Running Is My Sweat Therapy

Over the weekend I purchased a dress at Title Nine. The bag my purchase came home in had the following quote:

“Sometimes sweat is the best form of therapy.”

-Samantha Dunn

What a great quote. It is definitely my form of therapy. I love coming home from work, debriefing about my day with Chris, throwing on my running clothes, grabbing whatever book I am currently reading, and revving up the treadmill for a long run. It helps me decompress from my day, relax a bit, mentally jump into the book I am reading, and sweat it all out.

Often I can have a dilemma in my head, and while running I resolve the dilemma in my thought. Or I break down an idea into an actionable plan, and determine what steps to take to make that plan happen. I can be in the middle of my run and have to pause it to make notes because even though I will not even be thinking about the problem a solution will come to me in the midst of sweat dripping out my pores.

I have not always felt that way. I have only been running consistently for the last 5 years. Before that I did not really have an exercise regimen that I followed. Some might say that I am pretty hard-core now. But, I do not care. It is my therapy. It keeps me sane. It allows my mind to process, synthesize, and resolve questions in my thought.

Sweat = therapy.

Have a great holiday weekend, sweat and all!

Should Girls Have “Girl Legos”?

Posted by random olio

I am torn. I just purchased a “Lego Friends – Adventure Camper” which is basically the girl version of a camping Lego set. At the time I thought it was the perfect gift for a girl – that for once there was a Lego for a girl who did not always have to do with helicopters, action heroes, and cars. Softer colors, yet could also be used by a boy. It felt like something I would have wanted as a young girl.

Then I saw this petition on Change.org. It is a petition against Lego to “stop selling out girls.” The SPARK Movement and Powered By Girl are behind the petition that debunks the idea that: “girls want pink, already-assembled toys that don’t do anything.” I love this quote from the petition:

“I can speak from personal experience and assure you, LEGO, that girls do like minifigs. They also like Star Wars and Harry Potter, and they like being creative and making up stories that involve adventures and good and evil and things blowing up. But if you keep on excluding them from your marketing vision, soon they will start to believe that they would rather have hot tubs and little plastic boobs.”

So I am torn with my purchase. I think all kids like playing with Legos. Do girls notice the difference? Do they know that Legos have always been designed for boys? Do they care? Do they like having the people who go along with the Legos be girls rather than usually only boys?

I would love to hear what you think. I am trying to decide if I should unwrap and return my gift.

A Must Read: Ten Degrees Of Reckoning

Posted by random olio

Do you ever have those days when you feel like your life sucks? You agonize over all the horrible things you have been through, you ask yourself the question: “Why me?” Then, something happens and you meet someone who changes the way you view the world. Maybe this person exudes happiness and you find out that they are caring for their adult son who has extensive health issues and you are in awe of the pain and hardship they have been through. Another may have learned of their own fate by being left by a spouse and trying to figure out how to pay for their life, while raising all their children alone. You see their life challenge and experience in relation to your own.

This is how I felt after reading Hester Rumberg’s book: “Ten Degrees of Reckoning: The True Story of a Family’s Love and the Will to Survive.” Hester writes about her friend, Judy Sleavin. I heard about this book from my hair stylist. We were talking at my last hair cut about amazing women who are strong and have been through unimaginable life events, and yet are the people who have a smile on their face, and you would never know they have been through such hell.

Judy Sleavin is a perfect example of that. Here is the synopsis of her story from Amazon.com:

“In 1993, Judith and Michael Sleavin and their two children set out to live their dream: to sail around the world. But one night, a freighter off the coast of New Zealand altered its course by a mere ten degrees. And changed everything. After surviving forty-four hours in the water, with a back broken in several places and paralyzed below the waist, Judith miraculously survived. Doctors would later say she suffered one of the worst cases of post-traumatic stress syndrome ever documented. News of the collision made headlines around the world, but, distraught, Judith never talked to the press. Her body was broken, and so was her soul.”

Judy and her husband were very experienced sailors. They knew what they were doing. They had been sailing for 3 years and were 20 miles from New Zealand, when they were hit. Judy and her family were going to stay and settle in New Zealand and let their kids finally get the dog they wanted so badly. The Korean logging ship did not have their lights on, were negligent and knew that Judy’s boat and their boat would collide. They did nothing to change course. Judy later sued the Korean shipping company. Maritime law states that if a boat is under duress, any boat nearby will stop and help. The Korean boat, not only hit her sailboat, but it proceeded to continue on its way without helping Judy and her family. If they had stopped, Judy, her daughter, and her husband would have survived. (Her son had already gone down with the sailboat). Instead, only Judy lived.

What an amazing story of survival. I can never imagine what it must have been like for Judy to watch her son, then daughter and husband drown in the middle of the ocean 20 miles away from their destination. It is a reminder to all of us, that we can always endure more than we know. We can go on. We can live and still have a smile on our face, and continue to make the world a better place.

Thank you, Judy, for having Hester tell your story.

The Thank You Note Is Not Dead

Posted by random olio

I am old school about writing a thank you note. So when I heard about what Sprint is doing as part of their customer service, I was in awe. I have no reason to advertise Sprint. I am an iPhone user and have been on AT&T for years, but I commend Sprint for what they are doing. Take a second to read this article further. Here is an excerpt:

“Sprint’s commitment to personal outreach was introduced by the company’s CEO Dan Hesse, upon an employee’s suggestion. The campaign has been embraced by the entire Sprint team from the top down—not only has Hesse has been sending out notes himself, but the company has also implemented “Thank You Thursdays” on which all employees are asked to write at least five notes.”

I absolutely love it. I remember from a very young age my mom somehow ingrained in me the art of the thank you note. It is an extra gesture of gratitude for a gift of any size. It takes it a step farther than an email. It has a longer life than a phone call. It is something the recipient can go back and read again and again. Maybe they will just throw it away, but maybe the time you took to write the note will mean something to them, they keep it, or post on the frig, or above their desk. You never know how much your words will mean to them. You never know how much you will touch them. The fact that you took extra moments to write out your thoughts, put it in an envelope, address it, spent 45 cents, and put it in the mail. Does that mean more to someone than a quick text or email? Maybe. Maybe not. But, I believe it is worth a try.

If a company believes it is worth the time to send a thank you note, I think it says something about how much that company cares about the personal touch. It means that the individual customer is more than a number and that they believe that the personal touch matters to their customers. More companies need to see this and take action. I can think of a few times when I purchased an item and on my shipping receipt I had a personal note. I have not forgotten. The one that I remember most was from Shop Horne. I purchased a mug, and not only was the packaging amazing, they wrote me a personal, handwritten note on a beautiful, embossed, textured card stock. I was so impressed I still have it. It was something I wanted as a reminder for my next business venture.

A personal touch goes a long way.

Shop Horne thank you note

Women, Sex, and “Fifty Shades of Grey”

Posted by random olio

Okay so I confess. A few weeks ago I finished reading “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E L James. It has me wondering about women and sex and why there is such an interest in this book? Romance novels have been around forever, so what makes Fifty Shades so different? Is it the fan lit? That the characters were featured based on the characters from the Twilight Trilogy? Or, does it say something more about the type of literature on sex that women want to read? Does it say anything about what women feel is lacking in their lives?

Another confession. I never read the Twilight Trilogy. Yes, can you believe it? I am not a fantasy book reader. I also really do not like reading what everyone else is reading. I did not read Harry Potter. Lord of the Rings. The list goes on. For some reason, though, I wanted to find out about this Fifty Shades following. I had heard about it from too many people. What interested me the most was about women, sex, and what they want or crave. I loved hearing that women would tell me they would read excerpts to their boyfriends or spouses. What were they reading to them? What made them want to read a specific excerpt? Why?

I have mentioned before that I am a bit of a feminazi (or can be on certain subjects). So you can imagine that I would not be into the subordination of women, or of women being submissive. So I thought I would adamantly hate this book. But, shockingly I did not hate it. I will say that I agree with many that the writing was horrid, and yet even with the bad writing I wanted to know what would happen. I was curious while reading what parts interested other women. I had also heard that many women were hiding the book from their husbands. Why were they hiding it? That part shocks me. It is 2012. We should live in a place where a woman should not have to hide what interests her, or what she wants to read from her husband. It reminds me of a little boy hiding a Playboy.

So what does this all say about women’s sexuality? What are they missing in their lives? What have they not told their husband they want and what do they crave sexually? My only conclusion is that in general women must feel they have to fit this specific mold that says that women should not be like Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall’s character from Sex in the City). That we must be more tame about what we want sexually. What do you think?

Last confession. I got the second book. Because. Well, because I am curious about what happens next.