Cheater, Cheater, Steroid Eater

Lance Armstrong's fame was predicated on his successes. Now that he's admitted to Oprah that he used performance enhancing drugs - or methods, or whatever - he has succeeded at NOTHING.

Stop talking about him. Get his ugly, lying, cheating mug off of the screen. Let him langiush on the sidelines of history as the biggest cheater and loser sports have seen. 

Shine the spotlight on someone who's playing by the rules to win.

Gasperilla 2012

Jen, Andrea & Annie

Oddly enough, I grew up in Seminole, FL, just across the bay from Tampa where the annual Gasperilla festivities take place, but never went to the party. Late last year, Andrea and I were talking about me coming down for a visit. Gasperilla weekend seemed like the perfect excuse. So, in early January, I booked a flight and we were on! I arrived late Friday afternoon and before you knew it, we had a table in the bar at a great tapas restaurant, called Ceviche. The bar was packed! There was a great band playing a blend of Caribbean and jazz music, people everywhere having a great time with their friends. We ordered a bottle of Martin Codax albirino - a delicious Spanish white that we've been drinking for years - and a variety of tapas, we were starving! Before you knew it, we were catching up, laughing ands having a great time. After dinner, we headed back for more wine ands conversation on the patio. It was such a nice change of pace to be outside! Its been crazy cold in DC lately - it is January, after all - none the less, it was great to be sitting outside, relaxing and talking. Saturday was the actual Gasperilla festivities. We got going a little late, need I remind you of the aforementioned wine? We mixed up cocktails to go and called a cab. Gasperilla was fun, full of crazy crowds, costumes...everything you'd expect and some that you wouldn't. We saw more than one person being carried by their friends at two in the afternoon, amateurs. We ended the night at a dance club followed by pizza delivery, just like the old days!! Good times.

The more things change...

Am I destined NOT to take a fabulous trip around the world, or around the US? Everytime I try to make the plans, something goes awry. This time, Andrea and I both had job changes that impacted our ability to travel this summer. Since neither of us are independently weathly, we had to answer The Man's call.

The upside is that my new job opportunity is allowing me to travel.  On my most recent trip, I was able to spend some time at Joshua Tree National Park, which has always been on my list - - at least since I fell in love with U2's "Joshua Tree" album!  Corny reason to visit a national park, but it worked for me.  The park is gorgeous.  Such different terrain than I am used to on the East Coast.  Joshua trees are fascinating.  They thrive in very harsh conditions and, after the first few years, are pretty slow growers.  Seeing them towering over the desert made me wonder just how long some of them had existed and about all of the changes they have witnessed.

My next trip will be to Cincinnati - - other than watching WKRP growing up, I don't know much about it and never considered visiting.  I'll do some research to see what's cool to check out while I'm there.  Recently I learned that I have family (extended) there as well, so hopefully, I'll be able to see/meet them.

The other nice thing about traveling for work is that work picks up the tab! For the business related activites, not my adventures - those are on my own dime.

Invitations!

The invitations have already started to roll in!
Nicole, actually, her Mom, Savonne has invited us all to the beach! I'm not sure which beach - hey, who is going to question a free vacation at the beach? It is in North or South Carolina. We'll stay for four days and I'll be back in Raliegh in time for the wedding on Saturday.

Fundraising and Meeting Famous Authors

Today I attended Classroom Central's annual fund & awareness raising lunch, as a guest of a client and as a supporter of the organization. It was a double whammy for me.  One, because I think it's a great cause and two, because I got to meet Janice Booth, their Executive Director and published author.

Here are some really crappy statistics about poverty & the CMS school system:

• 100,000 kids live in poverty in the Charlotte region
• Everyday, 93 children drop out of school in NC because they lack BASIC school supplies.
• It would take $20 Millon dollars to provide for every underprivlieged child
• 27,000 NC inmates are HS dropouts and the state spends $635 Millon dollars to incarcerate them
• It only costs $200 to provide basic supplies for a student
• One class goes through 200-300 pencils in a MONTH

Now for the great statistics about Classroom Central:

• will provide $5 Millon dollars in school supplies this year
• turns every $1 donated into $7+ in school supplies (wish I could do that with my dollars!)
• gives out 39,000+ pens, 32,000 pencils & 7,200 one subject notebooks each week

As Mick Mixon said, there is enough money to fund these children's needs...it's just in your pocket! 

Now, back to the second reason I was glad to go to the lunch.  I was able to chat with Janice Booth who wrote "Only Pack What You Can Carry: My Path to Inner Strength, Confidence and True Self-Knowledge".  Janice spoke on Charlotte Talks recently and I throughly enjoyed her interview! It was very timely considering the trip I am embarking on next month.  While I will have a co-pilot on this trip, she reminded me of the adventures I've had travelling on my own, rekindling and fanning the flame of independent travel! Janice was incredibly warm and personable today, taking the time to share a story about having dinner with a Prince in Rome; an opportunity that only presented itself because she was alone.  I really appreciated the time she took to chat with me, even more so, because she had just finished one of the biggest events of the year on her business calendar!

The beginning of a beautiful friendship...and our first road trip!

Sixteen years ago Andrea and I took our first road trip to Florida and stayed at the super fancy Sunset View Motel Apartments on Indian Rocks beach.


Here's what I wrote in my diary when we got back. March 13, 1995, "Andrea and I had a great break! Neither one of us has had such a great trip - ever! We got along really, really well. A few tense moments, but that was when we were exhausted, so we just went to sleep. I have a feeling we are going to be very good friends."
















I can't believe how right I was!

That was our first major road trip but not our last. Over the next few weeks, I'll share some of the more entertaining bits to prep you for this June's road trip.

Thanks Sis!

Look what Kathy dropped off this afternoon!

Can't wait to see what great ideas it has for the road trip.