I have a weird life.

Sometimes I fall into strange circumstances.

As it stands, come next September, I will be riding a bicycle from Chicago to New York, in a two week journey, something like 70 miles a day, as part of a project to promote a documentary film produced to raise awareness on child abuse and domestic violence.

Through no special effort or fault of my own.

I promise.

Long story long—my little brother, Nick, saw an add for an acting gig, almost a year ago. It was for a part in a documentary about abuse (Dream for the Stars). He contacted them. They hired him. But on the day he went in for filming, communication wires got crossed and they didn’t need him when he actually arrived. He was bummed for the wasted trip and they were sorry and the woman in charge, Barbara Brower, said she would make it up to him.

Months passed and Nick mostly forgot about it. But then Barbara made good on her promise. Out of the blue she calls Nick. Through various circumstances, the film had been put on pause…but now it was ramping up again, had been revitalized, and had snowballed into something bigger—more sponsors, more celebrity support, bigger scope. She had a larger part for Nick to play. She also had a Chicago to New York bike ride, with about 25 people (mostly involved in entertainment and the arts and/or having some experience pertaining to abuse). She had most of the female riders, but she needed more males—did Nick want to go?

Yes, he said.

They still need more males, she said.

Nick mentioned me, that I was a male (which is true), that I’m a writer (which is also true), and that we are fairly entertaining and fun together and on camera (which is mostly true).

And so, I was in.

And conversations stretched over days and phone calls and Barbara mentioned getting into shape for this and Nick said that his older brother was…ahem…a bit overweight, would it be cool if we documented him getting into shape for this? She loved the idea.

And that brings us to now. I’ll be loosing weight and riding a bike to New York for abuse victims everywhere. Guess that’s as good of a motivation as can be. An Olympic trainer is going to donate her efforts to help us all get into shape. There will be celebrities helping and even riding along with us (though I don’t know specifics on that yet). We’re all getting some pretty nifty bikes donated to us to train and ride on. And, if I remember right, People magazine is doing a piece on the bike ride and we’ll be on Good Morning America when we hit New York.

Strange days.

Just over 9 months. I figure I need to loose about 10+ pounds a month.

If you see me with an ice-cream cone, slap it out of my hands.

You can read more on all this at the Dream for the Stars website. Click on the bicycle ride link and you can find both Nick and I. Click our pictures to go to our individual blogs.

Or just go straight to mine at JoshuaDoetsch.blogspot.com.

I’ll be documenting my misadventures as I try go from this:

To this:

I’m not sure how much entries in that journal and this one will overlap…but give ‘er a look.

Seriously…slap the ice-cream out of my hands.