Attitude Reorganization

Everyone has days when they wake up and dread the idea of going to work but over the past few months, I was having more of those days than ever.  Even though I’m happy to have a job, I didn’t have the same love for it that I once had until recently something changed my attitude. 

I am corporate meeting planner.  When I graduated college, I knew this was the career I wanted to get into and after years of building up the experience I needed, I finally had the opportunity.   Originally I was hired to handle all tradeshow involvement, company meetings, and corporate events.   Over the years since I started, my company had undergone several reorganizations.   Each time we had a restructuring, I have been told that I would be doing more marketing tasks in order to incorporate me more with my department and give me additional responsibility.  While I was happy to accept the challenge, I was moving further and further away from the doing the things I originally signed on to do.  It had taken me over three years since I graduated college to land my “dream job” and with each change in management I was slowly watching it fade away.  I found myself doing less and less of what I was originally hired for, which resulted in my unhappiness with my career.

 However, a few weeks ago, I experienced yet another reorg.  It was less drastic one than those I had gone through in the past but it still affected me directly.   I had a new manager to work with and suddenly everything changed.  This person believed in me and I was back to spending my time focusing on the things I wanted to be doing.   He thought I was good at what I did and that made me want to be even better.  I found myself working harder than I ever have and want to go above and beyond to be successful.   I'm busy but I love it.  

I started to think that if reorganization can help me find joy in my career again, maybe I could apply that theory to other aspects of my life to generate the same affect.   I’m starting with my living arrangement.  Since I’ve moved into my apartment almost two years ago, it’s been exactly the same.  So this weekend I devoted my efforts to changing things around.  It’s nothing really major but just a few adjustments to hopefully rejuvenate me. 

Being happy is a state of mind.  If you are unhappy with something in your life, don’t be afraid to be proactive in seeking out the change needed to put you back in a better place.  Sometimes we need things that are out of our control to change like getting a new manager at work or a promotion.  Other times we change our state of mind all by ourselves.   If you’re not happy with how you look, maybe it’s a new diet or work out plan that will make you feel better or changing up your wardrobe that will refresh you.   Maybe it’s your home that is leaving you feeling less than thrilled with life so stop by Ikea to grab some new furniture or change a room around.  A little reorganization in our lives might go a long way to help adjust our attitude.  Before you know it, you might just be happy again.

"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." -Abraham Lincoln

Unanswerable Questions

According to Wikipedia, philosophy is defined as the study of general and fundamental problems.  In my world most of the time philosophy is just a fun skin care line but today I’m going to get a little philosophical in a more traditional kind of way.

If a tree falls in the woods, does anyone hear it?  Reply hazy, try again.  What is the meaning of life?  Ask again later.  What is the nature of the universe?  Can not predict now.  What happens at death?  Concentrate and ask again.  As you can see philosophy is just a series of subjective, unanswerable questions that the magic 8 ball of life is pretty non committal on. 

Well I have a few never ending questions of my own.  Can people really change?  I’m working very hard to change myself to be more of the person I want to be but when it comes to other people, can they really change?  Is it true that history repeats itself?  There is a common expression that says fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.  If you lose trust with someone, can you ever fully get it back or will you always keep one eye open waiting for that person to let you down again?

Life is full of unanswerable questions.  It would be nice if that magic eight ball could tell you all the answers but since it can’t, we just have to trust our heads and our hearts.  Too bad sometimes even when our heads scream “Wake up to you moron!” our hearts will tell us something completely different.   What happens when our hearts and heads refuse to agree with each other?  I guess it’s just one more philosophical question to ponder.

“Philosophy is the science which considers truth.” – Aristotle

Get In The Car

Yesterday I was asked to return a rental car for my boss.   Instantly I felt myself transcend into a state of pure panic.  I’m not a very good driver.  I am an accident prone driver, a nervous driver, a slow driver, sometimes a stop and go driver but overall good is one description I would not give my driving.  In fact, if at all possible, I avoid driving.  But as I drove along the unfamiliar Florida highways, facing my phobias while praying that I would not get in an accident, I started thinking just how much life is like driving. 

Driving down the road of life can be scary at times.  We experience all kinds of obstacles and excitement.  Sometimes we get flat tires or hit a bump in the road and other times, we sail down the highway, traffic free with the windows down on a beautiful day while enjoying a great song on the radio.

Currently, I’m not rolling in happiness or excitement but I’ve reached a point where life is happening and although it’s enjoyable, I’m pretty much just riding in neutral.  No real ups or downs just cruising along while flipping through the radio stations trying to find something good to sing along to.  It may be a little bit of a mundane road trip but for someone who was content to sit in the passenger seat of her own life for so long, at least I'm finally driving.

This weekend, I was reminded of hazards of the road.  I have a friend who recently had her life take a turn for the worse.  While I watched her struggle to maneuver the twists and turns of the road, I felt so bad because I have been there.  The road ahead of you seems to stretch for miles and all you can see are orange cones and detours telling you the path you planned to take is currently “under construction”.  I don’t know what it is but most of the time you feel like you just can’t catch a break.  As the rain of misfortune pelts your car, all you can do is throw on your windshield wipers and wait for the storm to pass. 

Sunday night my travels led me to a cocktail party for work and I found myself surrounded by people driving on a more positive stretch of highway.  I started with my company three years ago and back then our sales meetings were long days of meetings followed by late nights out at the bars.  Everyone was young, single and care free.  Now, as I looked around the room, I couldn’t believe how far they had all travelled down the road in such a short time.  Conversations that once centered around sorted stories of hangovers and parties were replaced with baby pictures and wedding recaps.  These people I had known for years had evolved into more mature, polished versions.  However, even though most of them have traded in their BMWs for minivans, they were still ultimately driving down the road we are all traveling on; they are just hitting less traffic right now.   

As you take your journey through life, buckle up and just keep driving.  Don't just settle for riding in the passenger seat because you are afraid of what the road might hold.  Yes there will be bumps in the road or hills we will have to get over.  There may be construction or detours standing in our way but eventually we all get to where we are going.  If you get lost, don’t be too stubborn to pull over and ask for directions.  There may not be a GPS available to guide you on your way but there are plenty of people willing to help you get back on course.   When you hit the high points of your road trip, try to enjoy the ride.   Although the road may seem flat right now, eventually we will need to take ourselves off cruise control so we should just enjoy the calm while it lasts.   And don’t forget, you never know what lies ahead so proceed with caution because life can change around every corner.   

“On the road of life, there are passengers and there are drivers.  Drivers wanted!” – Volkswagen Slogan

My Own Worst Eskimo

This morning I turned on the TV and instead of watching the Today Show like I usually do, I was compelled to flip through the channels.  I stopped my search when I saw ABC Family had Boy Meets World on at 7:30 in the morning.  It has been years since the last time I saw Cory, Shawn, and Topanga but I will admit I do love that show.   As I watched, I began to think that maybe I was meant to see this morning’s episode.

For weeks now I’m been saying I want to really start doing some writing.  Now I’m not talking blogging but real writing.  My goal has always been to write a novel and no matter how much I want it, I just seem to fall short of actually completing that task.  Sometimes I doubt myself and wonder if I have what it takes to write something that really matters.  Sometimes I think that even though I have ideas, I will never be able to find the drive and focus needed to finish any of the stories I start.  To be honest, I constantly think that the whole idea is just an impossible dream rather than a realistic possibility. 

This morning, teacher/mentor Mr. Feeney assigned Cory and Shawn to go out and get tickets to the Superbowl.  He also told Topanga that she would not be allowed to help.  No tickets equaled failure for the boys and butting in would mean failure for Topanga.  Yes, it was mission impossible all around.  As the show went on, Topanga tried charades to avoid interfering and blemishing her perfect record while still aiding the clueless boys in their attempt to get the tickets.  Cory and Shawn ended up entering a contest to win the tickets that required Shawn to sit on a billboard in the freezing cold longer than all the other contestants to win.  Although he made it to the final two, when he noticed that he was competing against an ice cream cone eating Eskimo who was visiting Philadelphia in January for vacation, he realized that his task was impossible so he gave up.  The trio went in to Mr. Feeney to say and that the lesson they had learned was that the task was impossible but Feeney refused to accept anything but a completed assignment and asked where the tickets were.  This prompted Shawn to go back up on the billboard and the other two to go get him.  The contest was over but Shawn had to return to the scene of his latest failure, Corey once again had to go and try to save him, and Topanga had to keep fighting to not get involved in order to remain perfect.   Shawn eventually tells Cory to be his friend and get out of his way because he was going to the Superbowl.

In the end each of them learned a lesson that they all needed to learn.  Topanga learned that it’s ok to fail or not be perfect.  Sometimes you have to fail to help you grow.  No one is perfect.  Cory realized that no matter what he wanted for Shawn, he had to step back and let Shawn do what he wants.  He had to let his friend figure out life on his own.  And then there was Shawn, who learned the most important lesson of all.  There will always be an Eskimo standing in your way but that doesn’t mean that things are impossible.  It just means that you have to keep trying to make things happen.  The episode ends with everyone watching the Superbowl and Mr. Feeney seeing a sign in the crowd that said, “Feeney, nothing’s impossible”.  Shawn was at the Superbowl.  Assignment completed, mission possible.

There are a lot of things in life that we term as “impossible” but maybe those things aren’t necessarily unattainable but rather just tasks that require a little more effort to make them possible.  The real truth is that even though there are things that will stand in our way, we are the biggest roadblock to our ultimate success.  Sometimes we are our own worst Eskimos.  I know I definitely am.  I can talk myself out of anything if I really put my mind to it and that’s not always a good thing.  Sure my desire to be my generation’s Salinger and write the great American novel may not be the most attainable goal but somewhere inside of me is a story that I want to tell.  I don’t want to let the Eskimos in my way keep me from trying.   This morning I needed a little Boy Meets World reminder to give this dream all I have regardless of the odds against me.   If I fail, I fail but at least I went for it.  Nothing is impossible unless we let it be.

“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.” – Vince Lombardi

Blues, Booze, and A Wizarding World

Yesterday I told you that I took a little mini vacation to Orlando but I didn’t give you details.  Another thing I wanted to make sure that I did this year was experience things that I hadn’t done already.   I travel a lot but most of the time even though I go places, I don’t really go anywhere.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone from airport to hotel to convention center, barely even seeing the light of day.   It wasn’t until last April when a work trip to Phoenix turned into a road trip to Sedona that I realized that the chance to visit all these amazing destinations will not come around every day so I should take advantage of it now.

That’s where the mini vacation comes in.  It was a last minute decision to send me to Orlando and when I found out I would be going, I couldn’t help but think about my last trip there.  It was about a year ago and I had a meeting at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.  I was there two days before anyone else from my company arrived and although I was working, I did have some down time.  Maybe it was all the Mickey paraphernalia or that the Contemporary Resort brought back a lot of memories because it was where I stayed when I was a kid, but I felt drawn to Cinderella’s castle every time I saw it from my hotel window.   So I went for it.  I bought a Disney pass and walked around the Magic Kingdom by myself.  Well let me tell you, Disney by yourself equals zero fun.  I felt almost sad being there all alone.  My walk lasted only a little over an hour but I just didn’t know what to do with myself.  There is only so much shopping in souvenir stores that one person can do!

Well this time when the plane ticket said Orlando, I was determined to make it better than my last trip.  I grabbed my cousin Sean who has nothing to do until he goes back to school at the end of the month and decided to have a Disney do over.  I spent a week planning my ultimate Orlando trip and tried to figure out how to do it all in two days but I have to say that it exceeded all my expectations.

Friday was a night out where we stumbled upon BB King’s Bar and Grille just in time to get some fried pickles and take in a blues concert.  There were margaritas and tagging money at a Mexican bar and a stop at Cuba Libre.  Saturday was my Disney redo, which included an eating and drinking tour of Epcot complete with pictures of me representing the ugly hats of the different countries.  Finally Sunday was a visit to Harry Potter World, which allowed me to check another thing off the list of unexpected adventures. 

Overall, I did a lot on this trip but most importantly, I stepped outside of my comfort zones.  I’ve never seen blues before and eating fried pickles was a first.  At the margarita bar, I crossed off the OSU Buckeyes that was written on the bar and wrote PSU over it, which is something I would normally talk about doing but then get too afraid to do.  Even though I’ve done Disney before, I did it like I never have and tried on a lot of funny hats along the way without worrying about making a fool of myself.  I went to Universal Studios for the first time and saw one of my all time favorite books come to life plus checked another thing off my to do list.  And the bonus was I got to all this with one of my favorite people.

You have to take advantage of the all the opportunities you are given in life.  I want to let the experiences and the adventures challenge and define me as I go along.  Hopefully this trip will inspire me to continue to go for things rather than just sit back and wait for them to come to me.   My weekend adventure may have been filled with small steps but small steps or big steps are all steps and steps keep you moving forward.  I want to see everything I can and I will just have to do it, one blues, booze and Wizarding World trip at a time.

"We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experiences and character." - Henry David Thoreau

CTRL+ALT+DELETE

It’s been almost a week since my last post and it’s definitely been a crazy couple of days but my absence is completely justified.  Sometimes we have to step away from our computers and our lives in general to reboot. 

I made myself promise to do several things when I decided to start this blog.  One of those promises was that I would start 2011 completely baggage free, which is where the whole letting go thing comes in.  I guess you could call it a new year’s resolution of sorts but I think it really goes beyond that.  I want the idea of not holding on to things to be a way of life moving forward and I actually started out really well.  I took the necessary steps I needed to take in order to deal with everything head on and on December 31^st, I really thought that I had released all the skeletons in my closet. 

Last week something, or rather someone I thought I had bottled up and left in 2010 had reappeared and I found myself at a fork in the road.   On one hand, I could have gone down a very familiar path and ended up right back where I started or I could have made the choice to face the issue and deal with it in order to remain on the path I want to stay on for the future. 

It seems like a no brainer but I will be honest, I stumbled a little bit.  I found myself hurting when I thought I would be completely immune.  My friend Amy said it was because I still cared about this “situation”.  She’s right.  I did still care but unlike in the past, this time I didn’t want to.  I had committed to letting go of certain things and this particular issue was one of them but committing to let go means closing all doors, which I did not do.  I had left one door still open for this issue to reenter my life and that was my mistake.  The truth was I really didn’t think it would be a big deal but last week it became one causing me to accidently trip back into all the craziness I had tried so hard to extract from my life. 

However, even though we stumble, we don’t have to fall.  We can catch ourselves.  When trying to let go it’s only natural that there will be some back sliding.  I was fortunate enough that I was able to realize this before I got all bogged down in the drama again.  With very little hesitation, I closed the final door connecting me to this person.  I think subconsciously I wanted to leave one more link available if I never needed it but I realized I will never need it nor should I ever want it.  In our worlds, some people are lucky enough to be in it and others are just taking up space.  There aren’t enough minutes in the day to waste any of them on those who don’t waste even a second on you. 

So this weekend, I took 48 hours, 2880 minutes, or 172,800 seconds and spent them all on me.  Since I had to work the latter part of the week in Orlando, I decided to spend the weekend and have a little mini vacation.  While the Northeast froze, I soaked up some much needed Vitamin D and got the perfect escape I needed to keep me from sliding back into old habits.  It was my version of CTRL+ALT+DELETE.  Now I’m back up and running and in the words of the rapper Drake, “I just hope that you miss me a little when I’m gone”.    J

"A bend in the road is not the end of the road...unless you fail to make the turn." - Unknown

Happy Reality

So I have a guilty pleasure.  Hi my name is Ali and I’m a reality TV aholic. (Hi Ali!)  I know those shows are completely ridiculous but sometimes it’s refreshing to experience the drama on TV rather than in my own life.  This week, when I watched the new episode of The Bachelor, I became convinced that Brad Womack and my ex-boyfriend have a creepy resemblance.  There are very few photos of that relationship still remaining but I do have them tucked away.  There was one in particular from a night out in Hoboken, NJ that I thought would prove that I’m not crazy in thinking they look alike so I decided to rummage through my memory box to try and find it.  However, as I went through everything, I got a little side tracked.

Basically, I have a large Tupperware container that over the years has become filled with all the things I want to keep from the special moments in my life.  I know I’ve mentioned before that I’m a pack rat but if you could see the contents of this box, you would know how much of a sickness it really is.  It’s been such a long time since I really went through those things and I have to say, I’m just so happy to have it all. 

There are award certificates, high school football signs, Gamma Phi Beta mementos, and old concert and sporting event tickets.  There’s a card from my best friend during our first year of college when we went to different schools that starts off “Sup *uckhead” (now that’s love!) and a Valentine’s Day card from my “Original Crazy Roomie”.  I’ve saved countless thank you notes for baby showers, wedding gifts, Christmas presents, and work.  There are cards from boys who had crushes on me and boys who loved me.  I have cards congratulating me on my PSU graduation, wishing me a happy birthday, and hundreds of cards from my parents all signed with “You’re our favorite daughter” (I win by default because I’m their only daughter).  There are cards and letters from my aunt who passed away, a whole separate box of dancer mail from THON, and pictures of family and friends.  There are postcards written by ex-boyfriends from Bali and Siena, pictures of past relationships from those cheesy photo booths, and cards signed “you might be worth keeping around for a little while” (didn’t realize at the time how true that one would be!).  I have homemade thank you notes made by campers from my summer camp job, construction paper cards from my little cousins, and every picture and card my god daughter has ever given me.  There is even a great  Barbie 21^st birthday card from my sorority big sister that came with a “license to have fun” for Little Ali (thanks Col!).  It’s my whole life down to one box. 

Of course I could go on for days with all the things I have saved but I definitely enjoyed getting to go through everything.  I talk a lot about changing and wanting to change but I don’t really talk about the amazing things that I do have.  I have the type of friends that most people would kill for, my family is in a league of their own, and I am without a doubt fantastic.  Confidence comes from being happy with who you are and somewhere along the line, I realized that I am pretty damn happy.  Going through everything in my memory box was just another reminder of how ridiculously lucky I am.

I never did find my Brad Womack look-a-like ex boyfriend picture but I gave up the search.  Suddenly that didn’t seem that important and it's probably better it says buried anyways.  But I did find that all this started with my reality TV obsession but ended with the realization that reality is better than TV.  Sure there is drama and negative stuff in my life but when I look back on all the happy times, I know that it is all worth it.

“If only we’d stop trying to be happy we’d have a pretty good time.” – Edith Wharton

The Road is Life

The great Jack Kerouac wrote “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go.  But no matter, the road is life.”  My battered suitcase is once again pulled out and sitting on the floor next to my bed.  My clothes are still hanging in the closet but soon they will be folded, shoved, and crammed inside that suitcase as it becomes my constant companion on the road.   There are planes, trains and automobiles in my future.  Home is where the hotel is.  Welcome to my life as a nomad.

As I flipped through my calendar today, I realized that the months were quickly filling up.  In fact, starting this coming week, whether for business or pleasure, I will be in and out of Philadelphia straight through the beginning of April. 

I love to travel.  I love the change that it brings to my life.  One day I can be in freezing cold, snowy Philadelphia and the next day, I can wake up and take a walk on a beautiful Miami Beach.  I can go from the fast paced craziness of New York City to the slow southern living of Charleston, SC.  I can experience the steamy heat of the Phoenix desert and the misty cool Seattle rain in the same week. 

For the first quarter of 2011, the high points include a trip to the FLA to visit Harry, a little GPhiB in NYC, back to the ORL, down to NOLA, and to the Happiest of Valleys and back to the Big Apple.  Then it’s spring in Tampa Bay, once again in Disney country, off to sunny So Cal, hopefully a trip up the Cali coast to see the fam, on to the Burgh, and finally a little bit of Southwestern flavor with a stop in the Big D.  You definitely get bonus points if you can figure all that out J.

 To most people, my schedule may seem a bit overwhelming but to me it’s the chaos that I live for.  This level of travel is nothing new to me and when I’m not on the road I get a little stir crazy.  We live in an amazing country and I’m extremely fortunate to get the opportunity to see so many of its different parts.  I’m hoping that during this round of travel, I’ll be able to experience some of the amazing things that each of these cities have to offer, things I haven't done before and check a few more items off my list.  I’ve got some big plans for the next few months and it’s time to take this life on the road.   

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

Something for the Princesses

It seems like over the last year or so, the people in my life are either moving forward or moving on when it comes to relationships.  Some of them are getting married or engaged and some of them are getting on with starting over after a break up.  Lately I feel like I’ve seen more of the latter and last night as I watched A Cinderella Story, I got to thinking about fairy tales.

When we’re young, we are told wonderful stories filled with great loves and happy endings; however, that’s actually a contradiction.  You see, great loves don’t have endings.  They may have happy moments or sad moments but real love stories don’t end.  If you can just stop loving someone, then something tells me they will not qualify as the great love of your life and maybe it wasn’t even really true love in the first place.  Since I haven't found my great love story (yet), I can only commiserate with the unhappily ever after side of the relationship saga, but that’s the side of the fairy tale we don’t usually see.  Maybe if they portrayed the downside of the love story then we would be more prepared for the possibility that happily ever after isn’t always so easy to come by.

So as I was thinking of all the outdated fairy tales about love, I began wondering how these “damsels in distress” would be in a 2011 version of the stories.  If Cinderella lost a glass slipper at the ball, would she wait around for her handsome prince to bring it back to her or would she just mourn the loss of a really cute pair of shoes and then whip out the Visa card to treat herself to some new ones?  Would Snow White actually settle for cooking and cleaning up after the Seven Dwarfs or would she sign up for Career Builder and move on with her life?  Are you honestly telling me that with all the advances in modern medicine that true love’s kiss is the only thing that can wake poor Sleeping Beauty?  Would all these girls still be sitting round waiting to be saved in a post Carrie Bradshaw world? 

The truth is that I would be lying if I said I didn’t want the fairy tale.  I would love to be Cinderella and find my prince charming to ride off into the sunset with but that's easier said than done.  We live in a dating world where we tend to find more shady Pinocchios than prince charmings.  We have boys that cry love and little boys that refuse to grow up, aka Peter Pans, but we all still hold out hope for the day when we kiss the frog that will magically turn into the handsome prince we have been waiting for.      

But the question still remains, what if our prince turns out to be just a villain in disguise?  When that happens, you can’t help but start to wonder why some people get their fairy tale romances and you get stuck with yet another heartbreak.  The song says, “Someday my prince will come,” but when is someday?

To be honest, if I could answer those questions, I probably wouldn’t still be looking for my own prince charming but for all of you starting over, the only advice I can offer you is this.  Breaking up is hard to do.  Be sad or angry or whatever it is that you need to be to help heal your broken heart but don’t wait around for a prince to come take you away to some magical life.  Great things happen when we least expect them to so do your best to let go of your search for happily ever afer.  Live your life and when the time comes, let a guy fall into the life you already have. 

You can say this little diatribe is about girl power or feminist, but the underlying theme is the same regardless of gender.  It's just about healing.  It's about moving on and realizing that your world is not over because your relationship has ended.  We don’t need a handsome prince or white knight to come throw us on the back of their horse and save us.  What exactly are they saving us from anyways?!  Trade the horseback riding for a Mustang convertible and be in the driver’s seat when you ride off into the sunset.  Maybe you’ll pick up a prince along the way or maybe you won’t but don’t settle for just being a princess needing to be saved.  Be a queen and rule your own life.

"The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power.  You just take it." - Roseanne Barr

The Tale of a Second Ted

Most of the time, when you mention the name Ted Williams, people think of the former left fielder for the Boston Red Sox who will always be considered one of the greatest to ever play the game of baseball.   But for right now, while that Ted Williams remains frozen in Florida, another Ted Williams will stand for a second chance at fulfilling your destiny.

When I woke up yesterday morning, the Today Show was discussing a You Tube video that was getting some major attention.  Ted Williams, a homeless man living in Columbus, OH, had a gift.   Armed with a sign advertising his “golden voice”, Ted took to the streets of Columbus looking to trade the chance to hear him talk for donations to help him live.  Today, the morning news broadcast brought the man into their studio, sat him on the couch, and allowed him and his story to enter the homes of their viewers. 

The one time radio personality had spent the last 10 years on the streets, fighting a drug addiction that had spiraled out of control.  He went from a good place to rock bottom and has been everywhere in between.  Within the last two years, William’s has discovered a renewed sense of faith in god and himself that has helped him get sober.  Of course as a society we are automatically skeptical that someone can change as much as he is claiming to have or that all this new found fame and attention won’t send him back to finding comfort in his addictions but you can’t help but want to root for him to succeed.  If we've learned anything from all those Rocky movies, it's that everybody cheers for the underdog.    

As I watched the interview, I found myself tearing up but not over his story.  Sure, the tale was one of courage through despair and strength when conquering demons but the thing that stood out to me was the genuine attitude that he displayed throughout the segment.  Sitting there with Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira, this 52 year old man was like a kid on Christmas morning.  Not only was he polite, respectful, and well spoken, but he was overwhelmed with the excitement that this has brought to his life as well as thankful and appreciative.  He owned up to his mistakes and accepted that he was directly to blame for his current situation.  At one point, when they mentioned a job offer from the Cleveland Cavilers basketball team, Ted’s eyes lit up and a smile of pure joy came across his face.  It was that smile that simply said everything he had been through had led him here to this.  It was the protrait of a man whose dreams were coming true.

At one point or another, we all want second chances or do overs in life.  For me personally, part my commitment to making things happen in a year is to try to make up for the past couple years that I wasted because I was consumed with something toxic to my life.  Even though I’ve stressed over and over that you can’t change the past and you just have to do better moving forward, that’s not what I took from watching this interview. 

Ted Williams has a golden voice.  It is the kind of voice you expect to hear coming over the airwaves of your favorite radio station but even beyond his incredible gift, he has a love and passion to take his talent and share it with the world.  We should all find our passions in life.  In the book, Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke writes about finding something that you get up every day and want to do so much so that your life would not be complete if you are not doing that specific thing.  He says, “Find the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would die if you were forbidden to write.”   While Rilke focuses on writing as a true life purpose, this theory can be applied to anything are you passionate about.    Find what it is that you love.  Find something that feel good about doing.  Find the thing that you were meant to do and do it with all your heart. 

“You got a dream, you gotta protect it.   People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can’t do it.  You want something?  Go get it.  Period.”  - The Pursuit of Happiness (Will Smith as Christopher Gardner)

If you haven't seen the news story on this man, check it out.  Ted Williams On Today

Lesson Learned From First Love

Tonight I went to watch my eleven year old cousin Maddy play CYO basketball and just being in the gym brought me back to a simpler time, the first time I fell in love.

I was in the 4^th grade and little four foot nothing me decided that she wanted to play basketball.  I don’t even really remember why I decided I wanted to play but I was so adamant that my dad signed me up.  However, way back when, they didn’t have all girl leagues for my age group or at least they didn’t in my area so I had to play in the “coed” league.  Now I use the label coed loosely because all that meant was that one poor girl got stuck on each team with at least 9 boys.  I was that poor girl but it didn’t matter.   It was that season that I fell in love with basketball.  I was awful but I loved it. Over the years I got better and fell deeper and deeper in love with a game.  As I watched Maddy run up and down the court with a smile on her face, I knew she loved it too. 

At one point, she got fouled and when Maddy stood at the foul line to take her two shots, I found myself right there on the line with her.  Two dribbles, one quick spin of the ball, two more dribbles and a brief pause to look at the basket before you release the ball off your finger tips and into the air, hoping to hear the swish of the net as the ball goes through the hoop.  Life for her is easy now.  One day she will reach a point when she will look back and long for the simplicity of these days.  She’ll wish for the ability to go back to a time when everything was decided in four 6 minute quarters.  A time when what you give directly effects the outcome of the game and in the end, win or lose, you shake hands and go your separate ways knowing that there will be another game to play, another chance to for greatness. 

There is something so pure about sports.  It’s just so black and white.  At the end of the day there is a winner and loser.  The better team wins.  They score more touchdowns, make more baskets, or score more goals.  There’s no gray area.  You leave everything you have out on the court or field.  You want to be the best because you have a competitive drive and fire inside of you.  You are just one part of greater whole called a team.   Sure you can complain about refs or bad calls but that’s all irrelevant when it comes to the final outcome.  When time runs out, the scoreboard says everything you need to know.

 The truth is that there is no other time in our lives when things are that simple.  In relationships, you can do and say all the right things but still lose the person you love simply because you aren’t the right one for them.  There’s no black and white answer or score telling you why you weren’t good enough.  In business, you can be the best person for the job but it can be given away to someone else for no better reason than they know the right people.  In sports, if you lose, there is always a reason.  You missed your free throws or threw too many interceptions.  The other team may have out skated you or hit more home runs.  In life, sometimes there aren’t clear cut answers why things happen, they just happen. 

All those years ago, I fell in love with a game but more importantly, I learned a life lesson.  I learned that even though you may not be the best, you should always give it your all and never give up until the last second has ticked off the clock.  The reality is that sometimes we will lose, in life and in sports, but it’s what we do about that loss that will define us.  I think you just have to keep picking yourself up and trying to figure out what it takes to win.  Sure we can quit but the old saying that winners never quit and quitters never win definitely has some truth to it.  If the scoreboard says you lose, you just have work harder to make sure you win next time.  In life, a killer crossover dribble might not make any difference but the idea of working hard to achieve the desired outcome definitely remains true.  Don't be afraid to lose, just be prepared to do what is necessary to win.

"If you make every game a life-and-death thing, you're going to have problems.  You'll be dead a lot." - Dean Smith

"It's not how big you are, it's how big you play." - Author Unknown

The Irony of Fortune

Today was my kind of Sunday Funday, which means chick flicks and Chinese.  Now, while the Reese Witherspoon flick “How Do You Know” left me wishing I had gone to see Marky Mark and Christian Bale in “The Fighter”, the Chinese food did not disappoint.  However, it was my favorite part of the meal that inspired today’s post (thanks Jared for the suggestion!).

I would definitely put Chinese down as one of my favorite types of food (after Italian).  Although the chicken and broccoli was incredible, I secretly look forward the part of the dinner when the bill comes and you get the stack of fortune cookies to enjoy.  The crispy cookies are good but it’s the idea of the mystery message that comes inside them that really intrigues me.  Most of the time you get cryptic messages like “the bird flies at night”, but every once in awhile you crack open the cookie and that tiny slip of paper reveals something that is so totally you that it’s scary.

I have a crazy theory on fortune cookies and I thought I would share it with all of you.  I think we get the irrelevant fortune cookie messages when we aren’t looking for answers but when we need it the most, the little cookie gives us the advice we’ve been looking for.  I actually like to hold on to the fortunes that I feel are relevant to my life or current situation and today’s fortune was definitely a keeper.  “Sometimes the object of the journey is not the end, but the journey itself.”  The irony of this message was frightening.  Think the universe is trying to tell me something? J

“A wise man turns chance into good fortune.” – Thomas Fuller

Lucky Number 11

Welcome to 2011!  I know I’ve mentioned before that every year I say on NYE that the upcoming year is going to be my year and I purposely didn't make that prediction this year since it hasn't exactly been an accurate assumption in the past.  However, I am pretty confident that this year is going to be the year of Ali.

The number 11 is a lot of different things.  Arizona Cardinals Wide Receiver Larry Fitzgerald, Philadelphia Phillies Short Stop Jimmy Rollins, Houston Rockets Center Yao Ming and PSU Quarterback Matt McGloin all wear the Number 11 on their jerseys.  It’s the first number that can’t be represented when we count with our fingers.  11 is the 5^th smallest prime number and the atomic number for sodium on the periodic table of the elements.  It is an urban legend that if you see 11:11 on a clock you should make a wish.   Apollo 11 was the first manned spacecraft to land on the Moon, the maple leaf on the Canadian Flag has 11 points, and in numerology it is the first of the Master Numbers.   Most importantly, it is my number.

We all have one number that stands out to us for some reason or another.  Most likely it was the number that you wore when you played sports, the number that you make sure to play when you see a roulette wheel, or just a number that you feel is lucky for you.  Sometimes it is our birthday or the number worn by our favorite sports star as a kid but whatever it is that makes a certain number your favorite number is irrelevant because there is no real criteria for how to select your lucky number. 

For me, picking 11 as my lucky number was a combination of a gut feeling and dumb luck.  In the 6^th grade, I got a basketball uniform and I wore number 11.  I had played sports for years and had worn many other numbers but for some reason that number stuck.   If you were an athlete at any point, you know how loyal people are to their numbers and I am no exception.  Since then number 11 has been “my number” and has played a big role in my life.  I know it might be crazy but everything is 11.  I won’t bore anyone with how much I really do use the number but trust me; it makes an appearance every day. 

Well for the next year, number 11 will be present in my life even more than it ever has been.  I am excited to see what this new year will bring.  I am not the same person who hoped every year that this will be their year.  I know that in life, you get what you give so I’m hoping that if I give it my all, I will get that back.  My mindset for 2011 is already completely different than it ever has been but it doesn’t hurt to have a little luck on your side.  It may be superstitious to think that this number will bring me luck but I can’t help but believe that great things happen with the number 11. 

"May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light.  May good luck purse you each morning and night" - Irish Blessing