Daniel Meets the Mayor

Sealed with a kiss. I am loved :)

No, sorry, we don't have any photos of this auspicious moment. But I really did meet Mayor Nir Barkat at a food festival in the Old City on Sunday night. There I was innocently strolling along with Grandma as mommy and abba buzzed around to the various food stands when the mayor, fresh off a little "presser" to kick off the city-sponsored festival, walked by. I had to stop him and thank him for the wonderful marathon he put together for us, so I did.


Ok, well mommy did most of the talking. So exuberantly did she talk, in fact, that she did not even remember or attempt to speak in Hebrew. He knows English well, thank God. But mommy, still on her runner's high, effusively and giddily thanked him for the race and told him what a great job the city did organizing it. Of course, the first runners probably weren't thanking him since some of them ran to the wrong finish line (the full marathon finish line was a separate one from the half and the 10K). But three hours off of their pace, all kinks sorted out by then, mommy didn't care. She slowly made it to the correct finish line with me, the wind beneath her weary wings, on that last 100 meter dash.


That night, abba also had his 15-minutes of stardom being interviewed by an Israeli TV channel about the festival. So giddy were we all (or so used to the fame perhaps, ho hum) that we didn't even find out where it would be aired.


Now that mommy has slowly started coming down off that endorphin-induced runner's high, we have a semblance of a routine going on here at home. Today while sitting amid my toys, mommy and I just looked at each other and shrugged, "What now?" 


There should be counseling for people like us!


Well we do have another marathon coming up. It is called "open heart surgery." Fresh off the marathon prep, we got a call from the surgeon's office with a date for my big day. May 3. So another few weeks of training (and praying). I guess we have our next milestone laid out for us. And as with our last one, the marathon, I know we will have many others running with us and helping to carry us over the finish line on this one as well. And that means you!

Maybe the World Series will be my next goal.

Aside from her hobbling on a hurting right foot, there is little evidence of the marathon and it is fast becoming a distant memory. Muscles and bones are healing and I'm happily carrying on with my routine and all the attention that I love and receive. 


Incredibly, donations are still coming in to Shalva for our run! One was a matching donation, promised by our good friends Donna and Craig, upon successful completion of our marathon. We forgot about that motivation, but they didn't! Way to go!

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