Inaugural blog post starting in 3...2...1...Hello! Welcome to my little corner of the Illini 4000 online presence! Yes, this will be very hokey, and yes, there will be many exclamation marks... but who can blame me!? I'm doing the craziest, coolest thing this summer and yes. I'm pretty jazzed about it.Since I joined I4K on October 18, it has been quite a ride. This spring, fundraising has become my part-time job. Alongside my actual part-time job, it's made for quite a busy semester! It's pretty crazy how gradually investing more time and money into something makes it become gradually more real. I can actually see myself doing it now, whereas before it was like ehhhhhh-but-its-so-scary-and-doesn't-feel-real-its-so-far-away sort of feelings. And I have my bike now! I put a picture down below on my porch in Urbana. More to come, of course.So yesterday I found out my grandma has an elevator speech for my trip. She even has the number of days memorized - 72! I'm at home for U of I's spring break this week and yesterday I spent all day with my grandma, Meme, and my mom. By chance, we ran into some family at a restaurant in the afternoon and Meme took off on her speech, rattling off the information like it was something she's said 10,000 times before. Because at this point, she totally has. I know she's telling everyone she meets about her granddaughter and this ride. And she's the type of person that makes friends at the makeup counter so there are probably some cosmeticians at Nordstrom that know what I'm doing too. So anyway we were sitting down at lunch and she interrupts our conversation to get on the phone to call her friends about it. She's a total hoot. She has commissioned herself as my assistant fundraiser - and the best one I could have.My family has been so supportive of this endeavor, and I feel so grateful to be sharing this experience with them. My mom has been involved in the whole thing since day 1, asking about bikes and making sure I sent timely thank you notes and even offering to train with me while I'm home. Sadly, Chicago has graced us with a very cold spring break and I'm not sure how much riding time I'll get, but we'll be doing some indoor exercise to make sure I keep on track. 