scrounged/stole pizza for hungry volunteers, and used any excuse to go down to event level to the cue line! We met Mia Farrow, rode in the "party elevator" with the guys from Hedley and got a "whaddup?" from Shaq. I got to see everyone I wanted to see AND felt like I was a part of the day. It was pretty awesome, and I am now beyond exhausted. Everyone kept inviting me to the after party and I was sorely tempted, but I am like an over-stimulated child, and need to sit quietly before bed.

I really don't get out much.

Today was probably the longest anyone (aside from me) has spent with the baby. I have been out in the evening when she is sleeping, but I rarely go out during the day. I don't think I am a crazy control freak, but the previous statement kind of proves otherwise. I can never seem to find a good enough reason to leave her royal smelliness, and she has really bad separation anxiety and that gives me anxiety. It's the worst when I return to the hospital and I can hear her screaming when I get off the elevators. It's not so much the crying that bothers me, it's the thought of the poor person doing everything in their power to shut her up - and failing. Today wasn't like that. Kris got her to nap and she only cried when he left to get lunch. Not too shabby. They were happily watching baseball and chatting up the nurse when I returned. And laughing. She was giggling away. God, I missed her. But she's doing pretty great, and it's pretty evident that Kris can look after her just as well as I can. Whew. I said it. Can't take it back now.

Hmmm....

On that note, maybe I'll get out for a run tomorrow...