Today Is The Day

May 9, 2016 In Be active, BLR Memorial Travel Scholarship Fund, BLR Play It Forward 2016, Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship, Do good, Inspiration, Links, Strong Mojo, Today Is The Day, Travel, Vermont

get your give on

Hello, Monday!

Today is May 9th. This means exactly 2 months until our 5th Annual BLR Play It Forward Event & BLR Memorial Travel Scholarship award, July 9 2016 weekend. (FIVE years!)

We’ve been doing good on our Remember, Celebrate, Live promise since 2012 and couldn’t be more proud. We love playing forward to give back.

Inspired by us? Well thank you…but we wouldn’t be able to do it without YOU! So how do you get involved?

1.) If you’re MAU Women’s Soccer Alumni, you can register here for just a $35 donation to play in the game, Saturday July 9th at Willow Park in Bennington, VT. 100% of registration fees go to the scholarship fund.

2.) Get an event shirt for yourself or your kiddos here. Shirts come in blue and pink, youth and adult sizes.  Just 20 buckaroos donation! 100% of that loot goes straight to the scholarship fund.

3.) Rally your friends, family, neighbors, former teachers, coaches, strangers on the street, or anyone else you like, to come join/hang out/socialize for our Friday night (July 8th) open Welcome Back Party, and Saturday day and night (July 9th) Alumni game, scholarship announcement, and Celebration Cocktails.

4.) Sponsor! We’d love any sponsorships, and promise if you do, we will give shout-outs and love on all print & social media, along with on the BLR website here and more. (We’d especially like to to find a jersey & t-shirt sponsor this year to cover that huge cost. Please call 804.339.6514 or Diane(@)BlueLollipopRoad.com if you’d like to sponsor.)

5.) Donate! 100% of all donations go straight to the Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Travel Scholarship Fund. This fund supports deserving high school students to travel and do community service work. (Wha?! Yep, students doing good while getting a chance to see outside their everyday world. Exposure! Service! Character building! Building a badass next generation! Super awesomeness:)

If you’re a regular reader or BLR follower, you obviously know this Blue Lollipop Road is my life, my passion, my everything, and Play It Forward is by far the work I’m most proud of. I can’t do it alone, so I present a challenge to you readers who I know and strangers I don’t:

Donate $5 now! 

I figure $5  for 5 years of playing forward so we can give back is not too much to ask. Everyone can afford 5 big ones. Won’t you support what we are doing? Click here to donate through PayPal, it is secure, easy, (and dare I say, fun?), or send a check made payable to:
Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship Fund
PO Box 34661
Charlotte, NC 28234

…or

…simply pass this post on! My Christmas wish is that some one, some where, some day, who’s big time, will notice what we are doing and say “Hey! You are spectacular BLR Play It Forward! Here’s some ginormous media and/or a million bucks for your scholarship fund! What you’re doing with your event & scholarship fund is like…totally awesome!”

(Hey- it could happen. It WILL happen.)

So won’t you send some love and spread the love? Oh how important it is, to…

Remember where you came from.

Celebrate the memories and time you have have together.

Live like today is the day.

BLR Play It Forward

BLR Play It Forward

BLR Play It Forward

BLR Play It Forward

BLR Play It Forward

Image

Boom-chicka-boom!

Together we can do so much good.

#RememberCelebrateLive #GetInspired #TodayIsTheDay

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March 20, 2016 In Inspiration, Links, Live the life you want to live, Quotes, Today Is The Day, Uncategorized, Videos

the things we think, and do not say

This Jerry McGuire scene is one of my absolute favorites, and pops in my head weekly when the same conversation with everyone in my personal and professional life, seems to play on repeat mode:

“Do other people think about this stuff?”

(Forget the sports specific theme here, and roll with this for me.) And scene:

Many of us live in pain, locked in and loaded with fear of being judged at every turn, we suppress huge parts of who we are or what we want because we think we’re going to disappoint someone else. We’re convinced the wheels will fly straight off the bus of life going 100 miles per hour if we speak up about what we really think is right. We’re adults. We’re supposed to stay in our lane, act like it, and not ruffle any feathers.

What a bunch of crap that is! I’m thinking we should all be a little more like Jerry.

“I had lost the ability to bullshit.”

“It was the me that I’d always wanted to be.” 

“I was 35. I had started my life. 

We should bullshit a lot less, be who we want to be, and start life now if we haven’t already, at 35, 45, or 85 because we can and It’s never too late. We should shout from the rooftops about what we’re passionate about, stand up for what we believe in and speak up about what matters. When a “who’s with me!” fails (because it sometimes will) and when it seems like everyone around us thinks we’ve lost our minds (which they sometimes will), we will at least sleep good at night knowing we left it all out there on the dance floor.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met a beer bellied old man at the end of his life on any porch I’ve ever sat on, who’s told me he wished he’d never spoken up.

Today is the day. Show yourself “the money,” baby!

#ThinkItSayItDoIt #LessFearMoreActionHappyLife #ThanksJerry

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February 26, 2016 In Inspiration, Thank you, Today Is The Day

a february friendsgiving

It’s funny how for no rhyme or reason this crazy life sends us in 1,000 different mood directions on any given day. It’s like this never ending game on figuring out which end is up.

I like a good challenge.

Today was good. Productive with client work, a run, and busy cranking that to-do list, yet I wondered why I woke up this morning feeling like crap and a little blah all day long. Reason? Nothing? Anything specific going on? Not really. I don’t know how all this works, either, people- I just try my best to bound out of bed and make things happen- even when I wake up feeling like someone stole my puppy.

My favorite part of the day today to turn my frown upside down was my 2-hour Skype Happy Hour wine time with an old friend from back home. Have you tried this? It is so fun, and something you might never think of doing. (I have my friends Dana & Erik in Chicago to thank for the idea.) So tonight, sipping wine, talking into the screen on my laptop with an old friend who’s known me since 1st grade, both of us in pajamas even though it was only 6pm felt so nice. There’s something to be said for someone you have to explain nothing to. This friend and I are so different we may as well be oil and water, but we know and love each other like sisters and would pretty much take that bullet if needed. This is a person that I feel lucky to have. I know no matter where I go and what I do, this is someone who will always be there, period.

I hope you all reading this are lucky enough to have someone like this is your life. It sure makes me feel thankful. If you don’t have a person like this, they are available and out there, you just have to be willing to barf your feelings, problems, nutty thoughts, excitements, hopes, dreams, heartbreaks, and more to them. They will do the same, and in return you will find a friendship/family in letting your freak flag fly. It often takes a long time to get to the full-acceptance place with a friend like this, but when you do it will be very much worth the hard work and wait. Sipping wine in PJ’s, Thursday night after work talking about life- the real gritty stuff that most people hate talking about, while laughing your ass off with a good pal, in the judgement-free zone is fantastic.

Lucky, lucky me.

So after my friend Skype-fest, I was sitting here working away on my laptop, clearing out my inbox and returning an email to yet another old friend. I wrote to him how much I think about and miss my friends Katie and Sam who both died last year. Everyday seems more surreal that they are gone. On my run today I saw a Jetta, and as usual I expected it to be Sam (because that’s the car he drove.) As I shared with this friend about how much I missed the two, I listened again to a voicemail Katie left me on August 20, 2012. I love that I saved this message. I saved it because it was the sweetest and kindest message about a dream I made happen and only a friend like Katie would’ve known how much it meant to me. Something I was super proud of and most people would tell me good job! – but Katie, really just knew. She was a less words is more kind of gal. Not a phone talker or babbler like me at all, but on this particular day she happened to babble on for 1 minute and 10 seconds on my voicemail. I’m sure glad she did.

Her message on my phone from nearly 4 years ago, is one of my most cherished things.

So tonight I listened to it again, and cried. Again.

I don’t think I cry when I listen to that particular message because I miss Katie. I think I cry because Katie was the absolute epitome of a person who truly cared about and loved me, and I won’t see her in this world again. She was that friend who knew the good, the bad, the ugly. She was the friend who you’d never have to explain anything to, she just got it and was always there even if we didn’t talk all the time. I always knew that, and it was so special. She accepted me just as is. When you have a funky day and can’t explain it. When life feels hard, when you think that no one cares – about anything in the world, it is always nice to know there are some people who do care. They will Skype Happy Hour wine time with you for hours, or they’ll remind you on a voicemail, just how much they always noticed you trying your best to follow your dreams.

Whether I can talk to Katie in person or on Skype, or It’s another amazing girl friend who I can still see on the other end of a screen, at the end of a day like today I feel loved. Thank goodness for solid old friends! When technology so often fails at helping us feel truly connected to the people we love, tonight it proved otherwise for me. Far, far away can somehow feel so close, just when you need it.

How do you stay connected with your good friends?

#Friendship #LessStuffMoreLoveHappyLife #RememberCelebrateLive

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February 19, 2016 In Be active, Inspiration, Live the life you want to live, Today Is The Day

addiction

My name is Diane and I too often break promises to myself.

Insert the way people introduce themselves at the start of and Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. (I think, anyway- based on movies and TV shows.)

I’m not announcing my problem with boozing here, just standing up in front of you all to admit my problem out loud, and start to hold myself accountable for a most unhealthy habit.

If you ask me what I love love love to do first thing in the morning that makes me feel high as a kite, joyful, hopeful, healthy, balanced, thankful, badass, and overall as happy as a 7 year old swimming in a mountain of gummy worms- it never changes; writing and/or exercising. I know this, many people around me know this, I talk about this, yet I epically fail at doing either of these things during much of my Monday – Friday lately. Especially the writing part, which is super sucky-poo because I’ve got great stories, a lot to say, and anytime I finish, I feel like I’ve exorcised all the worlds demons or just returned from some kind of life altering detox cleanse.

So here I am, Friday February 19th, 2016 proclaiming my addiction (the healthy kind; moving my body and sharing my words) in a huge attempt to hold myself accountable just like I hold my clients accountable for what they need to do…to just do more of what drives my days straight down that Blue Lollipop Road I know is out there.

What’s got me all off track and breaking promises to myself? Lot’s of little things that I could use as excuses of course, but really It’s simple; not taking the time I know I need and want, to be the best version of Diggidydi. (That’s me, high school nickname. Shout out to the MAU boys for coming up with that one back in 1995:)

As I talked to a single Mommy friend this morning who is just burned, like extra crispy bacon exhausted burned, I advised on my high horse; Take more time for you! You deserve better and more! Draw the line! You are going to run yourself into the ground if you don’t recharge! – I have to laugh. Aren’t we all so good at giving advice to ourselves by giving it to someone else?

If you’re reading this now and you don’t see a post again from me within the next 3 to 5 days, I hope you will write to me and call me out. If you’re reading this right now and running around multitasking like a freak show (I can relate), just stop it. If you’re reading this right now and don’t even have the faintest idea what fuels you to start your day with that I’m going to kick ass and take names, today! feeling, take some time to start figuring that out. (It is Friday after all, everyone takes an extra long lunch on Fridays. Your boss won’t notice. He’s probably golfing anyway.)

Let’s all get less addicted to email and other work day time wasters, and more addicted to becoming an expert at exactly what were passionate about, so we can share that awesomeness with the people around us.

What’s your healthy addiction that’s been collecting dust lately?

#GetAfterIt #DontForgetYourself #TodayIsTheDay

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January 10, 2016 In Inspiration, Photos, Today Is The Day

a little crazy never hurt anyone

Rainy chilly Saturday night, not feeling so hot with a little bit of a cold. All snuggled in I am, and in a effort to be not only productive, but reflective, even with the sniffles, I’m flipping pages going through a couple old notebooks. (My regular give it a once-over after I’ve used up all the pages to see if I missed any “to-do’s” or important things, then toss.) This is what I see just a few page flips in:

to-do's

(“Tons” of money kind of cracks me up. Was I having a 6 year old moment there?)

I can’t say I’m surprised I wrote the above on a certain friends birthday in February last year…what would have been her 37th birthday. She’s always on my mind, but on a few specific few days each year like her birthday, I make sure to doubly check myself to make sure I’m practicing what I preach and making my best attempt to live my goals.

Like you I’m sure, I fail miserably at being on point with all things all the time, I say yes to things I shouldn’t- that suck time and energy and don’t give back personally, professionally, or financially nearly enough, I forget to have gratitude as much as I should, and every once in a while I even have baditude! (Bad + attitude.) The worst? That damn gerbil wheel I despise so much is found under my own two feet too, every year or so. (Until I fling myself off, screaming and tearing…just jumping and gasping for that non-gerbil wheel air I love and need to survive and thrive.)

Thankfully when we find ourselves slipping into bad habits, and spin, spin, spinning like those little rodents- we have THE CHOICE to jump back into whatever awesome reality we know is out there, just as fast as we realize we’re spinning.

To my sweet, funny friend who inspired me to write this “Keep in mind” trio, thank you for reminding me that we all deserve to be crazy happy.

Indeed we do.

#TodayIsTheDay #KickYourOwnAss #StayTheCourse

What makes you crazy happy?

PS ~ You know what would make me crazy happy? If you scrolled down to the bottom of this page and signed up to get my blog posts via email, that’s what. Whoop!

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October 16, 2015 In Inspiration, Live the life you want to live, People, Photos, Today Is The Day, Virginia

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY, BLR!!!

Like a mother, I feel incredibly happy and proud of this being I’ve created that means everything to me. Time flies far too fast, and my “baby” is all grown up. It’s odd to say a blog/website could feel like a living thing, but that is the truth. Blue Lollipop Road has been alive and active now for exactly 7 years, and I can honestly say that my life changed forever on 10/16/08 when I wrote my first blog post. It’s as if I grew up a little more that day, ready to share myself, and pass on love & lessons within this next generation of me.

That indescribably and overwhelming never-the-same feeling people talk about when they have kids!

Amazing.

This month is graduation time for my sweet, sweet, BLR- to version 2.0. The next adventure begins on 10/26, as I give this larger than life entity a complete makeover. So excited!

Like all things or people worth it in this crazy life, hard work is required, we are likely to shake fists in the air with frustration, shed tears occasionally, and then spin around in pure bliss, too. For anything or anyone worth it, exhaustion is part of the package, disappointment will creep in sometimes, and heartbreak is unavoidable. With all the bad, comes so much good, though- and blows every last icky feeling we may have ever experienced out of the water. Ahhh…those moments It’s all worth it; those undeniable joyful seconds of purity you feel when that “thing” you have put every once of your being- your complete heart and soul in, looks up and says I love you. 

Well, I love you, too Blue Lollipop Road.

Thank you for motivating me, teaching me, making me sad, happy, confused, proud, frustrated, and for helping me to continually believe in everything possible. Thank you for holding my hand so I’m able to remain fearless and love hard. Thank you mostly, for making me feel completely alive. Because of you, I can be best version of myself and feel like I have a purpose on this planet. That is the best feeling ever.

My sweet, sweet, BLR! What a run (or should I say, drive), we have had together!

Here’s to a billion more years of the good madness that is the life roller coaster, and hoping that together, we can inspire and light good fire inside everyone we meet.

#Love #Mojo #Believe

*Took this photo a couple days ago, full on filthy in work pants at a client job in Virginia. Good times geeking out at the view and always sporting a BLR tee!

Happy Birthday BLR!

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October 1, 2015 In Articles, grow, Inspiration, Links, Live the life you want to live, Operation Charlotte, People, Photos, Thank you, Today Is The Day

shutting up and being grateful

I ran across this today. A good read. I’d like to hang out with the author, Mark.

On my soap box, especially lately, I’ve preached the word practice a lot, and still don’t understand why yoga seems to have stolen that word from everything else in the world. Why don’t we think about practicing every aspect of our lives, not just yoga, or sports in general? Shouldn’t we be practicing everyday, to be a good sister, daughter, friend, employee, neighbor, or just a good, fun, productive & generous human who’s nice and friendly just to be nice and friendly?

I just walked into Starbucks to hunker down for an afternoon of work and was greeted extra cheerily by a very overweight, nerdy, scruffy, awkward-looking barista guy. This particular Starbucks is in the center of the city and never fail, is always 110% filled with the most strapping looking fit businessmen you could imagine. (Occasionally these groups of men are sprinkled with an equally gorgeous high-heeled business woman or two.) It looks like the J.Crew or Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs exploded in here and the people on the pages came alive. So here’s this barista guy with the biggest smile in a scene of go go go perfectly coiffed, seriously focused executives, who aren’t smiling- throwing in his cheery personality, clearly practicing to genuinely enjoy his work and not be intimidated by this otherwise potentially intimidating scene.

As it becomes my turn to order:

Him: “Hey hey hey! How are you today?!” (in the cutest, upbeat tone)

Me: “Im great- thank you, that was the nicest greeting! Thank you!”

Him: “Why, you’re welcome- what can I get for ya?”

I order, he asks for my name, I tell him Diane, he thinks I says Diana and I roll with it.

Him: “That’s Wonder Woman’s Name! Spin around!”

To his surprise, I spin around.

We both laugh.

Me: “If only I could spin around like that and fix all the problems in the world!”

We laugh again, and agree “yeah…”

I thank him, turn to walk away, and he exclaims- “Have a great day, Wonder Woman!”

So totally adorable.

By a landslide, this very overweight, nerdy, scruffy, awkward barista guy is the most attractive, impressive, magnetic man, in this otherwise model-looking crowd I’m among right now.

In the article above, the author writes “I’m the last one to pretend everything is unicorns and rainbows.” I’m with him on that. It’s often hard to see the forest through the trees, and even harder to be grateful during sad times. It’s not easy to shut up (at least it hasn’t been in the past for me), It’s not easy to keep thinking your minutes will add up to something when you’ve felt like you’re getting nowhere fast. It’s not easy to say goodbye, It’s not easy to feel alone/lost/stuck – most things are not easy, but we all must push and motivate to practice each day, being grateful for the tiny beautiful things.

Let’s practice together!

Right at this moment I’m grateful for the luncheon I just went to with delicious food, the new people I met and connected with. I’m grateful for the notes, check-ins, and congratulations during the past few days from friends & family about a big event I had yesterday. I’m grateful to be able to work from anywhere and do what I love. I’m grateful for the huge challenges I’ve faced during the past 6 months and the lessons I’ve learned. I’m grateful for the few late hours I spent with a good friend last night scrubbing, vacuuming, and sweeping out the last bits of her apartment for a move, as we both exhaustedly and filthily stuffed our faces with a pizza-on-paper-towel party, and laughed about the chaos. I’m grateful that I could still laugh at myself, and this crazy life, as I sweat my butt off in my little car, looking like The Clampetts yesterday while talking to my little brother and almost getting pulled over by the police:

Moving…again

I’m even grateful for the wrinkles around my eyes in this photo. They mean I have smiled a lot:) Mostly today, which kicks off Breast Cancer Awareness Month- I’m incredibly grateful to have called Kaitlin McLellan not only a tried and true friend, but a very best one, and for many, many years.

Lucky, lucky me. So, so, very grateful.

Enjoy it now, and be grateful my readers- this life, this amazing, nutty life…is far to short not to.

Thank you, Mr. Barista, for making me spin around and bringing extra sunshine to me on a day I’ve been missing my dear friend. I won’t forget it.

#AlwaysLearning #AlwaysAdventuring #AlwaysGrateful

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September 26, 2015 In grow, Inspiration, Links, Live the life you want to live, People, Photos, Quotes, Recommended reading, Today Is The Day, Videos

stop screwing, start doing

This TED Talk popped in my inbox this morning. (Thanks, M!) I watched it as I sipped my coffee on the porch, cheering YES! and laughing through the whole video.

This woman is awesome. I’m a big fan of people who cut straight through the bs:

TED Talk

This makes me think of one of the books I just wrote about in my top 5 read this now list; The War of Art. I wholeheartedly agree with the theory that every single one of us has incredibly special things about us and unique ideas that can change the world.

Let’s all keep forcing the covers off to spend our days going for what we want.

“Get outside! That’s where the magic is.”

#Jump #CarpeDiem #BeMoreThanJustFine

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September 22, 2015 In Inspiration, Photos, Today Is The Day, Virginia

hello monday!

It is nearly midnight, so this is almost a Hello Tuesday! post. The day has been busy with lots of good things so I’m just a bit behind.

When the alarm rang this morning, I thought – UGH!  It’s dark, I’m tired, I’ve barely slept! I can’t believe the week already starts again. Then…motivation nation quickly came rushing in; Its Monday, Baby! Get up! Carpe Diem!

So I jumped up and came to this because there’s nothing like getting up early to start your day off right:

Morning walk

It was definitely overcast, and not the most optimal looking sky, but the freshly mowed grasses on the course and the company I was with, made up for the grey. I also got a good laugh from this sign:

18 miles per hour

Go 19 and you’re done for. Hilarious. Who makes up this stuff, anyway?

There’s something about morning exercise, and something about Monday mornings up and atem that simply sets the tone for a good week to come.

If you’re feeling like you’re dragging, get UP and move your body! It might feel painful for the first few minutes, but when you’re done, you’ll feel like a million bucks.

Boom.

#GetUpGetMoving #CarpeDiem #CrushingIt

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