The Caffeinated Advocate

Tomorrow is "the anniversary." Seventeen years have passed. To this day, I still remember each every moment that occurred on April 19, 2001 (and the entire weekend that followed). I remember wearing an orange polo shirt, khakis, brown suede boots and a matching jacket from Wilsons Leather where at the time, I worked as an assistant manager. I was due to report to my Century III store at 5pm that evening after Christian’s appointment with his endocrinologist and grabbing a quick bite to eat before dropping everyone off and heading to my shift. This day by no means played out as it was “supposed to.” At the appointment, I was told that my son “wasn’t normal” and that something was “wrong … very wrong.” The day didn’t go as it was “supposed to.” Or … did it? As promised, for the first time on The Caffeinated Advocate, I am sharing the excerpts from my 2008 speech delivered at a walk kickoff luncheon at Heinz Field in front of over 700 people. *** Ralph Waldo Emerson tells us, &

Have any of you seen that meme on social media yet? Apparently, it's the term that was created to indicate that you're "too tired to give a shit."  It gave me a good laugh, and it kind of speaks to how I've felt these past several weeks. Ok, so maybe I don't completely not give a shit, but I would say I'm giving less of a shit out of sheer exhaustion. I haven't done much with my book outline, I never picked a logo for a future web home for this blog (and whatever else may come down the pipeline), and I just haven't felt like blogging. Blogging for likes and loves and follows and numbers after ending your post with 70 hashtags isn't healthy, isn't productive, and honestly ... I would challenge that many people DON'T give a shit about posts like that. You blog when you have something to say that is of value to an audience or provides you with some sort of release. Tonight's post I'm pretty sure will serve both purposes, becaus