New Week

Well, last night was pretty funny- I was a few minutes from starting my blog, then we lost power! It was out for a little over an hour, but by the time I was already heading to bed and didn't feel like turning the computer back on. So what's new? The homeless shelter donations are going well. I think we've donated to 5 so far. Most of the shelters are in neighborhoods and look like private homes from the outside. I'm glad that we've expanded to shelters, but I also feel the most connection to donating to the police/fire departments and DCF- maybe it's just because the shelters are new and I'm not as familiar with it. I still haven't heard back from DCF in Connecticut, so I'm going to call again tomorrow. It was so easy to start our partnership with DCF in Massachusetts, I'm hoping that it goes smoothly in CT too. Sometimes messages can get lost in an abyss, so I really need to follow up until I speak with someone in charge. I'll keep you posted.

There was some really sad news yesterday, a friend of mine had a heart attack last week and now may have an even more serious illness- I'm so shocked and sad. There are certain people in your life that you can't imagine not having there and he is one of them. He knew me before I started Project Smile and he means a lot to me. I'm hoping that things will be fine.

Anyways, on to happier topics. I need to get back to work on grants and start working on getting sponsors for our 2 big fall events. I haven't done any grant writing this year yet. I've had our wonderful intern Amanda work on grant research yesterday and she did find some new grants that we might fit into. I also need to submit our web updates before the end of the month. We get an hour of update time included in our web hosting fee and I haven't used my hour yet- if I don't use it, you lose it. I do have quite a few updates and I shouldn't have delayed in sending them in.

So this is my last week of being in my twenties- how funny is that? So of course, I'm in somewhat of a reflective mood. I can't believe I'm about to start a new decade- it still seems like yesterday that it was my 20th birthday and I was in NYC, watching a sappy Kevin Costner movie and talking on the phone with my best friend Regina. I also can't believe I was only 23 when I started Project Smile- my sister is 23 and I think of her as so young, but I never thought of myself as so young. Without a doubt, for this decade, I'm most proud of Project Smile. I'm proud of how far we've come, I'm thankful for all the wonderful people that I've met and things that I've experienced because of Project Smile. It's funny to think about what the next ten years will bring. If someone had sat down with me on my 20th birthday and told me what my twenties would bring, I never would have believed it. I wouldn't have imagined that there would be so many good things. Of course, there are dark times too and lots of angst and stresses. Sometimes, I get so focused on the difficult things, I really do forget about all the good stuff that has happened. A lot of my job is to solve problems and focus on the future, I can't spend much time looking back. But it is a good thing to sometimes take a few minutes and think about all the good that has happened- it is a good motivator.

Well friends, I'm tired. Eyes are hurting again and I need to sleep. It's only 12:15, so I think it will be an early night. I'm off to Lynn PD tomorrow to drop off more items and I think there are more shelter donations scheduled too. I was going to have a grapefruit, but I might just skip and go to bed. Until tomorrow friends..