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Rockin’ on the High Seas

November 11, 2009 By Lynette

You know where I’m going.  Florida.  Miami.  Then on a big ship and on the high seas for five days / four nights.  Without my husband or kids, but Rick Springfield.  Yes, on a cruise.  There will be *5* concerts, photo sessions, and many many cocktails.  No worries, the rest of my family is safe at home enjoying their time without Mommy staying up late on the weekend and eating ice cream for breakfast.  (Oh wait, I let them do that sometimes too!)

This is last years cruise that I couldn’t go on…

While away without a laptop (ZOMG!) or any real Internet access to speak of, I will have time to read, relax, lounge on the beach, stay up late, sleep in late, and get my shit together.  Sometimes people need that.  Collect their thoughts, sort through them, and move forward.  Good thing for me I hit a ‘rockstar awakening’ a few weeks ago both personally and professionally, and this vacation could not come at a more perfect time.

My kids are healthy.  My husband is amazing.  My daughter is so intelligent.  My son is talking more and more.  My mom is *happy* for the first time in a long time.

My company is doing very well.  I have office space of my own for the first time in a very long time.  I have started hacking down vines and building my own path again. I’m able to volunteer my time and knowledge with several local business groups.  The purple stripes are back in my hair.

I will miss all of this on my vacation, but at the same time I get to finish a thought, work out ideas, make new friends, and maybe – just maybe – I will get to meet (not just get my picture taken with…) a rockstar I have been completely crazy about since 1981 & the Working Class Dog album.  Some would say I was late to the game – but I was 10 years old!  (Rick is playing the entire WCD album start to finish in order at one of the concerts on the ship.)  I now own every song he has ever released and have been to 15 concerts.

Anyone that I have fallen in love with their work, I’ve been able to ‘friend’ to some degree with social media tools.  Not just friend as in “I can follow your updates & stalk you” but truly befriend them.  Matthew Ebel and JC Hutchins come to mind (both *amazing* artists in their respective crafts.)  Not having access to Rick Springfield is actually kind of strange to me.

Ok, I’m done rambling.  I am done packing, now I just have to make a poster for my cabin door.  Yeah, it’s a sickness….

Talk to you all when I get back! (And hopefully see you at Web 2.0 NYC!)

Filed Under: randomness goodness Tagged With: Rick Springfield, vacation

Giving BACK

August 24, 2009 By Lynette

No surprise I am a compassionate and empathetic person. At least I *hope* it’s no surprise! I also value other people’s time, opinion, experience, and feelings. And with that I want to tell you what I try to do every week. I give back to people that have given me something that makes me happy – or changes my life for the better – but I try to show that thanks in a way they need most.  Money.  Sometimes I can’t do it every week, but I at least try every week.  Sometimes all I have to give is my time, a blog comment, re-Tweet, or a honest to God heartfelt complement or word of thanks.  That I *can* do every day.

As strange as it sounds, I’m going on a Rick Springfield cruise this November.  I’ve been to 10 concerts of his so far.  Not only is the cruise a unapologetic gift to myself (from myself), but it does in a way reward and thank RS for /cough/ 30+ years of his music to me, he gets money from it.  Not the most direct way to show my appreciation, but counting myself in a tiny percentage of rabid RS fans that would pony up the money and float around on the ocean for 4 days DOES say thanks better than any other way I could think of.

Secondly, I love love love Matthew Ebel, have for years, and finally realized that maybe I should show a ‘starving musician’ exactly what his music means to me – with money.  So I bought a one year VIP subscription to his fan club and music.  I already purchased every CD and track he’s released, but this was my above and beyond thank you for years of robots, ninjas, crayons, and piano ballads he’s made.  I tell the world about him every chance.  I am confident I have turned more than a few people into Ebel fans as well.

Drew Olanoff at Blame Drew’s Cancer is a story that kind of hit me in a weird way.  I’ve met Drew at  Podcamp Philly, and although I’m certain he doesn’t remember me, his personal story of cancer hits home closer than a lot of people may ever know.  I remember very vividly when that Tweet came across when he brought the fact he had cancer public.  The fear it struck in me to how it must feel to say it out loud, how it makes it real somehow hit me right in the gut.  I bought a tee shirt, I donated to Livestrong.  I gave money, but I’m not sure I made a difference.  I sure as hell hope *he* does.  Sometimes money alone doesn’t make it better.

Tonight I gave a few Starbuck coffee’s worth of money to my favorite author J.C. Hutchins via Podiobooks.  I will purchase every book he ever writes.  I have downloaded every audio novel he’s ever spoken.  I wanted to thank him more, so I gave him some money.  I am lucky enough to get to chat with him via Twitter every now and again, and would empty my pockets for him if I could just so he could sit home every day and WRITE.  I absolutely love his work.  I’m only sorry and sort of ashamed I hadn’t clicked that donate button years ago.

Am I so flush with cash I can click away at any PayPal Donate button I see?  No.  Am I more passionate about things I enjoy and love more than other people?  Maybe.  Do I feel that I need to show my appreciation for things I value in a way that *they* place value on? YES.

What do you value and love so much you would open your wallet & say “thanks”?

[tags]blamedrewscancer, jc hutchins, matthew ebel, podcamp, rick springfield[/tags]

Filed Under: randomness goodness Tagged With: blamedrewscancer, jchutchins, matthew ebel, podcamp, Rick Springfield

Fangirls & Bucket Lists

June 3, 2009 By Lynette

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my bucket list, and how I’m now 38 /falls off chair/ and how I am to the point in my life where I can start putting check marks next to things I’ve always wanted to do, or people I’ve always wanted to meet.  I have the usual stuff like ‘go to Europe’ on the list, but for me it’s more of connecting and meeting people as well as going to exotic places. I don’t get tongue tied if I meet a celebrity, I don’t scream and carry on at concerts, and I’m not a crazy groupie.  With exception. Quite a few of them.  Here are some of my more memorable moments… [Read more...]

Filed Under: stuff i felt like saying Tagged With: bucket list, c.c. champan, chel pixie, diva rockin, ed radio, ed roberts, eric rice, ewan spence, fangirl, jchutchins, lee coulter, matthew ebel, mommycast, podcamp, Rick Springfield, spin martin, whitney hoffman

Back To The Grind

April 11, 2009 By Lynette

Business WomanIt’s been a long time coming, but I’m *back at work* – and by that I mean an old-fashioned 9 to 5 J-O-B.  I actually got the job by accident, or just by being in the right place at the right time.  My new gig is working for big pharma in the state (no shock there, NJ has the most of them) helping out a training department with their deployment and administration work.  This is the first time I’ve been in a corporate setting where the client isn’t a tech project – or I’m not leading the project.  Saving grace is that I’m working for my aunt, and she and I get along great, so the stress of wondering if my new boss is a bitch is not an issue.  Bad news is that I was suppose to be part time two days a week for this month and it quickly morphed into unofficial full time – but I don’t exactly have childcare for the entire week yet.  I honestly don’t understand how anyone can afford childcare and still have money left over from their paycheck.  We are very lucky that my mom is with us during the week and can watch the kids, but this coming week is a logistic nightmare for me.  Daughter is off for Spring Break & my grandmother needs a ‘sitter’ this week at my aunt’s house – so I loose my mom as our sitter.  Not very good when I’ve got meetings at work that I need to be in for and a husband that starts a new assignment on Monday.  I’m only on assignment until the end of the year and then I’ll take stock and see if I want to find another consulting gig or go back to my sweatpants and ponytails at home.  I’ll figure it out, I always do!

WHY did I want to go from being a stay/work at home mamma to a pantyhose-wearing 9-to-5′er? MONEY. And to get out of the house. More specifically, *extra* money so that we can do things that are normally outside of the budget like a new tile kitchen floor, summer camp for our daughter… and… here’s the BIGGIE… A RICK SPRINGFIELD CRUISE FOR **ME**ME**ME**.  You don’t honestly think I’d squeeze into pantyhose for a new kitchen floor do ya?  I didn’t go on the first cruise because the baby had just turned one and when the booking opened up I was in the hospital.  Priorities.  I have never done something as selfish just for myself and spent this much money on myself.  The clincher was that I had gone to a RS concert last week and gotten the *worst* seats I have ever gotten. Although the concert was great, I had a miserable time.

I’m going on this cruise solo, the travel agency will match me up with a roommate (hopefully as insane as me).  Totally indulgent, totally selfish, and for the first time in my entire life, I will not feel guilty about doing this for myself.  I would not go if it were “my husband’s money” paying for the trip.  So the new job of mine is giving me a paycheck, some independence, added self-worth and an identity separate from my children.  And a once in a lifetime chance for me to go see Rick Springfield – a childhood music idol and a big, fat check mark on the ‘things to do before I die’ list.

[tags]rick springfield, cruise, rick springfield cruise[/tags]

Filed Under: 9-to-5'in Tagged With: Rick Springfield

Rick Springfield, 2008

May 27, 2008 By Lynette

Go ahead, click the picture and pre-order the CD. It’s only $10 and I promise you it will be filled start-to-end with amazing, rock anthem tracks. Rick fans are trying to get the album to chart on Amazon, so that maybe once – just once! – his music will get some airtime past “Jessie’s Girl”. His music is so much better now that it was in the 80s. Brilliant songwriter, killer guitarist. When Rock Band puts in “Who Killed Rock N’ Roll” as a downloadable track, I will be happy. When someone sends me on that cruise he’s playing (no laughs…) I will be in Heaven. This bloggin’ mamma can’t even swing BlogHer, let alone a cruise in November.

It is no surprise to anyone that reads this blog that I’m a huge Rick Springfield fan. I’ve got my Rick Radio (fate? Lynette Radio…Rick Radio…just sayin’) streaming audio playing. Yes, I own every CD that he’s put out, but I’m finding some remixes and rare stuff here that I don’t have. Plus his band mates (and their bands) have tunes in rotation. Rick is pretty much the only ‘mainstream’ artist I listen to – all my tunes are from independants/podsafe musicians like Matthew Ebel, Jonathan Coulton (who does a wicked cover of “Don’t Talk to Strangers”) and Lee Coulter.

I’ve gone to pretty much every concert he’s played in my area except for this past year. Being pregnant or nursing a newborn really put the brakes on the concerts. So far he’s not playing anywhere near me this year that I can realistically get to, so I’m hoping once the new album ships, new tour dates NEAR ME will be announced. My heart has been set on that cruise for two years now, but I don’t have faith that will happen.

[tags]Rick Springfield, Venus in Overdrive[/tags]

Filed Under: stuff i felt like saying Tagged With: Rick Springfield