Cosmo anyone?

So it’s about 10pm and I’m eagerly waiting to join some friends at midnight to attend the premiere of the Sex in the City movie! It’s like waiting to see a long lost friend….a friend that encompasses a huge impactful time of my life.

The series hit at the same time I found myself newly single in my early 30’s.  Every week it hit a chord - as if I was sitting with Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda reviewing the crazy stories of the week.  I had a great group of core friends that were my own personal Sex in the City singles - Ann, Jill, Deb and Kari.  I actually had dinner with Jill tonight and we laughed and talked kids, dogs, in-laws - not quite the same excitement as the many fun dates, parties and adventures that filled the discussion of our early 30’s but just as fulfilling. 

Friends are our chosen family - especially girlfriends - and I’ve been lucky enough to have some incredible ones in my life. Dawn Marie - who’s like a sister - who I cried next to in our playpens as infants, Deanna, Teri, Molly, Connie, Becca, Cindy…there are so many that I cherish.  I have employees that are my friends, franchisees that are my friends….I have college friends, childhood friends, neighborhood friends.  All are equally important and fill different needs in my life.  On this night that I reflect back on the wonderful people - specifically my girlfriends - and toast them with a big fruity “carrie-esque” cocktail for being such wonderful parts of my life and supporting me non-stop through all the craziness of the past decade!

“Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief. “

Joseph Addison

Get your squeak on….

That - if you didn’t know - is the subtitle for the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie….it’s also the sound my 3 lb Maltese makes throughout the night ferociously guarding the house! Actually, it’s more like a chicken squawk - but don’t tell Scout I said that - he’ll get a complex!

Anyway, two other guys got their squeak on last night - David and David! I haven’t been a big American Idol fan until this season.  It’s been so interesting watching the dynamics of the press, my friends, my daughters friends, my employees….I think people are more passionate about their opinions on Idol than they are the election!!  My big take away from last night was a reminder that things in life can change on a dime.  You’ve got to be open to whereever life takes you - whether you are launched from being a bartender to an American Idol or a business owner who is suddenly facing a challenging economy and a different set of rules about how to do business….

Charles Darwin said “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. “  From my experiences, change is what it’s all about.  Life was not meant to be stagnant or easy - it was meant to be challenging and full of experiences to learn from.  The paths you choose make you the person you are - so grab change with a feeling of zest and excitement! Fear of change will paralyze you while welcoming change will allow you to evolve and keep life interesting!

Carpe Diem! : ) 

The best mother’s day gift ever!

So it’s been a long hard two years as a cheer mom…cheerleading that is. Tori proclaimed to me at the beginning of the two years that this was her dream - her ambition - to be a competitive cheerleader!

I remember thinking…huh? Since when is cheerleading a sport? I now know the answer - obviously since I was one! It’s tumbling, stunting, conditioning, hip hop dance….it’s quite an ordeal. My friends and I were all cheerleaders and dang, it wasn’t much more than putting on a skirt, showing up looking cute and cheering with some pom poms! Boy have things changed.

So since that first conversation it’s been…driving the 20 miles back and forth 2-3 times a week - right in the heart of traffic, giving up most weekends during the 9 month competition season to last minute practices, getting up at 6am on Saturdays before a competition to do hair and makeup for my daughter and my friend’s daughter (it takes TWO hours!!!) and giving up two vacations to Mexico to accommodate rule changes that the girls can’t miss a practice two weeks before a competition. Ok, so I’m venting….I would do just about anything to support my daughter’s dreams and ambition to be what she wants to be.

What was terribly painful was to support my daughter’s involvement in a club that seemed to care more about winning than about the fragile preteen egos placed in their care for many hours a week. In some cases I’m sure the cheerleaders spent more time with their coaches at the club than with their own families.  They had to show up if they were sick, they were not allowed to miss practice for any school events that were not absolutely mandatory, they had to be completely totally devoted to the place.  I started to think, how odd, I’m so all about girl’s self esteem and making them believe they can do anything - and yet my own daughter was being drawn into the opposite thought patterns.

After venting to my mom and dad, my boyfriend, fellow moms…I realized I needed to let it play out and let Tori do her thing. I also acknowledged that the club made it clear if we didn’t like the rules we could leave.

A few weeks after I did that, on mother’s day to be exact, my daughter shocked all of us at the dinner table by announcing she was taking a break from cheerleading.  I beamed with pride - Tori had figured it out all on her own.  The self esteem and pride I had worked so hard to instill in her came shining thru as she took a huge step by walking away from an unhealthy situation.  What a great gift for me!

Eight Belles….

I have been struggling since Saturday about what to write about this…but I knew I wanted to say so much. I was at a huge Derby Party in Denver watching the race with millions of others around the country when I was horrified to see the beautiful filly go down.   I love horses as much as I love dogs, but had never put much thought into the horse racing issue.  As a newbie to this animal rights stuff, I am taking one step at a time…after my trip to Greece last year I’ve been transforming one step at a time.  I recently became a vegetarian after reading the best seller “Skinny B” about the meat industry.  I have become much more vocal about my thoughts on animals where before I would sit silently not wanting to “upset” anyone by calling them out on the issues.

So rather than formulate my own words, I found someone who framed my thoughts perfectly….check it out and post your comments.

http://msn.foxsports.com/horseracing/story/8105724?MSNHPHCP>1=39002

My crazy dog days….

My days start with a lick and a nudge from a big black wet nose…Ray Ray my lab has an internal alarm clock like the official international time clock! Soon afterwards,  my iPhone chirps away with the sounds of iPhone’s crickett noises - much to the delight of Scout, my lil 3 lb maltese rescue that wakes to that sound each morning and truly believes the lil critters are hopping around evading him and looking to play!

As my boyfriend kids, from the moment I wake my brain starts with “dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, breakfast, dogs, dogs, dogs, Tori school, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, drive to work, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, franchising…

I arrive at the office to find about 40 emails and 10 voice mails - even though I left the office at 6pm the night before! I try not to work in the early evenings but spend time with Jason, Tori, Raider and Scout - hiking, making dinner, watching our goofy favorite shows (should I admit we love American Idol? We flip between that, the basketball playoffs and CNBC in any given hour…) or playing games on the Wii…after the rest of the house is fast asleep I get some time to catch up on emails from the day and work on various projects or programs.

The days fly by with meetings and short sessions of return phone calls and emails - today my meetings ranged from a quick muffin for breakfast with my in house counsel to quickly review documents, a meeting of our franchise relations and real estate teams to discuss some new programs to speed the openings of our Camps and lower budgets, a quick session to discuss a potential partnership on a new dog movie, a phone call about speakers for our coming annual meeting, a photo shoot for some upcoming press and finally to wrap the afternoon up a meeting with our CFO to discuss April Camp data.  Another 100 or so emails flood in throughout the day and my voice mail fills with calls from various vendors, franchisees, team members…

and even with all of these distractions, my thoughts remain….”dogs, dogs, dogs, eat lunch, dogs, dogs, dogs, pick up dry cleaning, dogs, dogs, dogs, create auction package for Tori’s school, dogs, dogs, dogs, walk Rotti our Greekie at Camp, dogs, dogs, dogs, stop and pick up stuff for dinner…

It’s an absolute joy to wake up every day and love what I do.  I love that I have a wonderful family based business that is focused on something I’m so passionate about and allows other to fulfill their dreams of owning a business and caring for our furry friends….it ends with my mind trailing into dream land back to “dogs, dogs, dogs, snooooooooooooze………………..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….”