Avon Breast Cancer Walk

A few short hours after the Kingston Trio concert, I hopped on a train to the city to be able to meet up with a friend. Rachel was visiting from D.C. to support her mother's team at the Avon Breast Cancer Walk. The event spanned two days, where participants walked a full marathon on Saturday and another half marathon on Sunday. No small feat! I was thrilled that Rachel invited me. She's one of those people that you'll drop whatever you're doing to spend time with, and her family is just so darn amazing, you can't help but feel like an adopted member of the Kaplan clan.

It was oddly surreal to be walking the streets of New York and have complete strangers cheering you on, and not just the volunteers. We had random people high fiving us, beeping their car horns and waving. I couldn't help but giggle every time it happened.

And it was a perfect day outside weather wise. Clear and crisp, not quite Fall just yet, but close. I really had a great time catching up with friends and admiring the city. I've always viewed New York as this big scary place that I struggle to navigate. It used to really stress me out, but I've taken such a liking to it after the events I've gone to this year. (Thanks to Vanessa and our crazy Eels concert experience!) I don't think I'm ready to say that I could live there, but I'm not nearly as apprehensive as I once was.

Reese Witherspoon was the spokesperson for the Avon Breast Cancer Walk. She came out, did her super bubbly thing and handed out over 8 MILLION dollars raised by the walkers in the form of giant checks. I was pretty far back and didn't bring my telephoto with me, but I think you can still tell that it's Reese.

The closing ceremonies were emotional and our group wanted to do one more picture. I directed them to stand in front of the signage. As we're trying to take a quick shot, security comes up to us and tells us we need to move aside to get a vehicle through. I recomposed my shot, took it and packed up my camera.

A few minutes after, we see what vehicle we made room for. I'm so so sorry for not having my camera out for this shot, so I did my best to recreate it via some purposefully bad photoshopping. After two days of walking 40 miles, where each member of a team had to raise $1800 minimum, little Miss "I'm so proud of all of you!!!" Witherspoon has the audacity to zip by in the back of a golf cart. I can't make this stuff up. Ask the Kaplans, they were there, they saw it, too!

I did tell this story at the gym the following day and someone pointed out that Reese had recently been hit by a car while jogging. For a brief moment, I felt horrified at how angry I was by her golf cart incident. When I got home, I read up on this accident, which was over a month ago and all she suffered were some bruises, so I don't feel bad anymore. But you should still feel horrible, Reese. Shame on you!


During the walk, we passed Comic Con.

I kept thinking, this is the closest I will ever be to The Oatmeal...

Congratulations to all who took part and raised a staggering amount of money!