Update On Janesappeal.com

9:45 Battery Park, New York this Friday Morning

Jane will be there

Jane's ride is almost over with. I can't believe this woman. To see the latest blog visit: http://janesappeal.com/?m=2006&w=35

This is one of those times I wish I could be there to see this woman end her long journey. She is such a great example of what a woman can accomplish when she sets her mind to something...no matter how bad she feels.

GO JANE -- We LOVE YOU!!

For the Motor Woman In You!!

Here's a great site I came across today. The lady that started it, Kathy Jarvis, just won the National Rally America run in Ojibwe Forest, Bemidji, MN. I can honestly say I've never heard of these types of races, but they sure look like fun.

Check out her website femmefatale motorsports


Who is Kathy Jarvis?

Kathy has been a professional Stunt Woman for the past 13 years working in the feature film and television industry. She has performed many high-risk vehicle stunts: from turning over a completely flame-engulfed Chevy Suburban in Chill Factor, to jumping a Minivan 8 feet high, 82 feet long for a Taco Bell commercial. She has crashed through buildings and into glass atria. She has performed many high-speed chases. She has deliberately (and safely) hit people, and slid sideways into, over and along the side of cameras and crew.

In 2001 off-road driving legend Ivan Stewart, encouraged Kathy to start a female Protruck team. Sadly, that year she was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor and suffered consequences from a botched surgery, which caused a brain aneurysm. The tumor was left intact, and the aneurysm and surgery cased trauma to the pituitary gland. This created many other health problems. Kathy’s Protruck pursuit vanished as she concentrated on her health.

To promote her healing, Kathy turned to a holistic medical approach and declined synthetic drugs. She expanded her yoga program, embraced Qi Gong, NET chiropractic and acupuncture professionals for treatment---she nurtured her femme.

While healing she continued working as a stunt professional. In February of 2006 Kathy attended Team O’Neil Rally School to continue honing her driving skills. During the 4-day program she embraced Rally racing, Three months later she bought and personally prepped and raced in her first race at STPR, known as the fastest and toughest rally to finish in North America.

Kathy is now on a mission of making her Protruck dream come true. She will drive a Protruck in the 2006 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. Kathy will take it one huge step further. She will attempt to finish the Baja 1000 driving solo, to become “Ironwoman”!

Check out her website femmefatale motorsports

Yeah......oh bummer...

You ever get totally excited about finding out something and then get the biggest let down?...that TOTALLY happened to me today.

I never know where my searches on the Internet will go, and today I thought I found it. A MAGAZINE that sounded so wonderful it sounded too good to be true.


YES you're seeing that right. A Sports illustrated For Women I was so excited. Yipee...then I saw it.

• Sports Illustrated Women magazine (highest circulation 400,000)
  • Launched in March 2000
  • Ceased publication in December 2002 because of a weak advertising climate

AGHHHH.....

But then...I did find this....Sporting Woman Quarterly It's something I'm definitely checking out more of. I've only really been able to view it in Explorer. It's okay, but not quite what I'm looking for.

Where's the Media????

Okay, I've talked about Jane Tomlinson in my other blogs and on my website doingitherway.com Jane has terminal cancer. She is doing this ride across American for two reasons, She's raising funds for various cancer research and she rides to show that people with a terminal prognosis can still lead an active and fruitful life. Death doesn’t arrive with the prognosis. Jane was told she had 12 months to live back in 2000.

As she rides these last few days completing her 4000 mile bike ride in New York -- the media has pretty much avoided her story. Why? This is the biggest endurance event done by someone with terminal cancer in the world!

There's a good chance if you're reading this someone you knew or know, has cancer. I had a good friend pass away from cancer at it was not easy seeing her so sick. Jane is so brave, still very sick, and just completing chemotherapy just a few weeks before she started out on this endeavor. You know this is something very dear to her heart.

Please read her travel diary from today: http://janesappeal.com/?m=2006&w=35

If you can contribute, even just a little -- it will make a difference. If you know she's coming through your town, let the media know. Cheer her on these last few days that she has on this ride. Let's show her how proud we are of her determination and her desire to give hope to others who are suffering from Cancer.

To donate visit: http://janesappeal.com/?page_id=5

That Troublemaker Florence Nightingale

Can you imagine saying to your daughter, "I can't believe you want to be a nurse. I'm so ashamed. What are people going to think?"

Well that's what Florence Nightingale heard from her family when she told them how badly she wanted to be a nurse back in the 1800's. During this time only poor women, sometimes homeless or prostitutes were nurses. Not upstanding citizens of the community.

Florence's desire to be a nurse was even stronger when she met Elizabeth Blackwell. Dr. Blackwell was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in the US. You can imagine what Dr. Blackwell had to go through and the prejudice she endured to become a doctor. I can just imagine her talking to Florence about her desire to become a nurse -– and the pep talks she gave her.

Florence had to actually sneak to study nursing because her family was so horrified of this interest she had. Thanks to Florence's determination to do what she loved to do - nursing - it would take Florence 6 years to get her fathers permission to become one. Now Florance is widely known as a pioneer in nursing and hospital reform.

What would have happened had Florence given it to alridiculeiducle for wanting to be a nurse so bad. What would have happened to nursing as we know it? And what would have become of Florance?

Isn't it interesting that now we look at Florence Nightingale as someone to admire. Weird how that works isn't it?!

Jill Carroll

For the last two days I’ve been reading the account of Jill Carroll’s 82 day hostage ordeal. This woman first had some real guts going to Iraq to be a freelance journalist in the first place. That in itself is not an easy job. She explains that she didn’t want to be stuck in a cubicle writing articles, so instead went to cover the war in Iraq.

To get her stories in Iraq she would have to brave riding around to interview government officials as well as everyday Iraqi citizens. With people being kidnapped, and bombs blowing up cars on a daily basis, you’ve got to be a pretty strong individual.

One of the many videos Jill made pleading for her life.

To help you understand this even more, moments before Jill was taken hostage she was leaving an interview appointment that never actually happened. A truck was backing out making it impossible for her car to leave. Men appeared with guns by this large truck, and at first Jill thought nothing of it. Seeing men with guns was a regular occurrence as far as she was concerned. But these men with guns weren’t trying to get this truck backed out, they were there to take Jill hostage. In a few moments her translator was killed right in front of her, she was kidnapped, and no one knew exactly where she was for the next 82 days.

Jill Coming Home -- AP PHOTO

If you have the time, I highly recommend you read Jill’s account of what happened at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/ojilloneintro

If you do anything, watch the last three video clips on this page. They are very short, but very powerful.

http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/carroll/multimedia/part9.html

If Rock Climbing Is Your Thing...

Now I'll admit, rock climbing really isn't my sport. I did it a few times in college, but it just didn't blow my hair back.

But there are some of you out there who LOVE it and are quite good at it.

So I'm letting you know that Katie Brown, former world champion, well known climbing writer and one of the best rock climbers in the world, has started writing a blog about her climbing life and adventures for YourClimbing.com. "Katie Brown's Rock Talk" debute this month on the new online community site for climbing enthusiasts.

The blog can be found at www.yourclimbing.com/blog/katie

I found something rather ironic in one of her blogs. Katie talks about how she doesn't like hiking that much (which I'd rather do any day than climb a rock wall) and how she hated it as a kid. You can read it at: http://www.yourclimbing.com/blog-some_kind_of_rest_day In the same year when Katie's mother finally didn't make her go with her on her hikes anymore is when Katie really got into climbing and quickly gained international attention.

About Katie Brown

Based in Boulder, Colorado, Katie is a professional climber and a Rock Climbing Ambassador for outdoor clothing company Patagonia. In addition to serving as enthusiast-in-chief for YourClimbing.com, she writes a regular climbing column for the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper and her writing regularly appears in the pages of climbing magazines. She is currently finishing up a book about the top climbers of her generation, for Falcon Press.

Katie started climbing in a gym at age 12, and quickly gained international attention for her talent by winning the Junior Nationals in 1995 and the World Junior Championships in Laval, France, a few months later. She's well known as being the first woman to on-sight a 5.13d, Omaha Beach in the Red River Gorge of Kentucky, in 1999. As a teenager, she won both the World Cup and the prestigious ARCO Invitational and was considered by many climbers to be the "world's best female sport climber."

In her 20s, Katie has traded competition for traditional climbing. Recently, she freed Yosemite's West Face of the Leaning Tower (5.13b A0) with climbing legend Lynn Hill. She was one of the climbers featured in Chris Sharma's film, Pilgrimage, about a bouldering pilgrimage by Sharma, Katie and Nate Gold to a sacred village in India where thousands of unclimbed boulders sit amid ancient Hindu temples. Other recent exploits include a trip to the Mediterranean island of Malta for deep water soloing, climbing sheer cliffs over the ocean with no protective gear.

Katie is a strong advocate for environmental protection and sustainability, and she believes in the importance of climbers doing their sport responsibly. "Climbing involves a careful balance between us and the environment, so we want to always be sure to take care of our resources so that we can continue to climb in areas that we love best," she says.

Talk About Frustrating!!

I'm always on the look out for cool sites for women. And I think I probably found one. There's only one problem with it, it's not in English. It's called Female Living

If you're lucky enough to be able to read it, enjoy!

8/20/06 Liv and Ann are at it again!! YEAH!!

A few years back I read the book, "No Horizon Is So Far" about Liv Arnesen and Ann Bancroft's journey across the Antarctica. I LOVED this book. The courage and determination of these women is awesome.


COLD?? I'd say a little...





I forget the weight of those sleds but they are like double of what they weigh...if not more. When it was flat, these ladies would actually be pulled by large type kites along the ice. They actually hoped to do that a lot more, but weren't able to because of the rough conditions.



And here they are at the South Pole. You go girls!!!



Now in March of 2007 they are planning another journey across the Arctic ocean. I pulled the following from their site... Bancroft Arnesen Explore which I highly recommend you check out.

Ann and Liv will begin their journey from Ward Hunt Island in Canada in March 2007. From there they will ski unsupported to the Geographical North Pole. The projected skiing route is approximately 850 kilometers long (about 530 miles). The expedition will be unsupported. I.e. no materials or supplies will be delivered to Ann and Liv; everything needed during the 2-months trek will be in Ann and Liv’s sleds from the starting point. The women will get resupplies at the North Pole and the exciting challenge for the team is that they will not know how long the total expedition will be, before they get closer to the North Pole and learn how and where TARA has drifted. The plan is to reach TARA in May and have transportation off of the ice the time TARA will change crew and scientists for the following year. Ann and Liv plan to have millions of kids follow their journey and learn about dreams, preserverance and courage. Join Liv Arnesen and Ann Bancroft by logging on to www.BancroftArnesenExplore.com for updates from the ice, Journey's Toward Peace K-12 curriculum and classroom activities to participate in during the expedition.


Here are some pictures of them training for this trip...

Camping in the Arctic Twilight

Now that's beautiful!


I'll be talking more about these ladies in the coming months. I can't wait for their new adventure. What's so cool about these ladies is they call in daily with reports etc for students around the world. So we can also get the benefits of this as well.

8/17/06 Buzzard, Bat, Bumblebee

Someone emailed me this today and I really liked it. I don't know who the author is, but it's got a great message....

BUZZARD

If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and it is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.

BAT

The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkably nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.


BUMBLEBEE

A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.


PEOPLE

In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that all we have to do is look up. Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, but faith looks up.

8/16/06 Women and Boarding...

A friend of mine at work today talked about a local event happening called Board Stock (www.boardstock.com) I thought it sounded interesting and started to do a little investigation. I tried desperatly to find something about women participating. One of the big events is wakeboarding.

In my little search I came across this article and found it very interesting. I guess this is where I get so frustrated with women in sports and the lack of coverage and opportunities to compete.

Women walking around wearing little bikin's are just fine and quite wonderful. Yet that same little bikini wearing babe wants to play with the boy's, everyone gets a little nervous and a woman finds there isn't a lot of opportunity out there playing like the boys.

Now this story is was written in 2003, maybe things have gotten better. But here's a quote from this story.

"During the past two years, the Pro Tour cut many of the stops for the women. The women went from having six or seven events to the present number of two. There used to be a Women's Pro Tour Champion, but they stopped awarding that in 2001."

This is really very sad to me. The gentleman who wrote this story I think did a pretty good job in saying..."What the hey people? We really need to get on the ball here and do more for women who rock at wakeboarding."

To read the whole article visit: Respect For The Women


BUT THERE IS GOOD NEWS....

In writing this blog I JUST came across something very cool and gives me hope. It's called: BoardFest

(I just have to say this, it's very odd I found this site. I thought the name of the event going on this weekend was boardfest and I typed that in, instead of boardstock. This is just how my life works, and it's pretty cool if you ask me.)

This event is happening over labor day weekend in Huntington Beach, CA. It doesn't include wakeboarding, BUT it does include skating, surfing and yes they're brining in the snow for snowboarding!

BOARDFEST’S UNIQUE ALL-GIRL EMPOWERMENT AND ACTION SPORTS FESTIVAL RETURNS TO THE HUNTINGTON BEACH PIER OVER LABOR DAY WEEKEND

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. – Boardfest ’06, the largest and most unique empowerment experience of its kind for GIRLS, returns to the Huntington Beach Pier over Labor Day Weekend, September 2 to 4. The surf-skate-snow inspired festival showcases music, fashion and interactive exhibits along with underlying themes of health, beauty, fitness and charity. More than 100,000 spectators, primarily ‘tween, teen and kids, attended Boardfest in 2005.

Where action sports, music and life collide, Boardfest ’06 (www.boardfest.com) offers something for every level of involvement, synergistically weaving professional and amateur competitions featuring 100 high-caliber women athletes, beginning and intermediate surfing and skateboarding clinics, makeovers, live bands, education, games, activities and attractions while spreading the important message of staying active and healthy. The vast majority of Boardfest is open to the public free-of-charge.

Separate Boardfest “Zones” for Entertainment (music, fashion shows, performers, motivational speakers), Kids (games, rides, activities), Surfing (competition, clinics, exhibits), Skateboarding (competition, clinics, exhibits), Snowboarding (demonstrations, technology, exhibits) and Interactive (displays, attractions, education) clearly define the Boardfest venue and afford substantial branding and messaging opportunities.

The Boardfest ’06 footprint stretches from ocean to boardwalk, and is more than a football field in length. Nestled against Surf City USA’s landmark pier and the heavily trafficked Pacific Coast Highway, Boardfest capitalizes on a world-class recreational facility which offers parking, restrooms, refreshments/food and spectacular viewing. Nearby surf shops, historical landmarks (Surfing Walk of Fame and Surfers Hall of Fame) and hotels (Waterfront Hilton and Hyatt Regency) further enhance the experience.

“In providing myriad avenues for inspiration and empowerment, Boardfest affords our sponsors and partners with a fresh and potent experiential marketing vehicle to endear their brand to new and existing consumers,” said Event Director Cherie Whyte. “Dynamic initiatives, dramatic events, exciting motivational speakers, potent media story angles and critical strategic alliances will evolve Boardfest and the girl’s empowerment message to a new and higher plateau.”

Entering its third year, Boardfest ’06 is a Boardom, Inc. property. For consumer information please visit www.boardfest.com or call (714) 375-1132. For sponsorship opportunities or press information contact MKM at (714) 375-2188.

8/13/06 Life Is Good

This morning I was in the Castro in San Francisco. I went to a little eatery and had myself a bagel and coffee. I was on a mission to work on some of my AA homework -- my resentment list. I was going all great guns and writing like crazy. Then in walks this really messed up (mentally challenged) woman to buy a cup of coffee. She wasn't really all there. I felt so sorry for her. She was having all sorts of troubles with her coffee, at one point I thought she was going to cry because she couldn't find the a coffee holder to put around her coffee.

While she's working on her coffee issues, two police officers come in and arrest her...again, apparently. The way they talked this had happened before. They handcuffed her and said they were taking her to jail this time. The lady didn't seem to surprised and the officers didn't say why they were hauling her off. She asked if she could take her coffee with her, she explained she had paid for it. Nope, she had to leave it without it...and then she was gone.

I sat there and thought to myself, " I am such a smuck." It really put a damper on writing my resentments. Here I am listing all these resentments and getting ticked off with life... when I realize restements or not, my life is really good. The truth is life happens and it can get ugly at times. But I'm HEALTHY, both mentally and physically. I'm not in jail or have any reasons to be going there anytime soon. I have two beautiful daughters. I have a job and a car that takes me whever I need to go. I'm still relatively young with a lot more life to live...I am so blessed and have so much to be grateful for.

8/12/06 Finding My Potential

“Every time one person on the planet reaches beyond
a perceived limitation and expresses their deepest potential, we all benefit.”
– From a site promoting the book “Take 10” a book and its author’s I’ll be talking more about in the coming weeks.

When I started my website, wilddreamcoach.com, I didn’t really know in what direction it was going to go. I just knew I wanted to somehow write about women doing incredible things -- big and small.

The sad truth is there’s a lot of bad news out there. I’m set up to receive news alerts and one of the words I asked for alerts on in the news is for the word woman.

Here’s just a few of the story headlines for one day:

Woman pleads guilty to sex with 14-year-old

Police search for homeless woman after 2 men push her in river

Woman's sight damaged by drugs bought on Internet

Woman charged over baby body find

After plowing through a lot of yuck…I’ll find a gem of a story. One that I can link to on my site, and to possible contact to see if I could write a story on them for my site and other publications.

There aren’t enough motivating stories about women out there. The good stuff rarely makes the headlines. If it bleeds, it leads type of mentality we live in today is depressing, and what good does it really do for us? How many sad depressing stories can we hear before it starts to impact our lives personally?

The thing is there are women out there doing some pretty incredible things. I want the opportunity to get those stories out. I feel the more stories we can read about women doing something challenging (no matter how big or small) it will inevitably make us better women.

Since I’ve sold my work-at-home mom Internet business, I’ve been on this journey to see what my next venture in life would be. What’s so interesting is what I want to do now, isn’t that far from what I’ve done in the past. My focus then was on working with stay-at-home moms to help them find their perfect home business. What I’m doing now is very close to being the same concept. It still comes down to women finding their passion in life. Finding that passion can open so many doors giving us this added energy and zest for life.

About three in a half years ago I stopped drinking. I was a daily drinker and I “thought” I really wrote some great stuff when I had a nice buzz going on. Once I stopped drinking, I thought my writing life was over with. I found it painful to write sober. Coming up with ideas to write about -- felt impossible.

Just in the last few months my passion for writing has emerged again. I finally have a focus and a passion when it comes to writing. I’ve been blessed to have come in contact with some pretty incredible women who I’m able to write about. It’s like everything is finally starting to fall into place. It’s not happening overnight, but the process is happening.

The women that I’ve come across in the past few months have a few things in common. They love what they do and because of that they have a fierce determination to accomplish their goals.

Another thing I see in these women is happiness. Who wouldn’t be happy doing something they enjoy? The key is doing what personally makes us happy. Not what other people think we should enjoy. We’ve got to be true to who we are. We are diverse with so many different interests.

In the ten plus years I’ve helped women find their perfect home business, I would ask them one question. What’s something you consider fun, what do you enjoy doing. More often than not I would get the, “I don’t know” type of answer. We’re good at knowing what we don’t like to do, but when it comes down to listing what we enjoy doing, we can be at a total loss.

If you ask me, life is way to short not knowing what it is you enjoy doing. What’s cool though is it’s never too late to find that one thing that makes you jump out of bed in the morning. You find that one thing, you’re life with change. You’ll find new happiness, you’ll become healthier both mentally and physically and best of all you get to have a whole bunch of fun.

8/6/06 Women and the X Games

Don't know if you've heard, but the X games in LA have been going on. Maybe you've been watching it on TV. I watched about 15 minutes of the guys competing today.

Women are doing pretty well as far as the Winter X games go, but the skateboarding part of the Summer X games there isn't much hype as far as women are concenred. And Women are rockin! So what's the deal I ask? The winning purse for women in skateboarding is low and they never get any airtime. However, things are changing.

Cara-Beth Burnside poses with her gold medal after winning the Skateboard Vert Women's final at X Games 12 in Los Angeles on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2006. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A few of the women skateboarders met with the ESPN executive vice president for content, on the eve of this year's X Games and made quite impression. They came away from the meeting feeling pretty good.

Instead of a purse totaling $8,000 for women's Street and Vert, they got a deal that pays $15,000 for first, $10,000 for second and $5,000 for third at this year's event. They also laid the groundwork for the women to get some TV time for the first time at next year's X Games. YEAH!!

The truth is...there aren't a lot of women skateboarders. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, of the 10.3 million skateboarders in the United States, only 2.6 million (25 percent) are women. This might not seem like a lot, but it's more than three years ago when women made up only 15 percent of the total number of skaters.

Thanks to women skaters like Cara-Beth Burnside who says, "We believe in it (women's skateboarding) and we just want to make changes for the future so we can make sure there is a future."Mimi Knoop, this year's Vert silver medalist and Karen Jones who took bronze, are making their voices heard.

Thirty three year old (yes I said 33, and she just won the gold medal for the Skateboard Vert Women's final) Cara-Beth is considered a pioneer of women's skateboarding as well as snowboarding. Maybe you've seen her competing and winning at the Winter Olympic games where she was snowboarding. So if it's Summer...she's skating. Winter....she's boarding!

Cara-Beth Burnside competes in the Skateboard Vert Women's final at X Games 12 in Los Angeles on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2006. Burnside took the gold. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

8/03/06 My Dream Magazine

For the past several months I've been looking for a particular magazine. I feel I have blogged about this a little before, but it's really driving me crazy. I'm searching high and low for a "Real Womans" magazine. Not these pansy ladies magazines where the lady on the cover is so perfect...matter a fact she is perfect. She doesn't even look like that in real life because she's been edited and whatever to perfection.

AND don't even get me started on the articles that are in these magazines. On how to look good for your man and how to have the perfect body and how to fit into your bikini this summer.
I want a magazine about women who aren't afraid to get dirty. I want to read about women who have the guts to step out of the box and try something wild and crazy...even when people think they're nuts for doing it. I want to read motivating stories of ladies who are dying of cancer and yet their riding their bike across the united states, who play on a all womans football team, or base jump....where the hell are these stories at?

There are these adventure mags...but they all cater to the male. They apparently can get dirty and have fun while their women are home getting their nails and hair done. But yet there are so many women doing these fabulous things...more women need to hear their stories. Sometimes it just takes hearing that someone else is trying something for the first time, even though they are scared, that can motivate you to possibly try something you've always wanted to do.

The more stories out there of empowering women...the better for all of us.

Last night I was all comfy in my bed, getting ready to drift off to sleep land when it hit me. Create the cover of your magazine. A few days ago this gentleman and his wife were sitting next to my partner and I as we were eating breakfast. I don't remember why he said this, but it's stuck in my head and it won't leave. He was talking about all the things there are to do in San Francisco. He went on to say that if he just put a little effort into finding something to do -- he would find so many wonderful things out there. Things he didn't even know were an option. I kept going back to what he said at the start though...you just have to put in a little effort first and then see what happens.

So I jumped out of bed last night and decided to create the cover of my magazine that I want to find and hopefully write for. Here's the first rendition of it.

I so don't want to start a magazine. I mean there's a part of me that would. The best I can do at this point is just to work on a online magazine. I've been so blessed in the last few months to come across some very incredible woman who are willing to let me write about them. I need to get started and get their stories out there one way or another.

It must happen!!

7/29/06 Geocaching

Now here's a really cool idea. I've never really wanted a gps unit ever...but then I read about this geocaching and now I'm tempted to go out and get my own unit so I can start doing this. It looks like so much fun. I typed in my little town and Napa and was surprised at all the caches just waiting for me to find. What else is cool is you can also create caches. AND when you find a cache you get a little prize that was left by someone else. But when you take something, you've got to leave a little something too.

"Anywhere on Earth -- it's a sport. It's a hobby. ItÂ's certainly an adventure. And for a growing number of outdoor enthusiasts, it’s becoming an obsession. Geocaching combines the mental challenge of a scavenger hunt with the physical challenge of hiking through unknown territory. According to geocaching.com -- the online worldwide headquarters for geocaching -- the derivation of the label is straightforward enough: 'geo'’ as in 'Earth'’ and '‘cache'’ -- as in the French verb cacher which means "‘to hide"’. Geocachers crawl all over the Earth to find items hidden in everything from caves to tree trunks to roadside guardrails. Here'’s how it works. Members of the geocaching community hide treasures or caches. Since the community is worldwide, the treasures could be a couple of miles or a couple of continents away. As of this writing, there are approximately 290,000 caches hidden in 222 countries."

A really cool thing is this is a great sport for women to get into. Lynn Black of Hershey, Pennsylvania is the world’s top geocacher. With a over 16,000, she has found more geocaches than anyone else.

To check it out visit:

www.geocaching.com

7/26/06 Today's the best day ever!

If we are ever to enjoy life, now is the time, not tomorrow or next year… Today should always be our most wonderful day.” - Thomas Drier, Author

For so much of my life I always held the notion that my life would be better when...

* I had more money.
* More education.
* Lived in the house of my dreams.
* Drove that car I've always wanted.
* Was in better shape....

I was always about being happy later, like next month or in a few years....That if I finally had all these things I could maybe allow myself to be happy and content.

Over the few years I've learned how important it is to be happy today. Because today is all I have. I even struggle with okay, I'm happy today but then I try to think about all the issues I'm dealing with and I almost try to make myself feel unhappy and so overwhelmed with life. Like it's unnatural in a way to just be content with this very moment, that I'm right where I'm supposed to be in my life today and it's okay!

7/24/06 Wise Words

Gloria Steinem once advised women that they should strive
to become like the men they had always wanted to marry.

7/22/06 Live Like You Were Dying

Jane Tomlinso

I came across two stories today that made me do a little pondering...Survival of the Fittest was a story about a woman named Jane Tomlinso. Jane is two weeks into her 4,200 mile ride across American. She's out to raise money for charity. Sounds like a big venture, but something that isn't all that crazy. What is a little out of the ordinary though is Jane was told in 2000 that her breast cancer had spread to her lungs and bones and there was no hope of a cure. She would have 12 months to live. Six years later, Jane is alive and kicking. Well more than kicking Jane is an animal when it comes to exercise and something that might very well helping be Jane to stay alive as long as she has. Yes, she does take some great drugs that's increasing women's life expectancy now when they have cancer as opposed to say in the 70's. Jane also has a very positive outlook on life as well!

Jane just had a sesion of Chemotherapy just 8 weeks ago and suffers excruciating pains in her spine and pelvis where the cancer has attacked her bones...and yet she rides...not little hour or two bike rides around town...but 4,200 bike rides...

When Jane was told she had cancer she had a big turning point in her life. Before she was diagnosed, she was not even a sports woman. In 2003 she completed an Iron Man triathalon, she's ran in several marathons and many long bike rides.

Her 4,200 ride is being billed as the greatest endurance feat undertaken by a cancer sufferer.

Check out Janes site, check on her progress, read her blog, and make a donation: http://www.janesappeal.com/


Marla Streb

The other story I ran across today was about someone I just learned about last week when I was at the mountain bike races in Sonoma. Her name is Marla Streb. She is one of the luna racers and as I started to read about the racers this Marla woman kept standing out. She was very funny for one thing. You could tell by her biography down to a picture of her on her bio card. She's riding a bike with a cell phone in hand. She seems to love danger and the faster she can ride her bike the happier she is. I found out she was married and had just had a baby and I wondered if she would be racing. I went to the races on Sat. and didn't see her. My partner when on Sunday who happens to be a photographer and I asked if she could get some pictures of her which she did. You'll see them below(pictures coming soon).

Then I came across a story of her today Dave Albee: Streb's latest challenge - mountain-biking mom In this story I found out that Marla wasn't always into mountain biking. 15 years ago Marla was working as a cytogeneticist at Duke University and found out she had tested positive for the AIDS virus. She was having to deal with the thought the she didn't have long to live. So she quit her job and traveled to California with her boyfriend in a VW Bus and lived a pretty crazy life for awhile.

The good news was that once in California Marla got retested and found out she didn't have aids after all. She tested a false positive. She started settle down a bit more and got a job. Her mode of transportation was riding her bike to and from work. She fell in love with riding and started racing bikes...


LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING

These stories find me just a few weeks after one of my co-workers sister who was in her early 20's went to the hospital because of a really bad headache. She died that same day...the doctors haven't totally found out what happened. Life can be taken so quickly.

I find us humans interesting folk. I so wish, "we all could live life like we were dying"...(great country song by the way) but it usually takes something major in our life to make us realize that we really don't have THAT much time here on earth and we want as much opportunity as possible to live that life we were born to live... to it's fullest... How would you start living your life if you found out you didn't have that long to live?

7/18/06 Mark that off my list of things today...

If you've ever spent any time in San Francisco there's a good chance you've seen these little yellow go-cart type cars running around. Everytime I see one I always say someday I'm going to rent one of those...just because.

Well yesterday was that day...and I have to say I had more fun than I thought I was going to have.

7/15/06 Cougar Mountain Classic -- Infineon Raceway

Yesterday I was watching the local SF news and a story came on about this guy who races mountain bikes. His thing is the downhill races. Sounds normal, but this guy is blind. A rider rides behind him and is basically his eyes. The guy lost his eyesite several years ago due to diabetes, but it hasn't stopped him down one bit.

So this had my curisity up to say the least, and I found out more about where he would be racing and realized it was right in my neck of the woods at the Infineon Raceway. I decided that today (Saturday) I'd head over there early and check things out. My other motivation for going was to find some interesting stories about women riders. I've never been to a mountain bike race in my life, have no idea how they work and the different types of races. Let alone who are the big names in the industry. So this morning about 7:30 I hoped on my motorcycle and headed for the raceway in search of some stories and not sure what I was going to get myself into.

Well I found out there were basically three types of riding. There was some road races going on, cross country mountain bike races, and then the downhill mountain bike races. I watched a little of all three and really enjoyed myself. My main goal was to find a woman who I could interview for a possible story. I didn't know where I'd find her, or how I'd find her...I just knew I needed to keep my ears and eyes open.

After watching all three races, the last being the downhill races I made my way back to the concession and racer tents. It's so motivating to be around all these healthy people who are riding their bikes all over the place. These people must really love to ride their bikes because they never get off of them.

I spotted a lady I had seen up at downhill race track and immediatly knew I needed to talk to her. I knew she had to have done the downhill race, downhill racers (after they race, plus their bikes are a little different) are very dirty and dusty looking as compared to the other racers. So here I am trying to track this woman down who is riding her bike all over the place, I finally find her back at her racing tent and go up and talk to her. Once I started to talk to her and her other team members I KNEW I had found an awesome story.

What was so cool about these women is they aren't spring chickens. The three ladies I talked to where Dana Beckstoffer 40, Nancy Harris 49 and the youngest one... Kim Gilchrist 39. They admit they break a lot of things...like their bones, but they really love what they do and it shows. There aren't a lot of women downhill racers. Out of the 200 that were racing there were probably 10 women total. Nancy Harris said it takes a certain woman to race downhill...like lots of testosterone. The truth be told, many women down hill racers aren't straight but these three were which I found rather interesting.

I plan to immediatly start working on a story about these ladies. They all have different reasons for racing downhill and different backgrounds. I think the really fascinating part was their age. You'd think more like a 20 year old would be doing this kind of racing, not someone who is about to turn 5o years of age. I just found it to be so motivating just to be able to talk to them the short time that I had.

Here's a picture of them...

From Left to right, Nancy, Dana and Kim and a dude!

Check out their website at: http://www.nobrakes-racing.com/



Here's a picture of a part of the downhill course
You can see at the top left side some people standing at the top of the hill
and the course zig-zags down the moutain.

Again I didn't know anyone from Adam who was racing, but as I was walking around I saw this guy with a huge video camera wanting to interview this guy and girl below. So I stuck around to see what was up. Well apparently these two are are married. They both race for Subaru and their specialty is cross country mountain biking.

The guy on the left is Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski. I did a little research about the both of them...

JHK is the most prolific American mountain bike racer of the last decade. His 2005 cross country National Championship victory was his forth in a row. His resume also includes three short track National Championships. Before turning pro in 2000 he was 4-time Collegiate National Champion and 2-time Collegiate Cyclist of the Year.

And his little lady on the right...

Heather Irmiger: As winner of the 2005 NORBA NMBS cross country at Brian Head and sixth place overall finisher in the Series, She is a former Collegiate National Champion and as a professional has consistently finished on the podium despite the fact that she was working a full time job. Now she has a full factory sponsorship and can focus completely on racing.

So all in all it was a great day. I met some great people, got some great story ideas and learned a little about the world of mountain bike racing. I can't wait to go to another race!! And by the way, I never saw the blind man race, but I'm glad I heard about him because it got me to go check out something I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

I also want to mention that as I was leaving the event (which by the way is in the middle of no where) there were two ladies riding off down the road -- to who knows where. Once back in Napa I saw three other bikers who racing that weekend (I could tell by their bikes bib numbers) riding back in the direction of the raceway. It's amazing to watch people who really love doing something and feel passionate about it. Like I said, these people do not like to get off their bike, it seems they are more comfortable riding their bikes than anything else.

7/14/06 Are you living your life in the wrong direction?

I’m in the middle of reading a book I’m thoroughly enjoying. It’s called eat pray love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Right now in the story Liz is in an Ashram in India. She is taking a year out of her life two visit three different countries, learning a little about herself in each area.

What I found rather comical is Liz has decided she should be more silent at this Ashram. She feels she talks too much to everyone. To the point where she is trying to make lunch dates with various people and she feels this has been what she was doing back in the states. So she decides to become silent. She plans to buy four of these badges (not just one) that she can pin on her clothes that says, “I’m in Silence.”

The next day as Liz is scrubbing the temple floors (everyone gets a job they have to work at for several hours a day and Liz is scrubbing floors) she gets a message that she needs to visit the seva Office (seva is a Sanskrit word for selfless service). So Liz heads off to the office to find out she won’t be scrubbing the temple floors for her selfless service. They have a new job for her, Key Hostess.

Key Hostess is basically the person that gets to know everyone and makes sure they are happy. If they have a problem, they are to see the Key Hostess…

I guess what got me here was how we THINK we should act a certain way…even if it doesn’t really suit us and is the farthest thing from our personality. Being silent isn’t what Liz was good at…talking to people, getting to know everyone and making others feel comfortable in new surroundings (being in an Ashram learning yoga and meditation in India isn’t something easy to take on) is something Liz was a natural at and everyone knew it.

Liz says, " I could only laugh later when many of them came out of their meditations to tell me that I had appeared to them during the retreat as a "silent gliding, ethereal presence." So this was the Ashrams's final joke on me? Once I had learned to accept my loud, chatty, social nature and fully embrace my inner Key Hostess - only then could I become the Quiet Girl in the Back of the Temple, after all?

Are you living your life in the wrong direction? Do you think you should be acting differently than who you really are? Isn't it about time you embrace and enjoy who you are instead of who you think you should be?

Just a thought…

7/12/06 What's Going To Happen If I...?

Taking on a challenge will inevitably change your life in one way or another. And change can be a little scary. Scary enough to pass on the idea of maybe you want to try something new. I do warn that if you do this, the only person you’ll be hurting is you. You were born with your own personal destiny to explore and discover, and it’s never too late to start discovering what it was your were born to do.

The other night I watched a movie called Julie Johnson. I found it very enlightening how this movie portrayed what can happen when a woman decides to take on a particular challenge to better herself. In this instance Julie simply wanted to take a computer class. That’s it, but it changed everything!

See for months Julie had been reading as many science magazines she could get her hands on. She was like an alcoholic who hides their bottles of booze around the house. Only Julie’s hides her magazines in various parts of her kitchen (the last place her husband is going to do much looking).

All Julie wants more than anything is to take this computer course. She asks her husband and gets a resounding “NO, absolutely not”. Well Julie takes the class anyway and her teacher is amazed at her intelligence.

Julie doesn’t even have a high school diploma and is encouraged to take her GED so she can go to college to become a computer scientist.

Sounds good right?! What husband wouldn’t be excited for their wife to pursue bettering herself? Julie has to fight tooth and nail to get what she wants. She ends up leaving her husband, looses all her friends she has grown-up with, becomes a single mom, but still works toward her goal despite the lack of support.

I believe this is why many women don’t step out of their comfort zone to try something new. The thought that friends and family might not support you, that you could loose some friends along the way and people might think you’re crazy. And you know what? You’re might be right. Any or all of those things could happen.

But the question is do you really need friends who won’t support the idea of bettering yourself? Usually friends or family who don’t support your ideas are simply jealous. They don’t have the guts to try something new and they don’t like the idea of anyone showing them up. Who knows, your courage and determination might get someone you know to try something new.

The bottom line is this. Do you want to see life pass you by, simply because of what others might think of you? Or would you rather grab life by the horns and take the ride of your life?

6/15/06 Miracle Woman -- Amy Racina

Last night I had the wonderful opportunity of going to an REI event where Amy Racina was presenting. She is the author of the book, Angels In The Wilderness. If you haven't had a chance to read this book yet, run...don't walk to your nearest library or bookstore. Amy is a true miracle. By all accounts this woman should not be alive today. Amy is an incredible example of what a determined woman can do when life looks a little on the hopeless side.

I think what I get out of Amy's story the most is that bad things happen in life, no matter what. It doesn't matter if you're a good person or a bad person -- things just don't always go your way. What makes life interesting and ultimately how your bad situation is going to turn out, has to do with your attitude. Amy's attitude is upbeat, positive and just plain grateful and because of it -- she's alive today.

Time after time after time, in Amy's survival story -- there's something good. From not breaking her back or arms in the fall, the fact she could scootch her body down a rocky ravine, the people who found her -- almost didn't go hiking BUT did, to the fact that the paperback book she took along to read was of the Aztecs. What's interesting about this was it was a historical fictional novel about the bloody wars of the Aztecs. The fact that Amy had a gaping wound seemed rather normal after reading about dismembered Aztecs running around.

When listening to Amy last night she commented on all the good things that happened to her during her ordeal and she said, "I don't believe in coincidences." I personally don't either. I firmly believe everything happens for a reason. I had this light bulb moment hit me last night when she said this. I came across Amy's book by chance a few months ago as I was going through my custody battle. Her ideas, faith and outlook on life was just what I needed to hear when I would get discouraged and start to loose my faith. Everything does happen for a reason, sometimes it doesn't make a bit of sense at the time, but as time goes by...the pieces of the puzzle fit naturally and start to make a bit of sense.

Here's a picture of Amy with her original backpack(on her left) she wore the day of her fall. At the bottom of the picture you'll see a little titanium cooking pot. This is the pot she banged on like crazy to let her rescuers know where she was. The bottom of this pot has dents all over it, but she says she still uses it and it works great.



I feel very fortunate to have been able to meet Amy face to face and hope to chat with her more in the near feature.

Check out Amy's website at www.angelsinthewilderness.com
to see if she's presenting in your area. Before you go though I highly recommend you read her book, Angels In The Wilderness it'll make the experience of actually meeting her fact to face -- even better.

5/19/06 Motorcycle Down

A few days ago I was driving to a job I saw an accident that had just happened, police were just arriving to the scene. As I drove slowly by I could see a mini van type car really smashed up. And then I saw it, a huge motorcycle down. After looking at the messed up car, I knew that the person who was riding that bike probably wasn't alive anymore.

I hate seeing this. Just the day before I had been riding my motorcycle on that very same road.

Later that day I found out that a 60 + year old man was killed riding his motorcycle. At the time they were investigating and didn't have much information. All that was being said was the lady driving the car drifted into his lane, but no answers as to why. It's so amazing how fast a life can be taken.

I've found out tonight a little about the man that was killed. He had just taken up riding motorcycles about five years ago. Didn't like riding in traffic and thought it was safer riding in the morning hours. He was killed at about 9 AM in the morning. The woman who was driving the car has been booked for felony driving under the influence of prescription drugs and vehicular manslaughter.

I write this because it feels good to get my feelings out on paper, but I also write to let you know that any adventure you take on, means taking some type of risk.

There are a lot of people who give me a hard time for riding a motorcycle. But I love to ride. When I'm riding -- everything is good in the world. This last week I was able to take a ride for a few hours. I rode out to a local lake near by. There's nothing that clears my head like a ride. So is it worth risking death to ride?

Well...for me...it is. Riding a motorcycle is my thing. I'm just so thankful I've found my thing. I could sit around and wish it was something else and wonder why I couldn't be content baking cookies. Asking why is a waste of time. It is what it is.

About a week after I bought my motorcycle a young woman was killed riding home her bike from a restaurant. She was riding with a friend of mine who had just waved goodbye to her. She turned left right into an oncoming car (this intersection does not have one of those signs that explains that you need to yield to oncoming traffic) This accident shook me up a bit. Here I was about to live my dream of owning my own motorcycle and this young woman was killed.

I can't explain my love for riding motorcycles. All I know is I hope to do many solo trips on my bike in the future. I want to discover the world on my motorcycle. It's one of my personal adventures.

My hope for you is that you'll find your personal adventure and no matter what...You make it happen.

5/02/06 Wow, it's been a rough two weeks...well months...

Wow…it’s just been a tough few weeks, well months if you want to get really honest here…but these last few weeks have been really hard. I’m currently going through a custody fight and these types of events in our lives are never pleasant or something you hope to do again in the near future or ever for that matter. Friday it should be over with.

My mind, body and soul is tired. I hate fighting, it wears me out. But when you believe in something strongly, you sometimes have to do things you don’t enjoy doing.

Today I was able to get out and ride my motorcycle for awhile. I haven’t been able to ride it much at all these past few months and wow, do I feel incredible. I LOVE riding my motorcycle. I can’t tell you how calming I feel when I ride.

Everyone has their thing that they love to do that can change a bad day into an incredible day. For some it’s rock climbing, for others it’s a walk on the beach, and then there are those who love to just get out and hike, run, swim…everyone is different and everyone has their own outlet so to speak.

What’s your outlet? If you don’t know or can’t remember it’s time to take some personal time to figure it out. It will change your whole life. I was so amazed when just getting on my bike for a few minutes I was energized and excited about life. I totally forgot what riding my motorcycle does to my psyche.

Here’s to finding your thing….