i am sad to hear the almost ready to give up tone in your post. you must believe that i, too, have been in that place and even darker and more dangerous places. i got out and found a world of hope and fullfillment ....just altering my dreams a bit but i still have them. when you see only caregivers and patients working for our cause, i must tell you that you are wrong. i know plenty of people who are touched by this damn disease in so many ways-some just happen to have a friend-me- who has it. but this thing does not make me invisible. it empowers me, gives me strength and courage to say things that i would never before have said, been able to ask ceo's of large organizations to give me money-something i would never have thought to do before but since the money is for my friends in the pd community, i can ask for anything, since i have been dxed., i have had more amazing and wonderful adventures than i did in my fairly wild youth, i hang out with US Congressmen, state and local officials and these are people whom i would never have considered for friendship before. quite the opposite, i think that pd has made me different, noticeable and apparant. so what if i fall on my ass in the middle of downtown?? it's not the falling that people are watchin-it is if you get up again. my little town of Chillicothe is so parkie-aware and i am so proud. i am always out trying to let folks know that pd is not funny or any fun but that i can still be. don't get me wrong-i am not pollyanna altho i wish that i could be, but she sure knew how to take a lousy situation and turn it to her advantage. there are days when i would just like to get thru them with grace and peace and those are the days my teenagers turn into people that i don't care to know: my daughter turns into a screeching drama queen and my son looks mostly like edward scissorhands-not much grace and peace those days. but life goes on whether we're on for the short track or the long haul-make each day a good one. jopan -- Joan Blessington Snyder 54/14 [log in to unmask] http://www.pwnkle.com/jes/jes_web/index.htm “Hang tough……..no way through it but to do it.” Chris in the Morning Northern Exposure ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn