"[We] get knocked down, but we get up again"

A HUGE THANK YOU to our first donator: MARY LOU MASTRO!!! 

She holds a very special place in our lady gator hearts. 

"Before success in any man's life he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps, some failure" 

--Napoleon Hill

In googling "quotes about failure," I have found that all the critics agree that failure is basically a requirement for success. That's good news, because this past week was full of failure. Failure to sleep, failure to manage time, failure to eat, failure to maintain proper hygiene (ahem Karly), and failure to train. I won't give you the dirty details, but this past week was the culmination of midterms, as well as Karly's show, AND the deadline for all of the FEST marketing. The experience was comparable to an encounter between a pack of wild ocelots and several delicious golden lion tamarins. The attack was unexpected and savage, and we barely made it through with our gorgeous orange fur intact. 


But in all seriousness, we fell off the wagon a little bit when it came to training. The light at the end of the tunnel was nothing more than the faint glow of an LED candle. That is, until Karly played the classic ditty by Chumbawamba "Tubthumping," and we realized that YOU AIN'T EVER GONNA KEEP US DOWN.  


So in conclusion of this sob story, we have another long night/week/rest-of-the-quarter ahead of us, but we hit the gym today.


In other news, I finally got my new bike :) Picz to come soon I'm sureee.


Until next time,
Austin

LADY GATOR OF THE WEEK

Oh and don't forget, those $2,000 won't raise themselves!

donate donate donate donate donate donate donate donate donate donate donate donate donate donate donate donate

Week One: Almost Complete

20 miles.
That's how many we rode on Wednesday night. It was long and hard, but it was good. I felt like it gave us a taste of what the actual ride might feel like. That's why I wasn't too bothered when I rechecked our schedule and saw that we were really only supposed to do 12 miles. Karly wasn't so optimistic.  


It just made our day of rest that much more restful.


In other news, we have been hitting our heads against the wall brainstorming fundraising ideas. Karly has begun knitting AIDS hats, and I thought of an idea.


You, reader, have a once in a lifetime opportunity.
For the very small price of $10, you can sponsor one mile of our ride. We will feature you on our blog when you make the donation and we will wear masks of you during your mile   scream your name repeatedly during that mile think of you and send good karma your way while we ride that mile to cure AIDS. You can also pick from a variety of 200 different miles, so you can find one that's perfect for you.


So you may be asking yourself, what else does this donation get you?

1. Warm & fuzzies
2. A coveted feature on our highly acclaimed blog
3. A tax deduction (seriously)
4. Less time in purgatory*
5. Our friendship

*NOT GUARANTEED

Click the link on the right to find our page where you can make your donation. Well I'm going to continue resting before our actual 20 mile ride tomorrow. 

Until next time,

Austin

GATOR OF THE DAY

Training Begins

Inspired 
That's how we're feeling today. Yesterday marked the first day of our training, and we left the Ray feeling pretty darn good. We've managed to figure out times to train that work in both of our schedules, which must have involved some divine intervention. 


In other news, I was informed after registering (as in, after paying the $85 registration fee) that we EACH need to raise $1,000, bringing that to a grand total of $2000 by July 9th. That's right kids, several THOUSANDS of dollars. So, in light of this news, we have been thinking of different ways to raise said funds:

• prostitution
• hot dog stand by Starbucks
• AIDS Parties
• By that I mean AIDS Prevention Parties
• Wait, no, I meant Raising Funds to Prevent AIDS Parties
• Begging
• Calling our parents
• Selling various bodily commodities (eggs, semen, blood, etc)
• Bribery
• Stealing
• Groveling
• Karly's going to knit hats and sell them (AIDS Hats)
• Find anyone and everyone at DePaul university that works against AIDS, doesn't like AIDS, or that we can make feel bad about AIDS
• Charging admission to the blog

The list is still growing, but we are open to literally all ideas. So please, get those creative juices flowing. That is all for today, so I will leave you with these words.

"There are no failures - just experiences  

and your reactions to them"

                                                                                  -- Tom Krause

GATOR OF THE DAY

The First Step... Registering

It started out just a normal, lazy Friday...
So I brought up the idea to Karly that I was interested in doing the Chicago Ride for Aids event in July. Two chai tea lattes and an hour of procrastination later, and we're registered. Or at least we hope so. The site isn't the most user friendly thing on the web.


Registered for what, you may ask? Oh just a 200 mile bike ride in July. That's not it. We also need to raise $1000 between us. So basically we're in way over our heads and we've decided to blog about the process of training and living with our mistakes.


If you want to find out more about the ride and the organization, visit their website http://www.rideforaids.org/


As of right now we're still excited, but we also have not begun training. Wish us luck.


-Austin

GATOR OF THE DAY