One hand tied behind my back.....

Some of you may be wondering, "Is Judy ever going to post anything ever again on her blog?"

I thought I should explain.....

Note condition of left hand:

My left hand and wrist with cast

As you can see, the cast extends to the tips of my fingers, only leaving my thumb free to mock me. At this point, the hand is only good for hitchhiking....

Typing is a laborious exercise that I have to carefully consider before beginning to write something as I type with only one hand and it is so very frustrating.

I know that I should be thankful that it isn't worse and I respect those individuals who are dealing with so much more. I am thankful.

I know many are wondering, "where did she hurt herself?"  (Roller Derby practice), "how did she hurt herself?" (I fell down).

My new Roller Derby skates

 I fractured two fingers (at the joint where the finger meets the hand). One apparently "shattered" (gotta love the Doctors who "paint" with words).

So now you are thinking...."wow! Judy is pretty cool! She does Roller Derby!"

and you would be right....I AM cool

but....

I should clarify about the falling down part.

I didn"t have skates on at the time (insert sad face emoticon here).

Go ahead.....I know you want to laugh.

Judy

"Walking the Talk" (Guest Blog)

"Walking the Talk" - how one green event pro went from teacher of sustainability to student

By Guest Blogger – Stacey Winkelmann, Absolutely Events

Sometimes you find yourself doing things you just don’t ordinarily do in your everyday life – one of those is writing a little article for a blog.  However, when I was extolling my tale on social media, my good friend Judy said “why don’t you write about it and I’ll post it as a guest blogger on my blog?”  But, I digress…

The other thing - and the point to this article, that I didn’t ordinarily do in my everyday life is really watch the amount of water I used at home.  Certainly in my business, whenever I would consult with or plan events for clients; we would always propose the most sustainable water choices in bulk versus bottled and maybe even include a community give back where a water resource might be involved where possible.  Although at home, while we have changed our shower heads to low flow and reduced toilet tank water levels, shut off water while brushing teeth, do laundry at full loads, we really don’t have any idea of how much we use or waste.

Well, the other day I was FORCED to use as little water as possible for two days.  You see, a water main down the street had broken and there we were…  camping in our own house!  I was thankful for the grocery store that stocked the 2.5 gallon water jugs.  This was our water source for cooking, cleaning, etc., for who knew how long?  Spit baths, brushing teeth from a cup, one pot cook meals, one pot clean-up too and all those other things that you normally take for granted at home every time you lift that faucet handle and water comes rushing out and down the drain for your modern convenience.  Aren’t we lucky!  Yes we are indeed, however, this experience has reminded me to be more cognizant of our earths resources not just in our 8-5 workday lives at events, but in our whole lives.

I’m fortunate too that I belong to an organization called GMIC (Green Meetings Industry Council).  I’m part of the Northern California Chapter.  The Global organization supports the One Drop Foundation.  I’m proud to say as of our Board meeting last Saturday, it was unanimously voted that our Chapter would also charitably support One Drop.  If you are interested in finding out more information on our precious water resources or if you can help, please visit the One Drop Foundation website.

As Fast As I Can

Something very strange happened last week. It wasn’t UFO strange, meteor falling through the sky strange, animal with two heads strange….but nonetheless it was strange and of course….I took the opportunity to stretch it into a metaphor for life.

Grab your coffee, recline your chair and sit back….this is a long one.

I was driving down the highway, my husband in the passenger seat, the speed limit marked as 100km per hour. My 2003 Chevy Impala loves to go fast and after all these years, we know each other so very well. I set the cruise control at 100km per hour and head for home. It was dark out, there wasn’t a lot of traffic on the highway and I was scanning the ditches for animals (deer seem to love to jump out at the last moment).

About 5 minutes into the trip…..

Glancing down at my gauges, I notice that my speed has decreased to 80 (which was strange when you are cruise control) and so I responded by depressing the gas pedal a little further, using a little more force.

Picture the following thought bubble here: That’s strange……I feel like I am going faster, but my speedometer is now reading 60km per hour.

What the hell is happening? Am I suffering some kind of stroke? Have I been thrust into an alternate time and space? Did my friends put something in my coffee?

My sensory system is telling me that I am traveling 100km per hour (or more at this point), but my eyes are seeing 60km on the speedometer and transmitting that information to my brain.

We are clearly experiencing a malfunction at the junction…but which junction? My mind is racing with the possibilities, not least of all that I am losing my mind. Am I about to be sucked into a black hole? 

The speedometer is dropping further now and I depress the gas pedal in response. The gauges do not respond. We are now whizzing down the highway, the tree-line zooming past and my brain once again tries to rationalize the situation.

I FEEL like I am going faster and faster, but my speedometer is saying that I am going slower and slower.

Glancing over at my husband, I am looking for any sign that something is really and truly wrong with me.

“How fast do you think we are going?” I say in a panicked voice.

“Pretty fast!” he responds (checking his seatbelt)

“My speedometer is saying that I am only going 40km per hour!!! What is going on?” I say…in a very concerned tone.

“I think it must be broken because you are obviously going very, very, verrrrry fast and you should perhaps SLOW down!” he exclaims, bringing his seatback into the upright position.

Can this be true? Can your speedometer just die like that?

I take my foot off the gas pedal and the car begins to slow. Coincidentally, the speedometer now begins a steady freefall, bouncing along until it finally rests at zero.

The speedometer has clearly crapped out on my 2003 Impala.

A part of me is still questioning. It is like when someone tells you it is raining and it clearly is not raining. A part of you wants to believe that it actually is raining…to trust in what the person says…..why would they lie? We have been programmed to trust.

We have been programmed to trust that darn speedometer.

My first instinct was to question myself. My first instinct was to trust a machine over my own sense of reality.

What does that say about me?

This isn’t the first time that my trust has been misplaced…misguided.

Is it my upbringing? The generation I belong to?

Thank goodness I wasn’t flying an aircraft or performing surgery.

Over the past couple of days I have come to the following conclusion:

·   When all else fails (and sometimes it does), you have to rely on yourself, your instincts.

·   Learn that it is okay to question.

·   NOTHING is infallible…..everything and everyone can make a mistake.

·   Trust in yourself

Judy