Ellen Degeneres and Jodi Fisher, I Heart You

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Eileen

I’m proud to say I’ve been a fan of Ellen Degeneres for decades. I’ve been to The Ellen Show (Which was an amazingly fun experience. And I came out of it with my favorite I’m-going-for-a-run-to-clear-my-mind t-shirt. That’s a photo of it over there. <—). And I saw her perform at our performing arts center here at Cal Poly. I love her kind, generous heart and her sense of humor. I love what she stands for and how she conducts herself.

I’ve been a fan of Jodi Fisher for a much shorter time, but it doesn’t mean I admire her spirit and heart any less. I’ve been a fan of Jodi’s ever since I saw her giving away free ice cream on her birthday. (I know! How cool is that? See why I’m her fan?!?)

Wait.

You don’t know who Jodi Fisher is? Oh my. She’s beautiful! She lives here on the Central Coast in Cayucos and has become a local celebrity. Unfortunately, her celebrity-status comes at a price. She’s famous for crossing items off her “Fun List” as she faces a losing battle with cancer without any chance of a cure.

She celebrated her 44th birthday by driving around town in an ice cream truck giving away free ice cream for the day. Our local news station and local paper shared her story and hightlighted a few items on her Fun List. One of the items was going to The Ellen Show.

Well, the folks at the show heard about this (I assume the folks who work for Ellen are as amazing as she is. This proves me right.) and they invited Jodi to the show. Not only did Jodi watch the show from the audience, Ellen interviewed her. They sat and chatted up on stage together. (Hello! Chatting with Ellen?!? I would have gushed and behaved like an idiot. I know -Shocker!)

Ellen complimented her on her positive energy and bright sparkle in her eyes. These two fabulous women got along wonderfully (not surprising!) -they both share that “Always use your powers for good” attitude the Calandro Clan loves.

A thought so nice I’ll say it twice: I love Jodi Fisher. She’s rocking my world lately and making me think about a lot of things.

I’ll be celebrating my 44th birthday soon. I’m the same age as Jodi. I’m assuming I have decades of birthdays left to celebrate. What if I didn’t? What if I knew when my time would be up? What if I knew the length of that countdown? We all know we have limited time and I forget it way too often. I choose to ignore the idea that I won’t be here forever and get upset by how people behave in parking lots (reference to my last post, people). I know life is short. I know it can be gone in an instant. Yet I choose to let the small stuff get me down sometimes.

Yuck.

When Jodi appeared on The Ellen Show, Sara Lee gave her a check for $30,000 for her kids’ college education. Would Jodi trade that $30,000 to see her kids graduate from college? I’m sure she would, in less than a heartbeat. But that’s not happening for her. I cried when they presented the check to her. (Yes, I cried. No, It’s not that time of the month. Stop that!) It’s a big, generous gesture, yet so small in the big scheme of things. You aren’t Sara Lee, but if you want to donate to the Fisher family, you can, too.

Jodi makes me realize I take way too many things for granted and sweat the small stuff entirely too much.

What am I doing with my time here? (I’m currently staring at a computer screen. And I do that a lot. Hmmm. Makes me think.) Am I making the difference I want to make in this world? (My embarassed answer is: not as much as I’d like.) Am I tackling my “Life List” as if there’s only a short amount of time left? (No. A lot of the things require a passport and a bag of  money. Neither of which I have. Maybe it’s time to look at that list again and change it up a bit.) How would I behave if I had an incurable disease and knew my time would be up soon? (I bet I probably wouldn’t be as gorgeous and gracious as Jodi. Probably more along the lines of Pity Party, party of one.)

Jodi, I hope you complete your Fun List and I’m sending you a check to help. Put it into your bag of money and tackle that list! And know you have the support of the Calandro Clan in all you do. Blessings to you and yours.

Thank you for reminding me about what’s important.

Onward!

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Don’t Lose Heart

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Eileen

I missed the memo that it was “Drive-Like-A-Complete-Jerk-in-the-Trader-Joe’s-Parking-Lot” Day. I hate when I don’t get that message.

I got cut off numerous times, witnessed a pedestrian almost get hit, and tried to pull into a spot only to discover a cart had been left smack in the middle of the space and three other carts rolled on in to join it.

I parked as far away from the madness as possible in a remote corner of the lot.

Honestly, sometimes I don’t feel all that great about folks -sometimes to the point of hating all of humanity (I know that’s not a healthy way to view people, but I started the sentence with the word HONESTLY, right?). What I was seeing in the parking lot wasn’t helping. Is it that hard to just be thoughtful of others? Apparently, it must be, or a lot more people would do it.

I shopped, folks were behaving in the store similarly to how they were driving in the parking lot (stressed, busy, not paying attention to others), and I came out of the store not feeling any better than when I went in. And I was lugging 8,000 pounds of groceries out to my car. What fun.

To add to my I-Hate-Humanity feelings, I almost got hit while crossing the parking lot to my car because a driver was in a huge hurry and got the Drive-Like-A-Jerk memo (which I missed, remember?). And then the driver gave me a dirty look because I had the audacity to cross in the cross-walk with my loaded-up cart to get to my car. How dare I do that?!?

In my head I thought, “Why is everyone so mean? Why can’t people just have a little more courtesy? People are so rushed they can’t even slow down a little to let me cross the street. The human race is awful!” And the spiraling continued as I crossed the parking lot.

I even launched into myself for good measure. “If you were more organized, you wouldn’t have run out of food and have to come here right before dinner when the entire population of San Luis Obispo is here after work and stressed out and needing to rush to get home,” yadda yadda yadda. (Living in my head is fun sometimes! You should try it!)

I loaded up the groceries, closed the back of my gorgeous minivan (yep, I drive one and I know you’re jealous) and braced myself for getting behind the wheel to drive through the pool of stressed-out angry folks I encountered as I came in to shop.

I opened my car door and looked down.

In the middle of the white line designating the parking spaces was the brass heart you see pictured above. It looked like someone had laid it there, just so I would see it. I looked around to see if I could find anyone who might have dropped it. Remember, I parked far away from the Angry Drivers who got the Drive-Like-A-Jerk memo. No one was around me. No cars were parked near mine.

I hadn’t seen the heart when I got out of my car. It might have been there, but it might not have been there. I don’t know.

I just know it was there when I needed it. I’d spent the past forty-five minutes trying to prove to myself that the entire human race was despicable (including myself), and I looked down and found a heart.

I know…someone lost this heart. They might be desperately sad about it. I’m sorry if they miss it. If I knew who lost it, I’d return it. They lost their heart.

I’d lost mine, too.

I’m glad I found it. I found it right when I needed it.

Don’t lose heart, Eileen.

Onward!

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Stand Up For Autism Event -San Luis Obispo

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Eileen

Back in high school I spent many weekends heading to “The City” (San Francisco) to The Punch Line to see comedians. When Ellen Degeneres came to San Luis Obispo we were lucky enough to score tickets from some friends and sat in the center of the third row, (I KNOW!). I’ll choose a sitcom over a drama most days and have been known to guffaw on a crowded airplane when watching a favorite movie to pass the time. I LOVE to laugh.

When my friend called a few weeks ago to see if I wanted attend a comedy night I jumped at the chance. Then I learned it benefited the Central Coast Autism Spectrum Center -laughing AND benefitting a good cause?!? Right ON! I’m in!

If you’re a laugh-lover like me, you can join in the fun this Saturday, January 28, 2012 at Cuesta College here in San Luis Obispo. Purchase your ticket and get event details here.

As a thank you, I bought this for my girlfriend who invited me to the event -shhhhhhh! -it's a secret!

You don’t live near here or have other plans? No worries! You can still support the cause by purchasing a gorgeous dichroic glass puzzle piece necklace from Janine of Designs by Ja9. (The name of her business is so clever -JaNINE -get it? I love that!)

Janine is a total Rock Star because she uses her powers for good by adopting a cause every quarter and making online sales available for non-profit groups or even a walk team. This quarter her cause is The National Autism Association and (like I said before, but have to repeat myself) her designs are beautiful! 

I’ll be getting my smiley-face on this Saturday! No matter what your plans are, I hope they put a smile on your face, too.

In case you’re wondering, I wrote this post for fun and to benefit the event and/or product in this post. I wasn’t paid, or compensated, or bribed, or asked to do anything strange for writing this. And, of course, these opinions are my own. But of course, that means they are CORRECT. Remember: always use our powers for good. Onward!

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Nominate a Mom on a Mission with HealthyChild.org

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Eileen

Healthy World Healthy Child - CHEC Creating Healthy Environments For Children

Every morning I wake up and I ask myself, “What can I do to make the world a better place today?”

If you know me at all, you read that statement and laughed.

Bwahaha! I do NOT wake up this way. I wake up wishing I’d set up the coffee maker the night before and cleaned up my room yesterday. I wonder how I can manage to stay in bed ten more minutes and still have time to brush my teeth and get dressed. And I can never remember if I have carpool that day.

If I do get around to wondering about it, it’s usually never in my mind before my second cup of coffee. Sometimes it never enters my mind at all during a day as I’m running around my life trying to put out fires. I would love to be someone who wakes up this way. Some women do. I’m just not one of them.

If you know a mom that’s changing the world, get the word out by nominating her as a “Mom on a Mission” through Healthy Child Healthy World. Nominations are now open at http://www.healthychild.org/mission to find eight extraordinary parents (folks who wake up wondering how they can make the world a better place). From January – August, Healthy Child will select and honor one finalist each month. In September and October, the general public will choose the winner and that winner will be honored at a gala event in New York City in November.

The person you nominate might end up in New York City and be honored at the gala. And who knows? They might think of you as they get up that morning. Because you changed their world.

Onward!

I’m letting you know about “Mom on a Mission” thanks to being a Founding Member of Mom Bloggers for Social Good. And because here in the Calandro Clan, we always use our powers for good.

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