"Injured" With the Stars

I know, I know: I said after the last injury that I was all done trying to imitate the dancers on Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance. But this past Monday night I saw a move that was so simple; I knew I could pull it off.

Brie and I were watching DWTS before I had to pick Kitty up from work. The couple dancing was doing the Samba, if memory serves (and it doesn’t always, haha).  At one point the pro dancer turned his back to the star, she picked up her leg so it was even with his waist and he grabbed it, pulling her behind him as she glided across the floor.  I turned to Brie and said, “We can totally do this,” to which she replied, “Hell no!”

“Oh come on,” I cajoled.  “I’ll do the dragging part so you have it easy.” Very begrudgingly, she finally agreed.

“We’ll do it in the kitchen where there's tile,” I enthused, heading for the kitchen with a reluctant daughter behind me.  “Are you sure about this?” she asked.

“Yes! Now I’ll turn my back, and you lift up your leg and I’ll grab it. Then I’ll pull you.”

She obediently did this, but as I tried to drag her she was hopping, which didn’t work.  “Why are you hopping? That’s not what you’re supposed to do. You're supposed to glide.”

“Because I’m wearing my flip flops, not dancing shoes.”

“Oh good grief, that shouldn’t matter.  Just leave that foot on the floor and I’ll drag you.”

“Okay mom.”

Now this time, she lifted up her leg, I grabbed it to start dragging her, but all of a sudden I felt this leaden weight around my neck as I started to move. “Ahhh, what are you doing?” I yelled as her arms went around my neck and she leaned all of her weight on my back to drag her.

“I’m not hopping, so I have to lean on you for support,” she said. “But my foot isn’t exactly gliding.”

“Get off of me! Get off!!” I yelled as I felt something pull in my neck.

“Well put my leg down then!”

“Oh my neck!” I said, rubbing it and feeling it immediately stiffen up. “I'm going to be a hurting unit in the morning. I can’t believe you did that!”

“You told me to! I knew this was a bad idea,” she said, putting her flip flop back on.  “You know how this always ends up when we try anything on TV.”

“What do you mean ‘we’?” I said from my stooped position.  Seriously: when will I ever learn???  J

Women Who Wait

What is it with women who wait?

I don’t sit by the phone,

All alone,

Silently begging, “Ring, you bastard!”

Because my phone does outgoing

As well as incoming.

 I won’t stand by the dance floor

Scoping the guys, pleading with my eyes,

“Please ask me, don’t pass me

By.”

I grab a girlfriend and we hit the floor

So you can see the fabulosity you’re missing.

 I think it’s silly for me to wait

Until you make the first move.

I set my sights because I'm a real woman.

 

I’m not afraid to approach you

And suggest we get acquainted

Since waiting’s antiquated.

If I had waited for you

Instead of going after what I wanted

We would never have discovered each other:

Two halves of the same whole,

Two old souls

Who at last are complete.

I will never be a woman who waits.

 

~*~

It's My Turn

I was at the hair salon this morning for my usual standing appointment. A woman who works for the company that I do came in and hurried up to me. "Guess what?" she said excitedly.

I knew exactly what had her so excited. "You got your transfer?"

"Yes!" she practically screamed. "I'll be starting in the Arizona office after the first of the year!"

As she prattled on, and on, and ON about what the new job meant, starting over, a new life, blah, blah, blah I realized that she was probably the 10th or 12th person within the past couple of months that was transferring or already transferred to a new job in one of the four main hubs for our company. Yep: they were all starting a new exciting chapter in their lives.

And it's not just at work: I have friends that are engaged, newlyweds, pregnant, and one even JUST graduated nursing school last night! With all of these positive life-changing events going on around me it makes me wonder: when will it be MY turn?

I guess that depends on what I ultimately want.  Do I want to transfer to Hot-Lanta, Tacoma, Dallas or Tucson? No.  Do I want to be pregnant? Nothing for me to carry a baby in. Do I want to be married? Been there, done that and burned that particular t-shirt.  Do I want to be engaged? Another diamond would be nice, but I'm not pining for one. Do I want to go back to school? I have 2 degrees already.

And it's not that I'm jealous of these people: it's that it seems they have obtained the goals they've set for themselves while I seem to be in limbo...

I have always, for as far back as I can remember, wanted to be a writer. I am one. Then I wanted to be a published author. Guess what? I am one. But it looks like I didn't set the bar high enough, or I wasn't specific enough.  My ultimate goal, in my little heart of hearts, is to be a successful author, one that can make their living from their craft.

And herein lies the problem: I have 2 manuscripts that are almost finished, and they are the best I've written. But I am afraid that maybe they aren't New York Times best-seller list-worthy.  You can't attain your goal if you don't have faith in yourself. And as much faith as I have, I don't seem to focus enough of it my way. That's the problem.

So what am I going to do to get over this?  Am I just going to sit around and congratulate others as they move past me toward their happily ever afters?  Hell no! Not anymore. It's my turn to reach MY goal, to publish a book that not only people want to read, but that they will  encourage everyone they know to read it too.

At the end of the day, I know that success and happiness isn't measured in how much money you have. It's measured by how you feel about yourself at the end of the day.

With that being said: yes it would be awesome to be courted by the talk shows because I wrote the next "50 Shades".   But if I'm not true to me, then how would I enjoy that? I wouldn't.

So I continue to write what feels good and true to me.  Because if you write what you know, and what you live, and what you feel, and you're not afraid to lay yourself open to people:  then you'll find your true success and obtain your goal.  And I like the way that sounds!

'Nuff said? I think so.  I also think my new book, entitled "A Good Place To Start", will BE a good place for me to start my journey towards reaching "my turn".

Keep the faith. I know that I will!  And the new book will be available November 1st, so stay tuned!

Back To Basics

As most of you know, I belong to a Public Speaking Club called Adirondack Toastmasters. It’s a Corporate club which means membership is only open to employees. Currently I’m the President.

We used to have a very vibrant, dynamic club a few years ago and I was very proud to be a member. But over time we lost members, and weren’t picking up new ones. Attendance suffered, and then we got down to below charter-strength.

This had me worried. I love my club, and I’ve been in it for several years. We tried new things to bring in more members, without the kind of results I’d been looking for. Then our regular members started to not show up, and that’s when I knew we were in trouble.

So what could I do to try to bring the club back to its former glory days?  I had to stretch my imagination back; and came up with a solution. Every year we have 2 membership drives, so I would plan one. We used to have special guests and food and really advertise it. Looks like I’d have to take it back to basics!

First I had to think: what local celebrity could I possibly get, for free, that people would like to see? In the past we had Brian Cody and Richie Phillips from local radio stations, and that theme worked really well. With that in mind, I sent an email to a young gentleman who goes by the moniker J Will, from Jamz 96.3: #1 in Hip Hop for the Capital Region.  Lo and behold: he agreed to come and speak to the club, for free (or at least lunch J)! I was very excited, since we’d lost several of our younger members. I was hoping that a young, successful local celebrity would be the ticket to enticing young people to visit us today.

Thanks to the rest of my board members, we were able to use our non-existent budget to print up flyers, table tents and a couple of posters with J Will’s photo. Then with the rest of our imaginary money we had a member, who is a wonderful caterer in her other “career”, make her delicious pulled pork and homemade black forest cupcakes.  My friend Andi brought in her delicious French Vanilla homemade cupcakes. Another member made the yummiest pasta salad around, 2 members brought in chicken wings; and we bought decorations and little gift boxes that we stuffed with candy and a glo-bracelets to give to the people who showed up. Well, that would hopefully show up…

And low and behold: it worked! Today the room we reserved was standing room only. The food was delicious! They enjoyed their gift boxes. And the man himself: J Will, our special guest, even brought in some giveaways from the radio station.  We gave those away to volunteers for "Table Topics".

And let me tell you: he spoke very eloquently and had the crowd eating out of his hand. He was very personable and answered all of the questions our group had for him. He was a GREAT guest speaker!  Well-educated, family-oriented: we could certainly use more young gentleman like him!

I have to say: in spite of the headaches and sweat and crankiness that went on right up until 5 minutes before we kicked off the Membership Drive meeting: it went off pretty flawlessly. I was so proud of my club; and we’ve already signed up 5 new members!

Now the only problem is: how do we top this in March????

Shout-out to J Will! Thanks for everything and don’t be a stranger J

 

 

 

 

Random Thoughts

Whose idea was it to put marshmallows in cereal, like Lucky Charms?  Let me tell you: it was a bad idea.  First of all, any cereal that would have marshmallows in it already has too much sugar.  Second, the marshmallows don’t even taste real and to me they squeak between your teeth. They’re generally hard, and even if the milk does soften them up, they just turn slimy and still squeak: plus now your milk is a funky color.  Okay, maybe that’s fun for kids but not for us adults that are kids at heart!

While we’re on the subject of marshmallows, why is it that when you make your own rice krispies treats they’re wonderful, but when you buy them they seem to cut up your mouth?  Sometimes I don’t have the time or the inclination to make them so I’ll buy a couple; but it can be like biting into razor blades!  And if you don’t believe me, you can verify this with Brie and good old Aunt Robin!

Can someone explain marshmallow peeps to me?  Marshmallows covered with granulated sugar? Yikes!  I can’t stand that sugar crunching between my teeth.  But again, maybe as an adult I shouldn’t be eating them.  I have several friends that still like them, which I can’t understand.  They say they taste better stale.  Mmm, hardened marshmallow with crunchy sugar: what a treat!  Who can resist (my hand just went up!)?

However, if you want pure sugar, pixy sticks are the way to go.  I absolutely love them, much to the chagrin of my friends.  The reason why I don’t mind pixy stick sugar as opposed to marshmallow peep sugar is because I don’t chew the pixy sticks; I just let them dissolve in my mouth.  Delicious!

Of course, even though pixy sticks look like Kool-aid; you can’t add them to water for a refreshing drink.  First you wouldn’t have enough pixy stick sugar to make a sweetened beverage.  Second, it would be more expensive to buy a hundred pixy sticks for a pitcher of beverage, when you can buy a packet of Kool-aid for a quarter or the canister for about $3.00.

What’s the difference between Kool-aid and the imitation stuff, besides the name and price?   Nothing that I can taste.  Sweet colored water is sweet colored water, in my book.  I shouldn’t be drinking any of it anyway, but sometimes my inner child still wins!  Plus, you can freeze it for ice cubes for double the fun!

Why is it that ice cubes, when they melt, don’t make your glass overflow?  I’m sure Her Majesty Miss Kitty could answer that one, but I don’t want her to know that there’s another science question her mother can’t answer.

Besides, she’s in her room.  If I ask her the question, she’ll wonder what I’m doing up instead of being in bed, which is what I told her I was going to do because I didn’t feel like going to the grocery store for her.  Not that I mind going to the store, but what was on her list?  Lucky Charms!

Why would anyone want cereal with marshmallows in it?