No Wrapping Required

I'm certain that everyone can relate to the dilemma of the trivial gift exchange, the ornament exchange or the Secret Santa.  You know... extended family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, groups you belong to and more.  So many people try to keep it trivial as in "You can't spend more than $5" while others keep it simple by making it a white elephant exchange.  It's all stuff.

And while I appreciate that it is all about the thought, I'm trying to get out of the habit of acquiring stuff that I don't need.  I'm trying to change my mindset and get rid of things when I'm emotionally ready to do so.

So when a member of Collective Bias inquired if anyone wanted to do a Secret Santa or an Ornament Exchange, I politely declined.  Instead, I offered up an alternative.  How about a virtual exchange where we take a little time to get to know a fellow member and share a little about that person.  After all, it doesn't cost anything, doesn't need to be wrapped, doesn't require shipping, doesn't leave a carbon footprint and it doesn't add clutter to a closet.

One member coordinated it and assigned each of us a colleague.  I was lucky enough to draw Eliza of Home Mom 3 who I didn't realize was so diverse!  In addition to The Life of a Home Mom, she writes for Tom Cruise Watch and Sales Weekly both of which she started in 2008 and Babies in the News which is a little younger.

But how did she get her start and when?  Well, Eliza has been freelancing for years and put roots into her blog in 2005 when she logged on to tell about the gifts her daughter received for her birthday.  Her blog has evolved in the years since that to include everything from Wordless Wednesday photo posts to giveaways to more personal stories. 

Why did she start blogging?  Well, Eliza was the wife of a deployed soldier - making her fill the role of both mom and dad.  Her blog was a way to share their life from afar.  (BTW - Mr. HomeMom3, Thank you for all the years of service you gave to our country.)

I've known Eliza for quite a while.  If I recall correctly, she was among my first blog friends.  She's one of those bloggers who leaves comments because she feels moved to... because she cares... and not because she's trying to improve the stats on her own blog.  She's someone who is a friend of mine on Facebook that I actually enjoy chatting with!  And she's among the people I look forward to meeting in person someday.

In order to participate in this roast, we were asked for some tidbits about ourselves and Eliza shared that she's inspired by frogs.  Actually, she specifically said "I believe my "muse" is a 6ft tall frog, at the age of 26 I went out and got a tattoo of a frog on my right shoulder blade. He looks very much like the WB frog but in a jester's outfit."  Frogs have been her thing since she was a kid.  Good thing, because with all the leaping and jumping that she's had to do as the mom of 4 and military wife, she's needed the role model!

Merry Christmas, Eliza.  You're a great blogger and a wonderful person.  I'm proud to call you my colleague but even happier to call you my friend.

Holding Hands 45 Years Later

Dear Mom and Dad - 

It's funny the things that stick in your head...

When I was in high school, I remember sitting at a wrestling meet at North Scott High School.  Donna D. and I were hanging out, chatting in-between matches when she said something that I think of often.  I don't recall the exact words but it was something like this:

"Your parents are so cute.  Look at them. They still hold hands."

We looked at the two of you from a distance and watched as you held hands while sitting next to each other on the bleachers.  You would chat and smile.  Donna and I talked about how obvious it was that you were still so much in love with each other.

That was some 25 years ago but I have no doubt that Donna and I could have that exact same conversation today.

At Don and Sandi's 50th wedding anniversary party, Sandy told me that we were one of the most memorable couples they had for marriage preparations.  Mainly because of something I said to her during those sessions. She asked me what I wanted in a marriage and my response was "I want one like my mom and dad."  Certainly I don't recall saying it but I absolutely can hear myself saying it.  It's something that I've felt for a long time... maybe spurred by the conversation Donna and I had so many years before that.

If there's one thing you've done, it's to be models for a loving relationship.  You hold hands, joke and giggle like a couple of newlyweds.

It's wonderful having parents who are still in love 45 years after they got married!

Happy 45th Anniversary.

Have you checked in?

Places.  As of a few days ago, it has a new meaning for a lot of people.  If you have a smart phone and are accessing Facebook then you've probably already figured out that they launched a new feature called "Places".  It just rolled out and is wrought with controversy.  

If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, let me briefly fill you in.  Places allows people to announce via Facebook exactly where they are.  "Checking-in" and announcing where you are isn't a new idea. Companies like Foursquare, Gowalla and Whrrl have set the groundwork for this and users have been posting their check-ins on Facebook.  Seems only natural that Facebook would try to cash in on the craze.

Some people love this idea but I'm just not sold on it.  I know a ton of people using Foursquare and Gowalla and I often joke that it's like an announcement that people can go rob your house.  You're obviously not there.

Although Places isn't available here in the Quad Cities yet, it will be soon.  When it is, I'm curious how many people will flock to using it.  Me?  Not a chance.   At least not until they work out some things.  While other location-based social networking programs allow you to personally check-in and work to achieve various titles, Places allows other people to check you in also.  That kind of freaks me out.  Friend or not, I'm not wild about the idea of someone else having control of announcing to their friends where I'm at.

But as much as I hate the idea of location-based social networking, I find myself drawn to Whrrl.  At Whrrl, it isn't just about the check-in features; that's only one small part of a larger picture.  On Whrrl, you're able to upload pictures and create stories related to your check-in.  It's a very cool feature that I've used for both marketing campaigns as well as personal digital scrapbooking.

So how is it that I swear I won't use location-based apps yet I throw praise at Whrrl?  You see, I can check-in, take advantage of specials and promotions, participate in recommendations people make, make recommendations of my own, join societies, create societies, post pictures and create slide shows yet not lose all my anonymity.  Whrrl's "Just Me" option is what makes all the difference.  No matter what I do, I'm able to choose the level that I want to share with Whrrl members, as well as whether I want to share on Twitter or Facebook. I'm also able to go back later and amend the privacy settings of a check-in to make it more (or less) public.

Over the course of the past month, I've found myself more and more interested in it.  A Whrrl contest even prompted me to create a society of my own.  After participating in various car-related activities, I decided to create a society called "Under the Hood".  I couldn't find any society that involved automobile maintenance so I created Under the Hood and added the following description to it: "When you neglect your automobile, it will begin to neglect you! Don't forget about general service, oil changes, tires, car washes, window repairs, paint... It's all about taking care of our vehicles."  Automobiles... That's what the Under the Hood Society is all about.  If your business offers car-related services or sells car-related products, check out the merchant program to see if Whrrl can help drive customers through your door.

As a social media participant, you may decide that location-based services are a waste of time.  You may find that Foursquare, Gowalla or one of the other services is best for you.  You may decide to go with Facebook's Places feature. For me, I'll stick with Whrrl.  It's well rounded, thought out and offers a lot of cool features.

...Now I'm waiting for all my favorite merchants to discover the benefits of it, too.

Signs of Spring

Signs of Spring are in the air!
(or in our case... in the street)

And here's the view from above.
(Yes, I was too lazy to take the screen off the window.)

Ahhh... Spring. Being outdoors. Fresh air.

...And sidewalk chalk.

How Did My Photo Get There?

During the course of the BlogHer Conference in Chicago, I took pictures with various people that I was excited to have the opportunity to meet. Celebrities, fellow bloggers, people I admire. Mel, my roomie at the event, brought a fancy film camera to BlogHer. I took several candid shots for her so she wasn't always using her film.  Following the conference, I shared all my digital photos with her and was surprised to see all of them end up on her Flickr account.  No big deal though since there wasn't anything personal, private or embarrassing.  Mostly just photographs of the event, the people and the chaos. I didn't think twice about it.

Well, imagine my surprise today when I noticed that Mel posted a message on Twitter a few days ago.

I don't know how many of you surf the BlogHer website but the masthead is a photo bar that BlogHer regularly updates with fresh photographs.  I've never considered submitting a photograph to it so I had no clue what Mel was talking about in her Tweet.  I popped over to BlogHer to find this:

The picture on the far left is me with Donna Byrd, Publisher of The Root, following a keynote presentation at BlogHer09.

Cool.

Keep Believing

Dear Angie -

Heartfelt "Happy Anniversary" to you.

Keep Believing...
Nicole





Dear Readers -

Angie is the author of Keep Believing. Today is her anniversary - somewhat bittersweet since her husband, Brian, lost his battle with cancer this past March 17th.

If you are interesting in helping, Keep Believing Fund has been set up to assist the family.

Is it Fishing or Catching?

There's been a bit of a break in blog posts lately. I know, you missed me. Thanks. I missed all of you too. Really. I've been miserable and grumpy because my schedule has been all out of whack.

Well, I have a perfectly good excuse. We were on vacation. We were away visiting my MIL and celebrating our 15th anniversary. DH had wanted to take us on a family cruise but I didn't realize that children's passports only last 5 years. It's okay, I had a great time and so did the girls.

Anyway, my laptop went kuh-flooey and I wasn't online as much as I had hoped to me. I have a whole slew of blog posts to do and I only got one done - my anniversary one! That was the important one, anyhow.

So here's an example of one of the blog posts sitting in queue... better late than never, right?

=======================
My MIL lives in a neighborhood where all the houses are built around a lake. While we were there, she took the kids to WalMart and let them pick cute little kid fishing rods. We got up one morning and headed to the stocked lake to let the girls go fishing. Our first family fishing outing!

Of course, only some of the houses have yards against the lake so we headed off to a house owned by one of MIL's friends.

Unfortunately, we stood there and watched the fish congregate several houses down. Private property though, so we cast our lines and waited. After a few minutes, the owner of the house came outside and tossed something into the water. Apparently he does it a few times a day and now have the fish trained outside his house! He invited us to use his yard so we moved all our gear down to his place.

DH did all the yucky stuff like bait the hooks with the really smelly stuff, remove the fish when we caught it and toss it back in. Grammy was official photographer and I got to do all the fun stuff. You know, giggle as the girls caught the fish then help them reel it in.

While DH was trying to get us situated, Miss K caught a fish! Literally, that fast. Before we had hers off the hook, Miss M caught one.

They both thought it was cool and wanted to fish some more! DH baited up the line and we went to work again. And each caught another fish that fast. Again. Those of us that know what fishing is really like were absolutely amazed at how quickly the fish were biting. But hey, they were used to getting their morning chow while the owner was having his morning coffee. Who were we to complain?

We didn't want to overstay our welcome and at the same time, didn't want to sour what had turned out to be a wonderful experience. We called it a day and now know that catfish and carp can be trained with dog food.

We brought the fishing rods home with us after vacation and hope to find a lake nearby that can match the excitement. My only concern is that the next time it will be more like genuine fishing and less like catching!

On the Fringe... 20 Years Later

When I was in high school, I wasn't part of the "IN" crowd. Actually, I was one of those kids who worked very diligently to screw up the bell curve in any class that I possibly could. Honest, it wasn't out of spite - it was because I wanted to be at the top of the class.

Socially, I was raised to get along with everyone. That's just how it was. Although I didn't hang with other crowds, it didn't prevent me from mingling with them, talking to them or going places with them. I often crossed into different cliques so long as it didn't mean trashing my true friends.

One day in high school, a classmate told me how phony I am. She said "It's impossible to be friends with everyone, so since you're friends with everyone, you must be fake." Nice. Truly the words of a snobbish, clueless high school (ummm) young lady. But I was genuine and really just wanted to be able to talk to anyone. I'm still that way today and people that know me as an adult really get it. People at the gym refer to me as the welcoming committee because I'm the first person to greet a new person to class. Why? Because being new somewhere is uncomfortable and I like making people feel like their presence makes a positive difference.

When I graduated, I didn't look back. I maintained a few high school friendships in college then kept in touch with nobody. Zilch. Moving to California gave me the perfect excuse for not having a clue as to any of the gossip surrounding my classmates. When I received an invitation to my 10-year reunion, I had absolutely no intention of spending money for a trip back to Iowa for it.

A few months back when I received an invitation to my 20-year reunion, I felt like tossing it into the trash. The difference, however, is that I'm now back in Iowa and have run into a few of my classmates. You know what? They grew up. They matured. We all did (for the most part). I've been in contact with some of them either through preschool or the gym and I've enjoyed talking to them. They convinced me that going to the reunion wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Well, this past weekend was the reunion. Yes, I went. No, it wasn't horrible. Yes, I loved seeing some of my old friends. Particularly Meg, someone I called one of my closest friends in high school. Who, by the way, aged beautifully - as you can tell by the photo. You may notice that I blurred out our name tags. My concern was my sanity, not my identity. The name tags displayed our FRESHMAN picture next to our name. Ick.

As Meg and I walked around, we caught a glimpse of a bunch of the "in" crowd gathering for a group picture. Meg elegantly raised her glass to me and said "Here's to being on the fringe."

Yup, Meg. Here's to surviving the fringe. Cheers.

Update on Posts – plus Tag of Useless Info

First, I have to apologize for the lack of posts recently. I got back from vacation and my brain had so many blog ideas that I couldn't focus. So my desktop is riddled with thoughts about things that I would like to post about…eventually. After all, I'm the world's best procrastinator. Maybe after I finish reading the 259 posts from the 47 subscriptions in my Google Reader then I'll be able to post something myself!

In the meantime, I was tagged by my friend, Patty over at PipStitch. It called for seven "weird or random things about yourself." This was fun to think up odd and useless information. Hope it gives at least one person a laugh.

(1) My accounting teacher in high school had us play monopoly each class and log our transactions like a business. It was one of the coolest ways to learn about debits and credits.
(2) During my pregnancies, BLT's were my favorite food. We had them at least once a week.
(3) This is the memory that always comes to mind when I hear "tag". When I was a kid, my best friend lived on a farm and I visited often so felt very comfortable there. While playing tag on one visit, I specifically recall running around the pigpen headed for the gated area in front of it. While sometimes the pigs are congregating there, on this particular day, they weren't. What I didn't know is that her dad had just cleaned out all the pens and staged it all in that holding area. There's a gap in my memory between (1) turning the corner and seeing no pigs and (2) actually getting there – where I found myself up to my knees in pig crap… literally.
(4) I haven't participated in 4-H since I was young, but still catch myself reciting the 4-H pledge whenever I see that familiar clover. "I pledge my head to clearer thinking..."
(5) During my first trip to Vegas, I played Bingo because it seemed like a good value of time and money. I actually won and was surprised when they told me the game I won included a guaranteed payout or a small amount of time in one of those wind tunnel things with money blowing around me. I chose the wind thing and walked off with over $400. Was so much fun to be in one of those things and grab money! It got me hooked on bingo, too.
(6) While attending the Gilroy Garlic Festival, I tried garlic ice cream. It tasted just fine.
(7) As a teenager, my brothers called me the "c" word along with several other unspeakable things. They explained "It's only words. If it doesn't bother you, it can't hurt you." I remember it well. As I got older, people would try to use words as a weapon against me. It didn't work. My reaction: "It's only words." Thank goodness my brothers don't read my blog… I wouldn't want them to know they were right about something.

As with any tag, there are rules - Here they are:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

Eeny, meeny, miney, mo! I decided to pick some that I've been reading the longest, along with a few of my newest additions: Trooper at Dating is Warefare, Michele at The Squawkery, Sonny at Girls, Drinks, Etc., Sadie at Finding Perfect, Shot in the Arm, FunkyFrum at Kosher Vegan and Judy at A Very Open Book.