On Who Reads This Thing

OK.... so my stat counter thingy tells me that I out words out there and people ACTUALLY read what I say. That blows my mind :) Hopefully you randoms out there are at least mildly entertained. Thanks for reading!

On Creepin' our Inspiration

I had a conversation recently with a bunch of high school girls. We were chatting about "girl crushes". We all agreed that the concept doesn't lie only with a small group of "weirdos". It was apparent by our impromptu straw poll that having a "girl crush"  is a widely-held practice among women.

I wrote here about the concept of "secret friends". Well, a "girl crush" is a different thing entirely. I define it as follows: Regarding another girl/woman with awe because she possesses qualities you admire/wish you had. Said girl/woman generally is someone you have little to zero contact with and who you may or may not have enough in common to be friends with were you to actually meet.

As I don't wish to embarrass myself, my girl crushes will absolutely not be shared here. I do have them, however.

I have an acquaintance who has a blog/vlog. I haven't seen her in about 10 years. The last few days I've been catching up. This is what got me to thinking about girl crushes. The concept of girl crushes does involve observing a person that doesn't directly know they are being observed. E.g. Watching the tv show she stars in, reading all of her books, etc. Choosing to be in the public eye supposes the notion of others seeing whatever it is you put out there. Now... my acquaintance graciously invites her audience to enjoy her   blog/vlog, but.... watching 20 or so episodes of her vlog back to back at a time does seem like I'm just plain creepin' - invited or not. AND... she's more of a secret friend for me anyway. The two of us are definitely kindred spirits.

Because I'm the analytical sort, I was considering (as I was creepin' through vlog episodes) the sources from which I draw inspiration. Two of my answers were, of course, secret friends and girl crushes. When we are little we look to parents, siblings, and friends for cues on how to be and ideas for stuff to get into. As we age and our world gets bigger, countless sources for inspiration materialize. I believe our personal convictions as well as our personal tastes draw us to particular people. It's logical to me that women would be drawn to other women (regardless of what you name the practice) because we can closer identify with them than we can dudes. So there.... notion de-mystified!

In case you want to check out the blog/vlog of my not-so-secret-friend. You can find her here

I'm a Big Scaredy-Cat

I met AN OLYMPIAN!!!!!

I was at our State Qualifier meet last weekend. We had just gotten there and I was chillin' waiting for things to get started. A woman/coach walked into the gym. She caught my eye because she looked familiar. I noticed another coach talking to her.

Well.... during the coaches meeting I sat next to him. He asked me if I remembered Hope Spivey. Well, duh!! Yes, I was a fan. She was on the 1988 Olympic team. That Olympics happened while I was still competing. The coach I noticed was her!!!! And, our gymnasts ended up in the same group so I conversed with her. Here is a video:

Hope Spivey 1988 Olympics

Now... the girls don't know who she is because they weren't even born in 1988. So I told them. I was just in awe. And.... I am shy. So I was too shy to talk to her about anything other than the task at hand. BUT.... my oldest and a girl from my team approached her and told her I was a big fan and asked for her autograph. How embarrassing!! Anyway... so I have her autograph. After I got over being embarrassed I thought that was pretty cool that they did that for me. That was pretty sweet. I am left, however, still feeling like a dork for not just talking to her.

On Glimpses of My Other Self

Today my "boss" rode in my car. I say "boss" because she is, but she doesn't illicit the stereotypical "the-boss-is-coming" feelings for me. I happen to like her a lot. She's super easy to work for and with.

She and I have had conversations before about how we agree that we have distinct personas that show up to specific venues (away-from-work Stef vs at-work Stef) Our paths don't cross outside of the office so we're pretty much left to wonder about the other sides of each other we claim exist.

The odd part of her riding in my car is the notion that my car is the place on the planet (except my kitchen when no one is home) where I feel most free to be me. See here for more on that. Anyway, other than my family members, others rarely ride in my vehicle. So for me, the experience feels a lot like inviting another person to read my diary or something like that. I feel like maybe they can sense leftover crazy in the space; Or perhaps I'm afraid I might burst into song.

When I worked in the rehab department at the hospital in Florida, I learned that physical therapists are a lot like other physical therapists, occupational therapists are a lot like other occupational therapists, speech pathologists are a lot like other speech pathologists, etc. I also learned that each specialty seems to have a particular skill set where they excel. Now I work with athletic trainers. I've learned that athletic trainers are a lot like other athletic trainers. They also have a skill set where they excel. It seems to me that athletic trainers are quite skilled at gathering information and noticing details. In the case of my "boss", I can say something in passing that is truly unimportant and it may well come up in conversation months later. I don't know why after 5 years that still surprises me.

So boss-lady climbed into my ride today and I was so entertained by her commentary revolving around things she noticed. She has even nick-named my vehicle. That's so funny to me. Apparently she got a glimpse of away-from-work Stef. I think she liked her.