A brief note on the Olympics
Photo by WBUR Boston. Used under a Creative Commons license.
Yesterday on NPR, I heard this story from WBUR Boston about Olympic hopeful Kayla Harrison, who survived sexual abuse to become the USA’s first real hope for gold in Women’s Judo.
She said something so smart:
“Do I wish that everyone would just talk about how, you know, awesome I am — and how I could be America’s first gold medalist? Yes, I wish that,” she says. “But America wants that comeback kid story. They want the person who overcame obstacles to reach their goals. And I fit that bill pretty well.”
She knows about us Americans. How just going to the Olympics and winning isn’t enough. We want to be served up a dish of emotional backstory to make us feel like we know the athlete, like we’re connected, like we have a special reason to root for them.
Look, I love a good story as much as anyone. As a reporter and blogger, even working in marketing, I look for “the story” that is going to grab people and hook them and pull them in like big fish.
Let me tell you the true story of these Olympians. The story is that they got up earlier that other people. They worked harder. Then harder than that. They may have started with a good dollop of talent and lucky genetics, but that wasn’t enough. They and their families sacrificed over and over and over – time, money, togetherness. They gave up playing and parties and family events. They worked through pain and loss and I’m sure most of them considered giving up many, many times.
But they made it. Out of hundreds or thousands or millions, they did it. They got to the Olympics, the pinnacle of sport. They’re there after all this work, representing their countries, hoping and praying to make us proud, determined to give the performance of a lifetime. Once chance. One moment.
We don’t have to be emotional vampires feeding on the blood of their past tragedies. Let’s just talk about how awesome they are at the sport they do and let that be enough.
Toyota Exit the Highway
Someone asked me if I wasn’t going to get in trouble with Toyota for writing a review of the Prius v that suggested it wasn’t the car for me.
The cool thing about working with Toyota is that they want my honest opinion, not some gushing PR piece. So I gave my opinion, which was largely positive – it’s a great little car, just not the car for me.
I’m so excited about this thing they have going on this summer, because I love our National and State Parks and the great outdoors in general. (Unlike my old co-worker, Leslie, who one day proclaimed “I hate nature!”). They have a way you can get outdoors, take a road trip, and enter to win a brand new Prius v!
I’ve loved this sort of thing my whole life –
Here’s a picture of me enjoying Sequoia National Park (or was it King’s Canyon?) while still in a big baggy diaper, my mom wrangling me:
And more recently, at Yosemite with my BFF CC, and my double chins (less now!)
And my best hiking partner:
SO ANYWAY, here’s what Toyota has to say:
TogetherGreen, an initiative of Toyota and the National Audubon Society, invites you to Exit the Highway and discover natural wonders and the efforts that protect them for a chance to win a new Toyota Prius v.
Take the pledge to Exit the Highway and discover natural wonders right in your own backyard.
Take the scenic route by downloading and sharing one of our Exit the Highway itineraries that have all the information you need to explore your local natural wonders, while learning about local conservation efforts from TogetherGreen—a diverse, passionate group of environmental leaders committed to preserving your area’s habitats and wildlife.
Share your experiences from the nature sites you visit when you Exit the Highway in one of two ways. You can upload photos directly to this website through your profile page. Or if you register your social media accounts before you hit the road, you can post photos from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram while you’re on the go. Just be sure to include #exitthehighway in each post. The road less traveled is more fun when shared!
You will get a chance to win a new Toyota Prius v with your initial pledge and every photo you share. Each photo submission of a nature visit gives you an additional entry for a chance to win a new Toyota Prius v…
Pretty cool. Enjoy the outdoors, maybe win a car that is small enough for twisty mountain roads and big enough for a bunch of your camping stuff. Or, if you’re me, a bunch of luggage and shoes.
Disclosure: I am a member of the Toyota Women Influencers Network TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota or any of its brands.
Reviewing the 2012 Toyota Prius V
Say hi to my reflection
Toyota dropped off a shiny new Prius V at my house on Friday for me to drive for the weekend.
Here’s a photo of the car and me out in that flattering midday sun, with my neighborhood background amateurishly removed and some large-caliber bullet holes put in my head just for fun and because my hair was a mess anyway:
I immediately took it out on the highway (once I figured out how to start it and put it in gear – more on that later), then the back way home through some twisty windy hilly roads.
On Sunday, my friend Jim and I took it north, with our furthest point being Montaña de Oro State Beach near Los Osos. Pretty, huh? We managed to put over 300 miles on it in one day – a good test drive.
Here’s my opinion of the car.
The Good
- It’s a little higher up off the ground than either my Honda Fit or my Hyundai Elantra Touring. This makes it feel more comfy, gives better visibility, and prevents the bottom from scraping on my too-steep driveway entrance.
- It is big enough to carry a lot of cargo – it has 34.3 cubic feet of cargo space
- Handles really well on little mountain roads, even though it winds up quite a big going up hills – I found myself yelling “Go, little car, go!”
- The seats are comfy and there’s enough leg room for Jim, who is around 6 foot 3.
- The control freak in me loves the temperature control, which dials up the EXACT number of degrees you want the car:
- I could get used to the backup cam and in-dash navigation.
- Really smooth ride. Way smoother than my Honda Fit, even smoother than my year-old Hyundai Elantra Touring.
- This one came with Yokohama tires. If I can’t have Michelins or Pirellis, I’m a Yokohama mama. Seriously. I’m picky about tires.
- It beeps at you if you leave the lights on or the door ajar. I need this.
- Like many cars of this shape and size, it seems a little light when you’re out in high winds, like I was when I was driving along the shore on Friday.
- The backup beeping. When you’re in reverse, it beeps annoyingly, inside the car. I know it sounds petty, but that would be enough to keep me from buying this car.
- As I drove it, it is $29,200 in California (probably less elsewhere. We’re lucky here in California that every freaking thing costs more. This car did have all the bells and whistles, but still, that seems a lot. My car, the Hyundai Elantra Touring, which has a lot of cargo room, seats 5, and also has some great features (mine came with leather seats, seat warmers, sunroof and a 5 year/60k warranty) is under $20k.
- The Prius is a hybrid and says it will save you $6,100 in fuel over 5 years. So the fuel cost savings don’t pencil with the almost $30k price (though my car doesn’t have the built in nav or the backup cam, so that accounts for part of the price difference).
- Wind buffetting in the car with the back windows down. I think all cars this shape do that, but man, I wish they didn’t, because the dog wants the windows down. In the Elantra, I can mitigate this by cracking a front window about an inch, but in this car I had to open both front windows about 4 inches before it would stop.
- There are some things about the Prius that would take some getting used to. Like the lack of a key – this is one of those push-button start cars, which kept baffling me over and over. You have to depress the brake, push the power button, then put it in gear. Maybe this is one of those “You kids and your newfangled devices!” items that I would get used to – like I didn’t use to think I needed a keyless entry. Those days are gone.
- It also has a weird little gear shifty knob that, knowing me, I’d have to think about every single time for the first year or two.
- The hybrid quietness. I shouted about 50 times over the weekend “Is this thing ON??”
The Bad
The Weird
That blue knob on the bottom is the gear shift.
The Verdict
Would I buy one? No. It’s a cute car, it’s a great car, it’s going to be a reliable car, but it’s not MY car.
It would be great for a young family or surfers who need space for boards, or a recent college grad or maybe a senior who is downsizing from a huge sedan. It also has that environmentalist cachet that goes a long way in some circles.
But me – I’d either go cheap and get my Hyundai over again or I’d save my money and buy the Toyota Venza, which is my new object of lust.
What does Jim say?
“I like my black convertible Mustang.”
Disclosure: I am a member of the Toyota Women Influencers Network TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota or any of its brands.
Decorating with Suebob – Help me!
Thank you to Kleenex Hand Towels for sponsoring this post about how I’m making my mom’s bathroom guest-ready! To learn more about Kleenex Hand Towels or to find out how you can save money when you buy your own, check out this site.
The guest bathroom at my mom’s house is pretty plain. It used to be my dad’s bathroom. He passed away 2 years ago and ever since, it has been devoid of everything but hand soap and toilet paper.
When I heard about the opportunity to write a bathroom blog post for Kleenex Hand Towels, I knew what I had to do. I wanted to spruce up the bathroom without doing anything that would involve:
- Paint
- Power tools
- New carpet
I’m not much of a decorator. I didn’t grow up in a family where we would go out get all new stuff at once. We’d usually get by with things we purchase as we need them, so they’re funky and mismatched. Come over to my house. You’ll see.
But I decided to forge ahead, despite my lack of skills at this sort of thing. Hell, I’m only 51 years old. I can learn new stuff! I went out and shopped at Target and got:
- 2 each green bath towels, hand towels and washcloths, on sale for $26 total.
- A blue, green and tan striped bath rug, $12.34, which I didn’t end up using because it clashed with the existing carpet. It works fine at my house, where multicolor is the theme of the day. Instead, I used a $20 memory foam bathmat I had bought for the dog to sleep on while I was laundering her other memory foam bathmat. She’ll just have to find somewhere else to sleep for a couple hours.
- New cabinet knobs $11 for 4. I used 2 but will find another use for the other 2
- A trash can, which went with the rug I didn’t use but not with everything else, but it was only $3 and I can use it at my house. So then I bought a cute quilted-looking metal trash can for $20. I rock at this. I’m decorating two houses at once.
- A basket – $7 – for the Kleenex Hand Towels, which are single use guest towels so your friends don’t have to decide whether to actually use those cute little lace-edged guest towels you put out
- A set of 4 silver frames for $6 total. I ordered prints of some of my flower photos online from Target for 19 cents each. I also chopped up some other flower photos and put them in photo cubes I got from the thrift store for 95 cents. I’m decorating here, people! A total of about $10 in prints because I made lots I ended up not using. So let’s say $5. (I used flower photos because I thought it would be rude to put photos of people in the bathroom. I don’t know why, it just seems disrespectful to stick my loved ones in the bathroom. Is that weird?)
- A fake candle for $10. It’s made of scented wax, but it has a flickering tea light inside so you don’t burn the house down. Good idea.
- A canister thingy with three sections for cotton balls, cotton swabs and something else I’ll think of later. $6
- I also stopped at the hardware store and got a new metal switchplate and outlet cover to replace the dingy old plastic ones. About $12 total. (Update: but then I had to return them because I swear to God, Mom’s incompetent painters PAINTED the switchplate and outlet cover to the wall in such a fashion I could not remove them without taking chunks of paint off. Who DOES that? I hate people.)
Sorry you had to turn your head sideways. That’s thanks to Yahoo killing off the Picnik photo editor in Flickr, and replacing it with Aviary, which SAID it was rotating the photo, but then just didn’t. I hate Yahoo.
Edited to add: The first person to use the guest bath was my sis, who said “Where do you GET those Kleenex Hand Towels?” She wanted to buy some for a gift for her family member who has such dainty, beautiful hand towels that no one ever dares use them. She says her whole family is sick of wiping their wet hands on their pants. Hilarious and perfect.
Join the 14 million people who have already joined the Clean Hands campaign by using Kleenex Hand Towels, and click here for savings and more!
I was selected for participation in this campaign as a member of Clever Girls Collective.
Hashtags #CGC #CleanHands and #spon
Bendy and Stretchy
There’s a post down there. This photo just has a lot of white at the top.
For my 51st birthday, Toyota sent me and three other bloggers to Colorado for the Wanderlust Festival.
That’s TerraBear, me, Wanderlust founder Jeff, Chelsey the PaperMama, and Kate of The Guavalicious Life. Photo courtesy of The Paper Mama, used with permission.
Well, maybe it wasn’t exactly FOR my birthday, as Toyota was a major sponsor had a big tent and blah blah blah, whatever, but I was going to be there ON my birthday, so for me, it was all about me. As usual.
I’m not technically a yoga person. As in, I do not actually do yoga. When I found out I had this opportunity, I thought it was some kind of food, music, yoga and lifestyle festival, so I said “Hell yeah.”
When I started looking at the schedule about 2 weeks before the festival, I realized it was about 75 percent yoga, 15 percent music, and 15 percent everything else. D’oh.
I fully intended to go to a yoga class at home every day to get ready, and I even downloaded a couple yoga apps to my Kindle Fire. What ended up happening was that I did about 20 minutes of yoga at home and two whole relaxation yoga classes in this cool funky underground yoga school – classes that did not actually involve standing at any point.
When I first got my hands on the schedule, I signed up for a bunch of crazy tough classes – yoga on a slackline (kind of a loosey-goosey tightrope), hip openers, early morning yoga, stuff like that – but as time went by, I kept paring my schedule down more and more and ended up with 2 dance classes, a bunch of lectures, and one yoga class up on the mountain at 11,200 feet elevation.
As usual, Toyota treated us well. This was the view out my condo window:
They also had the coolest booth at the festival, and it was a festival with some darn good booths. You could get “attuned,” for instance. Try finding THAT at your local Home and Garden Fair.
The Toyota booth was full of fun activities, with a silkscreener making two-color tote bags while you watched:
You could also make your own natural yoga mat cleaner, get your hair braided, or make some Pinterest-style crafts like photo magnets or decorated inspiration boards. The crafts area was busy all day:
With an eye toward their usual philanthropy, Toyota had a place to write your good intention on a board, snap a photo, and social media it out to the world. For every retweet, like or repin, they donated $2, up to $5000, to a local support organization for kids with chronic illness, There with Care.
Here’s my good intention:
I raised a few bucks, but Chelsey of The PaperMama really brought it home over 350 likes on her Instagram pic. She wins at the internet.
They also had the Tranquil Tea Space, which became really popular when it started raining cats and dogs outside. Suddenly a cup of tea became just the thing. Also? Staying dry under a tent became much more of an exciting option. It rains HARD up there in the mountains.
And if you think those logs look uncomfortable to sit on, wait until you have sat in half-lotus on a conference room floor for a 90 minute meditation class. Suddenly they look downright cushy.
My favorite part of the Toyota tent was the Camry photo booth – yes, inside a Camry, which led to this nuttiness:
Left to right: Chelsey, Kate, me and Terra
Wow, this is getting kinda long, so I’ll save the rest for another post. I just have to say thanks to Toyota and Clever Girls Collective for sending me. It was…wait for it…a real Rocky Mountain High.
Disclosure: I am a member of the Toyota Women Influencers Network TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota or any of its brands.
Cracking
I have one semi-religious decoration in the house, a framed quote that says:
“The journey to God is merely the remembrance of where you are always and what you are forever. It is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed.”
The journey has been much on my mind. Sometimes I get so weary of this examined, creative life. How does it turn into a slog? I don’t know. It’s supposed to be joyous, isn’t it? Yet at times it feels like so much work to keep digging at the truth of one’s being.
The journey feels like walking a tightrope between gratitude and complacency, between dwelling on dissatisfaction and moving toward something better.
Some days I look around and see people moving through their lives, content in a rote existence, passive, flying under the radar. I know people who never speak up, never feel a need to share their deeper selves. I wonder what it would be like to live that way.
I’m not made for that, though. I’m made to crack open like an egg and let the yolk spill out. Sometimes it’s a surprise and sometimes it’s just a damned mess. Other times, when the conditions are right, my offerings to the world become a perfect omelet, a dish they find tasty and delightful and everyone is fed and happy for a bit.
The tricky part is that even I don’t know what is going to happen, but I have to crack. There’s no alternative for me, no matter how hard I resist and how much I question. I’m all too aware that sometimes I am going to be left standing there covered in gunk, with most people walking by and giving me the embarrassed side-eye. But I can’t not do it.
(This is why creative people need creative friends. Because they understand and appreciate how hard it is to try and fail embarrassingly when you bring your work for the world to see. They’ll not give you a hard time, but will instead let you curl up on their couch and eat salty, crunchy, high-carb snacks as you heal a bit.)
My favorite quote from Jesus is from the lost gospel of Thomas:
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is in you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
That’s the trouble with the creative life. Sometimes the things boiling inside feel like they will destroy you. Everyone wants to think that creativity is this big fun dance. At times it is. Those are the times you want people to see – “Hey, look at me, creating brilliance and having a ball doing it! Haha!”
It’s harder to admit the cracking and the boiling and the self-doubt. (Go watch Schmutzie’s TED video for a brilliant exposition on the power of self-doubt.)
But without making the trek inside to where everything lies – the good, the bad, the fugly – there isn’t any art, is there? Or maybe just no art that gets deep inside other people.
That’s the problem with “art” like Thomas Kincaide’s “Paintings of Light” – they’re all surface and pretty, but they don’t have any guts, any reach. I don’t think Kincaide ever cracked to produce his art. Instead, he buttoned up, kept the authentic mess out, sacrificed the real on the altar of the appealing.
The other day in church, I sat with tears of gratitude in my eyes as Larisa Stow and Shakti Tribe performed. Larisa is an energy genius. It’s hard to describe what she does as a performer, because it has to be felt to be believed.
At the expense of sounding too kooky-wooky, I’m convinced that she hooks into the universal energy and brings it into the room and magnifies it and works it as a blessing to the audience – a real kind of darshan – the audience is graced and filled just by being there.
This doesn’t happen by accident. Larisa is totally focused – in a very gently, loving, but fierce way – on making it happen. She and her band are practiced and tight and talented.
She is bringing forth what is within her as a gift, and that is what moved me so much. Like all great artists – like all artists – she cracks herself open allow the energy to flow through her and to share her insides with the world and to create positive change by doing so.
For a performer, that is a real art. I have only experienced it a few times. One was with Ray Charles. Another was, surprisingly, at a high school choir concert where I got chills watching the soloist do what I call “getting God.” It is a mysterious and magnificent and wonderful thing.
There have been times – most of my life, actually – where I haven’t wanted to bring forth what was in me. I wanted to play it safe, to have everyone like me. I had to get over that to produce anything at all. Even now it’s a daily leap into icewater to get myself to work.
But it is worth it. Every cracking, every plunge into unknown depths is worth it, because that movement, no matter how hard or shocking it is, is what gives us creative people the lives we are born to have.
That’s why it is a journey without distance, even though at times it feels exhausting and like we’d rather be doing anything else. The glory is there, ready to share. We just have to be willing to crack open, over and over, to get there.
*****
I read an edited version of this post at Creative Alliance 12 in Ojai. Here’s that version
*****
I might as well say it. I can admit it here.
Sometimes I get so weary of this examined, creative life. How does it turn into such a slog? I don’t know. It’s supposed to be joyous, isn’t it? Yet at times it feels like too much work to keep digging at the truth of one’s being.
It feels like walking a tightrope between gratitude and complacency, between dwelling on dissatisfaction and moving toward something better.
Some days I look around and see people moving through their lives, passive or maybe just content, flying under the radar. I know people who never speak up, never feel a need to share their deeper selves. I wonder what it would be like to live that way.
I’m not made for that. I was born, for reasons unknown, made to crack open like an egg and let the yolk spill out. Sometimes that process is a surprise and sometimes it’s just a damned mess. Other times, when the conditions are right, my offerings to the world become a perfect meal, an omelet people that hits the spot and laves everyone fed and happy for a bit.
The tricky part is that even I don’t know what is going to happen, but I have to crack. There’s no alternative for me, no matter how hard I resist and how much I try to hold together.
I’m all too aware that sometimes my creative ideas are going to leave me standing there with metaphorical egg on my face, with most people walking by and giving me the embarrassed side glance. But still I can’t NOT do it.
(This is why creative people need creative friends. Because they understand and appreciate how hard it is to try and fail embarrassingly when you spill your insides for the world to see. They won’t give you a hard time. They’ll just let you curl up on their couch and eat salty, crunchy, high-carb snacks as you heal a bit.)
My favorite quote from Jesus is from the lost gospel of Thomas:
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is in you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
That’s the trouble with the creative life. Sometimes the things growing inside feel like they will destroy you. Everyone wants to think that creativity is this big fun show. At times it is. Those are the times you want people to see – “Hey, look at me, creating brilliance and having a ball doing it! Haha!”
It’s harder to admit the painful stretching and the cracking and the self-doubt.
But without making the trek inside to where everything lies – the good, the bad, the fugly – there isn’t any art, is there? Or maybe just no art that gets deep inside other people.
That’s the problem with “art” like Thomas Kinkaide’s “Paintings of Light” – they’re all surface and pretty, but they don’t have any guts, any reach. I don’t think Kincaide ever cracked to produce his quaint little paintings of villages at sunset. Instead, he buttoned up, kept the authentic mess out, sacrificed the real on the altar of the appealing.
There have been times – most of my life, actually – where I haven’t wanted to bring forth what was in me. I wanted to play it safe, to have everyone like me. I had to get over that to produce anything at all. Even now it’s a daily leap into icewater to get myself to work.
But it is worth it. Every cracking, every plunge into unknown depths is worth it, because that movement, no matter how hard or shocking it is, is what gives us creative people the lives we are born to have.
Honoring the Old, Creating the New
Everyone loves the new and shiny, the perfect and pristine.
There’s also something lovely, I’d propose, in the old and worn and well-used.
Since I have been working with Toyota, I’m noticing how many old Toyotas are around my neighborhood. I saw a 1967 Corolla the other day – that’s 45 years!
But what happens to those cars when they’ve travelled their last mile? As a bit of a hippie, I was pleased to learn that Toyota is aiming at a 95% recycling rate for all ELVs (end-of-life vehicles).
They’re also building cars smarter, too. They’re thinking about how to improve recycling at every stage of their operations, including recycling in offices, factories and dealerships. They’re even considering how to best dismantle every car as they design it.
I love seeing these trusty old cars in my neighborhood, but I also like knowing that someone is considering how to make and dispose of them in a way that has the least possible impact on our planet. Pretty cool.
Disclosure: I am a member of the Toyota Women Influencers Network TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota or any of its brands.
My Next Toyota Adventure
I want my next Toyota-sponsored adventure to be this:
Instead, they’re sending me to the Wanderlust Festival in Colorado, a conference of all things yoga and healthy-ish. Maybe they think I’m safer doing downward-facing dog than taking a high-powered Scion out for a slide. They’re probably right about that.
No, seriously – I’m excited about having a couple days in Colorado with yoga fanatics, though I expect they’ll spot me for a fraud right away. In preparation, I did 20 whole minutes of yoga yesterday. It felt good, especially that Corpse pose at the end. I’m really good at Corpse pose.
Disclosure: I am a member of the Toyota Women Influencers Network TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota or any of its brands.
My Next Toyota Adventure
I want my next Toyota-sponsored adventure to be this:
Instead, they’re sending me to the Wanderlust Festival in Colorado, a conference of all things yoga and healthy-ish. Maybe they think I’m safer doing downward-facing dog than taking a high-powered Scion out for a slide. They’re probably right about that.
No, seriously – I’m excited about having a couple days in Colorado with yoga fanatics, though I expect they’ll spot me for a fraud right away. In preparation, I did 20 whole minutes of yoga yesterday. It felt good, especially that Corpse pose at the end. I’m really good at Corpse pose.
Disclosure: I am a member of the Toyota Women Influencers Network TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota or any of its brands.
Pure Magic
Having a new camera has brought magic into my life. I recently bought a Canon Rebel EOS T3 with two lenses, one regular and one telephoto.
I feel so much more mentally healthy just having it in my hands. Everything has a new beauty.
From the sublime…
To the ridiculous.
It all looks different now. Moments sneak up on me and bring me delight.
I used to take the dog for long walks, but now, because of her weak legs, she can’t go very far. Now I take my camera out for long walks and take pictures of dogs that I meet.
This world is full of wonderful, amazing, precious sights. It’s funny that sometimes it takes a camera to appreciate them. It’s like clicking the shutter captures them so that I can bring them close and fold them into my heart like little love notes from the world, notes that I can open and marvel at again and again.
Suebob's Red Stapler 