Important.

In the time since I wrote my earlier lighthearted posts, I've gotten some sad news. Someone in my extended family-by-marriage has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, someone with three young children.

I've been more than fortunate in my life not to have had anyone directly related to me diagnosed with cancer. But I've seen it hit lives all around me. My fiance's dear father passed away of a brain tumor. My former roommate's mother lost her battle with breast cancer last summer. My stepdad's beloved first wife also died of cancer. A work friend quit her job this summer to move closer to her mother, also suffering from cancer...and a close college friend saw her mother through chemo and mastectomies for breast cancer while meanwhile debating her own options, having been told she too has the gene. She's not yet 30.

What an evil, horrifying plague that is darkening the lives of so many.

I was already signed up for my second year of the Race for the Cure, but I had set my fundraising goal rather low, feeling worried about asking people for money in a year in which I am also asking them to travel to my wedding. I no longer feel sheepish.

Please donate to the cause of curing cancer. I will be running on Sept. 13 in honor of all of the people mentioned above. Your support, even if it is only $1, will hopefully help in defeating this terrible curse. If you are debating between a wedding gift and this, I would rather have this! It's got to be stopped.