3rd Annual Northwest Melanoma Walk and Fun Run, May 31

This May, AIM at Melanoma (with help from yours truly!) will be hosting the 3rd Annual AIM for a CURE Northwest Melanoma Walk and Fun Run in Portland, Oregon. New for 2014, all net proceeds will benefit the Melanoma Research Program at Oregon Health & Science University’s Knight Cancer Institute and Department of Dermatology. Specifically, the event will raise funds for Portland's first Melanoma Tissue Bank, widely believed by the oncology community to be a key to major breakthroughs in melanoma research.

Northwest Melanoma Walk and Fun Run
Saturday, May 31, 2014 from 8:30 to 12 p.m. 

Wallace Park, NW 25th Ave. & Raleigh Street, Portland, OR 

 Register at: http://bit.ly/melanomawalk14 
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The event is free and will include a health fair, hosted by OHSU's Let's Get Healthy, where the whole family can learn about sun safety, how to detect suspicious spots on the skin, as well as how to participate in life-saving research.

Questions? Contact melanomapdx@gmail.com. Not local? Find an event in your area.

Spring break state of mind

Sun Bum sunscreen / Butter london nail polish / Vintage cateye sunglasses / Stella Dot beige leather handbag / Gap loafer shoes

The past few weeks have been busy, busy. I have lots of exciting things in the works that I can't wait to share, but for the time being I'm going to keep my lips sealed and simply blab about my upcoming vacation plans.

When I was in college, I never went on *spring break.* My family paid to fly me across the country to go to college, so they couldn't rationalize spending $1,000 to put me up in an all-inclusive resort when I was 19. Fair enough. Nearly ten years later, I finally have the opportunity to travel to Mexico for the first time this April. After all the traveling I did last year, I've been getting a little stir crazy the past couple of months. Plus, I need an excuse to shop for shorts when it's still nearly freezing outside. Needless to say, I'm stoked.

Because of the whole skin cancer thing, traveling to exotic, sun-filled locations continues to present some challenges. I'm obviously not going to have a tan when I arrive in Cabo, and I'm probably going to be paranoid about getting a sunburn while I'm there. But that doesn't mean I don't like visiting tropical islands or drinking piña coladas on the beach. I love going on vacation. I wish I could travel more frequently than I already do. In fact, at some point during the next year or so, my heart is set on visiting a good friend of mine who is currently living in Australia. What this means is that I usually end up spending a fair amount of time under the beach umbrella and I pay extra to check luggage because I have too many bottles of SPF to fit in a quart-sized plastic baggie. Sometimes I wish I could be more "normal," but what does normal really mean, anyway?