Spirited Woman Blogger Team

Gaga for GAGA

Hi, my name is Elaine and I am addicted to Lady Gaga!

But wait, I'm not addicted to anything! I don't drink coffee, I don't smoke, I don't watch hours of television, I don't carry lip balm and I don't chew gum or eat candy. How can I be addicted to Lady Gaga? Well, I am.

It started a few years ago when I read some article about her in a local NYC magazine. She was captivating. She is raw. She is authentic. She was everything so many artists are not. Then I learned that she hosted a weekly dance party in my neighborhood just a few blocks away and I loved her more. In some way, I felt that we shared a bond - having danced on the same speaker or having eaten at the same restaurant - Gaga and I were one.

The six degrees of separation thing started and I discovered that friends of friends know her very well. And then to top it off, she and some friends were at a bar two blocks away after her Radio City show Sunday night. Of course, I was out of town. When I got the invite, I literally almost cried.

Obviously, there is a lot of great musical talent out there today. But some who rise to fame get there with good luck, over paid agents and their connections. And of course, some aren't even that talented and still get there. Gaga actually worked her way up through seedy club gigs and self-promotion. She played in dingy bars on Bleecker Street and did an entire tour through nightclubs with no budget.

She actually "worked" to get where she is today. Underneath the sequins, hair extensions, wigs and costuming and overly embellished persona is a girl that can really sing. She writes all of her own music and delivers the most unbelievable theatrical style performances. She has had four consecutive top ten hits off her debut album - The Fame - something that only a few artists have mastered. She has written songs for Britney Spears, Fergie & The Pussy Cat Dolls.

For me, Gaga is the new pop princess who has mastered and added a new element to dance music that distinguishes her from any other artist. She is the Madonna of this generation and stands to create a legacy just like Madonna did in hers. With continued support of her fans and the media, she will rise to the top and I will be there with my Pokerface, dancing the night away.

So there, I admit it. I am gaga for Gaga. But it's fun and she is a genius. Watch her as the opening act at this years Grammy Awards airing tomorrow night on CBS at 8PM. If you don't already love her, you will.

- Elaine LaPersonerie - www.winkpr.com
Click here for more of Elaine's posts.

Lipstick Therapy

Isn't it amazing how sometimes it really is the little things in life that can bring us such joy and unexpected pleasures? I was reminded of this, over all things, a tube of lipstick. Not just any tube…but a tube of Poppy King lipstick.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story of Poppy King, she is known as the Lipstick Queen. She owns a lipstick empire and wrote the book Lessons of a Lipstick Queen. I had the pleasure of interviewing Poppy some time ago. She was everything I imagined she would be and more. She started her company as a 19-year-old girl fueled only by the desire to create a matte lipstick. That desire turned in to a multimillion dollar company and Poppy earning the deserved title of "Lipstick Queen."

I awoke today feeling completely uninspired. It was one of those days where I found myself questioning the need for a shower let alone the application of anything more advanced than some moisturizer. One of the perks of being a work at home mom is every day is casual Friday. Okay, who am I kidding…some days I look more like casualty Friday. Even the UPS man just drops and runs. It's not like I have to dress to impress anyone.

But today on my bathroom vanity set I spied a tube of Poppy King’s lipstick. A delightful coral from her Saints collection. I could never do it justice in my current state of disarray so off to the shower I went. A children's book came to mind: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I thought, if you give a girl a shower you're going to need to moisturize. If you're going to apply moisturizer, you're going to want foundation…if you're going to apply foundation, you might as well apply eye liner…well, I think you get my point.

Spirited Travel - It's In Our Soul

When you have the gift of travel in your life, anything can happen. Every day can bring a new picture, experience or outlet.

The world offers all of us a place of refuge from pain, frustration, loss and confusion. You can find a personal sanctuary for yourself in the farthest corners, and once you do you need to cherish it, hold it in your hand and never let it go. This is what spirited travel means to me.Finding a place that calls your name, pulls you in and brings you hope, comfort and a feeling of home.

My place, which I have written about many times, that I never stop thinking about or needing in my life is Kona, Hawaii.

Kona means so much to me on so many levels. My mother brought me here when I was  a little girl – she showed me the volcanoes, the lava flows that created beautiful canvases blanketing the island as it met the sea, the animals that freely roamed and the coconuts that fell to the earth and gave us sweet juice that you could drink in freely. The island is full of magic and a spiritual pull that is like nothing I have ever felt before.

I can go to a little beach cove where turtles swim freely and come up to say hi to me as I wade in their pool. I can walk on green sand or eat amazing fish just pulled from the sea. I can sit on black lava and watch as the bubbling white and blue waves crash over the cliffs wanting and bringing life to this amazing Island. I can feel the earth hum as it generates energy that comes it in fresh hot springs, magma and steam. Walking through the farmers market, I can pick fresh papaya, mango and bananas.

Your Inner Spirited Woman is Always Within You Ready to Be Let Out

Our lives all unfold differently. Some people know right from the beginning what they want to be and experience. Some people try different things but struggle because none fit who they really are. Many people spend their lives going through the motions, never doing what they really want - told it's not right for them, or it's done a different way, or they need to be "realistic" and just go along to get along...Whatever they are told keeps them from living until they stop listening to the outside noise and hear what is within themselves.

People and challenges can't keep your inner Spirited Woman down, maybe just hidden for a temporarily... for all the while she is within you, vibrant, richly textured, flowing with fun and creative passion. Like a chrysalis cocooned within ready for you to listen to what you truly want to create and experience. When you listen your inner Spirited Woman unfurls and you spread your wings and step into the richness and vibrancy of living your life.

Remember: it is yours for the asking.

BZ Riger www.artofallowingmindset.com, www.internetradiowithjuice.com
Click here for more of BZ's posts.

Outrageous Requests

Great things are only possible with outrageous requests. -- Thea Alexander, author

Wow, can I ever attest to the truth of the quote above! I remember standing on the boardwalk by Richardson Bay in the south end of Sausalito one early morning in 1999. My arms were outstretched to the rising sun and there was a hopeful look on my face. Five years before, my husband of twenty-five years had died of cancer. After his untimely death, I embarked on a journey that even now seems unbelievable.

After I moved to Sausalito from Silicon Valley, I grieved and healed for several years, reflecting on what my marriage had meant to me, and discovering what it was like to be a widow. I made new friends, I kept working as a writer and editor. And I dated, since I wanted to meet someone right for myself and once again be in a loving, comfortable marriage. I was 60, and many people discouraged my belief that I would eventually remarry.

So that morning at the boardwalk, when I was sure I had already met every decent eligible man in the San Francisco Bay Area, I made an outrageous request to The Powers That Be. "Very soon, I would like to meet the right person for myself, right here in my little town of Sausalito -- if you please!" Within weeks, I met Ed, he was living in the north end of Sausalito, and he turned out to be the right person. OUTRAGEOUS REQUEST GRANTED!

Ten years later, one early morning in December 2009, I stood on my back deck, my arms outstretched to the rising sun and a hopeful look on my face. The bad economy was affecting us, as it was so many millions of others. Yet I had this strong belief that I could somehow find enough work to make it through until better times rolled around.

It is Never Too Late to Act Like a Kid Again

It was a cold and snowy day two years ago when a co-worker noticed something unusual outside our office window. “Come here!” he motioned excitedly to all of us, “You have to see this!” We all ran to the window and looked out at the school across the street that was surrounded by large hills. “Look,” he pointed, “At the two people sledding!”

We all squinted to catch a glimpse of the couple as they tore down the hill on their respective toboggans. There was a collective gasp as we all realized the same thing at the same time. I turned to a co-worker and exclaimed, “I can’t believe it!” There they were—a man and a woman we guessed to be around eighty years old—sledding down the hill at excessive speeds and having a great time doing it. As they reached the bottom of the hill time and time again, they high-fived each other, laughed hysterically, and tromped back up the hill for another try. We stood there for quite a while, chatting amongst ourselves about how much we admired that couple for their youthful attitude. Even though the couple eventually left and we never saw them again, the message they unintentionally shared with us that day stayed with me—it is never too late to act like a kid again.

Recently, our city was "lucky" enough to receive 26 inches of snow in a two-week period. My daughter begged me to take her sledding day after day, so finally I relented on one of the balmiest mornings (it was zero). I bundled her up and drove her to a local hill. Normally, I would have sat in the warm car with a thermos of hot cocoa and waited for her to finish, but on this day, I decided things were going to be different. I slipped on a pair of waterproof gloves and a scarf as my daughter asked, “What are you doing, Mom?”

“I’m going sledding! I replied, purposely leaving out the important fact that it had been more than thirty years since I had even sat on a sled. She grinned and clapped her hands together. We trudged through knee-high drifts until we reached the top of the hill. She placed the orange saucer sled in the snow.

“You go first,” she said.

In Good Taste

If I didn’t love Ruth Reichl before, I sure as heck do now. For those who don’t know her, she is one of the most spirited women in the food industry -- working her way up from local restaurant critic to New York Times critic to celebrated author and, most recently, editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. I’ve admired her for a long time, but lately she’s become a super-star in my book. And it’s not for something she’s done as much as it is for something she didn’t do. Let me explain a bit. 

By now you’ve probably read or heard about the closing of Gourmet magazine, where Reichl had been at the helm since 1999. Maybe you even got one of those sad little postcards, like I did  – “officially” informing you of the magazine’s closure and moving your subscription over to Bon Appétit, another Conde Nast publication. And maybe, like me, you were a little heart-broken by the whole thing. 

For over 70 years Gourmet had been the “grand dame” of culinary publications, helping put numerous chefs, trends, restaurants, and foods on the map. To be fair, the publication always had it critics. Some thought it was too difficult or stuffy – many recipes used hard-to-find ingredients and could be challenging. But since taking over, Reichl made it her mission to “update” the publication without losing its hard-core foodie soul. She accomplished this by bringing in fabulous writers and tackling key issues like sustainable eating and farming – making food more accessible on every level -- while continuing to provide the types of recipes and in-depth examinations of ingredients and techniques we’d come to love and expect.

As I looked at my last issue of the magazine – the November 2009 edition – it struck me that no one could be as heart-broken about this whole thing as Reichl. After all, this was her baby for the past 10 years. So I went online and started reading as much as I could about the closing and that’s when I fell in love with Ruth all over again. In every comment, every interview, every Tweet and every blog post, Reichl handled herself with grace, honesty, and integrity.  Something – in this age of Jon & Kate-style finger-pointing – you don’t see everyday.

The Four Elements: Water - Hidden Blessings for a Spirited Woman

This is the third of a four part series. Third post on water.

Rain drenches us; it ruins our plans. It tends to make us feel depressed—that the day has gone downhill.

Yet rain—water—cleanses and changes in plans often hold hidden blessings for a Spirited Woman. Downpours drive us indoors where we can be closer to our family and ourselves. Here we can go inward to contemplate, reorganize, and wonder about the meaning of life … how the events in our everyday dramas add up to something bigger.

The astrological Water Signs are Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.

In our high-tech culture, too often we are literally not in touch with the elements and the magnificence all around us. Remember when you were a kid: opening your mouth, tilting back your head, and hoping you could gather enough raindrops for a drink of fresh rainwater?

Water symbolizes emotions, no more literally than in our tears. There is a popular wedding blessing: Let there be such oneness between us, that when one cries, the other will taste salt. Tears are the rain of intimacy. Soggy days, as my dad used to call them after my mom died, are the thunderstorms of loss and disconnection. They are the release that clears the air and revitalizes the atmosphere.  Without them, we can’t love again.

Movies, our great cultural barometer, have seen rain. Just one example: Gene Kelly was Singin’ (and Dancin’) in the Rain, showing us the best time in water since our rubber ducky. More recently, the myth of her people’s Whale Rider helps an aboriginal girl in New Zealand triumph over centuries of male tradition to take her rightful place as chief—a spirited girl evolving into a Spirited Woman!

Track

Last week track started. I was happy to be back on a team. The time I spent away from Cross Country was difficult because I loved being part of that tiny community that seems almost secret. These two weeks are mainly just conditioning which isn’t very difficult, but I still get to hang out with my friends and that is fun.

Today at track we did 400 meter repeats. I did my fastest 400 meter ever! I ran a time of 1:21. This was so cool and I was very proud of myself. I was also happy that I had the strength to do that. When we did the 400 repeats I choose my lucky lane for the season. I do this every season. Depending on the event my lucky lane may change, but today I choose my 400 lane. It is lane four. Last year it was lane five. I truly believe it is a lucky lane because I ran so fast in it.

Another thing we did today was 100 meter pickups. Throughout the pickups my friend and I were singing. It was a lot of fun and put a smile on my face. We were really enthusiastic about running and even some of my other friends joined along. Some of the kids I don’t hang out with as much are also on the team and I am looking forward to making better friends throughout the season. We have a while until the meets start which always makes people closer because you are cheering them on and pushing them harder. This looks like it is going to be a great season.

And I can't wait to see how I do!

- Alice, The Spirited Kid
Click here to read more of Alice's posts

Two Down, One to Go!

During some of the most difficult times in my life, I can remember my grandmother telling me that someday I would look back at whatever the event was and laugh at it. Time has a way of passing quickly she would remind me and when you are much older you will only remember the good things. Well, she was half right. 

Time does pass quickly, but I can’t say that all my memories are good. I can however admit that in hindsight the worst feelings do dissipate. It’s like labor. You know it hurt (and for those of you who have experienced it, you know that the word hurt doesn’t do it justice), but you can’t really remember how badly it hurt because if you could, would any of us purposely experience it again?

And yet, it wasn’t until I sat down to write these words did the following ever occur to me. We only need to touch a hot element once to know to never do it again. The same is true for sticking something in a light socket. What is it about this thing called motherhood that turns our brains to mush and plays with our memories?

I am the mother of three. I was very young when I married and had my first two children within the first two years of our marriage. I thought I was done. I was content with the fact of having a daughter and a son. My children were about nine and eight when I discovered that God had other plans for me. The greater irony was I found out on April Fool’s Day and couldn’t share the news because I knew no one would believe me.