The World According To Crystal

Some of the students in the first class at Charlotte Community School for Girls.

How’s your breakfast? I’m having blueberries, Greek yogurt, walnuts, pecans and flax seed with a little local honey drizzled on top. And coffee.

Breakfast rocks. Most important meal and all that. I want to talk about breakfast some more, but first I want to tell about someone in Charlotte who is doing something special.

I met Cathy Sheafor about a year ago at Story Slam when she laid out her vision for Charlotte Community School for Girls, an experiential learning center for 5th- through 8th-graders. A select group of girls from low-income families would be invited to attend the year-round school, and they would be “challenged to dream, plan, and transform dreams into realities.” (Click here to read a recent piece in The Charlotte Observer!)

The school opens in mid-August in SouthEnd. You must visit and have Cathy tell you about it – I really can’t do it justice – but I so believe in the school that I joined the Board of Advisors.

During our last meeting, the board learned that because fund-raising wasn’t going as well as expected some things had to be cut back. The school wouldn’t be able to provide the girls with a good breakfast when they arrive at 7:30 a.m.

“Those babies have to have breakfast,” I whispered to a fellow board member. I had just finished watching Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution.”

I put out feelers to some very special people including Chef Geoffrey Blount, who heads up the Baking and Pastry Arts program for Central Piedmont Community College Culinary School.

Chef Blount called back and has rounded up a dream team of chefs, instructors, culinary students, farmers, vendors and more who will work with the school on a long-term plan for breakfast and lunch.

In the short term, though, the girls still need a good breakfast.

I asked Cathy to create The Breakfast Fund to get them through the first year. It’s $40 a day or $800 a month to get students and the staff started with a healthy meal. I personally am covering September.

Now, I want to challenge you to pay for a month. Or a week. Or a day. Think of it as investing in the community’s future. Can’t afford it by yourself? Share the cost with a group of girlfriends, your book club, your church group, your sorority sisters, your running buddies.

And if you can’t give money right now, please visit the school or click here for other volunteer and donation opportunities.

My pals, Rhonda and Rachel, and I are training for a sprint triathlon in October. We agreed to start training in January rather than April. Or August.

On Jan. 11, we hit the Mallard Creek Greenway on our bikes. Mine is an old-school cruiser. I had skinny tires on still from riding around Uptown, etc. The greenway is mostly paved with a few gravel sections.

Skinny tires + pea gravel = not a good idea.

I went to pass Rhonda’s bike and hit her back wheel. And I went down. Hard.

As I was falling, though, I started to stick my hand down to catch my fall. Images of two friends who had broken bones that way flashed through my head. I pulled my hand in and let my shoulder take the brunt of the fall.

The damage (after two doctor visits, x-rays, MRI): Severely bruised shoulder. Could have been much worse. 4-6 weeks of physical therapy.

Here’s what I learned in the week after the wreck and before the diagnosis:

1) Getting back on the bike wasn’t a big deal.

2) Knowing how to fall is crucial.

3) I don’t own any shirts that button or zip up the front.

4) MRI appointments can be scheduled for as late as 9 pm because of demand for the machines. I’m going to guess that cost justification plays a part in that, too.

5) I’m claustrophobic in coffin-like spaces. Tried to do a closed MRI on Jan. 13. Giant FAIL. Elevators, good. Coffins, bad. Good to know. The open MRI with a side of Xanax was just fine.

6) A sling can help deter people from playfully punching you on the shoulder or giving you a real pat on the back.

7) A solid friend is someone who gets up at 7 a.m. on a Saturday – and it’s 14 degrees – to take you to open MRI.

8 ) Change tires to match the kind of ride you’re going to do.

9) Always wear a helmet. *yes, i had one on.*

10) Pain management and a sense of humor are critical.