celebrate Tag

May 15, 2016 In Inspiration, Links, Live the life you want to live, Today Is The Day, Videos

lets just kick the shit out of option b

It’s Sunday morning, May 15th and I just had a much needed long slumber after a busy week. I woke up missing some people I love, some living and some not. This is an everyday thing for me. In the quiet, all snuggled up in my fleece blanket staring at the blue sky out the window I thought for the gazillionth time how strange it is to consistently feel so happy, excited, and lucky, and yet so heavy-hearted, too.

As I sipped my coffee, I texted a few friends about this book, just published. My sweet friend Sam wrote it. This was a huge dream of his, and how I wish he was here to hold the actual printed version in his hands.

This time of year is my favorite; Warm temperatures, lots of exciting summer plans to be outside in the fresh air and sun, BLR Play It Forward is coming soon, and of course, commencement speeches. I never went to college, so I’ve only experienced commencement speeches online or at some else’s graduation. I wish these kinds of speeches happened all year around, and not just at universities during graduation month. I dig inspirational messages from people who’ve pushed through a bit of life’s minefield keeping a hard-earned smile, and then share their lessons.

I got a phone notification this morning as I was snuggled up, about Sheryl Sandberg’s Commencement Speech at UC Berkeley. She talks about grief, loss, and what she learned in death. Well worth the 26 minute watch:

My favorite parts are at around the 9:45 and 18:45 marks and towards the end when she says “Now I celebrate always.”

My Blue Lollipop Road mantra has always been to live simple. That “stuff” doesn’t matter…people and time do. Our theme for Play It Forward is Remember. Celebrate. Live; Remember where you came from, celebrate memories and what you have, and live like today is the day- don’t wait.

I know like Sheryl and many of you, I will wake up tomorrow still missing. I will always miss someone, a hug or holding that hand. I will always miss seeing some certain smiling faces or a laugh I remember that always felt so good to be around. I will also wake up tomorrow celebrating, because no matter what we’ve been through, we’ve got to keep kicking the shit out of option B. I hope all of us continue to love hard and leave it all on the field.

If there were only 11 more days left…what would you do?

#Celebrate #TodayIsTheDay #HopToIt

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.

Boom-chicka-boom!

Together we can do so much good.

#RememberCelebrateLive #GetInspired #TodayIsTheDay

March 10, 2016 In BLR Memorial Travel Scholarship Fund, BLR Play It Forward 2016, Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship, Do good, Inspiration, Links, News & Updates, People, Photos, play, Strong Mojo, Vermont

things that fill my heart

Today is March 9, 2016 and that means it is exactly 4 months until the 5th Annual BLR Play It Forward Event in Vermont.

WHOOP! 5TH ANNUAL!

In 2011 when we (a couple of my amazing alumni soccer soul sisters from back in the day) came up with the idea for an alumni soccer game which then turned into a full-scale community event and scholarship fund, I spent months in my Old Town Chicago apartment, floor 23 overlooking The Second City entrance, in my pajamas trying to figure out how to make it all happen. I remember some days I’d go to the gym for an 8 or 9am class, come back home all sweaty and yucky, wrap myself in a towel intending on getting in the shower, and start working only to find it to be 8 or 9pm and myself sitting there, 12 hours later stinky, starving, and still working. It’s kind of amazing how time flies when you’re in your zone working on something you’re so incredibly passionate about. I’d eventually shower, and often times take the elevator downstairs to Chipolte (which was in the same building as The Second City across the street), get a veggie burrito, sometimes a beer and by 10pm be eating my one meal of the day on my couch in quiet. Rinse and repeat this is how those few spring months of 2012 went before our first big event happened on August 18, 2012.

Check this out! I just found a photo of my little desk area in that great high rise apartment I had:

Small work space that cranked out some dreams. I can’t even remember what I used for a chair! Not fancy. It didn’t matter. Boy those are good memories. This scene is where Play It Forward was born. To this day, my best work and what I am most proud of.

I’ve got buckets of photos from 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 – but I will share just one from each year for space sake for today.

2012, balloon release in honor of our friends to kick off the inaugural event:

All hands in before game, 2013:

The Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship award, 2014:

Me and “Mr. B” last summer, 2015 – one of our most loyal fans and supporters, cheering us on each year in his same white t-shirt:

(That sweet guy was my 6th grade teacher!)

There’s no way I could share here, all the photos and words I have that would illustrate properly the amazing impact we make. This day is so special you have to be there to believe it. (I hope whoever you are reading this, you will join us this summer in some kind of capacity!)

On July 9, 2016 we will once again come together to reconnect, reminisce, play soccer, cry together, laugh together, and give back. I already know it will as usual, be my favorite day of the year. A bittersweet day in this “brutiful” life, where nothing else matters other than coming together to remember, celebrate, and live.

What do you do, to make sure you never forget where you came from?

#RememberCelebrateLive #PlayForwardGiveBack #StrongMojo

July 11, 2015 In BLR Memorial Travel Scholarship Fund, BLR Play It Forward 2015, Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship, Do good, grow, Links, Live the life you want to live, News & Updates, News articles/Links, Photos, play, Press, Thank you, Vermont

today is the day; play it forward 2015

Huge thanks to The Bennington Banner for this article about our event today!

Play It Forward is so much bigger than just a soccer game. It is about bringing people together, honoring loved ones no longer here, and celebrating memories and time together. It is a reminder about what’s important, where we came from, and is meant to inspire us all to truly live while we are living.

All hands in

This is year four, and I can’t believe it! Countless hours and efforts have been put in and I as I type this with a big smile I could not be more proud. I am humbled and honored to host this event, and so thankful for all the love, support & help from so many friends, family, alumni and community members.

BLR Play It Forward 2015…here we go!

Remember. Celebrate. Live.

#PlayForwardGiveBack #StrongMojo #Community

July 7, 2015 In BLR Play It Forward 2014, BLR Play It Forward 2015, Inspiration, Live the life you want to live, People, Photos, Strong Mojo, Today Is The Day, Vermont

please, please, please- don’t wait

There is no other way I can say it besides now is the time.

Like right this minute.

If there’s something you’ve been wanting/wishing/trying to muster up the energy, confidence, “right time” for- start today.

If you’ve really wanted to make a change for a long time but haven’t gotten around to it- start today.

If you’ve been meaning to clear your schedule to take care of something important to you- start today.

If you have the choice to take an hour to spend with yourself, with your partner, your kids, your friends, neighbor, your aunt, your uncle, your grandparent your parents, your dog, or your frog, and ditch on that never-ending to-do list or time-wasting work meeting- do it today.

If you love someone and haven’t told them in a while, stop anything and everything you might be doing right now and pick up the phone and tell them, go next door and hug them, get in your car and drive to them, open up Skype and blow kisses through the screen at them, write them a letter, run outside and scream it out loud…

…while you can.

Today I have to say goodbye to this smiling face:

My Friend Katie

…who’s been in my life since I was a middle-school kid.

My Friend Katie

Katie, my constant hometown friend of years and years who was a most amazing sweet, kind, genuine, generous, selfless, happy, funny and positive person- passed away last week. The above photos were taken during my BLR Play It Forward event time last year in Vermont.

I didn’t get home in time to see her this summer, and she lost her fight before our coffee date that was scheduled for this week.

My heart feels ripped to shreds, but Katie inspires me to share this:

Don’t wait. Life is so short. We get busy, we think tomorrow will come for sure, we always think we have more time- and sometimes we don’t. Please give yourself a gift by reaching out to your loved ones to tell them what they mean to you. Follow your heart, your dreams, your crazy ideas. Go do, be, see, laugh, love, live it up. Be courageous. Fear is nothing. Nothing is scary until you lose someone you love so much and no longer have an option to spend time together.

Remember what’s important, celebrate the memories you have, and live like today is the day.

Thank you, Katie for bringing so much joy to this world and so much light to my life. I promise to live, love, and celebrate everyday I have. You will always be in my heart.

February 24, 2015 In Inspiration, North Carolina, People, Photos, Today Is The Day

meet grazia

The Fabulous Grazia

This sassy, fashionable, world-traveling, 77-year-old, was the hostess of the Oscar Party I went to on Sunday night. I’d heard about how fabulous Ms. Grazia was for weeks. That was true and then some. This woman has the smile, energy, and the sharpness of a 27-year-old. She’s warm and welcoming to everyone around her. We had a blast.

Don’t you just love the sparkly vintage gown?! (Perfect that Lady Gaga is in the background on TV, too.) I’m about 40 years behind this lovely woman, but I hope to carry half the effervescence and joy for life that she has- for the rest of mine.

You inspire us with your never-ending smile, Grazia! – And absolutely embody my remember, celebrate, live mantra, by truly celebrating life. Love it!

How do you all out there, celebrate life Grazia-style?

#Oscars #LivingItUp #Ageless

February 16, 2015 In grow, People, Photos

dear chicken shit, do you need a hug? :)

Yes, I am talking to you who posted this comment in my inbox anonymously on Saturday:

“You’ll never write a book of any worth because you can barely write a sentence. Also, there’s a fine line between celebration and exploitation. Just being, you know, unfiltered.”

It sounds like you need some love in your life, my friend! Maybe I should go find this guy again and send him your way:

Hugs are better that hate

So sad you’re hateful and wrong Mr./Mrs. comment leaver. I feel sorry for people like you. I think you need a hug! (And a backbone.)

While you continue hiding behind your computer, sending opinions and judgments (with no name attached) that are so far from the truth they may as well be in Siberia, I’ll be out loud & proud here, living it up, unfiltered and transparent as always. I will continue celebrating my friends, and everything/everyone I love, and I’ll keep doing good work giving back to my community.

You should really get a life and find more positive ways to spend your time. There’s a whole big, fat, huge awesome world out there…

Love,

Diane

PS~ For someone who thinks I can’t write, you sure have spent a lot of your time reading and poking around here! That’s pretty hilarious. I know you’ll be first in line to buy my book:)

#DontBeJealous #GiveAHug #Celebrate

October 16, 2014 In Inspiration, Links, Live the life you want to live, North Carolina, People, Photos

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY BLUE LOLLIPOP ROAD!!!

Oh what a ride it has been! One little post started it all on October, 16th 2008 and here we are 6 years later!

Many adventures:

Life on the road

…and much hard work on all of this, has taught me to love more than I ever knew possible, live more than I was already trying to, and dream bigger than I already knew I could. Thank you to all of you who have followed, loved, and supported me all these years! I hope I have inspired you to live like you mean it.

Here’s to always trusting your instincts, chasing everything that you’re curious about, and and never settling for anything less than what sets your heart on fire.

What are you doing to live like today is the day?

#BLRBirthday #LifeOnTheBluelollipopRoad #DreamItDoIt

September 11, 2014 In Inspiration, Live the life you want to live

9.11.14

I write notes and hide them for people to find when I’m not around, I say “I love you” almost too much, I text just to say hi, I send snail mail for no reason so it shows up in a mailbox as a complete surprise. I never leave without a kiss or hug, I say thank you anytime I get the chance and I tell friends & family around me I appreciate them as much as possible.

I’m not perfect, or a hero, I’m just someone who felt a loss a little over 20 years ago that I had no idea was even possible. I remember those feelings every, single, day. The above examples are ways that I do something about it, because I never want it to be too late.

On a day like today when thousands of people feel incredible loss together, my heart is heavy. While I can unfortunately say I share in the pain of losing loved ones tragically and instantly too, I can also encourage those out there who are heartbroken- to honor whomever they’ve lost by living better.

Remember. Celebrate. Live.

Remember lives lost, remember where you came from. Celebrate the memories of those not with us anymore, celebrate what’s possible. Live like you mean it- like today is THE day.

Take a minute to slow down today- and everyday moving forward, look around, say I love you. We never know what tomorrow will bring.

Today is the day. What are you waiting for?

#LiveLikeYouMeanIt #TodayIsTheDay #Remember