How I Got Engaged

So, I feel like I've told everyone in the world, but in case you don't know, I recently got engaged. :)

My friend Amanda made us this custom illustration, and I cannot get over how incredibly adorable it is. If you'd like to see more of her work, check out her blog.

So some backstory: Sean and I met about a year ago at a Reddit r/Columbus meetup (that I hosted, since I had just moved to the city). We had so much fun at this meetup that we decided to make it a weekly thing, and thus Bar Thursdays were born.

See, we even sat at the same table :)

I don't really drink, but it was fun to meet up with people every week (for a couple months we played trivia, which I enjoy quite a bit). Sean and I played on the same trivia team quite a few times, but we weren't particularly good friends until I saw a post on r/Columbus about a David Bowie movie that was showing at a local theater. As I was leaving the meetup (early, because I am a fart), I asked if anyone wanted to go see the movie with me. Sean said, "Sure, I'll go see that," and we made plans to get dinner and go see it.

We met at the Blue Danube, which, as Sean describes it, is a place where you can "get a burger and it won't kill you." Take that as you will. His friend Bart joined us, we had a nice  dinner, and Sean and I went off to the movie. We sat down and watched it...and sat in silence for the entire movie. Turns out, the movie is awful. We both hated it. I wanted to start cracking jokes within 10 minutes...but I figured Sean was enjoying it, so I kept my mouth shut (turns out, he felt the exact same way). The movie ended, we walked out, and just, "So...that was pretty awful, huh?" and had a good laugh over how bad it was.

We had a casual friendship after that, grabbing food here and there, texting once in a while (one of my favorite interactions was that he texted me on Thanksgiving to let me know that the undefeated Packers were winning, and not realizing that he knew almost nothing about football, I replied, "Uh, obviously." I didn't know he was trying to impress me at that point. :)...but then two things happened that solidified our friendship.

The first was a minor emergency that I had. Of course, I call it a minor emergency, anyone else would...probably not call it that. It was November, and since I had moved in to my apartment, my lock had been only working sporadically. I got to my door and couldn't get it open...so, of course, I started crying. I was new to the city, didn't have many friends...and felt very, very stupid for not being able to get my door open. I called a friend of mine who only lived a block or two away, and he didn't answer. I started to panic some more, and mentally ran through a list of people I could call who would help me and who wouldn't mock me terribly for being unable to get my door open. Sean was the only person I could come up with. So I called him, crying, and he agreed to come right over to help me. He finally showed up (I called at 1 PM, so, naturally, I woke him up and he had to shower), and it took him about 30 seconds to open my door. Simultaneously humiliated and relieved, I started to cry. Allowing me to save face, Sean offered to take me to lunch. I had errands to do that day, but I knew I wasn't going to get anything done because if Sean left I'd just cry and hug my cat, so we went off to lunch.

At lunch, we discovered our shared love for Lord of the Rings. So we planned for the next weekend to be what we call "Steak and Lord of the Rings Day." Sean and I went to the store and bought supplies for cooking steaks, then sat down and watched the Lord of the Rings movies (we only manged to get through 2 of them, but don't judge us). It was fun, and it was that day we really went from being "someone I know from the internet" to "friends." It's amusing to me that this was our solidifying moment, especially since we're both vegan now (but don't worry, we still love Lord of the Rings). There was a Republican party debate on that night, which I wanted to watch and live tweet, but Sean was invited to a party, so he left to go do that. (The funny thing is, both of us were shocked that we didn't want to do the thing with the other person-- but I still give him shit for not sticking around to watch the debate with me, because I still think watching a GOP debating is more fun than going to a party.)

After that, we started hanging out pretty frequently, drawn together largely by a love of food and a hatred of eating alone. Sean took me around the city, showing me his favorite restaurants, and we got to try some cool places together.

We very rarely made plans, and I would often be at work and think about how I wanted to relax alone that night...but then as soon as I got home from work, I'd text Sean and suddenly he'd be over, and we'd be watching Parks and Recreation, or playing video games, or just talking. We went to see Fun. together, and Radiohead, and we went to DC together for the documentary that I'm in. He also took a day off work to take care of me after I had a colonoscopy.

About a week before SSA Con, power went out in most of Columbus, which included my place, but not his. He invited me over to crash the night it happened, but I was stubborn and refused...until the next morning, when I woke up and it was 90+ degrees in my apartment and my cat and I were overheating. We spent the day in his AC'd apartment...until that night, when I ended up having a super bad Crohn's flare up and was hospitalized. They sent me home around 2 AM, with the warning that if I couldn't keep food down, I should come back. Of course, the next day...I was in Puke City. Back to the ER we went!

I was sitting in my hospital bed, waiting to be seen by a doctor, and holding a puke bag in front of me. I was pretty miserable (being in the hospital, away from family...kind of scary), I was crying and I said, "I'm sick and in the hospital and there's no one in this town who loves me." (because I'm a whiner). Sean said, "But I love you." And then he looked away, naturally. So he didn't realize that I said, "I love you, too" back to him...and I semi-whispered it...we'll say it was because my throat was raw from vomiting, but maybe I was a little nervous, too. Then we had that awkward (or adorable), "Oh...you didn't hear that, did you?" "Wait, what did you say?" conversation...it was all very cute. :)

Once Sean and I started dating "officially" (as in, made it happen on fb), he moved in, and of course we started talking about marriage (as you do when you just start dating). It honestly made things easier, because at that point we were at one place or the other every single day, and it was getting difficult to cook because we had to keep track of where certain things were when cooking).

We kind of both knew we wanted to marry each other, and we'd often make jokes about when and where we'd propose to each other, or how we'd do it (sort of like Jim freaking out Pam on The Office by fake proposing to tie his shoe, etc.). We even went to the mall one day and looked at rings (and commemorated it by getting "just ducky" photos). The discussion turned to which one of us was going to do the proposing-- and Sean said he'd like me to do it. So, I started planning.

So, fast forward to now. If you read my previous entry, it's about my surgery (which went mostly well, save for a few hiccups in the post-surgery recovery). If you were following twitter or FB, I mentioned that the person to see for updates was Sean on twitter.

I woke up from surgery, and they kept me in a shared recovery room, which apparently made me very agitated (I was coming up from anesthesia...keep in mind that I don't remember any of this, it has just been relayed to me). They moved me to my single room, and my parents and Sean were sitting around the bed. Apparently I was very out of it, and my parents said they were going to go back to their hotel room to rest while I slept off the anesthesia (since my parents were nice enough to come down to Ohio from Wisconsin for my surgery).

I guess this upset me a lot, and I demanded (in a semi-conscious state) that they stay. Confused, but concerned for me, they agreed. Less than five minutes later, I told them I wanted them to leave the room. They said they would go back to the hotel room...but I said that wasn't okay. They needed to leave and come back. I kept suggesting that they go to the cafeteria or go for a walk and come back in a 20 minutes. Seeing how adamant I was, they agreed.

When they left the room, I turned to Sean (who had been diligently sitting at my side, holding my hand), and told him how much I loved him, how much he meant to me, how he was the most important person in the world to me...and then I asked, "Will you marry me?" and he said yes, and we kissed, and it was awesome. :)

Except for...I just had Sean proofread this entry, and he said that's not how it went down at all.  Here is a more accurate summary from someone who was there and NOT waking up from anesthesia:

When they left the room, I turned to Sean (who had been diligently sitting at my side, holding my hand), and said, "I gotta ask you a question." (Keep in mind, I am not saying this very clearly, because, you know, drugs.) Sean humored me and said, "Okay..." and I replied, "Will you marry me...for real?" Sean said, "Of course." This is almost too embarrassing to write, but for the sake of honesty (and hilarity), I'm going to tell you. I then asked, "Was that a good enough proposal?" Sean laughed and said, "of course it is." I then druggedly suggested that he tell my parents when they come back, and when they did, we both blurted it out.

Now, remember that story, and remember that this was my face when I woke up from anesthesia:

...and he's agreed to marry me. :)

I have no idea what is wrong with him (okay, well, actually, I have a few ideas), but I couldn't be happier. :)

Edit: Oh, and the funniest part is...a few days ago, I asked Sean if he was okay with how we got engaged. He said yes, because he could tell I had been planning it for a few days...it was like the "porp." If you don't get that, read this: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/09/party.html :)

Hey, I'm getting surgery!

So, if you follow my Twitter or Facebook, it's no secret that I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in May of this year (if you don't follow either of those and/or you're new, surprise! It was a pretty good birthday present.).

Turns out, Crohn's Disease is pretty awful. I'm going to write some gross stuff about it, but for your benefit, I'll highlight them so you can skip over the gross parts if you want to. But if you don't want to read anything of grossness, you probably shouldn't read any of this. Just skip to the very end.

So, I went to the doctor in April because it hurt and bled when I pooped. Diagnosed as anal fissures (link-- NSFW photo in the link), but the doctor noticed some inflammation at the top of my colon or rectum, so she scheduled a colonoscopy as well.

So in May I got my colonoscopy, and they found a bunch of gross stuff, like inflammation and ulcers and ick, so they scheduled a small bowel follow-through in June, where I had to drink barium and then they x-ray'd my guts and watched it go through. The doctor look at my x-ray and said, "Yep, textbook case of Crohn's." (Fun fact: You poop white after drinking barium. Or as I like to call it, ghost poop!)

July rolls around, and I was planning the SSA's annual conference, where 300 student leaders were expected to show up from around the country. The weekend before the conference, I went out to dinner with some friends...then went home and sobbed from pain, fever, and nausea. I finally called the 24 hour nurse line, and the very helpful nurse informed me I was most likely having a Crohn's flare up, and I needed to go to the ER right now. Went to the ER, got some pain meds and Prednisone, discharged at 2 AM and told to take it easy, but to come back if things got worse.

Of course, they got worse. By 6 PM the next day I hadn't been able to keep anything down (including water), so back to the hospital, this time getting admitted. Ended up spending 4 days there, which was awful, but I got a lot of tests done, a bigger dose of Prednisone, and I also learned that the Ohio State Hospital does not, in fact, know what vegan means, nor do they have any vegan options (they do, however, think turkey burgers are vegetarian and beef or chicken broth are acceptable options for everyone).

Fun (less sad) side story: When I was in the hospital the 2nd time, I was all pukey and gross, and I said something about how I just wanted to die. Sean said, "You can't die, because I love you."...and then looked away. So when I said, "I love you" back, he didn't hear (because my voice was hoarse, and maybe I was quiet because I was nervous!)...and that was a cute and awkward thing. But mostly cute. :)

So, fast forward to early August-- I had been on a prednisone taper to help shut down the flare up, but turns out it didn't help at all, so my doc scheduled me for another small bowel follow through, and the results of that would determine whether I needed surgery or not (spoiler alert: the answer is yes, I need surgery).

In the meantime, since I still had the anal fissures that I originally went in for, I had to get surgery to take care of those. That happened this past Monday, and it was pretty awful. (This is super gross, but my butt basically won't stop bleeding so I have to wear a pad all the time, and it feels like fucking shards of glass passing through my asshole when I poop. I have cried almost every single bowel movement since the surgery. Oh, and I fill up the toilet with blood, that's fun. I also need to take a sitz bath after every time I poop, or just three times a day, and those help...but mostly, the pain is outrageously awful. I do not recommend having anal fissures for 3+ years and letting them get so bad you need surgery...but hey, what can you do when you can't afford healthcare, amirite?)

So, here I am, getting surgery on Tuesday, August 28th. I'm getting a laproscopic colectomy done. It's good that it's laproscopic, because recovery time will be much quicker than if they had to open me up (although, if something goes wrong or there's more diseased tissue than they thought, they will have to open me up). But yeah, basically they are cutting out my terminal ileum and some of my colon, and they're gonna sew the parts together and hopefully that will help make things better. 

So...that's about where I am now. Trying not to freak out too much. Tomorrow (Friday) is my last day of work, I have Monday to prepare for the surgery, and then I'll be on leave from work for 4-6 weeks (at least).

So, what can you do to make me feel better? Here are a few options!

1) Recommend books, tv shows, movies, documentaries, or video games to me. You can edit this sweet Google Doc! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AssJ88DUkGJUdEdhbVJWTjJoTWRoejVodUJ6RFJiakE

2) Help create a Spotify playlist! http://open.spotify.com/user/1243536065/playlist/3K82DOQt6dSNyKoWp1QmzH I like most kinds of music, but please nothing too heavy-- really, no metal or really hard rock. I think I'd prefer chill music, but upbeat is okay...I just will probably be in bed, on drugs, and metal/hard music sounds kind of bad at that time.

3) Send me a card! You don't even have to mail it! I'll be in the hospital for about 5-7 days (from Tuesday, August 28th - Sunday, Sept. 2nd), and if you go to this link: http://www.mountcarmelhealth.com/patient-resources/e-cards.html, you can type out a message to me and they'll print it and hand deliver it to me. Address it to Sarah Moglia (no nicknames or they won't be able to find me) in Room 325. I'll be at Mount Carmel East. (Please don't write anything offensive or gross-- it will be printed and read by volunteers.)
(If you do want to go above and beyond and send me something in the mail-mail, just message me on FB or twitter and I'll get you my home address. I will be in bed for 4-6 weeks after I get out of the hospital, so no rush, really.)

My Week at Camp Quest

Well, I spent the last week at Camp Quest Michigan.  What is CQ, you ask? Well, it's an awesome summer camp for children of freethinking parents-- no, this is not an atheist summer camp, just a camp where kids can learn about science, critical thinking skills, and also do all sorts of fun summer things, like swimming, rock climbing, horseback riding, etc. 

We did a lot of cool things.  The first night, two campers/CITs pretended to be "minor deities" to explain the Invisible Pink Unicorns that live on the campgrounds. You can't see them, or hear them, or smell them, or taste them, or feel them, and they don't leave any footprints, but we know they're real because we have a book that says so, and we dare you to prove that they DON'T exist (this is an actual dare-- if anyone can prove that there are no invisible pink unicorns on camp, they will win a $100 bill from pre-1957 when "in god we trust" was added to currency).

We also made tons of s'mores, duh. And since I'm vegan, I got special vegan marshmallows and chocolate (cause I don't really want dead cow parts in my marshmallows).

And I made delicious s'mores. Mmmmm.

Camp Quest Michigan happens on a 4H camp, so there is camp staff there to run activities with us. It's a little different than most Camp Quests, as I've been told, and a little bit more on the physical activity side than other camps. Still, fun!! We did Socrates' Cafe, which is a philosophy discussion-- ours was a lot about the morality of punishment/jail/murder/death penalty-- heavy stuff, but these kids are smart. We also did drama and made our own movie, which was hilarious. There was also canoeing, swimming, rock climbing, zip lining, horseback riding, archery, and a high ropes course (which I completed, although fairly terrified-ly. So scared, in fact, that a camper let me skip him in line to go back down to the ground. He was fine, I was the one who was freaking out. Haha.).

We also had a carnival, where campers earned tickets for completing games. If they earned 100 tickets, they could "dunk" a counselor of choice (by dunk, I mean pour four buckets of ice cold water on). Guess who got picked? (Okay, actually every counselor did, but I'm gonna show you my photos.)

Ice freaking cold.

Jeff Duncan, the camp director, also got dunked.

There were lots of bugs and toads to be found. The girls from my cabin (see below) found a couple of Preying Mantises (you can only see one in the photo). They were really curious about stuff and it was awesome.

During archery, we were encouraged to draw monsters and then they were stuck onto the target board. Only one person hit my group's monster...right in the eye. Guess who? :) (To be fair, I used to be an archery instructor, so I had a lot of time to get good at it. The kids did super well for their first day.)

We also had skits and song parodies. A group of girls did a parody of "Sexy and I Know It." They called it "Thinking And I Know It." It was hilarious. The lyrics were something similar to "Thinking and I know it...girl look at that atheist." If I can get more of the lyrics, I'll post them. I was in stitches, though.

There was also a LOT of "Call Me Maybe." Almost every camper got up to sing along with it at the end of the talent show. :)

Weirdly enough, I think my favorite part of camp was when we went canoeing, we were able to get off on a marshy island and explore and I was able to teach campers a lot about lakes and the creatures that live in that area. It was an unexpected teaching moment, and I really enjoyed sharing things I learned as a kid and from my Environmental Science classes. The kids loved it, too. There's something really cool about teaching kids things when they don't think they're learning. :)

There were a bunch of things that I'm probably forgetting, but it was a long week and I'm still recovering. I may add more if I think of it. 

In summation, Camp Quest is awesome. They also have a super awesome matching challenge going on, so if you think supporting kids in indoctrination-free environments is important (and it is), you should throw a few bucks their way.

If you don't already "like" CQ on FB, you should do that (and also follow their twitter: @CampQuest). 

LIVESTREAM TIME

Okay, it's livestream time. 9 minutes until I start, so I'd better chug this out quickly.

Basically, I've already raised $1,000. Which is absolutely awesome! However...

The rules have changed.

Okay, there was really no need to bold that, I just wanted to be dramatic. Anyway, it's been a really long week at work, and next week is also going to be long (turns out I'm sort of planning a conference that's in like 3 weeks), so I really can't do a 24 hour livestream. Okay, well, I can try, but I'm putting a higher price on it.

 The new goal for me to do 24 hours is $2,500. Part of the fun was going to be raising the money during the livestream, and if I've raised it all before it even begins, where's the fun in that?

So, all the things you can "buy" to make me do are still listed on my last blog, and the donate button for me is still here.

As far as the day's plans...I'm winging it!

At 1 PM Eastern, I'm declaring it Cat Parade, so if you want to show off your cat, befriend my on Google+ (my email address is Sarah.Moglia@gmail.com) and we can do a hangout of CATS.

The Sarah Power Hour will be determined when my other half wakes up and she decided she wants to jump in. Or whenever I text her frantically to wake her up and say HELP I NEED YOU ON HERE I'M GOING CRAZY. Any other things will happen on the fly.

And now, the final thing...here's the link to my livestream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ssa-week

Update on SSA Week Livestream!

Okay everyone! If you aren't up to speed on what SSA Week is, click here, and if you don't know what my contribution is, click here.

On Saturday, June 16th, I will be livestreaming my life from 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM EST in order to raise money for SSA Week.

I did a test run of my livestream tonight for an hour and I am little daunted at doing 12 hours now. But!! I love the SSA, and I made a commitment, so I am going to do it.

Even more, if I raise $1,000 on my personal fundraising page, I will livestream for 24 hours. So....that's a lot of sleep-deprived talking to the internet.

In order to help rack in the donations, I am offering to do things for money. I will probably pretty much do anything for donations, with a few caveats:

1) No nudity (you perverts).
2) I will not consume something non-vegan (I recently went vegan, so yeah). (Also, was recently diagnosed with Crohn's disease, so eating/drinking challenges may make me sick and probably should be avoided. :/ )
3) I reserve the right to say no to any request.

Anyway, here are some ideas!

For $5, I will lip-sync to a song of your choice.
For $10, I will actually sing a song of your choice (VERY poorly, might I add-- I'm no Crommunist).
For $15, I will sing AND dance to a song of your choice.
For $20, I will make up and sing a song about you (right then and there! Live!).
For $30, I will hand write you a letter and mail it to you.
For $50, I will go on a 'date' with you (if you're in Columbus, a for-real date. If you're going to TAM or any other conference that I will be at, then we can meet up there. If you're not anywhere near then, then we can have an hour long Skype date or something. :)

Other suggestions? Keep in mind, if y'all don't suggest things, I am probably just going to sing "Jesus Christ Superstar" songs and "Call Me Maybe." So you probably want to suggest things and donate.

Also during the livestream, we're going to have a cat parade (where we go into a Google+ Hangout and people show off their cats). If you want to show off your cat, let me know!

I'm also going to have my BFF @ologies join me for the SARAH POWER HOUR, to help promote the Legion of Sarahs! Also, for entertainment, because two Sarahs are better than one.

There will also be other guests of honor, so keep your eyes peeled for announcements!!

I hope you're excited! Remember: if you want 24 hours of MY LIFE, BROADCAST TO THE WORLD...you should donate! (At the time I published this, I have raised $330-- 33% of my goal.)

Update!!: It has now been decided that if I reach $750 by Saturday at 9 PM, I will buzz all my hair off. If I reach $1,200 by that same time, I will get a mohawk AND maintain it for a month. :) So if you want to see me with funny hair, get donating! (FWIW, this is what my hair looks like right now.)

Update #2!!! Alright, so since a date with just me is $50, for a mere $100, you can get a date with both me AND Sarah (@ologies). Two Sarahs for the price of...two!! What a deal! And we'll both be at TAM, so think of a night in Vegas with these two beautiful, smart, witty, skeptical ladies.

SSA Week!

So! As you all may know, I work for the greatest organization in the history of the earth (I would say the universe, but I feel that's a bit presumptuous considering if we don't even know if there's life out there). Anyway, yes, I do work for the Secular Student Alliance, because somehow my life is awesome.

In order to continue being awesome by doing things like providing travel grants to students to go to conferences, and sending super cool speakers to their campuses, hosting a kick-ass annual conference, providing hands-on support for planning events, talking to resistant administrations, should I go on? Well anyway, in order to continue doing that, we need money! That's why we're having....SSA Week!

Yay!! So a whole bunch of people are doing things like a blog a thon...and I want to help, but there's going to be a LOT of stuff to read. So, what I'm thinking is I'll do a 12 hour long livestream of my life. I have to come up with details, but I'm thinking I'll do requests of things for some small amount of money...obviously you can come up with whatever, but I can answer questions, or dance to a song of your choice, or tell you my most embarrassing memory...or whatever! You're creative, you can come up with something.

If I reach a certain goal by the end of my first 12 hours, I'll stay live for 24 hours. Trying to decide what my goal should be...thinking $1,000? Maybe $2,000? I have no idea if I'll make more than $5, so I don't know what's a reasonable goal or not.

Anyway, there will be some special guest(s??) joining me during the livestream-a-thon, so stay tuned! Maybe I will announce them...maybe I won't!! Who knows?! (A lot of this is going to depend on all of your reactions and suggestions. :)

What do you think? Any suggestions for what I could do? Keep in mind, my plans so far mostly include: dancing to Queen songs, showing off my cat, ranting about varying topics, chatting with my special guest(s)...you know, an average day in my life.

I'm not sure how I will do this yet. I've been looking into UStream.tv and Google+ hangouts...I'm not sure. If anyone has any experience with this, I'd appreciate any help at all! I don't know if there are rules or time limits on any of those services where I'd get kicked off for being on too long.

Anyway, I'm super excited to do this. I hope you're excited as well. :)

Humanism in Action

This past week has been an emotional rollercoaster for me. I have had a few health problems my whole life, but despite seeing lots of different doctors, no cures have materialized. Now that I live in Ohio, I decided to try to find new doctors and see if they could help. The two biggest problems are with my feet and my intestines/poophole.

I'm a gainfully employed adult with pretty decent insurance coverage. However, insurance doesn't cover everything. When I decided I wanted to go to a podiatrist and a proctologist, I needed to go to my GP for referrals ($25/a visit). After I was referred, I had to take an entire afternoon off work to drive 20 minutes to my foot doctor ($50 copay/visit). He told me I needed to come back for an MRI before he could conclusively say anything ($450), although odds are, I'll probably need surgery. Fuck.

Meanwhile, I visited the proctologist and had an exam ($50 copay for that appointment)...only to be told I need a treatment ($50) and a colonoscopy that apparently will not be fully covered, because I haven't reached my $1,500 deductible (although I'm not sure how much it will cost).

There are more doctors appointments that I will need to have after these treatments (to follow up), and it takes time away from work and also costs me $50 per visit. This is adding up quickly. I may very well meet my deductible within the next month or two. But keep in mind that $1500 is almost 2 paychecks for me. I'm not complaining about how much I make (it's decent pay for entry level non-profit). But...this is scary for me.

So, I do what I normally do: tell Twitter about my fears. Every time my doctor or receptionist told me, "Okay, you owe this much," I was trying not to cry (and usually failing, because I suck at containing emotions). How was I going to deal with this?

I took to Twitter and said this:

Given the amount of RT's and favorites, it was obviously resonating with people. I am not the only person who worries about this.

So, while I'm freaking out about everything, my friend Sarah tweets something about a surprise. Since she's a graphic designer, I figured it was a new design of hers, since she sells her designs online, and they are awesome. But, of course, I hate secrets, so I started badgering her about it.

That was weird to me. Sarah and Amanda know each other, but why would Amanda know the secret? I use my detective skills to deduce that it must have something to do with Camp Quest (because Amanda is the Executive Director), but I still WANT TO KNOW.

August knows too. Stupid husband privileges, I think. There's some more banter (including August saying "INCEPTION!," which caused me to snort), and then I go to bed, obviously unconcerned. The next morning, I get to work and Sarah tweets. I respond in a calm and adult manner.

Keep in mind, at this point, I still think it's a new design of hers. There's some banter, and she asks if I deserve to know the surprise now. I think it's weird that she mentioned me specifically (because I assumed everyone else wanted to know as well), but I figure it's just banter because I want to know the most (oh, I forgot, I also texted Sarah the night before, wanting to know). 

Then Sarah tells me to check my email. Weird, why isn't she just posting it on Twitter? I think. I pick up my phone (since personal emails go straight to my phone) and I see this:

(I blanked it out, but it's a considerable sum of money.) I immediately start sobbing in my office. Not just a few tears, full-on sobbing. JT (my office mate) actually rushed over and asked what was wrong. It took a few minutes to calm down to tell him.

Sarah also drew this amazing card to go along with it:

So there you have it. Sarah, Rick, James, Matt, Sean, Andy, Felice, Amanda, August, and Adam are all the best people in the world, and the collective owners of my heart (and all shareholders in my butt now as well, apparently). I linked to all of their twitters, and they're all wonderful and worth following. You should also check out their respective blogs and/or organizations.

Sarah's art blog

Matt's blog

Andy and August's organization, the SSA (coincidentally, also my organization)

Amanda's organization, Camp Quest, secular summer camp

Adam's blog, Daylight Atheism

So, go check out their stuff. Thank them, hug them, all that. 

I'm going to go pretend I'm not crying again. STUPID FEELINGS.

But seriously. Thank you to everyone, from the bottom of my heart. Your support, whether financial or emotional, is greatly appreciated. This is truly humanism in action.