writing Tag

May 8, 2020 In Uncategorized

bursting at the seams

My mother says I talk too fast. A little over 10 years ago, I remember hearing back from mom after leaving a message for her. (The good ol’ home phone, still kicking since 1978):

Honey, I’ve been your mother for 30 years and I still cannot understand you on the answering machine!

Mom isn’t the only one who says I talk fast. If the words, thoughts, ideas, and excitements that run through my brain in a 24 hour period were Olympic track athletes, they’d win gold for being the fastest, every single day. “You must be from The North” is a regular (correct) assumption, and “You should take some valium/smoke some weed/lay off the coffee” are regular suggestions as well.

If they only knew I worked for Red Bull during my 20’s and never even needed or drank the stuff to be a part of the Mobile Energy Team! (I did actually have a few vodka Red Bull cocktails that time our boss showed up in a limo fully stocked for a night out. Free drinks, friends, and a fancy car with a hired sober driver. I had my moment feeling like a Hollywood kid on prom night.)

I think I’ve been asked if I was on a speedball about 55,000 times.

I have the opposite of writers block. Too many words and too much energy I’ve been told. When I sit down to write here, there are so many things I want to say, and so many opinions, life hacks, thoughts, and ramblings I want to share, that I start, and my writing goes in 100 directions because I’ve waited too long. (Translation; not allowed myself the time/not taken the time, fallen into workaholic mode again, not shut my cell phone off enough, taken care of everyone else first, etc.) So my posts (book) end up in my drafts folder.

That friggin drafts folder!

It’s your own fault, sister.

As I call myself out publicly here again, for not gifting myself nearly enough time to do what I love the most until I start bursting at the seams, I hope you’ll take a little quiet time to think about what’s eating you up inside, and figure out a way to start feasting.

My favorite silent moments to recalibrate are during sunset each night:

(Yes, those are flowers in a vintage Cowboys juice glass. You’ll have to ask me about that time I married a huge Dallas fan.)

I’m stuck, but still sprinting…to help others. The irony! Here goes another swing at the bat for helping myself. Practice makes perfect.

Namaste.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! I know you might not always understand my fast messages, but you always totally get me. I love you!

#TodayIsTheDay #StartDriving #LifeOutsideTheDroneZone

February 27, 2020 In Uncategorized

when i grow up

A classmate from elementary school just posted these photos on Facebook about one of the books we made in Mr. Collin’s 3rd grade class. This one was Native American Stories Author Bios:

All of these write ups we did about ourselves are cracking me up! I think we were the ones who came up with these paragraphs? Maybe a bit of guidance from the teacher:

Kelly, above me had favorite “maple sugar trees” – so this shows how all kids from Vermont are hooked on the good stuff from birth. (Schoolhouse Maple is my favorite syrup hands down by the way, made by hometown friends in case you need a supply.) I can’t say I remember writing a single thing before age 8, so what was this supposed sense of humor my “readers” found fascinating? I did get straight off the plane and beeline to Taco Tuesday in Barrio Logan this week for the start of adventure #2,859,443:

…so as I sit here sipping coffee on the west coast today, I have to think our small fry selves must have the instinct to know exactly what we wanted to become…far before we are even close to getting there.

Pretty cool.

As life keeps flying by and I ebb and flow in and out of writing here, this Blue Lollipop Road remains my absolute favorite place, no matter where I go.

Thanks for the post, Lenny. And to you little Diane…thanks for the reminder.

Here’s to continuing to give yourself permission to do and be everything you wanted to, before you were even tall enough to get on that ride.

#LessWaitingMoreDoing #RespectTheClock #EverydayAdventures

October 5, 2017 In Freedom, Inspiration, Live the life you want to live, News & Updates, North Carolina, Photos, Today Is The Day, Uncategorized

just. start. driving.

We all talk. We say we want this and that, we pretend we’re fully committed, we make ourselves feel good by chipping away tiny line items on our never ending to-do lists, years pass, and we never get anywhere, or at least anywhere close to where we actually want to be.

Squirrel!

Am I talking about you? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Me too.

We swirl in this purgatory place of half-committed, because life get’s in the way…of life; money, kids, relationships, laundry, rinse and repeat. We ignore the truth, our true desires, we busy and distract ourselves, we worry, we help other people first, and there we are 10 years later.

As in, quite literally, 10 years later.

Blue Lollipop Road kicks off year #10 on October 16th. (TEN YEARS!) When realizing that upcoming birthday during the past few months this summer, along with looking at what my work life had become, (off track from what I’ve really wanted and been trying to do all these years), I decided to call bullshit on myself, and draw my deepest line in the sand yet. I’m a big believer in accountability and willingness to publicly embarrass oneself. Want to light a fire under your own ass even though you know you have the capability of doing “it” on your own? Tell the world you’re going to do something big. Hopefully your world will continue to call you out regularly until you do that thing. (You better believe if you ever tell me you have a burning desire to do something, I will poke you and give you positive grief until you do it. I expect the same in return, so thank you to those of you who always give it right back to me.)

As you can see from the above now empty living space photos, Elvis (Diane) has left the building. Why? To go where? You’ll just have to keep following here to see what’s next.

Would you believe this minimalist, who cares about a space it is only a space and I can make home anywhere! – threw two temper tantrums during her move the other day? Two! As in crying and throwing fists in the air with frustration looking and sounding like that spawn of Satan child in the Target check out line who’s mom said she couldn’t have the M&M’s. It was slightly horrifying. Thank goodness only one person saw, and luckily he still wants to be around me. Who knew I had fallen so much in love with my cozy comfort zone space and habits. All the more reason to jump into a new controlled fire, to keep that light under my ass burning hot. Want to make things happen? Sacrifice, baby.

Crazy how we all like so much, to stay snuggled tight under our warm blankets of complacency, not nearly as alive as we think we are.

As I sit here in my new fire, 110% committed to my one big career goal that maybe should’ve been completed years ago, but probably couldn’t have had the chance to be as great as it will be until now, those annoying little negative, fearful, I must be crazy, worry gnomes are trying their hardest to get a ticket to my party again. Sorry bitches! Ain’t no room for you up in my celebration station anymore! I just took a blow torch to that cozy comfort zone blanket soiree, so I could stand here awkwardly naked, strong and proud, ready to put back on only the layers that fit completely authentically.

Soon I will launch a sparkly new writing project here. I guarantee you’ll dig it, and be able to see a lot of yourself in what’s to come. Happy almost birthday to my sweet baby blue!

I hope you go out today, and get all kinds of naked. Nobody has this life perfectly figured out. All you can do is strip yourself down to your core and hop in the car. Somehow the road is always right there.

#LessPlanningMoreDoing #LifeOutsideTheDroneZone #TodayIsTheDay

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

February 11, 2015 In BLR Play it Forward 2012, Links, People, Photos, Press, Projects & Organizations I dig

live, uncut, and unfiltered; warn the children

Can I get a whoop whoop?! Tell-ya-like-it-is, soul-sister in not being afraid to throw eff-bombs when necessary, and Author of You are a Badass, Jen Sincero- linked to Blue Lollipop Road in her blog post yesterday!

Boom chicka BOOM!

Naturally I’m thrilled to potentially have some of her readers eyes here on BLR considering they’re probably total badasses, or soon-to-be total badasses after reading her book, but mostly todays linkage is awesome because as I have always said (and Jen writes to this point in her book)- when you take a step towards life, the universe responds. (Translation; Do things you love, are good at, and that feel natural to you, because when you do, traction and movement just starts happening. Period.)

I wrote this blog post on January 19th, because I was genuinely pissed off at myself for not posting here regularly like I used to/not working on my book more, for wasting my time working with a ridiculous client over the past 6 months who was not worth my time or energy, and for being apprehensive about generally writing in the tone I most enjoy; my actual own voice! I’ve been skittish about really throwing my eff-bombs and uber opinions around like I used to, since starting the Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship Fund and BLR Play It Forward in 2012: What if a parent of these girls applying for my scholarship read my blog posts that are often littered with cuss words and over-the-top-sass and thinks I’m crazy?

As I read Jen’s book it was like she snapped her fingers in my face to wake me up from some kind of filtered trance that I had put myself in when I decided I wanted to launch Play It Forward. The do-gooder in me worried about community members and parents shunning their children away from “Crazy Diane who has that event and scholarship fund.” So I haven’t been living like my awesome badass self as much as I have wanted to, writing freely. (Blasphemy!)

So there I am a few weeks back, reading Jen’s words, getting all fired up thinking Bitch stole my book! I’m the one that get’s on my soap box spewing everything she’s talking about! She took the words out of my mouth! That’s how I usually write! Then I wrote that blog post, giving Jen props because hey- while I’ve been being all sissy and filtering my words, she was taking action actually writing her book, and well- the early bird gets the worm, baby. After writing my post I popped on over to good ol’ Facebook and put the link on Jen’s page with a “Thanks, Jen!” – and didn’t think another thing about it because I was busy focusing on kicking my ass back to myself. Meanwhile, in pops a response from Jen that she was going to share my link in her next blog post (yeah!) and here we are.

I did what was genuine and made me feel good by writing that blog post about Jen’s book, and the universe (Jen in this case) responded with some payback love.

Pretty awesome. That’s how it works!

I decided long, long ago to ride the badass train of living it up after losing 2 of my best friends who all of this Blue Lollipop Road awesomeness is dedicated to. I think I’ve managed to do a great job with that…most of time. As I look back at the past few years, I can see myself falling off that train here and there. Learning big time stuff about your adult self and leaving the younger you behind is no easy task, but now- especially after reading Jen’s book which made me feel like I was looking in a gargantuan mirror of my own words, I’m back to the game plan, laser focus, and reality that was burned into my brain back in 1994; there’s no time to be filtered or afraid. Life is too short for any of that crap.

Today is February 11, 2015 and this day would have been my friend Maria’s 37th Birthday. Here we are in 6th grade before a big field trip, all badass like we owned the world. We didn’t care about a thing (including how ridiculous our hair or fanny packs looked) other than being happy, and feeling alive like we could conquer the world:

6th grade class trip

We were #1 for sure that day. Talk about dance like nobody’s watching. LOVE. THIS. PHOTO. The two of us were always uncut, unfiltered, and having a blast when we were together. That’s how I fully intend to live the rest of my years, inspired by people like my friend, who I wish more than anything, was here to celebrate with today.

Who inspires you to take your filter off?

#BadassBook #BeYou #Unfiltered