I flip flop between feeling totally in control of the Buddy Walk to feeling overwhelmed and panicked. At about this time last week I was ready to call everyone on our membership list to encourage their attendance because we had very few registrations. Now the deadline has passed and this week I am starting to wonder where we are going to put all these people? Are we going to have enough hotdogs? T-shirts? Butterflies? Do I need to call Furman and make arrangement for additional security? Volunteers? Are there going to be enought volunteers?

I go to bed thinking about the Buddy Walk and heaven forbid if I wake up in the middle of the night because I start thinking about it again and usually have trouble going back to sleep. Oh, and when I do go back to sleep I start having dreams about it. Just the other night I dreamed that we got to Furman to set everything up and The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society was there to set up for the Light the Night Walk. There I was along with Anne Moore arguing with the LLS coordinator about who had the space.

There are so many little details. For example Edy's has donated ice cream, but I have been trying for over a week to get a return call about whether or not electricity will be available on-site for the freezer. One would imagine there will be access to electriciy, but I have learned that I can't assume anything.

I'm getting weary, but it's a good kind of weary. I feel good about this event. We've worked hard and it's going to be great. I dare say it is going to be the best ever. I also think everyone is going to enjoy themselves and they are going to get home and over dinner that night they are going to talk about how much fun they had at the Buddy Walk. I want people to go away feeling good about it and feeling like we really did celebrate the future of people with Down syndrome.