JDRF Walk for the Cure! And B. Always, always B.

The JDRF's Manhattan walk is coming up on October 3rd!

B and I have been participating together since we started dating back in 2005, and our Team Hoffmanderson will be doing it again this year (with pump in tow for the first time!). Personally, I've been active here in New York City since 2001, but it's been a lot more fun since my other half became, well, my other half. He gets really into it, and this year is no different:

For the record, I'm wearing a Halloween costume. I was a disco nap.

 

Every year, I look forward to reading the donation email he sends out to coworkers, friends, and family. The note is often sweet and always funny, but more than that, it's eye-opening to see his gut reaction to something that affects his life in the way it does. He can't have ownership of my disease, obviously, and is often forced to just be patient and offer support (or laughs or cheerleading or pictures of the gatos) when I need it...without being TOO supportive, if you know what I mean. He's good at it - better than anyone else in my life, truly - and walks that very fine line like an expert tightrope walker. Still, I'm never quite sure what all of this looks like through his eyes.

His annual plea for donations, the doggedness with which he pursues them, and the words he chooses (frankly, words even I - with all my knowledge and terrors of what the future might hold for me and my health - find a little on the level of "Whoa! Harsh! Don't freak people out!") give me a glimpse, though, and enough of one to realize my heart probably doesn't want to see much more than that.

I know we'll never truly understand what it's like for the other, how each of us manages life with a disease that takes up a significant spot in our little family. But I do know that we're both a bit scared, a bit angry, a bit (dare I say it?) hopeful, a lot tough...and, more than any of that, we're on the same team.