I’m so excited! I’m heading into DC again tomorrow morning to meet with the CEO of First Star again. If I’ve remembered everything correctly, then I’ve completed all the assignments Ms Sams gave me last time. I’ve come up with a few new designs for their website, I’ve brainstormed some ideas for how to bridge First Star with the Daily Prophet, and I’ve even come up with some fun things for their two up-coming fund-raisers. The thing I’m most excited about, though, is the bridge plan. I just thought up the last finishing touch yesterday while I was having my head MRIed. I had to wake up early yesterday to drive to Walter Reed and have a special flow study MRI done of my brain to see if the Chiari Malformation is impeding the flow of spinal fluid. While I was inside the machine, trying very hard not to move at all, I got to thinking about the Daily Prophet, everything I’ve done with it, and everything I’ve ever wanted to accomplish. And that’s when the whole idea came to me. I can’t tell you everything here because this has to be a short blog tonight, but I can tell you it’s based on the Graffiti notebook that I was given when I went to Johns Hopkins two years ago to have my toe amputated, as explained in my toe essay (eighth paragraph from the bottom.) I really feel strongly that the program I’ve come up with could be an immeasurable force for good in the foster care and social services system. I’m fairly certain that Ms Sams will feel the same way, and if she does, then I hope to have the whole thing launched in April. I’m so thrilled, I just can’t put it all into words. It’s an excitement that I only get when I know that something that I’m doing is really worthwhile to somebody, that it’s immensely important. I love that excitement; purely based in someone else’s need. It would be a lot of work, but it would be worth it.

So I finally feel that I’m all prepared for my meeting tomorrow. My pants have been pressed, I have a lovely new silk blouse to wear, and everything for Ms Sams has been placed in a beautiful folder, ready to be presented. Wish me luck, although I don’t think I’ll need it.

I reread the message that Peter Samuelson wrote for First Star, explaining the organization’s mission and outlining several statistics to back up their case. Did you know that on average, 1,690 children are raped in America every week? And to think, those are only the ones we know about. That’s just wrong.

I’m all empowered now and ready to go big guns to fight for this cause. It’s something I can really believe in one hundred percent. I just hope they’ll let the Daily Prophet contribute, because I really think the format I’ve created could help the children therapeutically.

What else did I do today? I went shopping, and I ended up making dinner for some missionaries because I found out that no one was going to feed them tonight. So I finally made some lettuce wraps, had them over, and we all ended up talking until around 9:30pm. Which was great, because they’re always asking me what I’m up to, and that gave me a chance to practice my proposal for tomorrow. It’s so hard to get through it without choking up, because it means so much to me personally, having needed such a system myself in the past. Hehe, it would be rather embarrassing if I actually burst into tears in Ms Sams’ office tomorrow, but I don’t think it will come to that. I’ll probably just turn white and my voice will go all crackly. I’d like to avoid that too, if at all possible.

Anyway. 🙂 The lettuce wraps were a *huge* hit. I must say, for having never used a meat cleaver before, I did a beautiful job chopping all that chicken. And oh boy was that fun! *THWAP!* It cut so easily and perfectly. Normally I hate cutting meat, but this was so easy and efficient that now I have no fears of having to avoid meat once I have to cook for myself all the time. I ended up cooking the chicken and everything in my new wok, which worked perfectly. I’m not sure how much stuff I ended up putting in there. I chopped up a whole onion and I know I used all of that, but I’m not sure how much of the chopped water chestnuts and bamboo shoots I used (I chopped those up too, but not with the cleaver.) I also added soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and a pinch of rice vinegar. It’s the hoisin I’m not sure how much I added. I just kept adding more because the color didn’t seem right and it smelled a bit bland. Finally, I got the color right and the scent hit me and, sure enough, it was right. 🙂

I think that’s it for me for tonight. I’ve got to get some sleep now. I’ll let you know when the MRI results come back. I’m kind of anxious about that, especially since my head has been especially bad over the past few days. I ended up stopping at the ER while I was at the hospital on Sunday for the MRI because I didn’t have any pain medication to take care of it. I’ve barely gotten any sleep in the past week at all. Thankfully they weren’t too crowded and the doctor gave me a few percocet to hold me over. Unfortunately, my doctor didn’t tell me when he wrote my last percocet prescription that I only had three days to pick up the prescription before the pharmacy had to cancel the prescription because of FDA rules. So, I wasn’t ever able to pick up that prescription he wrote, and I’ve been without pain medication for almost a month. Believe me, it’s been nothing short of horrible. My neck was so stiff up until Sunday that I couldn’t get my chin to my chest for the pain. Not fun.

Yay! I’m so excited about tomorrow. 😀 I’ll post something as soon as I can about what happens. Huzzah!