I made a mistake this summer.  In an e-mail, someone asked me what I would do when my son returned to school now that I no longer had a couple of my volunteer responsibilities.  My mistake was that I said I didn’t know what I’d be doing but I was sure something would come up.  Well, by writing that it was as if I put it out there in the universe and everyone decided to use my seemingly free time!

The day after I sent that e-mail, I received a phone call asking if Steve and I would participate again in the panel discussion at the regional Alzheimer’s Conference on World Alzheimer’s Day.  After discussing it with Steve, we agreed to do this and are now meeting every week to get prepared.

Later that day I received a phone call asking if I could set up a meeting about World Alzheimer’s Day at the senior center.  That was easy so I took care of that and was invited to attend the meeting, which I did.

Then I was asked if I could speak at the Walk to End Alzheimer’s that I was participating in with my team.  At that point, I wasn’t signed up for any walk and didn’t have a team, so after thinking about it, I said that I couldn’t commit at that point. Since that time I have formed a team and agreed to be the speaker that morning.

These requests were followed by a request for our family to be featured in a video used at a large fundraiser.  We would have to video our life for a week.  I honestly told them that while we were honored to be asked, Steve doesn’t look like he has a problem to the casual observer, and showing families that are struggling much more would do a better job of helping them meet their fundraising goal.

The next day we received a phone call to be interviewed for an article on a hospital’s website since we see one of their doctors.  After an hour we had to end the call and I wondered if the writer had enough information.  We received the article today to edit and while it needs more editing than I anticipated, it isn’t bad.

This week we received another e-mail with a request.  For the Alzheimer’s conference, the director of the program at the local university and the neurologist there are being interviewed by a TV news program.  They also want to interview one of the couples who will be on the panel.  We were asked if we would do it.  We thought about it and since Steve wanted to do it, we said yes.  As soon as we did I think we both gasped and wondered what we had just done!  It’s one thing to talk in front of people with a common agenda and it’s another thing to come out to people on TV.  Although I’ve already stressed about hair, make-up and what to wear, we’re both hoping our segment ends up on the cutting room floor!  The interview is scheduled for September 17th.  We’ll see what happens.

In the meantime, maybe I should stop answering the phone and reading e-mail, or at the very least, saying, “Yes.”