Southfork Ranch (bonding with Dallas)

My bond with Dallas:

Sue ellen AW

1.  The TV show Dallas premiered in 1978.  A few months later, I was diagnosed with T1D.  Yay the 70s!

2.  Who shot JR? Was a cliffhanger which became a pop culture phenomenon.  The episode where the shooter was revealed was the second highest rated prime telecast ever (it was Sue Ellen’s sister who revealed she was pregnant with JR’s child and used that to keep herself out of prison).  During the time this episode aired, I too was taking shots (well of insulin… no bullets were involved).  Shots!

3.  Season 9 of Dallas was revealed to be a dream sequence of Pamela Ewing’s (she thought Bobby died.  It was awful.  When she “woke-up” the next season, she freaked when she found him taking a shower).  Bobby’s “return” (he left for a season but was persuaded to come back due to declining ratings) effectively eliminated everything from the previous season.  I wish T1D was a just a dream, but alas, my dream is to be part of The CURE, and eliminate T1D.  On a side note, I’m a huge fan of long showers too!

4.  Dallas won 4 Emmy awards.  I’ve won 4 Best of the Betes Blogs (so close to an Emmy… if only the blog were a TV show).

5.  Sue Ellen was a former Miss Texas.  Sierra Sandison is a fellow T1D and a current Miss Idaho (this part will make sense in a minute).

6.  Dallas was know for ending every season with a cliff hanger.  Diabetes is a series of ups and downs too (especially with blood glucose levels)

7 . I was once lost in South Fork… well the south fork of Long Island.

8.  Dallas originally aired on Saturday nights, was switched to Sunday nights and then switched to Friday nights where it stayed, until the series ended in 1991.  I will be in Dallas this Friday night to attend and speak at The JDRF DALLAS Type ONE Nation Summit on Saturday 6/6.

Incredible right?  So are you anywhere near Dallas/ Ft Worth?  Do you have T1D?  Do you love someone with T1D?  Do you care about someone with T1D?  Are you enemies with someone with T1D (ok that part’s a joke.  Cheeky.)?  Here’s the Registration Info (yes, FREE).

JDRF Type One Nation Summits are happening throughout the country.  If you would like to find one near you, click HERE.

These Type One Nation Summits create some really amazing opportunities and I have met such amazing people and lots of new friends.  I’ve been to 2 so far (3’s the magic number right?  Yay Dallas… or should I say Yee Ha?).  The presentations and speakers are different for each Summit.  In Dallas, there will be an outstanding group presenting and also hosting a series of break-out sessions.  The list is available HERE and includes Miss Idaho, Sierra Sandison who brought so much awareness to diabetes with her #ShowMeYourPump campaign and also professional snowboarder and founder of Riding on Insulin, Sean Busby.  You can also hear me attempt to say, “Mission Message” which is absolutely impossible to say 3 times fast.

This post was a bit more of a stretch than the Britney Spears/Vegas post but hey, the “shots” part was pretty solid.  Just remember, EVERYTHING’S bigger in Texas y’all.

 

 

 

 

Getting Down To Business… and Halloween

There’s a line in a Kanye West song where Jay-Z raps,

“I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man.”

I repeat that line to myself from time-to-time.  I love it because, whether you like rap or not, the line is quite simply, clever.  What a difference a comma makes (As does “comma”, vs “coma” as I just typed and am laughing).  I also like the line from my perspective as a business woman (I work in product design and branding).  I’m a business, (Wo)man.

When I was a little girl, carb counting with insulin:carb ratios didn’t exist (diagnosed in ’79) but instead there was the Exchange Program.  If you don’t know about this, I won’t bore you with the details.  If you lived through Exchanges, I won’t subject you to having to endure it again.  I will however say that carb counting and bolus ratios are certainly an improvement in both diabetes care and quality of life.

On Halloween, I would go trick-or-treating like every other kid in my neighborhood.  Looking back, it really was ALL about the costume (hell, it’s still ALL about the costume and I may or may not, occasionally wear a Pocahontas or Cleopatra wig in my apartment on really cold evenings because A. wigs are warm and B. those wigs are pretty amazing and make me feel like the coolest girl in school).

My parents would let me have some candy.  The whole “you’re diabetic, and can NOT have candy” thing wasn’t exactly part of my life BUT “you can have ONE piece of this tonight and then a piece tomorrow night” was. FYI – T1D didn’t even exist as a term in those days.

So my parents set me on a path that I believe started me as a business woman (no comma… yet).  When I came home from trick-or-treating, I would get down to work.  I had to set-up my store on the dining room table! I grew-up in a neighborhood with many houses, very close together, which of course meant LOTS of Halloween candy.  I’d empty my bag on the rarely used dining room table and start combining “like” items.  All snickers on one side, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups stacked in a pile, Milky Ways to the left, and so on.  My Mom made index cards with prices.  Everything cost $.05 or $.10 and every so often, a full size candy bar would be in the bag (say WHAT?!?) and that was $.25.  I would strategically position the candy and index card pricing (hello future merchandising) and then announce that my store was open for business.  My parents would enter and make their purchases.  I have to assume they gave my little brother some coins too because in later years, he became one of my customers too.  The older couple next door even shopped at my dining room table candy store.

I know today’s parents of T1D kids can bolus for candy and this whole story is incredibly out-of-date, but since I don’t have kids, happen to be painfully sentimental and am currently treating a low BG with Halloween candy, I think about this series of events.

I had a savings account as a little kid at a local bank and a Savings Passbook.  When I received money for ANYTHING, I had to put some of it in the bank.  Into MY saving’s account (I thought I was Richie Rich after my first Holy Communion which is pretty amusing now).  When My Mom or Dad had to go to the bank I would bring along my Savings Passbook.  My Dad would lift me up to hand the book to the teller who would stamp the “new” amount in my account.  I would deposit my Halloween candy sales AND then get to see how much I had accrued in interest since my last bank check-in.  I was fascinated.  Kids would run around in the bank.  Not me, suckers.  I was a kid with a Savings Passbook and I stood in-line with the adults.  My Dad explained that because I let the bank hold my money and that they used it (OMG, THEY USE MY MONEY), that they had to pay me to use it and that was “interest”.  Get out of town!  My money makes money?!?!

So here’s my thinking for Halloween.  Some creative thinking on the part of my parents along with my broken pancreas helped me learn about money.  And that’s where I get back to Jay-Z.  I am now a business(wo)man, but I am ALSO a business, man (well, woman).

My grandmother who passed away when I was 11 yrs old made this incredible costume.

My grandmother made this incredible costume.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Wordless Wednesday Dress-ups

Dazzled insulin

Let’s face it shall we?  My purse is an incredible place.  A lost & found, a glucose tablet cave, a world of gum wrappers, or just the Land Of The Lost?  Yesterday I pulled out a bottle of insulin to do a site change.  It felt odd.  That’s because it felt bumpy.  I don’t know what’s going on in that purse but things are getting freaky or maybe just fancy?

Hey Insulin, if you’re having a party in there, rock out with your bad self and thanks for keeping me alive, you sexy Diva, you.  xo

Wordless Wednesday The Back Story

It’s been a challenging couple of weeks. My steady stream of shirty BGs have proven that bronchitis and diabetes are a horrendous combination. My health has started to improve in the last 3 days. These pics are from yesterday. That 125 made me want to cry with joy. That line looks divine. Scrolling back, you see the real story. It isn’t pretty, it certainly didn’t feel good, but it’s part of my diabetes story. Keep trying, keep trying.

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