The World of WunderGlo

You know I'm always up to something. That darn WunderGlo just doesn't stay still! And this week I've earned another week off chemo because of O'Melveny recruiting adventures at Stanford Law School, so I'm really running wild. Chemo is pretty much the leash that keeps me more or less contained, so when it exits my system for good like it has now, forget about it. I'm off to the races. Meanwhile, the little bits of cancer in my body continues to get pummeled with green juice, green smoothies, and serious sessions at the gym. I feel incredible and I give thanks for that every day and every second of every day.

Ok, time for an update.

Many of you know what events/projects I'm working on through Facebook, direct emails, Twitter, and other forms of talking to me like the telephone and good old fashioned face-to-face chit-chat. For those of you who don't know what I've been plotting (or want a refresher), here's your inside look.

1) Fundraising for my t-shirt line, 12 Rounds for the Cancer Warrior

As you know, I wear a different t-shirt to my chemo sessions and always have. I always take a picture of myself in my chemo tee, send it to friends and family before treatment, and post the picture in my "Chemo Round [whatever]" recaps on this blog. The shirt is my uniform for the day, the article of clothing that acts as a reminder to me of my kick-ass status as a cancer-killing beast. The shirt inspires me and makes me feel tougher than I already feel naturally (which is really tough). In hopes of instilling that same kind of swagger in my fellow patients, I launched a t-shirt line, 12 Rounds for the Cancer Warrior, with my good friend and t-shirt entrepreneur extraordinaire, Vinnie. We've printed out four of our shirts so far and plan to pitch our product to hospitals around L.A., then California, and then throughout the country, but first, we need a little bit of capital. So we took to Indiegogo.com, a site that allows for crowd-sourced funding of various projects, and got our story and product out there. 

The response has been incredible. Friends, family, and complete strangers have contributed. We only have 6 days left in our campaign, but we only need under $1,000 to hit our ambitious goal of $10,000. Everyone who has contributed has touched our hearts and made us feel great about what we're trying to do with our shirts. You still have time to join in on the fun, too. Our fundraising page can be found here: www.indiegogo.com/12rounds.

What we're doing with 12 Rounds is just one prong of my larger attempt to help cancer patients feel more empowered and positive about their individual challenges with the disease. Cancer isn't easy for any of us, but positive thinking can get us far. Trust me, when the chips were down for me -- way, way down -- I never, ever let up in my confident approach. I would never let cancer see fear in me, and because of that, I didn't have any fear in me. These t-shirts are just a representation of that fearlessness and courage that I hope everyone can find within themselves. (And people without cancer can wear our shirts, too. Not all of them are explicitly about cancer.)

So that's the t-shirt project.

2) The book.

I've finished Chapter Numero Uno of my book, and it's going pretty well. Some of my friends are acting as would-be editors and I look forward to their feedback (no pressure to hurry up and get back to me, guys (wink wink)). I am planning 13 chapters for the book, so if you don't count editing and revising and editing and revising, I'm 1/13th done with my book. Woo hoo! 

3) The WunderGlo Foundation Anniversary Party: Saturday, September 15th

The WunderGlo Foundation is one year old, and we need to celebrate, clearly. So I rented a yacht in Newport Beach and we're going to set sail for four hours on the afternoon/early evening of Saturday, September 15th. This also marks my 2 year cancer anniversary (officially on Sept 19), so it's a double celebration. We have about 30 or so spots available on the yacht and you are invited. Admission on our glorious vessel is $75, which gets you plenty of food, an open bar, and four hours of boat awesomeness. You can reserve your spot by making your donation here: www.wunderglofoundation.org/events 

4) The WunderGlo Foundation in D.C. - the Crush Colon Cancer Reception: Friday, September 21st

The WunderGlo Foundation is coming to D.C. for an awesome evening reception. Just like we did in San Francisco, we're hosting a free event to spread the word about who we are and what we're doing. We're also hosting an online silent auction prior to the event which will be launched in the next day or so (the auction items will be at our D.C. event for pick-up). Of course, my beloved O'Melveny & Myers has stepped up to the plate bigtime, and the event will be at our DC office which is just blocks from the White House. Seriously, O'Melveny is the greatest. Best lawyers and best people -- jeez. Anyway, all of my DC/MD/VA people (call the area "DMV" if you want to be cool), secure your spot at our event here: http://crushcoloncancer.eventbrite.com/

5) The WunderGlo Foundation in New York City -- the Beat Colon Cancer Reception and Live Auction: Saturday, September 22nd

The day after our DC event, we'll be in NYC. Yes, we're driving from Our Nation's Capital to The City That Never Sleeps (aptly named in this case) immediately after our Friday event, which ends at 10pm. This party is going to be ridiculous. At O'Melveny's New York office overlooking Times Square, we're going to have an amazing live auction hosted by none other than my classmate from Duke and rising star in the auctioneering world, ck swett. This little newspaper called the New York Times recently profiled him. The New York event is going to be incredible and my NY/NJ peeps can get their free tickets here: http://wunderglonyc.eventbrite.com/

T-shirts, book-writing, a boat party, and a fun-filled trip to the East Coast. Add in some lawyering and DJing and you've got my life in a nutshell. Oh, and killing cancer, too. My life is filled to the brim with everything I love, and to think that I wasn't supposed to live this long. So much for that prognosis. So much for cancer taking over. It's only given me more ways and reasons to explore life. It's only given me more ways and reasons to celebrate.