Good News / Bad News

What a series of incredibly bad news and good news I've had in the past 48 hours.

Bad News: It started last week. My Dad was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. He'd had surgery to remove the tumor. There have been a lot of complications and on Saturday afternoon they felt more emergency surgery was necessary. They told us we needed to be prepared to say 'goodbye.'

Good News: Several friends offered me frequent flyer miles to help get me and my two sons to Sacramento to see my Dad. This generosity is so heart-warming that I can't begin to say how grateful I am. And even though it was Thanksgiving week, we were able to get on direct flights to Sacramento leaving early Sunday morning.

Bad News: The 6:52am RTD SkyRide bus to the airport never showed up! After waiting for 35 minutes, we decide we'd better drive.

Good News: We make it to the Wally parking lot by the airport in record time! Since I always take the bus, I hadn't been aware of this relatively low-cost parking option so close to the airport.

Bad News: The Wally shuttle takes an incredibly long time to pick everyone up. When we get to the airport, it's just past the cutoff time for getting a boarding pass. A very inflexible woman with a heavy accent tells me I'm going to have to pay $150/ticket to get later tickets that go through Vegas and LA and arrive in Sacramento at 7:30pm. I am uncharacteristically aggressive, insisting that she let me on the 9:15am flight. She doesn't budge.

Good News: I plead my case to an agent at the ticket counter. She tells me she doesn't think I can make it, but gives me boarding passes that will get us through security. We run through the airport. I duck under ropes, cutting to the front of the security line. A security lady tells me I can't do that. Having watched several Nicolas Cage movies lately, I sport a "Just try and stop me" attitude.

Bad News: I suppose acting like a crazy person caused some suspicions to airport security. They pull me aside and tell me they are going to inspect my bags. As they are slowly digging through my stuff, confiscating toothpaste and a prescription skin cream, I suffer from a total meltdown, head in hands, and sob like an inconsolable baby. Scotty pats my back and tells me it will be OK.

Good News: I recover my composure and carry on with the marathon-speed race through the airport to the gate, arriving one minute before departure time.

Bad News: They still don't let us on the plane.

Good News: They get us on another direct flight leaving two hours later at no additional cost. Considering it is Thanksgiving week, this is miraculous.

Good News: We make it to the hospital. Dad is happy to see us. Everyone says he's looking better. They may even be able to fix this latest complication without surgery. Mom is incredibly relieved, ready to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Bad News: My Mom wakes me up at 11:30pm. She's crying. They're taking Dad in for emergency surgery after all. Sobbing, she tells me of the final conversation they had...things he tried to remember to tell her, wanting to make sure she'd be OK, telling her a final, "I Love You."

Good News: I'm here with Mom. I crawl into her big bed with her and she calms down. We watch TV, doze, and pray as we wait for a phone call from the hospital. The last surgery took 11 hours. This one could take as long.

6am Still waiting and praying that the next phone call we receive will be good news.

Pictures of Joy

When I got laid off, I had a long list of things I wanted to do every day. One of those things was to take a picture each day of something that made me smile.

During the summer, confident that I'd find that new job without too much delay. I enjoyed the long lazy days with my sons at home -- we were three unemployed bums taking advantage of picnics and sunshine. My daughter had a beautiful baby boy -- my first grandchild. I spent lots of time with family and friends. I took lots of pictures.

But then the Fall came. My older son went off to medical school and my younger one became involved in about a million activities. We agreed that we were "busier and poorer" than we'd ever been. Life got cold, dark, and overwhelming. The job search became a roller coaster - One day up, the next day down. The perfect jobs -- ones that I was sure I would get -- fell through. I spent all day in front of the computer, in an attempt to learn everything and anything that might get me closer to that job. I stopped going out, afraid to spend even two dollars on coffee, not wanting to impose any more on my generous friends. I stopped taking my daily picture.

Last week, I met with a friend and we discussed our weekly goals. I told her that my life had been so focused on the job search that I'd neglected spending time with my family and friends. She encouraged me to make an effort to take those "pictures of joy" again. And so I did. I took a picture of the surprise visit from my friend when he came to help me shovel after a snowstorm (I like to call this "a generous act of shovelry".) I took pictures when I went out to lunch and coffee again with friends. When I chauffeured my son to one of his many school events, we told jokes in the car. And even though I couldn't whip out the camera at that moment, when I got home, I wrote down the jokes in my journal, remembering that beautiful carefree attitude that I so admire in my son.

Yesterday I learned that my father has stage 3 colon cancer. Suddenly jobs and money no longer felt so important. When there is a problem, I want to find some way to control it...to fix it...to at least do something. My father is in a hospital bed in California and there is absolutely nothing I can do but wait and hope and pray that he'll get better. This did not feel like a day to take a picture of joy. I couldn't imagine anything that would make me smile.

But I had an appointment to meet with a friend to help her set up her blog. When I told her the news, she gave me a hug, and listened. She pulled out some home-made pasta sauce made with tomatoes from her garden, put on some soothing music, poured me a glass of red wine, and made me an Italian lunch -- just like my father would do. And, realizing it was more important than ever, I took my picture of joy.

Life is short. Don't take it for granted. Take those pictures of joy.

I love you, Dad.

The Laptop Dancer Diaries - Getting Ready

A couple of weeks ago I printed the proof of my book, The Laptop Dancer Diaries. It's so exciting to have a real book in my hands! I just used a ready made cover for my proof copies, but I want to have a more custom one before my official release in February.

Over the weekend, my friend, Sue Campbell created 6 sample covers. They look excellent. My daughter created an impressive design as well. Her original design left the sexy lass on the right unclothed and I said... cute, but nope... get some clothes on the girl. I know sex sells, but I can't have people thinking the book is going to be as titillating as Sex and the City. I was tempted to name the book, No Sex and the Suburbs but one of my friends told me I might as well paint a big 'L' on my forehead if I name it that.

So what is it about? It's a humor memoir about a Single Mom(that would be me) with three goals: To Have an Adventure a Month, Write a Book, and Fall in Love. It's about having a "just do it" attitude... getting out and living your dreams, in spite of fears and insecurities.

I'd put off working on the book while I was in job search mode. I've been worried that a book about finding love would not necessarily help my IT Manager "professional" image. But my goal has been to have a book published before I turned 50, and my 50th birthday is coming up in 4 months, so, job or no job, I am moving forward. And though the book does disclose many embarrassing situations that I get myself into, if nothing else, it shows that I accomplish my goals!

Come join the Laptop Dancer Diaries FaceBook Fan Page and vote on the cover design that you think is best!

Blastoff Blasted Off Today

OK, if you know me at all you know that I love a good deal. Well, I got invited to join this Blastoff thing. Initially, I got emails from a couple of different people telling me it was going to be the biggest thing since Google. I was very skeptical. I checked into it more and it does look really cool. To be in on the "early" version, I had to pay money, so of course, I said 'no' to that. But as of today, I could join for free, and so can you.

It appears that I can get discounts on anything I purchase through the portal. This, in itself is good for me because I do a LOT of online shopping, especially for gifts. Then it appears that I can also get a percentage from all the people that join on my invite. If you join, you can get a percentage of your invites as well. It's like an MLM thing, but nobody (except the advertisers) has to pay any money. We only make money (I really like that!)

So, as far as I can tell this is a no-risk way to make a little extra cash. I really don't see what there is to lose. It was really simple to get started and it looks like a really neat site.

Oh, by the way, the system itself is really slow today since this was the day that everyone could join for free and invitations are flying. I'm sure the performance will be fine once it gets through this initial rush.

Check it out

15-Day Social Media Lesson Plan

If you're new to social media, the abundance of tools and available information can be overwhelming. It can be difficult to know where to begin. And then once you do start, you suddenly are distracted by site upon site of advice, information, and really cool stuff!

I always start by telling people to begin by figuring out their objective. Are you wanting to use social media to find a job? explore a hobby? market your business? Or maybe you don't even KNOW how you want to use these tools. You just want to get started, but the more you learn, the more you find out that you'll never learn it all.

Here are my tips for staying focused and a 15-day plan for someone who was interested in LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Blogging. This plan can and should be tailored for your needs. I'd suggest any person that wants to learn social media also add at least a week to learn about Twitter. Once you know the basics of the most popular tools, you can start exploring techniques for integrating the tools, gaining readership, internet marketing, forming a network, or ... just playing games, if that's what you want to do!

Staying Focused

• Commit to spending 1 hour a day to learning how to use Social Media.
• Decide at the beginning of that hour what you are going to accomplish. Sample "lessons" below.
• During that hour, ignore your phone, other email that comes in, or any social media sites, other than those that are specifically associated with your purpose.
• Each day, as you're learning, keep a "Notes" document window open that you can use to cut and paste links to sites that you want to explore later. Use the page to keep notes with questions, learnings, or reminders of features that you'd like to check into. Use a word processor that will keep the hyperlink when you cut and paste, so that you will be able to easily link to the interesting sites right from your document.
• Set a timer for 55 minutes. Did you accomplish your goal? If not, why not. Write in your notes what you did and what still needs to be done, if anything to complete the goal.
• If you finish your goal before your hour is up, then use a search engine (like Google or Bing) to search for your topic. Click through to the links that look the most interesting. Often you will find presentations, articles, blogs, tutorials, and many valuable sites. Copy those links to your Notes section to explore at a later time.
• At least once a week use your hour to go back through your notes and explore the links that you have in your notes or to try and get your questions answered.

15-Day Plan

Week 1: Branding and LinkedIn

References:
http://geekgal-yvette.blogspot.com/2009/07/personal-branding-for-next-level.html
http://learn.linkedin.com/

Day 1: - Determine your Brand - Create a folder with photos and documents (ie resume, HUB, etc.) that describe YOU and what you stand for. These can be used when you create profiles in social media tools.

Day 2: - LinkedIn - Create an Account and Your Profile Page

Day 3: - LinkedIn - Find Connections

Day 4: - LinkedIn - Join Groups

Day 5: - Use your Notes to explore more about LinkedIn


Week 2: FaceBook

References:
http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-tutorials/


Day 6: - FaceBook - Getting Started

Day 7: - FaceBook - Learn About Fan Pages

Day 8: - FaceBook - Privacy Settings

Day 9: - FaceBook - Groups

Day 10: - Use your Notes to explore more about FaceBook


Week 3: Blogging

References:
http://geekgal-yvette.blogspot.com/2009/09/picking-blogging-platform.html
http://www.recognizedexpert.com/blogger/

Day 11: - Learn more about Blogging and why people do it

Day 12: - Get a Blogger Account and Start Tutorials

Day 13: - Write Your First Blog Post

Day 14: - Learn about RSS and sign up for a feed reader such as Google Reader so you can subscribe to blogs

Day 15: - Use your Notes to explore more about Blogging

There IS Such Thing as a Free Lunch!

I can't believe my luck since I've been playing "SuperFrug." A few weeks ago I put one of my new New World Social Media business cards (obtained for only the shipping costs, by the way, from VistaPrint.com) into the fishbowl at the FlatIrons Noodles & Company Restaurant.

I didn't really think much about it until I received an email from Christina Walls, Assistant Manager, entitled "Free Noodles" (the word Free will always get my attention.) The email said:

You have been selected from our fishbowl to participate in what we call our
“Hero Lunch”. You and 5 of your friends/family are invited to Noodles
& Company at Flatirons Marketplace to partake in a free meal on us! We
call it a Hero Lunch because you will be the Hero of all your friends/family
that you treat for lunch or dinner. You will be treated to any dishes that
you might want to try along with any of our tasty soups or salads, drinks and
deserts. You can write me back or give me a call here at Noodles so we can
set you up for a date/time.

Well, being unemployed, and my obsession with frugality, I was elated! Add to that the fact that Noodles is one of my favorite places to eat, and you could say I hit the virtual jackpot! Of course, there were SO many people I wanted to invite to this Noodle party -- all the wonderful, supportive friends that have bought ME lunch and suffered through my penny-pinching ways.

Since the lunch was scheduled for 1:30, a little late for a work lunch, I decided to invite some of my fellow-frugal-friends that were not working (at least not in the traditional sense... where you get paid...) I actually ended up inviting 6 people, thinking we could all chip in and cover at least one meal, but Christina wouldn't hear of it. She very generously told us our whole party of 7 (me and 6 friends) could eat for free.

Now, we're not just talking about a skimpy little token lunch...we're talking LOTS OF DELICIOUS FOOD! A big full meal...drinks, soup, salad, bread -- the works! And then, with no order from us, Christina brings over this big tray of goodies...brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and Rice Crispie treats! When I went to tip Christina and the wait staff, they wouldn't hear of it. "No tips allowed!" they said.

"There's gotta be a catch," I thought. "How can they afford to give away this full meal?" I asked Christina what I could do to thank her for such generosity.

"Spread the word," she said. "We're getting hit by the economy and we need the business."

This was even more impressive to me... Even though this location is hit hard, they are giving away food. Well, you'd better believe that I am spreading the word, and I'll ask all of you to spread it, too. Their food is delicious, their service is wonderful, and best of all... they have big hearts. They deserve all the business they can get.

Help me spread the word:

Eat at Noodles & Company
635A Flatiron Marketplace Broomfield, CO 80021

And tell Christina that she's awesome!

Master Networker: Erika Hanson Brown

The other day I blogged about networking and kindness from strangers. What's really cool is when you can transition from stranger to a virtual friend to a real friend -- sit across from someone, talk, and really Laugh Out Loud. (I much prefer real LOL'ing to the over-used virtual lol.)

Erika Hanson Brown is one of those people that's fun to Laugh Out Loud with. Full of spunk and energy, you can't help but smile when you're around her. She looks and even sounds like Diane Keaton and we thought it quite the coincidence that Keaton played a character named Erica in Something's Gotta Give. (And while I cannot understand Keaton's attraction to Jack Nicholson, Erika totally gets it.)

Erika found me first because of a guest post I'd made about Networking on Jacob Share's JobMob site. Once I learned more about her, I found out that Erika is the Queen of Connections! She makes a career out of networking! How cool is that? An example of a successful entrepreneur written about in Denver Woman, Erika is the Chief Strategist of Steller Connections LLC. The company started as an executive search firm but has broadened into Relationship Brokerage, including services such as training and workshops on networking and relationship building. Erika is passionate about networking and writes about the importance of discernment in her posterous blog. Her system?

The Connectoring® Verities*

1. Be Real
2. Charm Them
3. Seek More
4. Move Boldly
5. Shamelessly Support
6. Deliver Cookies
7. Show Up

In the short time I've known her, I can see Erika leads by example, demonstrating these values. Authentic to the core, she will tell you what's on her mind, being fully herself. I asked her about #6... "Delivering cookies?" (Still in geek-mode, I wasn't sure if we were talking browser options here.) Erika said it used to be "Delivering Jelly" until the word "jelly" was met with a few raised eyebrows. She explained the jelly (now cookies) with a story from her childhood. She and her mother had traveled cross-country to New York in a Studebaker Golden Hawk with jars and jars of Montana jelly. Erika said her mother would freely offer up jelly to strangers who would often offer back kindnesses in return. She and her mother were soon rooming in penthouse suites at minimal rates and hob-nobbing with Ella Fitzgerald in jazz clubs. And it all started with offering jelly. She remembers her mother, an early networker before the days of computers, getting out her fine stationary to write thank you notes and keep in touch with her connections. Whether it be cookies, jelly, or a personal note, the point is to give something of yourself.

Though I only took a couple of photos, I'm posting the one that I think demonstrates Erika's Bold and Charming side. Jumping up onto a little wall outside of Whole Foods, she examines the overgrown plant of some sort, trying to discover it's identity. (She guessed giant sunflower, but I thought it looked a lot like the huge weeds in my back yard.) Ya gotta love that spontaneity. But what I think most captures the 7 Verities is the smile.