Back in April, Mah and I went to Maine to meet some of my HAS girls and drink some beer. It was there that I have a clear, very loud memory of Paul Kessler telling me “you gotta come to our house, we have an elevator!” So to celebrate my 8 year diagnosiversary I took Amanda with me to New York to smooch the Kessler family and ride their elevator.

We had a really great trip. Any opportunity I have to be in the presence of my girl gang is life changing. Timing for this trip was perfect: Kate was able to stay and play Sunday night, Tuesday we had dinner in the city with Erin, Leah and Blaine then on Wednesday we got to meet THE Mayuri. Seriously, my cup runneth over.

Our hostess with the mostest was my favorite human, Desi. I fell in love with her the first time we met and my girl crush deepens every day. She coordinated everything, took the best care of us while we were there and fed us all the tequila. Desi is a cheater though, she shoots her tequila through her feeding tube while the rest of us suffer the slow burn. It’s worth it to be next to Desi, I’d follow her anywhere. We giggled about carrying around cups with us while we were out joyriding in the city to see if we could make a buck.

“What we believe about our future completely controls how we experience our present. We are irreducibly hope-based creatures.”

I’m often asked why I would celebrate my diagnosis day or how we can handle seeing the progression of this disease on others. My answer to these questions and many more is simply: love. I celebrate the great things that have come from this terrible diagnosis: community, clarity, support. I celebrate the people I wouldn’t know and love if not for this terrible disease. I love on those who know intimately how much this disease takes from us. Is it easy to be face to face with the devastation of progression? No. Is it worth it? Absolutely.

One of my favorite memories from this trip was what happened at the end of dinner Tuesday night. We had been there for several hours, lots of laughs and drinks. In true Desi fashion, we were going to end the night with a group tequila shot. After arguing with the bar manager about the necessity of this order, after last call, and the monumental significance of this gathering of badass women, the shots were lined up beautifully on our table. While everyone was getting situated: plungers, straws, limes, etc. Lauren (Blaine’s wife) offered everyone salt. We all licked our hands, got salted, and prepared to shoot tequila in the name of Her ALS Story. As the countdown commenced, it was announced that instead of salt Lauren had actually passed out Cotija cheese. This was my reaction

Cheers to kicking ALS’s ass for the next 8 years and beyond.

I’m a really good trip, Don’t you wanna go on it? Señorita need to have a little fun, I’m actin’ up

Miranda Lambert