Author:bluelollipoproad

June 12, 2013 In BLR Play It Forward 2013, Donations

thank you mike cutler!

Lucky me to have perfect strangers like Mike who’ve continued to be generous with their time & talents volunteering 2 years in a row to help make BLR Play It Forward possible.

Mike Cutler of MHC Photography was introduced to me by and old friend early last spring and jumped right in to edit all the video footage from our big event for free. He created a DVD that captured a day of great moments which will always remain precious to me. This year Mike will be the photographer for Play It Forward, so if you’re coming to Howard Park on July 13th- get ready to smile! I couldn’t have a nicer guy to work with.

Thanks Mike! I cannot thank people like you enough for donating all your time and great energy.

June 10, 2013 In BLR Play It Forward 2013, News & Updates

extra! extra!

Days fly by and lots happens before I get a chance to fully share here, so today’s post is a partial list of what’s been shaking in the world of the blue lollipop lately.

(In no particular order)

In BLR Play It Forward news:

1.) I had an interview last week on WBTN to share information about our event.
2.) The Town of Shaftsbury (VT) has generously donated the use of Howard Park once again. They’ve also posted information on their website to support us.
3.) Clear Brook Farm is once again our food sponsor. They will provide fresh organic foods for our event guests. (Yummy! We love fresh and local.)
4.) Price Chopper and Hannaford Supermarkets will again both provide gift cards so we can stock up on all the plates, napkins, bottled water, and other items we need for the big day.
5.) Willies Variety and Bakery in Bennington, VT will again be providing boxes of our beloved Blue Razz Blow Pops. (Get ready for blue tongues everyone! If you are coming to play in the alumni soccer game or watch from the sidelines, we might try to “force” you to eat one at some point during the day:)
6.) One of our Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship 2012 winners, Hannah Patterson will be sharing a guest post and some photos here on Blue Lollipop Road in the next couple weeks about how she used her travel scholarship funds.
7.) Mike Cutler will be volunteering his photography expertise this year to snap all event photos.
8.) Tracy Bushee (alumni/friend/designer of the Play If Forward logo) is whipping up an event poster again that will go up around Southern Vermont this week.

How awesome is it that so many of the sponsoring individuals and companies that helped make BLR Play It Forward 2012 possible, jumped at the chance to support us again this year? VERY. THANK YOU EVERYONE!

In other news:

1.) My work with AGA continues. I will be sharing information as we go. For now, if you are reading this and are a grant writer- we’d love to talk. Drop me a line: Diane(@)bluelollipoproad.com
2.) I’m going to be featured in a series about female entrepreneurs on a blog called Things to Cherish by Alicia Mohr. Check out her gorgeous jewelry designs. Stay tuned for link to my interview.
3.) I’ve been asked by the Women’s Sports Foundation to be on their Travel & Training Fund committee. In partnership with Gatorade, a total of $100,000 will be awarded for their 2013 grant cycle and I get to judge a few of the 94 applicants for this year.

How awesome is all of the above news? VERY.

Put your heart in the right place, work hard, then ask…and you shall receive.

June 10, 2013 In Inspiration

QotD

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

~Mark Twain

June 7, 2013 In De-lish, Food, Oregon, Photos

because today national doughnut day

Because I too believe good things come in pink boxes:

Because I think having to decide on what DE-LISH to pick at a place like VooDoo Doughnuts in Portland, Oregon is nearly impossible, but so much fun:

And finally, because the only thing that could possibly rival my Oreo with Nutella obsession- is an Oreo doughnut drizzled with peanut butter. (With a side of a yet another doughnut rolled in Captain Crunch of course.):

Yeah, that.

I had no trouble eating these both on my visit to VooDoo during the summer of 2010 During my Alaska or Bust adventure. Holy yum-fest. If I were only on the west coast right now…

Happy National Doughnut Day!

June 6, 2013 In North Carolina, Photos, Virginia

one of the many reasons why i love it

Early morning road time after one of the many nights sleeping in my car a few weeks ago. These were taken at random as I drove (safely of course) at around 5:45am, somewhere around the VA/NC border even before a coffee stop:

It’s amazing what a put your iPhone in the air and click, click, click will capture. Nothing like a warm morning on the road alone in quiet watching the sunrise.

Here’s to carpe diem.

What are you waiting for?

June 6, 2013 In BLR Play It Forward 2013, Donations, Maine, Million Mile Joe, People, Photos, Videos

donation!

I’m happy to share that my friends Sharon and Joe (AKA “Million Mile Joe“) LoCicero have donated once again to the BLR Play It Forward Event and Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship Fund! Since meeting Sharon and Joe in the fall of 2011 during my Honda sponsored road trip and fun in Maine, they’ve been incredibly supportive of me and BLR which I am so thankful for. (Fellow road warriors stick together!) Joe and Sharon are tried and true hard working, sweet, generous New Englanders, and a great example of why I have so much pride for the part of the world I came from.

I had to go through the archives to find a few photos from my time in Maine with them. Here I am at their house behind Old BLUE (Joe’s 1990 Accord with 1,000,000 miles on it), giving a thumbs up to Honda:

…and check out Joe with his blue lollipop!

Here are the three of us after the big parade Honda put on to give Joe a new car back in October 2011:

(A bit blurry but I love this one. That was a seriously fun day.)

Joe and Sharon are soon embarking on an adventure of their own that I will write about later this summer. Besides that, they’re coming to BLR Play It Forward on July 13th in Vermont! Yay! That’s right, Joe and Sharon are road tripping from Vacationland to come watch and support my big annual Blue Lollipop Road event. Awesome!

Thanks for the donation and constant support Sharon and Joe! Looking forward to seeing you soon.

June 4, 2013 In News & Updates

it’s radio interview time

Please listen in this morning at 8am Eastern online or on air to my radio interview with WBTN! We will be talking about BLR Play It Forward and the Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship. Our 2nd annual event is July 13th so we are just about a month away.

Thanks to David Lively and WBTN for having me on today and supporting Blue Lollipop Road and our community!

May 31, 2013 In BLR-Mobile, Honda, Photos

a stop in the shop

Holy moses we have a lot to catch up on! I’ve just finished a whirlwind and unplanned (isn’t that always the way) 5 weeks and 5,000 miles on the road. (Yes, five thousand) The results, just to share a few:

1.) A happy girl, because I:
*Found a home base city
*Got to participate in fun activities
*Worked from many interesting places with pretty views
*Saw lots of great people in lots of fun places like Charlotte, Nashville, Columbus, and Chicago
*Ate lots of de-lish food
*Had the moments of quiet I live for; On the road alone, windows down and dreaming big

2.) A very tired BLR-Mobile that ended up on the shop yesterday after my trek from Chicago to Vermont for a bit of an emergency appointment:

(Tear, I know…)

Fret not though! (Ok, so I was freaking out a little because after all- this car is my home.) She’s getting all fixed up as we speak and it was “just” a wheel bearing. When I asked the mechanic in a panicked voice as he and I drove around the block so he could hear the loud rumble I was worried about “What the heck could cause that?!” He looked at my odometer and replied: “185,000 miles causes that!” We both laughed.

Oh yeah- that wear and tear thing. This car really does work hard for me. No wonder she needed some love! I have never put a single penny into my amazing partner in crime other than for regular maintenance. That’s what I’m talking about! (I love you Honda:)

I have a laundry list of things to share, news, updates and exciting things about BLR Play It Forward coming up in just 6 shorts weeks, interviews I’ve been asked to do, the Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship, and other awesomeness. Catching breath and up on work after a 5,000 speed-racer road trip is a big pile to tackle, so I’ll be back. Right now It’s time to go pick up the mighty Civic. I feel like my left arm is missing without her!

May 28, 2013 In BLR Play It Forward 2013, Inspiration, News & Updates

a cookie monster hailing taxi cabs

You know that after wedding, after a 3 day holiday weekend Tuesday thing when you feel a combination of happy, giggly, indulgent, and way behind on work, sleep and totally irresponsible but kind of Ok with it because you’ve just had so much fun? That’s today.

Hello after big weekend Tuesday!

Chicago has been a blast of a week and my past few weeks from Charlotte to Nashville to Columbus have been the same. As I sit in a Starbucks with my 50 fellow “I can work from anywhere-er’s” I feel like a mischievous kid who snuck too many cookies from the cookie jar: full belly, big smile, and wondering if anyone is going to “bust” me for feeling so good. There is a price to pay for feeling so good; I sleep in my car in between cities, I don’t own Manolos (mine are the same $15 strappy black ones that I bought at a Rack Room in 2004) I schlep boxes in and out of my car weekly because I usually don’t have a home, it is often exhausting I but I wouldn’t change any of it for the world because I really feel like I actually live my days.

From the Windy City I’ll be returning to the green mountains for the month of June for the last weeks of prep on my event I am so very proud of, I’ll get to spend time with more people I love (lucky me), reward another travel scholarship to a deserving soccer playing high school student (lucky them), and I’ll be working from countless other coffee shops like I do today between cities and towns where I make it all work to continue a life that most consider crazy. I have certainly slowed down a bit and shifted certain life wants and wishes over this past year or so, but the core of me will never change as I approach my mid-July new home base city because you can take the girl “off the road” for a little while, but you can’t stop her from exploring. (Yep- you know me well, there’s already a Blue Lollipop Road get’s a home base project that’s in the works.) Until I share more on that, I reflect on my 6 hour drive from Columbus to Chicago that started this fantastic week, when an old Alanis Morissette number came across the radio. The sun was hot beating on my left arm as the windows were down, and I blasted her tune that describes me pretty perfectly:

I’m broke but I’m happy
I’m poor but I’m kind
I’m short but I’m healthy, yeah

I’m high but I’m grounded
I’m sane but I’m overwhelmed
I’m lost but I’m hopeful, baby

And what it all comes down to
Is that everything’s gonna be fine, fine, fine
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is giving a high five

I feel drunk but I’m sober
I’m young and I’m underpaid
I’m tired but I’m working, yeah

I care but I’m restless
I’m here but I’m really gone
I’m wrong and I’m sorry, baby

And what it all comes down to
Is that everything’s gonna be quite alright
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is flicking a cigarette

And what it all comes down to
Is that I haven’t got it all figured out just yet
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is giving the peace sign

I’m free but I’m focused
I’m green but I’m wise
I’m hard but I’m friendly, baby

I’m sad but I’m laughing
I’m brave but I’m chicken shit
I’m sick but I’m pretty, baby

And what it all boils down to
Is that no one’s really got it figured out just yet
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is playing a piano

And what it all comes down to my dear friends, yeah
Is that everything is just fine fine fine
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is hailing a taxi cab

Here’s to being high but grounded, and free but focused.

What makes you feel like you’re really living your days?

May 23, 2013 In News & Updates

food, radio, and other things

I’ve been eating my way through Chicago, going on long walks, long runs, and seeing friends I haven’t in a while. I still owe posts and pix from amazing food-fest in Columbus last weekend but I can’t lie- I’m probably not going to be worrying about much computer time this weekend as I have a friends wedding and I will be busy shaking my booty and socializing. (Whoop there it is.)

In other news, I have a radio interview on WBTN in Vermont on June 4th at 8am about the 2nd Annual BLR Play It Forward Event. (Yay! We are just about 6 weeks out from event weekend. Mark your calendars and tune in to my interview.) If you’re the parent of a soccer playing kid in the New England Area, sign your kids up for our very own MAU Alumni Shelley Addison Smith’s World Class Soccer School in Shaftsbury, Vermont during the week leading up to the BLR Event. Talk about learning from the best! Your little ones will love it- promise.

Besides the above, my project with the AGA continues to be exciting, (That’s right- I haven’t shared that yet, but I will…) and Im loving this last big epic road trip I’m on (for a few months anyway) until I move into my home base place later this summer. More book news, car news, BLR news, life news, and then some coming soon so stay tuned!