Something We Can All Agree On

You may wonder why I announced a big rejuvenation of this blog and then disappeared, and this is why. (Written by my Dad)

Dear Family, Friends, Colleagues, Followers, and the rest of you wonderful people out there in the Internet universe that come across this post,

Thursday, December 17th is the occasion of my 55th birthday. This year and this birthday are especially poignant for me. Both my mother, Inga, and my Morfar, Sven Oscar Lundgren (my Swedish grandfather on my mother’s side), passed at age 55. So now is as good a time as any for me to take a look back and remember these two wonderful big personalities that had such a big impact on my life. Time has softened some tough memories, and I now fondly look back on many wonderful times I spent with both of them, especially Swedish Christmas.

But I write today (and will repost often this week, sorry about that) for another reason. In this day of contention, worry, derisive political antics, religious arguments and blustering personalities, I want to ask your help with something that I am certain will get 100% agreement from 100% of the people that read this, no matter your religion, political bent, what you look like or where you are from.

Cancer, Fucking Cancer……This insidious disease has recently touched way to many wonderful friends my family knows, and recently made a visit to my immediate family. As I am sure most of you can sadly attest, MF cancer (one F-bomb is probably enough) has touched way too many people we all know and love. Cancer hits indiscriminately, across all economic classes, religious and political beliefs, it does not spare nationalities or races. It has got to go!

Our personal family story:

After a routine mammogram this past July, my wife Lisa was diagnosed with Ductal Carcinoma In-Situ commonly referred to as DCIS (or early stage breast cancer.) Shockingly just a few months later our son Adam was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Fortunately the prognosis for both is extremely positive.

Lisa just wrapped up her treatment last week, including racing (and qualifying for next year!) in the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston, 5 weeks after her lumpectomy surgery, in a Womens Eight for the Ann Arbor Rowing Club.

My mom in the center 

Last week Adam completed his first month, of what is expected to be a four to six month course, of chemotherapy that will take place every other week. He is grinding through his Computer Science, Statistics and Swedish finals at the University of Michigan this week and expects to stay in school next semester as well. Unfortunately Adam had to stop rowing for the Michigan Mens Rowing Team this year after a very successful first year competing that ended with Michigan winning their 8th straight team national championship at the American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championships. He plans to return to the team next year. Row Blue!

Lil bro bro rocking the row (he is in the hat)

What am I up to.....

So why am I tying all of this together with my 55th birthday you may ask? Obviously our family has a rowing problem, but we don’t need help with that.

On Thursday a few of my Ann Arbor Rowing Club teammates will half jokingly post that I should erg (an indoor rowing torture machine) 55 kilometers (~34.18 miles) for my 55th birthday. While I do not plan to do this in one sitting, pesky work prevents that possibility; I am going to do it and row a total of 55k this Thursday, December 17th.

In celebration of life and my wonderful family, but especially for Lisa and Adam this year, I am asking all of you to do two things to support my just over 34 mile rowing odyssey that will not take me anywhere.

mom, lil bro bro, dad

First please consider making what I am calling a 55 donation, $5.50, $55, $550, or even $5,500 or more, to support cancer research at the University of Michigan (where both Lisa and Adam are getting fantastic treatment), or the cancer research or treatment center of your choice. See links at end of this post.

Along with happy birthday wishes (who doesn’t want those!) this Thursday I would so appreciate to see confirmations of your donations (message me if you don’t want to publicly post about donations) so I can keep track and post a total raised……….once I recover. Make a donation on the 17th and you get a tax donation for 2015.

The second thing I would ask you to consider doing, please like, share this post and the link for this post as often as you are willing through Thursday, 12/17. Maybe we can get some deep pockets to contribute if this post gets enough traction and raise some serious cash for a very worthy cause, no matter where the money goes.

Thanks so much!

Our Family

Relavent Links:

University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center -https://leadersandbest.umich.edu/find/#!/med/umhs-ccc

List of best cancer research hospitals by US News and World Report -http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/rankings/cancer

Best cancer related charities by Charity Watch -https://www.charitywatch.org/top-rated-charities

#fuckcancer #beatcancer #fightcancer #nomorecancer #cancersucks #breastcancer #breastcancerswareness #cancercure #cancerawareness #hodgkinslymphoma #lymphoma #lymphomaawareness #fightbreastcancer #fightlymphoma #InnovateBlue #LeadersAndBest #UMich #GoBlue 

Little Wins

Been feeling the stress lately, so I wanted to make a list of my "little wins" for the week:

• I got the top grade on a practice management memo in my management of organizations class
• Went out for drinks at the neighborhood bar with classmates last night, and felt like there are some real friendships in the making going on
• The class in which I met the aforementioned classmates is physically over and there are only two more short individual projects left to turn in next week (this class was...stressful, post about it later maybe.)
• I was invited to interview for a policy job working on voter registration
• I applied for an internship at the State Department (Bureau of Multilateral and Global Affairs, send good thoughts my way!)
• I reformatted the blog! What do y'all think? The picture in the background is of me on a walk about on an island in the Okavango Delta. I thought it might be a good "I'm starting a new adventure" type vibe. Comment below!

Love you all, 

Claire 

Welcome to the New Site!

...that looks exactly like the old site because I haven't really changed anything...

I'm going to try and figure out if there is a way for me to archive my "Peace Corps Ginger" blog within this site, and to make sure that those of you wanting to access my writings from during my service are still able to. In the meantime, however, I have been encouraged by a few people to continue my writings in blog format, for the adventures I will be having during my graduate education! I'm guessing most posts will read as follows:

Claire wakes up early to do the readings she should have done last night
Claire pulls an all nighter to finish a project
Claire geeks out over *insert policy topic here*
Claire finally understands the Minnesota "hot dish" (never to be confused with a casserole)
Claire gets lost in Mall of America and is never seen again

At this point you may have gathered that I'm attending school in Minneapolis, MN, and you would be right! I'm currently in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, working on my Masters of Public Policy, with a concentration in Gender and Public Policy, a minor in Human Rights, and a certificate in Nonprofit Management. I like to call this particular academic track: "how many fancy looking pieces of paper could I have on a future office wall?"

I'm a bit busy to try and reformat the blog at this moment, so I will leave you with this little nugget, pulled from a family update I sent out in my 3rd week of classes (I'm now in my 7th.) Talk more soon, and thanks for tuning in!

Claire's Top Three in the First Three Moments:

1st: Discovering that the "W. Mondale", who co-teaches my Politics in Public Affairs class was actually Mr. Walter Mondale, VP to President Jimmy Carter, and unsuccessful Presidential hopeful against Reagan. He is present in about 30% of our lectures, and it is hilarious to watch him butt into the regular lecture with stories about the politics behind the policy we are discussing. This man headed the domestic arm of the Church Committee, which was fascinating to hear about, and horrifying to comprehend.

2nd: Meeting a Zambian international student in my Gender and Public Policy class and being able to geek out over that corner of Sub Saharan Africa. Though Agness doesn't speak Setswana, I was able to look up a bit of Chewa and greet her properly by the second class. When the professor asked her is there were any other students she knew from Zambia, she said one, and then patter me on the back and said she now knew one from Botswana as well. You could not have sanded the grin off my face for the rest of the evening.

3rd: Being able to raise my hand in my Management of Organizations course, as one of the few students who have experience in the nonprofit sector, for profit sector and government sector. I'm in the middle/ on the younger end of my cohort at Humphrey, and there are some amazing students with insane amounts of experience in the program. If felt nice to think that I could hang with them, and that I'm holding my own as an outspoken student in a body of outspoken students.

~Claire (and still Tlotlo)

Flight Risk

The urge to run is like a million bugs beneath my skin
The want to tear up the roots
To find new soil
Like the earth itself is calling me, haunting and delightful

The urge to break away is like the cane in a vaudeville show
A lasso at a rodeo
The moment before a bungee jump
The stress, the want, the need, inescapable

Have I the nomads curse?