NATIONAL Exposure!!

Go check out www.operationbeautiful.com right now and you'll see MY notes along with some words from my blog post and a link back to my site!!! Beyond EXCITED! I've hit the BIG time! (ok, not really but it's exciting nonetheless!) :)

EXCITING News!!!

Much like the stars of Saved by the Bell miss their anonymity, I missed you guys. But I am absolutely THRILLED to let you in on some exciting news!! My blog is about to get a huge boost of exposure. I got word tonight from Caitlin Boyle, creator and author of the Operation Beautiful books and movement, that my blog will be featured on her website, www.operationbeautiful.com TOMORROW! Holy Amazeballs Batman! The Operation Beautiful movement has been featured on the Today Show and Oprah! And all of her fans will be able to view MY blog! I can't believe it! I just need you guys to do me a favor and return your support to her website by visiting it to check out my mention. Anyone who is willing to feature my blog deserves to have the same kind of support in return. And the Operation Beautiful is a great idea to support for girls and women everywhere. I'm beyond excited to see how much more exposure this might give my blog - I'm prepared for little to none and I will still be excited nontheless but this is a whole new audience to be exposed to and that's a great step in getting my blog out there to more people. After tomorrow I hope to do a "best of" post recapping Octoberfest and then I'll be asking for your input on how to keep the blog going. Stay tuned to all of that...

One more thing before I let you go, two weeks ago on campus, I went into the same bathroom that I posted one of my Operation Beautiful note, and discovered a whole slew of post-it notes on the mirror each one expressing a positive sentiment. I was so pleasantly shocked and I knew that it could NOT have been a coincidence. MY note caused a whole bunch of positivity in return. See...the world CAN become a better place, one note at a time. I'm more than happy to do my part and it does my heart good to see others returning the favor! :) Until tomorrow!

 

 

  

Octoberfest Day 31: "Operation Beautiful"

I am anticipating you all asking me what my favorite activity of the month was so I thought I would beat you to the punch. The activity for Day 31 was my favorite, hands down. Now I know what you're thinking, "how could you choose just one activity to call your favorite?" It's simple. What I did for the very last day of the month truly represented what this was all about. I set out to try something new each day of the month. I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. I wanted to get out of the ruts of doing the same things day in and day out. I wanted to get my head out of my apps and experience life from a different viewpoint. I wanted to share my journey with all of you in the hopes that it would inspire each one of you to live each day to the fullest. And if one thing I did helped make the world a better place, then I would consider the month to be a success. The idea behind Octoberfest was about celebrating my birthday. The end result became much bigger than that. When you do something selfless for others, the act of pure kindness becomes bigger than you and can have far reaching results that you aren't expecting. That's what I experienced on  Day 31 and I will never forget it. I had an idea of another random act of kindness and my friend Hannah told me about a movement that was taking the idea one step further. It's called Operation Beautiful and it's about spreading positive messages to girls, various ages, all over the world with sticky notes. Right now, we live in a society that is very critical of phsycial beauty. Bullying is very prevalent in schools. And even when girls pass their teen years and become adults, we still struggle with body image and accepting ourselves just the way we are. In a way, the pressure becomes even worse the older we get. When I was in high school, I wrote an original oratory on body image and how little girls are subjected to it even under the age of 5. Disney princesses are always physically beautiful, very small in stature and most times projecting unrealistic ideals. My speech ended up being the 5th best in the state. The message behind the oratory was simple: every girl is beautiful no matter her size, shape, color, etc. Real beauty goes beyond skin and what's on the outside. So I took 7 different sticky notes and I wrote various messages on each of them varying from "Hello Gorgeous, have a wonderful day!" to "You are perfect just the way you are." Then I went to my grocery store, the mall and Drake campus and I put the sticky notes in random areas where girls would see them: bathroom stalls, dressing rooms, on women-specific grocery items, etc. Most of the time, I hid the sticky note so it wouldn't be super obvious and would truly be an element of surprise once a girl/woman discovered it. It's my hope that the woman who has been on the receiving end of the note, stopped her day and truly felt good about herself in that given moment. If she was having a bad day, I hope it cheered her up. If she's been thinking critically about herself lately, then I hope she realized that her beauty is perfect just as it is. If she's been depressed because she doesn't feel she can contribute anything worthwhile to this world, then I hope she thought twice and discovered that we are ALL capable of becoming something. Every woman is unique and different and has a perspective that no other woman shares. That's what makes our world beautiful. Girls should be reminded of this constantly, especially in the teenager years when they're more susceptible to temptations and peer pressure. And as women get into their 20s and are trying to figure out their place in the world, it's even more important for them to realize that they are still beautiful no matter what. And as women age and experience more life, that perspective is mature and beautiful.

I felt so overjoyed spreading the uplifting messages. The only thing more exciting would have been seeing a woman come across the notes. But the way I'm imagining their faces is probably pretty accurate. Again, I couldn't have been more proud of myself in that moment. Being selfless and giving and thoughtful is a truly wonderful feeling. Operation Octoberfest: Day 31. Beautiful indeed.

Octoberfest Day 30: "Frightening Regrets"

I'm going to regret the activity for Day 30. At least that's what I thought. But the reality wasn't nearly as frightening as I thought it would be. I spent part of evening with my nieces again as they were trick or treating in Des Moines. Sarah went as an 80s rock girl and Londyn was Jessie her favorite character from Toy Story. I didn't get to see Sarah as much because she was walking around with the neighbor kids. Londyn was so excited for Halloween. She actually said to my mom "it's Hawoween! Gobwins are coming!" :) I'm sure she picked that up from one of her cartoons. So she was ecstatic to trick or treat. And she wanted to wear her costume everywhere. Even when it wasn't Halloween. It was super fun to take her around. After every house she said "got more canny" and then told me her bucket was "too heaby" so I helped carry it for her. The other funny thing is that nobody could understand what she was saying for her joke. She talks pretty well for her age but at just 3 she's still got her own little language. Walking around with her made me reminisce about how much fun it was to trick or treat as a kid. My dad made a map of our neighborhood and we would come home with an entire pillowcase full of candy. But back then beggar's night lasted from like 5-10 or something crazy. It was a lot longer than now, I know that for sure. Once we got back to my brother's, Londyn was sharing her candy with us and still excited about her loot. I decided that once I got home, I was going to attempt to conquer one of my fears for my activity. I was going to watch a scary movie by myself on the eve of Halloween. I mean the timing makes sense. But here's the thing: I don't like scary things anymore as an adult LOL. When I was younger, I wanted to watch scary movies and go to haunted houses. Except for the time when we went to the haunted forest and I assured my aunt I was old enough to go since my cousins were also going. Well what we didn't plan on was that two of the "scary guys" trapped us in one part of the forest and wouldn't let us past them and their chainsaws. You can imagine that would be particularly terrifying for a 9-year-old. Once those idiots did lets us past them, I threw up everywhere in fear and had to walk in front with the guide the rest of the time. I haven't been able to get past my fears since then. Occasionally I'll watch something scary but I hide my face the entire time. Even when previews of scary movies come on, I change the channel or hide my face and plug my ears. It's silly, I know. But when you live without any roommates, the smallest noises can really get your mind wandering. So I found one of the Friday the 13th movies (perfect, reminds me of my childhood) and set out to watch it, heart pounding already. Guess what?! The movie was a joke. It wasn't scary at all. In fact, it was quite stupid. I couldn't take any of it seriously and didn't last more than 30 minutes. Who would have thunk it?! I thought for sure I would be terrified and instead I'm laughing at the absurdness of this plot! Now in hindsight, I know I could have picked a scarier movie but I'm making up the rules here LOL. The interesting thing about conquering a fear is that things are almost always worse when you imagine them because you're unsure of what to expect. Fear of the unknown is the real culprit. Once I set out to conquer the fear, it turned out to be a non-issue. If that's the case I'm wondering about some of my other fears...like approaching a guy I find attractive. Ahh geesh, that's too much. Jason is the only guy I'm approaching tonight and I just turned the channel on him. Until tomorrow, my bravery is done for tonight.

Octoberfest Day 29: "Dear Miss Manners"

Dear Miss Manners, boy do I have a story for you. And I know I'm not alone. Raise your hand if you've ever received poor customer service? Ok, yes I know it's a ridiculous question, of course we all have. Unfortunately, things seem to be getting worse in this department as more and more people try to abolish the term "manners" from everyday existence. But I'm not going to let it ruin my activity for Day 29. This was Sarah's 11th birthday so we decided to go out to eat and celebrate. She loves sushi so we settled on Waterfront and headed over there. I wasn't really in the mood for sushi so I opted for a clam strip basket and ordered the Waterfront roll with cream cheese. I've had that particular sushi roll before, it's made with shrimp tempura, cream cheese, cucumber and avocado, I believe. We got our food and I took one bite of the sushi roll and about heaved. It tasted old. And fish is one food you don't want to taste old. I couldn't hardly get the one bite down. It was absolutely disgusting. Right then and there, I decided I wasn't eating anymore of it, that's how bad it tasted. When the waitress came back I handed her the plate and said, "I'm sorry but I won't be eating that. It doesn't taste right, tastes old or something." She looked at the plate, then back at me, back at the plate, looked at me again like I was stupid and then proceeded to walk away, NOT SAYING ONE WORD! No apology, no "can I get you another one?" NOTHING. It was like I didn't even say anything to her. Ugh. So rude. Then when we were done eating, she brought my bill WITH THE SUSHI ROLL PRICE STILL ON MY TAB! Umm, no, this is not happening. So I motioned for her to come over and said, "umm, I'm being charged for a sushi roll that tasted horrible and that I didn't even eat?" And she simply said, "well I'll have to talk to my manager." Ok great. Let's get them over here because now I'm at the point where I'd LOVE to give this entire place a piece of my mind. So she comes back and sets my bill down, AGAIN not saying one word. No apology. No recognition that they adjusted my price, etc. No nothing. She literally never acknowledged the poor food. And then in turn the poor service by the restaurant and especially her. She got one whole dollar for a tip. I was flabbergasted. And just to piss her off even more, I decided to order dessert. I needed to try something new for the day anyway. So I ordered tiramisu which wasn't bad. It wasn't my favorite thing in the world but it was good. I kept thinking that I had tiramisu when I was in Europe but then I remembered it was actually creme brulee.

I fulfilled my activity for the day with a distracted mind. I couldn't believe that lady had treated the situation so poorly. Don't people realize how expensive it is to go out to eat anymore? It's becoming a luxury for most people, the least you can do as a server is give them a good experience. It's my hope that people reading my blog can pass along the note that by treating people with kindness, dignity and respect, manners go a long way. And really do help make the world a better place to live. And dine.

Octoberfest Day 28: "Just Like Old Times"

Sunday morning was another early day. I took my niece out to the Animal Rescue League so we could volunteer for an hour. She had been begging me to do that and it worked out for that day. We got out there before they opened so we could spend some time with the dogs. We took a couple of them out of their kennels so they could play around. The first dog, Gil (LOL, love that name) was a pitbull mix and looked like he could be part wiemaraner as well. We got him in the activity center, took off the leash and he started running around having a blast. And then proceeded to poop. Sarah looks at me and says, "that's your job, I'm not doing it." Ahh...the good ol'days of picking up poop. Umm, I don't miss those days. After Gil stretched his legs, we got another brindle colored pitbull mix named Rio and played with him. Both dogs had fantastic personalities and temperaments, I'm certain they will be adopted soon. At least I hope they are. After the ARL, we had planned to take a hike at the Ledges State Park. Talk about the good ol' days. We used to picnic there all the time when I was a kid. I have VERY fond memories of playing in the creeks, cars splashing us, climbing the trails and just having an absolute blast. We got up there by 10:30 so a hike and volunteering all before noon on a Sunday? Not bad. We walked up one trail and then came back down. Found another trail, climbed it and then decided we would try to ascend the trail up to the lookout point. It was quite a climb, I felt winded just walking up so I know we were getting really good exercise. Sarah started getting really tired and wanted to stop but we were already on our way up so we had to just keep pressing on until we made it. Once we were up to the top, then we started walking down and that's when she started getting really crabby (LOL, kids...) and inquiring when we would be to the car. Admittedly, I thought we were closer to the car than we were. You don't realize how far away you get as you're climbing so I understood her exasperation. I was thirsty and getting tired myself. We stopped along the way and got some really good pictures and just enjoyed the crisp October air. Hiking was very enjoyable and it's something that I need to do more of. I'm putting it on the list of an activity that is perfect exercise that doesn't feel like exercise. I'm making a mental note to keep coming back to the Ledges because who doesn't love to be reminded of their childhood?

One final note on Sunday - I discovered that there's a zoom function on my iPhone. Holy crap you'd think I just won the lottery. Folks, I've had my iPhone for a year and just now discovered the camera can zoom. Helluva deal. Maybe I've had my head out of the apps for too long now...

Octoberfest Day 27: "Junk Yards and German Shepards"

I woke up bright and early Saturday morning to pay homage to my chest. Yep, you guessed it. My activity for Day 27 was to walk in the Race for the Cure. Believe it or not, I've never done this activity. There are thousands of people who participate in Des Moines but for whatever reason I hadn't - until this year. Thanks Octoberfest! Brrr....it was COLD Saturday morning. Put on three layers for pants and almost 5 layers on top. Stocking hat? Check. Gloves? Check. I was ready. For the most part, I stayed warm until we started the race. My fingertips were still cold but it wasn't unbearable, thank goodness. Once we started trekking, I was fine. So until the race started, we walked around looking at the different booths, collecting free giveaways and ironically running into people we knew. My cousin's friend Diane spotted me and said hello. She then turns to these two women and started to say "this is my friend Angel," when I literally looked at the woman and semi-shouted, "Oh my God we did the San Diego marathon together 10 years ago!!" Just a little FF (Fun Fact) for you all, I walked a full marathon back in 2002 in San Diego for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I met a couple of women through the group who I ended up walking with for training and the actual marathon. We also all stayed in the same hotel room. Literally had not seen these two sisters for 10 YEARS! You can imagine the scene once they recognized me, screaming and hugging and oh my gawding, taking pictures, exchanging contact information, etc. Then Angel's sister says to me, "do you remember when we took that ride with the random stranger?" You better believe it Pam. And I'm going to share that story now because it will go down in my life history as one of the dumbest and yet funniest things I've ever done. If you are all familiar with some of my other stories in life (i.e. Downey ball), then you know that's saying a lot.

There's five of us women who all walked together in the marathon. Myself, Angel and Pam who were a little bit older and then two other girls my age (early 20s). So we get done with the marathon, we're in San Diego and our tickets entitled us to a free concert in Chula Vista which is down by the border. We go to the area where we think the train comes and we stand to wait. We waited for about 20 minutes when literally a man steps out of the shadows and says "are you waiting for the train to Chula Vista? Do you realize you're standing on the wrong side of the tracks and you just missed it?" Umm...no sir we did not. Then he says what should have been the biggest red flag to date "I can take you guys down there and I'll only charge you $5 a person." Now what did our parents teach us as kids? NEVER TAKE RIDES WITH STRANGERS. We chose to ignore that advice since there were 5 of us. So we get in this van, Steve is his name. And he "works for the airport transporting passengers." His drivers license picture suggests he could be a terrorist. I'm not going to focus on that. So he radios into the airport that he's taking some passengers down to Chula Vista and gets dead air back. Think "breaker, breaker, static" minus the "10-4". Again, nothing to worry about at this point. Except that EVERY time he radioed in, nobody responded. So we start driving down somewhere, I mean who in the hell knows where we're driving it's not like any of us was from the area. Steve tells us he's taking a shortcut so we don't miss the concert. Umm...ok....a shortcut...I mean is the shortcut necessary? Can't we take the route that all these other cars are taking? Cars that could save us if this guy indeed becomes a terrorist? Suddenly the "shortcut" becomes VERY dark. There are ZERO cars around anywhere and no street lamps. So it's just us with Steve the guy-who-very-well-could-be-a-terrorist-or-worse-yet-serial-killer-but-claims-to-be-an-airport-employee in a van somewhere in the back woods of California. At this point in the ride, I started quietly thumbing through my purse for something that I could weld as a weapon should the situation call for it. Turns out every woman in that van was doing the same thing we just didn't realize it at the time. Then comes the infamous words from Steve who said, "yeah, there isn't much in this part of California except junk yards and German Shepards." That's when Angel yells, "turn this (bleeping) van around right now!" and Pam says "Angel! What are you saying?" Those of us who had been scared but were trying to hide it were suddenly terrified. I'm thinking, "Omg. This is happening. I'm with a serial killer. Holy shit. This isn't the way I wanted to go down. What do I do?" And Angel repeats her hysterical order, "you better turn this (bleeping) van around right now Steve. I don't know what you're trying to pull here but you better do it because I am not (bleeping) kidding." And Steve says, "no it's just right up here, I promise you should see the ampitheater." Right as Angel is readying herself for another threat that Steve should probably heed, the dim lights of the ampitheater started to come into view. Turns out he was right. And it really was a shortcut. Steve got us there in time for the concert. And then decided he would just wait for us in the parking lot. Umm don't you need to go back to work? He assures us he's fine to wait. We go to the concert and are still nervous as hell. The group was split on whether to take another ride with him back to San Diego. When one of the girls comes up with a "brilliant" plan. "I saw this on an America's Most Wanted show one time," she says. "If Steve is really a serial killer, he won't take a picture with us because it would be evidence. So when we get back to the parking lot, we'll ask him to take a picture with us. If he refuses then we know he's a serial killer and we should get a ride elsewhere." Yeah, yeah, that's good, we all start nodding in agreement, shaking our heads and pacing back and forth like that's the best idea we'd ever heard in our lives. Never mind the semantics of any of it. Logic went out the window when we took the ride in the first place. At that point, half-assed logic was all we had left. So the concert gets done and we get out to the parking lot and ask Steve aka "Possible serial killer" to take a picture with us. And he emphatically agrees. So by some odd reason, we all decided since Steve took the picture with us that he probably wasn't a serial killer. And proceeded to take a ride with him AGAIN. During the ride back one of the girls in the group speaks up from the back and says, "Steve, we thought you were a serial killer." OMG. LOL. This situation has just gone to another level of absurdness. And Steve, surprised, says "a serial killer, why?" And we explain our points to him when he tells us the real reason that he offered to take us down there: he was in the process of starting his own cab/transportation service and he's trying to get his name out and build his clientele. He gave us business cards as we read the proof (Ted Bundy also had "proof" is what I should have been thinking). In the end, we were transported safely to and from the concert and took a ride with a complete stranger. Never living that one down or forgetting it because it was absolutely hilarious once we talked about it later.

When I brought that up to Pam and Angel at Race for the Cure, they couldn't believe I had remembered all the details (who me? I never forget ANY details, makes for a great story!) We all laughed and reminisced and promised to get together to catch up and tell that story over again. It was so great to see them. I mean never in a million years did I think I would run into them. The race was fantastic, it was so wonderful to see all the brave women walking either for someone or for their own courageous battle. I felt honored to be among such remarkable and strong women. Before hand Stacey insisted we get balloons for my birthday so the guy made us each a balloon hat and we wore those the entire race. Just use your imagination here, mine was supposed to be a candle (for my birthday) and looked nothing like a candle. See the picture as evidence and make your own assumption. So walking with a balloon hat was random, but not quite as random as running into long-lost friends. And then Stacey gave me another wonderful birthday present. A SUPER Saturday indeed.

Octoberfest Day 26: "DIY Decoupage Phase 2"

I was so excited to bring you guys the activity for Day 26. I mean it was so good that you would have all gasped in delight and speed-read the post until you got to the really good parts. Want to know what my planned activity for today was going to be? Are you sure you're ready? Wait for it....A BLIND DATE! And when I say a blind date, I mean truly blind (I mean he wasn't blind and I'm not blind) - I had never met the guy, didn't know what his name was, didn't know a single thing about this person and yet I committed myself to spending the entire evening conversing with this person without any expectation of hitting it off. Wowza. Sounds nervewracking right? I mean talk about an adventure AND leaving my comfort zone! Well you can all hold your horses because Mr. Blind Date (that's what we're calling him) stood me up. Without even trying. Talk about a spoil sport. Someday, when he grows up, he'll realize what a fool he was to NOT take me up on such an incredible offer. But his loss is my gain because instead of spending my Friday evening eating a delicious steak and playing games like I'm a kid again, I'm spending my evening working on Phase 2 of my DIY Decoupage project. I know. It's not nearly exciting. I get it. But unfortunately the yahoo who stood me up left me not much of a choice on what to do with my evening given the last minute nature of his cancellation. The jerk. Doesn't he know that Octoberfest is happening and you guys are counting on living vicariously through my posts? Of course he doesn't. See the beforementioned sentence on "when he grows up." So despite my adventurous nature, I had to settle on getting back to my DIY project. Which is fine because this project is getting good. So you may recall that the first phase included choosing my tables and selecting the magazines that I was going to grab articles, pictures and headlines from. Tonight's phase involved going through all of the magazines (and there are a lot of them) to see what I want to use on the tables. Remember that time that I told you all that I'm a magazine hoarder? Yeah, turns out even choosing what pictures to use on my tables is nearly impossible. Yes I still have a bazillion pictures of Nick and Sharon from Y&R. Is it appropriate to include pictures of half naked David and Victoria Beckham? I think so, this is art people, these two should be sculpted from marble they're so good looking. I'm putting them in the YES pile. What about Carrie Underwood? These dresses are gorgeous and don't even get me started on her legs. Those gams are the envy of women everywhere, especially me. OMG. Look at these shoes. They are must haves....not just on my table but actually in my closet. The ohhhh so sexy Keith Urban? Duh. Is it even a question? The guy once adorned an entire birthday cake for me, rest assured he's going on the table. So now that I have my pages selected, I begin the daunting process of cutting out scraps of paper to make the "collage" look. This is going to take me awhile. Check back with me in another day to see if I'm still cutting. Good thing I have you guys and beer to keep me company. As I cut through each magazine, my hand cramping after every other one, I can't help but wonder what Mr. Blind Date decided to do instead. As quickly as the thought entered my mind, it exited just as quickly. He isn't worth my thoughts. Eat your heart out Mr. Blind Date, you might be doing something yourself but I guarantee it isn't as cool as going out with me would have been. Check. Mate.

Octoberfest Day 25: "Seal of Approval"

As you all have probably guessed by now, I love to write. So the activity for Day 25 was perfect for me and after having a bad day before, it made my heart feel good too. (Speaking of the bad day, going to bed and allowing myself to give the worries to 'ol Mr. Sandman really helped, NOTE TO SELF) A good friend of mine from college has created a group called Seal the Spirit and they supply hand-written cards to individuals who are especially deserving. The messages of hope and caring are assembled at various card writing parties and then delivered around the holiday time when people need support the most. What a wonderful idea! As a writer, I believe in the positive impact and power that words can have over others so it was an honor to participate in this activity for Octoberfest. A simple caveat, however. The card writing party actually took place on Sunday October 20 but since I already had activities lined up for that day, I decided to take a batch of cards and write in them for another day. So I was there for the card writing party in spirit (haha get it?!) and sat down to write my messages when I had no other activities planned. I'm a thinker folks, this head is not just a hat rack. Let me just take a moment to say that when I allow myself the time to serve others who are in need, it really warms my heart like no other activity. I think we get bogged down with our day-to-day activities and we take for granted the support systems we have in our lives. But when you stop to think there are people living in this world who HAVE NO support system, it can be heartbreaking. If one message that I'm writing in this very minute has the power to impact someone's day or someone's holiday season or someone's life, then it's absolutely worth it for me to set aside time to do it. "Leave the world better than the way you found it." It's my hope that by leaving genuinely positive and good impressions on others, then in some small way I have made the world a better place. If you'd like to participate in this very worthwhile group, check out their website or their Facebook page. As for me, I'm going to continue writing in whatever capacity I can because someday my words will help change the world!