Maybe it was the impending tropical storm, or maybe it was getting off from work later Friday night, but there I was walking into my door Friday night with nothing to do.

And, I wasn’t alone.

After taking my dog for a quick walk to beat the rain, I ran inside and called a couple of friends. On the phone with my friend Sarah, I turned on the TV to see what was on, and there it was: The Stand Up to Cancer telethon.

The telethon was aired by all three major networks (NBC, ABC, and CBS) simultaneously and each gave the telethon one whole hour of commercial-free prime time to raise funds for the fight against cancer.

As was expected, some of the segments were somber and moving, talking about the plight of people with cancer. But, there some also some entertaining parts.

For starters, there were more celebrities at this thing than a movie premiere.

Jennifer Aniston, James Taylor, Casey Affleck, Meryl Streep, Christina Applegate, and Lance Armstrong were among the many faces there.

Charles Barkley took a TV crew with him while he got a colonoscopy.

Dana Delaney brought the cameras in for her mammogram.

Brad Garret even got a prostate exam live on the air … it was weird.

As Sarah and I were watching, she decided she wanted to call in to donate in honor of her aunt and grandmother, who are both battling cancer.

Then, still watching TV, we started staring at the celebrities answering the phones to see when Josh Groban or Jennifer Garner looked like they were about to hang up the phone so Sarah could dial immediately and increase her chances of talking to one of those two.

With about 15 minutes left in the program, Sarah thought it was her best time to strike. We hung up, and I kept watching in hopes I can see either Josh or Jen pick up the phone and mouth the words, “Oh, hello Sarah.”

Five minutes pass and my phone rings.

Sarah had made it through, and she talked to…some random phone bank operator in New York. Sarah didn’t even catch her name.

I’m not going to lie; it put a momentary damper on her philanthropic decision.

But, she quickly got over it when she learned the next day that thanks to donations like hers from all over the country, more than $100 million was raised in the fight against cancer.

To learn more about the Stand Up to Cancer effort, or to donate yourself, log on to the Web site at http://su2c.standuptocancer.org.