FEEL GOOD FRIDAY
april fools edition
Happy Friday! We made it. Did you get got on April Fools? Do we even, as full grown adults, still engage in this day or is it just a cheap gimmick for corporate America to get social media clout now? Either way, if you did get got, it’s fine because I almost did many times and want all of these things to be real either because I want them or need them to exist so I can inevitably watch a million TikTok’s about said disgusting products.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
In other news, the They Live run this past Sunday was AWESOME and you should’ve been there! even wrote a very thoughtful Substack on it that you can check out here.
Join us next time (mid May) if you’re in the LA area for a highly requested redo of our very popular and quintessentially-LA Fast and Furious run in Echo Park.
Video Credit: Ezra Weisz
Photo Credit: Ricky Hayberg
Now on to the big question of the weekend….
Have a great weekend and happy FGF!
THE SHALLOW STUFF
Ready to laugh?
You won’t have the patience to watch the whole thing but it IS WORTH IT.
This is a vibe.
Truth. (Sorry—love you though, )
I agree / voted for the winner. I think all of you in LA will too.
Ready to smile?
LOVE. I’m so happy season three is finally here! Such a feel good show that never fails in getting me to smile ear to ear and sometimes even shed a tear.
Best girl dad ever.
Ready to dance?
And it’s a grand total of 1:58 long. You and your short attention span can do it! I believe in you!
OBSESSED.
THE DEEP STUFF
Ready to cry?
I’m not ok.
Still not ok.
Ready to be inspired?
A Paralympic gold medalist has become the first blind woman to swim across the English Channel, and she finished under time.
She said that being blind has left her feeling “isolated,” but thanks to swimming, she has a “newfound confidence” and hopes her feat “inspires others”.
49-year-old Melanie Barratt took on the challenge after falling in love with open-water swimming.
She swam the Channel, from Shakespeare Beach in Dover to Cap Gris Nez Beach in France, in 12 hours and 20 minutes, faster than the expected 14 hours, and described it as “a dream come true.”
“My life has been filled with challenges because of my blindness, and it often led me to feel isolated and unsure of myself,” said Barratt.
Melanie, now a special needs assistant after winning two gold medals, two silvers, and a bronze at the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Paralympics, said she “never thought it would be possible to achieve something like this.”
It’s no mean feat, even for an Olympian, as the Channel weather regularly takes the lives of sailors and refugees in crossing.
Melanie was born with scarred eyes after her mom contracted congenital toxoplasmosis during pregnancy. She grew up virtually blind and was only able to make out bright colors and shapes. She first began swimming with the British Blind Sport charity.
“I loved the water,” she remembers. “The charity helped me by teaching me to swim straight and how not to bump my head into the pool ends.”
“I struggled to fit in at school because of my blindness, so I often turned to the pool as an escape.”
Slowly improving, a swimming partner invited her to the Paralympic games, which lit a fire underneath her that pushed her to succeed. After Sydney, Melanie retired from competitive swimming and wanted “something more.”
“Sadly, my guide dog doesn’t swim,” she said, according to English news media outlet SWNS. “But I became friends with an incredible open-water swimmer who took me under her wing.”
“The shock of the cold water made me aware of every single cell of my body, and it was freeing.”
Once hooked on open-water swimming, Melanie competed in several races, including a 10k lake swim, the Thames Marathon, and a relay race in Lake Geneva in July 2023.
It was as freeing as it was frightening, since there were no indicative surfaces or objects for her to use as a reference point. A solution presented itself as her husband paddling alongside her in a kayak, the bright colored paint of which she could see.
“I also started using bone-conducting headphones that allowed him to communicate with me throughout my swims,” she says. “It made open-water swimming more accessible.”
Two years before her Geneva feat, Melanie signed up for the English Channel swim, describing it as “the Everest of swimming,” and on August 28th, 2024, she swam the Channel in 12 hours and 20 minutes, receiving a Guinness World Record for the feat two months later.
“Halfway through the swim, I felt scared and sick. I didn’t think I was going to make it,” she said. “But I had the most amazing team and I was really determined.”
“Life is incredibly difficult being blind, and it’s very limiting, but sport and open-water swimming have given me a newfound confidence and made me proud of who I am.”
“My husband and two boys always know I love to push myself and that I always need something to work towards, and I hope I’ve inspired others to do the same.”
ALSO…
A 13-year-old girl has been invited to join the Mensa society after getting the maximum score on the IQ test—higher than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
Sofia Kot Arcuri has been accepted into the club after achieving 162, the highest possible score for a girl of her age.
Proud mom Cecylia Kot Arcuri said she always knew Sofia was smart, but didn’t expect her to ace the test without any preparatory work.
“She just walks around throwing random facts at you,” Mrs. Arcuri said, adding that she has been top of her class from the moment she started school. “When you think of someone of high intelligence, you’d think they’d be quite geeky, but really, she’s a normal girl.”
“She’s got loads of friends, is bubbly, and loved by everyone.”
The Mensa High-IQ Society has been around for over 100 years, and focuses on welcoming those extremely gifted minds among us into a space of collaboration and camaraderie. The American chapter of Mensa boasts 50,000 members of the over 150,000, located in 90+ countries worldwide.
Isaac Asimov, Commander Chris Hadfield, Steve Martin, and John McAfee were all members of Mensa, along with the inventor of the mobile phone and author of The Clan of the Cave Bear novels.
Due to Sofia’s intense workload from school, she “didn’t have time to prepare” for the Mensa test in January, and hadn’t practiced any Mensa tests prior to the big day.
Her mother said she was over the moon after receiving her results on March 14th.
Sofia is top of her class in computer science and wants to pursue a career in coding when she grows up.
“She came home one day and said, ‘there was a bug the teacher didn’t even know how to solve, and I did it,” said the understandably proud Cecylia.
“She’s also a ballet dancer and performs in shows with her dance school. She loves musical theatre and is always playing the piano.”
Cecylia’s father and Sophia’s grandfather, Antoni Kot, was a head teacher and mathematician who was very well known in his homeland of Poland, tutoring students until age 86 when he died.
“His brain was sharp even in his last minutes, and we believe Sofia inherited her love of math and coding from him,” she said.
Now ready for your do-good action items of the week?
I wish I was in town for this.It goes to a great cause. You can get tickets here: https://www.showclix.com/event/wish-may4th
ALSO, register for this!
This year’s Wiggle Waggle Walk & Run will take place on Sunday, April 6 at Brookside Park at the Rose Bowl. Every dollar raised helps to provide lifesaving care to the animals at Pasadena Humane, including those affected by the Eaton fire.
Registration includes an exclusive Wiggle Waggle Walk & Run t-shirt, bandana, bib, and medal when you cross the finish line.
This year’s event will feature community resources, a vendor marketplace, food trucks and so much more. We hope you and your pup will join us to support the animals affected by the Eaton Fire and others like them.
Can’t make it? Virtual registrations are available. You can “walk your block” to support animals in need!
Register now at wigglewagglewalk.org (link in bio)
I LOVE THAT FOR YOU! PODCAST CORNER
You'd be a FOOL to miss out on the April edition of The Love List! Red funny-walks us through various famous birthdays and events that happened on this day, while Kelly isn't messing around with exciting news in the medical field! While also shouting organizations like We Got This and shows like Dying for Sex, this "Daffodil Month" (or Cancer Awareness Month in Canada) be sure to shine a light on cancer and ways you can help cancer survivors/thrivers!
Listen in now! linktr.ee/ilovethatforyoupod
Follow us @ilovethatforyoupod and email us at ilovethatforyoupod@gmail.com and follow us on our Facebook page!
AND NOW….
A NOEL COWARD QUOTE TO END YOUR WEEK
PLUS…
A SHOW REC: The Studio on Apple TV+
