Friday, March 25, 2011

Expanding my horizons

Last night I attended a workshop at the Sacramento Press headquarters that specifically addressed writing about wine. For anyone who isn't aware, I have been guest writing a weekly relationship piece for the website for a few weeks now. I also posted a few pieces about the Sacramento Kings arena issue and my very FIRST article with them was about (drum roll please) my current obsession: Wine...more specifically, the Old Sugar Mill.

Anyway, all of that to say, I attended this workshop for two reasons: the first was to get certificated as a community contributor for the website. They have to meet you in person and check your ID before they will do that. Second, if I am going to write about wine, I want to do it in an intelligent manner...so I went. I really enjoyed the workshop. It was taught by former Sacramento Bee food and entertainment writer Rick Kushman, who is quite the little wine expert.

He talked about wine, his love for wine, his credentials to teach and write about wine and what we need to know to write an informative and readable wine piece. Notice I didn't say an "intelligent, educated or anything else that has to do with being a wine expert" piece. Rick addressed several of my concerns when writing about wine.

The first, and might I add largest concern was that I am not an expert. I only started drinking wine 4-5 years ago and only added red wine to my pallet a year or so ago. So who wants to hear what I have to say? Well, maybe people just like me. Maybe people who are me 2 years ago who want to get into wine but don't know where to start.

The second thing he addressed was that the "lingo" isn't what people want to hear. There is only a small population of people who even speak that language so trying to tailor your writing to them is a waste. Write to the masses.

The best piece of advice Rick gave us was to remember that writing about wine is fun. He said that everyone who currently covers wine is angry and boring. He doesn't know WHY, but they are. Wine is fun, it is relaxing and it is meant to be social and enjoyable. So write about it that way.

I can't wait to draft my first real story! Now I just need to go have an experience to write about!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Adventures in Aerobics

I didn't think I would ever USE the word "aerobics" until I was at least 45 because that word conjures up images of old women in spandex in front of a gym mirror jiggling around...

However, I think maybe I was stereotyping (nooooooo) and aerobics is just a word for contained exercises with a leader...what do you think?

Anyway, my point is, after reading my dear friend Lizzy Lou's blog entry about Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred video, I decided to order it and give it a go....I giggled after watching the first video because everything Liz said in her blog about hating Jillian was so true, although I myself work out in big baggy pants and a sports bra when at home (until I lose the muffin top, don't talk to me about "running pants") so I can't empathize with her there.

So goes my mornings; my alarm goes off at an un-godly 5:45am and I quickly turn it off before it wakes my grizzly husband, I tip-toe downstairs and try not to stir Cali, because then she'll be dying to join me (I made that mistake the first day and actually nailed her in the face while doing "butt-kickers") and I turn on Jillian.

I spend exactly 22 minutes with her...2 minute warm up, 18 minutes of work-out time (3 six minute circuits) and 2 minutes of cool down. By the time I am finished Derek has woken up, taken Cali out to pee and we are ready to start out day. Typically the coffee's automatic timer has just started to grind the beans and I am ready to pour a cup as soon as I get out of the shower.

On those rare occasions that Derek has sat down to watch me finish up my work-out, I find myself a bit embarrassed that I am standing in front of a TV, hand weights above my head, balancing on one foot and following after Jillian. He isn't snickering, but he might as well be for the way I am feeling. Then again, I look at Jillian and her two "best girls" on the screen and I say, if I can end up like THAT, I'll do this all day...

I am now nearly three weeks into my little routine and I am feeling great. Getting up in the morning still sucks, but I am more awake and feeling better about life when I get to work. Better yet, when I get home from work I feel better about concentrating on cooking dinner instead of trying to fit in a work-out and then heating up a frozen pizza. So really, Derek wins too.

This week I decided that I wanted a little more focus on my abs, so I decided that Tuesday and Thursday I would skip the video and just do abs. So Jillian gets me 3 days a week (and maybe once on the weekend) and I handle my abs alone (using some of her techniques) two days a week. I haven't seen a huge drop on the scale, but I am feeling leaner for sure, so I may just be toning and swapping fat for muscle...hopefully...

I still have yet to progress to level three in the video. I haven't fully embraced every aspect of level two withoutbreathing hard, so I don't think I am ready to see what Jillian has to throw at me in level three yet. I am thinking this is going to be a 60-Day Shred...

I guess aerobics isn't all that bad...

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Weezypalooooza

This weekend we had what we affectionately called "Weezy-Palooooza"

In case you don't get it, and if you aren't specifically related to me on the Ruckle side I don't know why you would, my maternal grandmother's name is Lousie, we have always called her Weez and Sunday was her 80th birthday. She and my grandpa Ben live in San Diego and they hiked their senior tails up here with a few other family members for a full weekend of birthday celebrations so that my grandparents could be with each one of their three grown children.

My uncle came over from Hawaii, my aunt came up from Monterey and of course, my mommy lives here. The family partied for three straight days which included the traditional birthday breakfast complete with bubble wreath and family pictures at 7:30am at my parents house, BBQ lunch at our new place so everyone could view it and was capped off with the oh-so-traditional Leatherbys dinner on Sunday.

I have a few observations about family get-togethers.

1. They can be extremely stressful when several people that don't normally hang together spend copious amounts of time together in a short period of time.
2. Ignoring things that are annoying is probably better than making it awkward by saying something
3. We spend 1/3 of the time talking about the present and 2/3 of time reminiscing about times past
4. As my grandparents get up there and no one knows how much time we have left when them, these times are meant to be cherished. I only get to see them once or twice a year and every time might be my last. I need to treat it as my last every time, say everything I want to say to them, listen to everything they have to say to me and make sure I tell them how much I love them.
5. Nothing else matters

I love you G-rents

Monday, March 7, 2011

What do you want to do today?

Today I am sitting at my desk, on hold for the 32nd minute with AT&T and I am slightly frustrated so I thought, now is as good a time as any to blog! If they finally decide to put down their lunch and answer my call, I can always halt my blogging tirade and finish up my call, then get back to it...

Anyway...before I decided to actually make a blog entry I went back and read some of my old posts...most of them actually. As usual, I kicked myself for how far and few between my entries are. I freaking LOVE blogging...why do I let days go by between posts? I don't know. I wish I did. Sure, some days I am busy and frantic with life, but some days I am not. Every single one of those days I should have an entry up here.

Life is pretty good right now. I am loving married life, owning my own home, having a puppy, being gainfully employed...and exploring the options that this big world has laid out before me. Although I am fairly content with life, I want to live it to the fullest and not regret what I never did.

There are so many activities and experiences to have that if you never do them, you'll never care, but if you pursue them and succeed (or even if you fail), you'll never understand how you lived without them. I want to know the difference...

What do you want to do today?