Decisions, Decisions
You know, I think of all of…
Wait, that’s not how I want to start. Redo.
Sometimes I sit back and really try to look at my life from the outside in as it relates to where I will end up in this world. I’ve been on TV, I’ve written a book, I’ve worked at some great places like MediaSauce, IndyMojo.com, Shiel Sexton, I have met some unbelievable people and have done/seen some amazing things.
But, I still seem to wonder constantly about what I should be doing each day to maximize my impact in the small amount of time that I have on this big, rotating rock. I feel sometimes that many of my greatest moments in my life have been due to the people that I have met, the ideas that I have had and what happens when those two intersect. I get inspired when I inspire others and I get bored with the standards that many people are okay with in their everyday lives. I want to do something different, I want to do something fun and energizing and that I get excited about - I’m just not sure what that is and I’m not sure if I ever will….and that’s kind of crazy, but I think that it’s the same thing that keeps my mind moving each day. Interesting.
Anyways, I am bringing all of this up because some things are going to be changing here soon, which I can definitely handle - I just want to make sure that I make the best decision as possible when the change happens. But hey, I have never been in a situation that I haven’t learned from and gained some great friends, great times and great memories from so I guess that I shouldn’t be too concerned, right?
So here’s to change and making decisions because of them, this round’s on me.
p.s. Stephanie isn’t dissing this blog, she has just been Internet-less for the past couple days. Crazy, I know.
Nothing says appreciation like a colored picture
As many of you may or may not know, Stephanie and I have become quite the fantastic coaching duo over over the past couple months that we’ve coached Special Olympics basketball together. We’ve had an absolute amazing experience with the players, their family/staff and the other volunteers that help out with the games as well.
However, with all of the competitive spirit that has been building up in me since I stopped playing basketball in college, I feel like it’s sometimes easy to get wrapped up in our team winning every single game(which we haven’t come close to doing). Although winning is the ultimate goal in any sporting event, I often find myself needing to step back a bit so that I can take in the big picture of what’s truly important when coaching my team of Special Olympians.
The team just isn’t playing basketball. In fact, that’s probably just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what the players actually gain from playing the simple game that’s such an Indiana tradition. It is way more than just a game - it’s becoming more social, gaining better communication skills, getting to hang out with friends, getting in better shape and just a great break from their sometimes not-so-easy everyday lives.
I’m so glad that Stephanie and I have gotten involved and I’m even more glad that the players are getting something out of it. I’m looking forward to coaching for many, many more seasons to come and who knows, maybe we’ll even coach another sport. Swimming anyone?
If you would like to volunteer for something with Special Olympics click here for more volunteer info on their website.
Guilty pleasure.
It’s true… I have a guilty pleasure…. reality television…
<---This would be one of them.
<---And this would be the other.
I don’t know exactly how it happened. Especially considering the fact that I honestly don’t watch that much television, but I have become an addict. I wouldn’t necessarily rule out all of the other reality tv shows either such as “Flavor of Love”, “Mi Amore” or “The girls next door”, because if those are on I’ll gladly snuggle up on the couch and avidly watch each of those as well:)
I’ve even started to TiVo these shows when I’m not available to sit down and watch a full episode, because God forbid I miss a crucial moment in reality television history!!! What is my life coming to!??! I used to make fun of people like myself…. Oh well… I’m proud of my new obsession, because if you ask me about any juicy info from any current reality tv goodness explosion, I’ll gladly be able to fill you in on all of the delicious details in entirety:)
It’s been awhile…
That’s a pretty BIG “Yipee!” but I think it’s worth it. For several days our blog was just not working and there was fear that it might possibly be lost forever… but have no fear, the internet prevailed and we now have our wonderful little blog back and ready for action!
We’ve had several adventures this past week which kept us pretty busy. I wouldn’t have it any other way though, the experiences and opportunities that Ryan and I have had are sooooo awesome, I wouldn’t trade a wink of sleep or restful day for any of them! This past friday we emceed an event for a local radio station fundraiser and had an amazing time. I love doing stuff like that in the community and we hope to do many more together! Not too many couples do the whole emcee gig so we’re hoping to cover some ground doing this sort of thing in the upcoming months:) We knocked out a couple of great videos too.. like the one below from the polar plunge as well as another fabulous one from the night at the Oscars.
Changing gears here, but today was yet another installment of the crazy house saga that I work at. I absolutely LOVE going to this house to work with the little boy because I get at least a good hour of quality drama/sex/crazy/completely off-the-wall chat time with the mother every day:) Today’s topic…. male genitalia and the difference between white men(not pretty) and black men (”pretty”) Now, the mother used the word “pretty” to describe this masterpiece of the male body….?? Keep in mind that her side of the story is always very partial to the African American race due to the fact that she ONLY dates black men. 
So that was what our conversation centered around for the remainder of the afternoon… intriguing.. I know… I can no longer be surprised in my life. Every day is such a crazy adventure that I’ll welcome almost anything that comes my way… now all of you will have the joy of reading about it!
An Inconvenient Truth…
No, I’m not talking about global warming… I’m talking about a much more serious matter here folks. That’s right, today for a lingering 3 hours, Starbucks’ across the nation were CLOSED!!!!! [insert dramatic pause and loud gasp] What’s up with that!??!
Sure, they tell us that the company cares about our satisfaction as customers and wishes to properly train it’s employees in the espresso creation process to better their product production, but I’m not happy, nope not one bit. In fact, I was severely inconvenienced by this matter.
Today, I had planned to stop by the haven of coffee wonderfulness on my way to see the premier of Semi-Pro which is an awesome movie by the way, but unfortunately my plans were rudely interrupted. No no, I couldn’t swing by and order my grande, triple shot, non-fat, no foam, extra hot, sugar-free hazelnut add sugar-free carmel latte. Honestly I think it ruined my whole day:( Ok, so maybe it wasn’t that bad but really… I can think of a much better plan.
Why not do the training at a time like 3 in the morning, when I WASN’T planning on going to grab a savory and delicious, mouthwatering coffee delight?!? If the coroporation really cares about my satisfaction shouldn’t the employees be the ones that are inconvenienced and not me as the customer? I think so.
Alright, I think that will do for the rant… for now at least…
Wow! That was refreshing!!
Just a few hours ago Ryan and I, along with 8 other daring souls took the icy plunge into the crisp, cool waters of Eagle Creek Reservoir. Being a rookie to this event I had no idea what to expect! Even though I am just now regaining the feeling in my toes, I can honestly say that it was all totally worth it; in fact I had an incredible time. Almost 600 people sacrificed their warm coats and gloves for skimpy outfits or even bikinis to leap into the icy waters to help raise money for special olympics. What an unbelievable encouragement to see so many caring souls contribute to such a great cause.
I think that one of the most special moments of the day was seeing Mark, a special olympics participant on our basketball team, stand beside our team and take the plunge himself. The crowd proudly cheered him on as he walked down the icy steps to take his jump into the frigid waters. With a huge supportive crowd standing behind us, we clinched our teeth and jumped into the freezing water. The feeling of the cold water hitting your skin is unlike any cold I have EVER experienced!! We jumped in, made the icy trek to the firefighters and EMT’s awaiting our high five, and swam back to shore as fast as we could. It is amazing how warm it is outside of the water once you’ve been in. I felt like I was suddenly on a warm beach after getting out of that crazy cold water!
It’s amazing to think that so many people would actually PAY to do something like this isn’t it?! But that’s just the beauty of it. Through this special event special olympics will gain more than $100,000 dollars from the state of Indiana alone to help to support their incredible program. I am so privileged to have the opportunity to be a part of this special cause. It might have been a bit chilly (HUGE understatement) but I would do it again in a heartbeat, and look forward to my second plunge next year!!!
I hate snow I hate winter I hate snow!!
That’s really about it. There are few things in this world that make me mad, but when I walk outside and my car has a 3 inch casing of pure ice and I am left to scrape it off in the blistery cold… It angers me. Booo I hate snow. I don’t mean to be such a scrooge about it, but honestly I don’t think I EVER want to experience another winter again. Summer can’t come soon enough!!
Did that really just happen?!?
It’s true, as of today I am officially a working woman again:) I met with my first kiddo and his family this afternoon and boy am I in for a treat. I drove up to the quaint little house with absolutely NO IDEA what was in store for me. Now, I don’t mean I wasn’t prepared for the talk about the therapy and the various interventions that will be taking place; THAT, I was ready for… I was unprepared for the awesome craziness that I was about to witness. I knocked on the door and the mother welcomed me immediately with a “hello and welcome to the crazy house!”. I laughed and didn’t think too much of it, since I’m used to houses with little ones being a bit more hectic than most. Little did I know that the mother was being absolutely and completely honest with that statement.
Here’s the funny part.. it wasn’t exactly the child that was the crazy one. It was the mother, and I love it! I couldn’t ask for a better family to work for. The conversations that we had within the next 3 hours were most certainly ones for the books! I don’t think I have laughed so hard in such a short period of time in my life. Let’s just put it this way…. we were all very open and shared some pretty hilarious information as we talked about our personal lives with one another. I suppose I’ll try to keep this blog at least G rated so I’ll spare you the details.. but Ryan is going to have the pleasure of hearing some pretty hilarious stories over the next few months as I work for this family that’s for sure! We all agreed that there should be a camera crew working within this household to capture the most hysterical events that happen periodically throughout the day, and that the reality tv show that would spawn from this would be the most viewed of all time, hands down.
Needless to say, this might be the best first day of work that I’ve ever experienced. I was properly initiated into the family and am now ready to get to work as I laugh all along the way.
Dance like nobody’s watching
I just stumbled upon this video of me and Stephanie getting our groove on last Summer downtown at Subterra. If you ever go out with us and you’re not real sure where we disappeared to, I would strongly advise that you make the dance floor one of your first places to look.
P.S. Stephanie loooooves her some Fergie.
If you can’t see the embedded video, check it out over here on YouTube.
::EDIT:: A quick shout-out to my roomie, Brandon, for the sweet camera work…and yes ladies, he is single.
We all must change…
I think one of my favorite authors Donald Miller put it best in his book, Through Painted Deserts that everyone must be continually changing and growing in their life in order to be truly capable of living this life to the fullest.
In the forward he writes, “I want to keep my soul fertile for the changes, so things keep getting born in me, so things keep dying when it is time for things to die. I want to keep walking away from the person I was a moment ago, because a mind was made to figure things out, not to read the same page recurrently. Only the good stories have the characters different at the end than they were at the beginning. And the closest thing I can liken life to is a book, the way it stretches out on paper, page after page, as if to trick the mind into thinking it is all happening at once. Time has pressed you and me into a book, too, this tiny chapter we share together, this vapor of a scene, pulling our seconds into minutes and minutes into hours. Everything we were is no more, and what we will become, will become what was. This is from where the story stems, the stuff of it’s construction lying at our feet like cut strips of philosophy.”
And so now my story is changing. I’ve recently been working at a school for students that have severe disabilities. Since November I had taken on the role of pseudo nurse/caregiver for 55 students ranging from the ages of 5-21. With a background in special-education, I thought that this would be a perfect fit for me for awhile,and in just the few short months that I worked there I fell in love with each and every student. It’s hard not to, trust me. But all good things must come to an end, or so they say ( i’ll believe it when I see it) and since I wasn’t exactly a permanent teacher, just a sub, I decided to move onto a bigger and better opportunity. From the very beginning of my special-ed. career ambitions I have wanted to be an independent consultant. I love being in the classroom, but there is somewhat of a business side to me too that I long to explore. Starting an independent consultation service would be just the right fit for this kind of aspiration.
So like clockwork, God’s perfect timing interceeded at just the right moment. I was beginning to get a little burnt out on my substitute position at the school when a lady contacted me who needed some extra help with her consultation business. I jumped to the opportunity and in no time I now have several families that I will be working with in the next few weeks. The goal of this business is to incorporate a developed therapy plan called ABA therapy into a child’s daily life. I’ll save all of the theory talk for lack of space but basically ABA (applied behavior analysis) therapy involves creating a highly structured environment in which a child with autism can more easily grasp the necessary skills for learning.
Sounds pretty fun huh? Well… I think so at least. Special education definitely holds a special place in my heart and I look forward to exploring this new avenue of opportunity. And so, now to continue in my changing season of life, next chapter please.