Thanks Again!

Posted by random olio

It is about 11:30 p.m. this past Monday night and my husband and I are the only ones on the airport shuttle taking us to the long term parking lot. I am wiped out. We had a wonderful weekend with amazing friends and just need to pick up our car, drive home, and slide into bed. I am leaning up against my husband with my head back and I look up to see those signs they have on shuttle buses. I rarely look at them, but the one I read caught my eye. The “thanks again!” part of the sign made me curious. It said something about receiving points on airlines for purchases made at the airport, so I made a note to look into it further.

While my husband is not George Clooney (sorry babe), he has tendencies to Ryan, George’s character, in Up in the Air. No, not the ones where you sleep with married women, just the ones that make you a bit addicted to track the miles you gain from flights, hotels, rental cars, etc. (It has also rubbed off on me). He travels for work, and we track it all, and because of his miles we have been able to take some free trips that would have had expensive airfare had we not been diligent about tracking our airline miles.

To think that we could obtain airline miles while our car sits at the airport when we are gone for a day or a week at a time, well it is sort of a no brainer. I am not sure how long the company has been around, but thanks again is a company you should check out. The sign in our shuttle bus gave a Portland specific link, but after a bit of research I learned that it is not a Portland only program. Which is great because it means we can receive miles at other airports we travel to and from. The site is not the easiest to navigate. It took me a bit of time to find the information I wanted, but they did immediately prompt me with an offer to answer my questions via online chat. There is no complete list of all participating airports, instead you have to search by the airport code. When you do a search by airport code you receive search results for all the companies (parking, food, shopping) at that airport that participate in the program. I think it would be helpful for the site to have a link to a list of participating airports, and then if you want to search and see the list of companies you could then do so. Just my two cents. Be sure to read the FAQ link on their site.

stuck in Detroit: view from Westin hotel inside airport

We all travel, we all fly, we all park our cars, dine before flying, purchase a snack, coffee, earbuds, a travel pillow, etc. We might as well also accrue miles for the purchases we make before we fly the friendly skies.

Life List

Posted by random olio

So each year, or sometimes a few times a year (depending on the year) my husband and I brainstorm our ‘Life List’. It is sort of our “whatdoiwantoutoflife” and a “wherearewegoing” brainstorming session. It started from a magazine article I found just after we were first married.

With a bit of research I was able to find the February 2004 article in INC magazine online. This list is geared more to couples with businesses, but we adapted the questions into ones that made sense for us.

Our Life List is not meant to be a New Year’s resolution list, but rather a focus on goals, the direction or road we want to move towards, and the values we want in our lives. So for example, you might put on this list: “I want to have work/life balance and put family first.” Or, “Put career first, and focus on relationship with boss” or “Strengthen connection with co-workers.” If that is what you select, then that would be what you would collectively focus on. So if your spouse wanted to work on his career, and you did not want to focus on yours, then your role would be to support him in that, or vice versa.

This is definitely something a person can do on their own, but we decided it was something we would do together as a couple. A choice we made to focus on with each other, and strengthen our marriage.

I highly recommend it.

me and hubby

“MWF seeks BFF”

Posted by random olio

About a week ago I finished reading a book that I found because I was intrigued by the title. It turned out to be a good book. It is called “MWF seeks BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend” by Rachel Bertsche. Rachel moves to Chicago from New York City and leaves all her good friends behind. It is her quest to find new best friends in Chicago and she sets out to go on 52 ‘friend’ dates in a year. There are times that the book is a bit slow, but she does intersperse helpful facts and ideas from her research on friendship. It did make me think: people pay money to find the significant other in their life, why do we not put more effort out to find the BFF that might live nearby?

I wanted to share this idea from her book:

I recently came across an essay in which author Ann Patchett beautifully sums up the crux of what I hope will emerge in the final months of this search. “[Here’s] my idea of intimacy,” she writes. “It’s not the person who calls to say, ‘I’m having an affair’; it’s the friend who calls to say, ‘Why do I have four jars of pickles in my refrigerator?” I want someone with whom I can talk about the deep stuff –hopes and dreams and expectations and disappointments–and also the minutiae. Sometimes it takes talking about everything to get to the place where we can talk about nothing. page 258

Isn’t that the truth! It is normal to talk about how our hormones are this month, issues with other friends, boy dilemmas, but we also need to talk about the random, like bowel movements (yes, just like Oprah, we all talk about them, some of us might just be more direct about it than others), or why the squirrel in our backyard keeps leaving us nuts.

Rachel’s book shows every way you could imagine to meet new friends, some odd and some very creative. You can see by the end of her year how she is stronger, bolder, more direct, and more confident and approaches people in a freer way than she did at the beginning of her year. Unless you do not have time for new people in your life, I highly recommend reading her book. At the very least (even if you skim parts of it) you will learn of all the different ways you can extend yourself a bit more to meet new people in your local community.

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A side note: Ann Patchett is one of my favorite authors. I have read all of her books, and would recommend them all, as they each so different. You never know what to expect from a new Ann Patchett book. I highly recommend her most recent book, State of Wonder.

What is the most important thing you know?

Posted by random olio

Wow, what a conversation starter. How would you answer this question? I found it last week while reading: Accidental Genius by Mark Levy. It is a great book about using “freewriting” to solve business issues. I think the author’s ideas about freewriting can also be expanded into solving everyday life issues/questions. It might not work for all (especially if you are not into writing) but the idea of writing freely about product dilemmas, to what is bugging you, or how you are blocked can open the door to ideas and direction that can lead you to the answers you need. Often through writing we find a path or direction we had not thought about when we were processing the dilemma in our thoughts. Seeing it on paper can make you look at the issue differently.

I digress (sorry this tends to happen when there is always so much going on in my mind). Back to my question from his book: “What is the most important thing you know?”

It is a tough question to answer because there are so many ways it could be answered. At times when we are presented with such a big question, it can feel hard to answer because we want to make our answer sound so eloquent or well thought out. We want to sound wise, or worldly. So I am not going to think about eloquence or worldliness. My answer today is: (and not to sound cliche), that love is the most important thing. It is more important than the job we do, the amount of money we make, where we went to school, where we live…without love we have not lived.

We each have our own story to tell about love. Some stories might seemingly end with the loss of a loved one, a breakup, an ended friendship. Or they might show the depth of love through a long time marriage or partnership, through a sisterhood, a friendship since kindergarten. Some of our stories might be sad or hard to hear, but that is how we learn and grow from each other. I actually like those stories, the ones that show you have been through hell and come out of it not only in one piece, but shinier, happier, stronger, and more confident. I also love the stories that show us joy, laughter, and happiness. Both the tough stories and the joyous ones show us the ‘aliveness’ of life.

"Just be love" - on San Diego sidewalk

So how would you answer the question: “What is the most important thing you know?”

Pinterest vs. Mulu

Posted by random olio

I just learned about a new website called: Mulu. It is basically Pinterest but supports charitable causes. Mulu’s tagline states: “Mulu is a social platform for sharing the things you love and finding the things you need. All while supporting fellow users and their causes.” So I am torn. I have become a bit addicted to Pinterest. I love sharing things that I love or mean a lot to me with others. I like telling friends and family (or anyone for that matter) about a great deal. So I like sharing good things with others. It looks like Mulu is still in Beta, but just like I do not need two different ‘Facebook’ like platforms, I do not need Pinterest and Mulu. I would rather be on a site that supports other causes, but the dilemma is if your friends/family are on one site, is it worth joining the other? Also, a Pinterest account requires that you have a Facebook or Twitter account or you cannot join. Mulu does not require a Facebook or Twitter account.

Here is a bit of press and background details about Mulu and Mulu vs. Pinterest.

An interesting part about Mulu (which I am still on the fence about) is that Mulu, the charity, and the poster receives a cut of the profit if someone purchases an item based on your boards. So you actually make money from sharing what you love. I am not sure if that would deter people, or make them more interested. Imagine if you made money for each person you friended on Facebook?

What do you think?