So last week I went over to Danielle's house where she was being interviewed for the Today Show. Four local schools in our area (elementary to middle schools) have about 50 girls who are donating their hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. Pantene Beautiful Lengths is a program where individuals can donate 8 or more inches of hair to cancer patients who have lost their hair during treatment.

When Danielle was 13, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease. She actually went through chemotherapy twice(!), because she was declared cured ("in remission"), but then more malignant cells were found in her body. Of course, to ensure the second set fully went away, they had to give her a very high amount of chemotherapy. Danielle lost her hair twice during this process.

The Today Show got involved when they discovered the local girls were donating their hair to this cause. I personally found it very touching that young teenage girls were willing to do this because hair is considered sacred at that age. In addition to covering the event, the Today Show wanted to interview a person or two from the town that had been affected by cancer. About a month ago, Danielle got a call and was selected as a candidate for the show. They eventually chose 2 out of the 10 candidates and Danielle was one of them, so two producers came over to tape an interview and collect pictures/memories last week. They came for about 5-6 hours, and conducted additional interviews with Danielle at her middle school, and seemed very moved by her whole story.

Today the taping took place and aired at around 10 AM, but I included the video so everyone could watch it. I am very proud of Danielle because I thought she did a very good job and was very well-composed at all times (apparently I am in the video when they go to hug the girls... I am sitting down on the way right in the yellow shirt):

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In related news, tomorrow is our four year anniversary so I suppose it's time to get a gift for that . It's pretty amazing that we've been together for four years, and it's pretty crazy thinking about how far we've come. I have a positive outlook on our future because we are still both putting in a lot of effort into our relationship and it is a very rewarding experience. I also would like to take this time to formally thank Danielle for putting up with me for four years.

On Friday I head down to Jacksonville, Florida for my brother's final baseball series of his freshmen college career. It will be fun to hang out with my family and relax for a couple days.

I also am getting very excited for Vegas and can't wait to head down there in mid-June. I will really enjoy playing in a few of the tournaments (after I turn 21) and am working on my tournament game/ICM to maximize my chances of going deep. Speaking of tournaments, Donkament Sunday went horribly! I wanted to shoot my brains out after 4 of the 8 or so hours. I did alright overall, but I'm not doing that again for a long time .

TO THE TOP!