My First Nascar Race

At the risk of being ostracized by friends and neighbors, I must admit it’s been a point of pride with me that I have lived in NC for over 17 years and managed to not once attend a Nascar Race. Yea me!

That all ended yesterday. The Animal Protection Society of Rockingham County ran a food tent at the race. We stocked the booth with volunteer workers and in return took home 10% of the profits.

In by 8 AM, we took inventory of hamburger and hotdog buns, bagged peanuts, fry trays, and plastic Nascar souvenir cups. The flag went down (up?) at 2 PM but fans arrived well before then. I live 25 minutes from the Martinsville, VA racetrack and it took me almost an hour and a half to drive in and park. The traffic was bumper to bumper up Hwy 220 from 7:30 AM on through the race.

Our booth served hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, bagged peanuts, beer, soda, bottled water, and the “famous” Martinsville hotdog—red hotdog with mustard, chili, and red Cole slaw. I wrapped about a billion of those dogs yesterday and came home reeking of meat. (Amazing Blair didn’t just throw me on the floor and have his way with me—not often the vegetarian wife walks in the door with the aroma of fried meat clinging to her hair.)

We braced ourselves whenever there was a caution on the track, as people would come flooding out of the seating arena to grab some food. There were lulls, however, and during one of them I wandered out to watch the race.

Just like how you can never show a person a picture of the Grand Canyon and explain how vast it is, you really can’t explain how fast these cars go without seeing them in person. Sparks flew out from their tires on the curves. They clung to the walls at such high speeds I felt dizzy just watching them. Once, twice, three times around… I get it! This is why people watch Nascar races. It’s thrilling! It’s fun!

And then I watched them go around a 4^th time and just like that, I was over it. No disrespect meant to fans of the sport, but I can’t begin to fathom how much beer you have to pour down my throat to force me to sit there for all 500 laps.

And if I thought the traffic was bad on the way in…. as we did clean up I watched lines of cars sit for over an hour and not budge an inch. Not an inch. Total madness getting out of there.

We worked a 12-hour shift yesterday and I am pretty much the definition of useless today. However, we did pull in close to $900 for the weekend, which was the point. Near the end of our shift, slap-happy from exhaustion, another volunteer and I kept teasing one another to, “Think of happy kitties and smiling puppies” to get through the last couple of hours.

And a shout-out to those Nascar fans who saw our hand lettered sign that we were working on behalf of the animals and gave us tips for our tip jar. Thank you.

And thanks to my wonderful co-workers who were kind enough to show me the proper way to wrap a Famous Martinsville Hotdog and who also heeded my warnings not to make me a cashier if they wanted to have any hope of the till not being off by several hundred dollars. (Dena + math = DISASTER).

It’s almost 11 and I’m begging myself to get some work done and not cave in and take a nap. Anyone care to place bets on what the outcome will be?

Dena

p.s. Forgot that after a 12-hour day at the track I got home and Blair asked, “Who won?” I stared at him blankly before admitting I hadn’t the faintest idea.

Elizabeth Gilbert: A different way to think about creative genius

A friend sent me this link to a talk by author Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the international bestseller, Eat Pray Love. She's an engaging speaker and I love the new (or old, as it turns out) framework she gives to "genius."

From the website:

Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

Sisterhood Blog Award

Hurray! Angie Bailey of Eclectic Catladyland chose to present me with the Sisterhood Award, seen in all its glory above. Angie and I connected on Facebook some time ago and she has fallen into that new and odd category we all have in our lives since the introduction of online social networking of "someone I've never met who I consider a friend." C'mon. How can I NOT like someone who loves cats and whose Facebook pic is often of a cat wearing an orange wig? (Click on her name in this paragraph and you'll be taken to her Blogger profile which has the cat pic.) Plus, she's got the greatest smile ever.

Now it's my turn to pass on the award. I've chosen to name for the Sisterhood Award the blogs of several close friends of mine. (Note to all: You want me in a position of power as I reward friends and family. I think I would do very well in politics, thank you.)

To my male blogger friends - sorry this go round. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a brotherhood award to pass on to you.

Visit my friends sites below and say hi and tell them I sent you!

Laine Cunningham: My writer friend Laine spent 6 months camping in the Australian Outback--BY HERSELF-- to do research for her first book, Message Stick, now available. Aside from the Sisterhood Award, Laine also wins my "bad ass friend" award for this "You couldn't pay me enough to do that" life-changing event.

Southern Fried Woman: My dear friend Pamela King Cable writes with the beauty and depth of any of your favorite Southern Writers. She also cooks a mean orange french toast. Grace, beauty, and wit all tied up with a bundle of Southern lovin.'

Marisa Pirih : My beloved trainer! Marisa has completed several Ironmen and is on a mission to show all women how powerful they can be—physically, mentally, emotionally. If you can get past the fact that Marisa is beautiful AND one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, you’ll enjoy her blog!

Amy and Tamara are members of my running group. Their job is to keep us laughing. From Amy I learned the phrase “dreadmill” (for treadmill) and Tamara has a “quit your whining or I’ll hurt you (with love)" attitude. I adore them both.

Melody Watson: My day wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Melody’s blog as I never know what I’ll find. Could be musings about shadows and light, could be technical info on how to improve a website, or could be pictures of her beloved nephew, Mr. Pie.

On the Run: This is the blog of the North Carolina marathon, written by my friend Lisa Watts. Informative, funny, and lots of heart.

Danielle Hatfield: Graphic Designer and PR person for artists, I met Danielle through Twitter. Who says social networking doesn’t work?

Mariela Perez Simons: Internet Marketing and Web Design blog written by my favorite Cuban friend. =)

I hope you enjoy all these blogs--I know I do! 

What's Your One Thing?

Spring fever has hit and I have the urge to clean... not just the house, but clean the body, mind, and spirit. Start over! Begin anew! Climb those mountains with a can-do attitude and become the self-actualized person I was put on this planet to be!

Okay... coffee just wore off. I'm back now. 

But I am in the mood for a little "get things done" attitude. Blair and I were going over a wish-list for the money-pit (aka, "the house") and we decided we want to build a deck and screened-in porch on the back of the house. For those new to this blog, a little heads up that we've been talking about building a deck and screened in porch on the back of the house for almost 8 years now. Something in the process seems stalled, yes?

So we decided to apply the "What's the One Thing That Must Be Done" strategy to our work and home lives. The "One Thing" method is where at the beginning of each day you ask yourself what is the ONE thing I must accomplish today? If it's something that takes 8 hours and you must ignore everything else, so be it. If it's something that takes 20 minutes and you do it and blow off the rest of your day, good enough. You got your ONE IMPORTANT THING done for the day. Blair and I just started using this in our work days and I must say, I'm finding it effective. Definitely brings into focus where my concentration and effort needs to be.

So in relation to the porch/deck, we asked ourselves, what one thing do we need to do today to move this project forward? The answer is measuring. We need to go outside and figure out how big/small we want these additions to be.  So tonight we will walk outside with a tape measure and check our ONE THING off the list.

As for today's goal, I need to spend 3 hours novel writing. I have a two-page list of tasks that need addressed, but for me to feel good about my day, I need to do this creative writing. 

How about you? What's your ONE THING for the day?