Meet and Tweet if You Fancy

We're having another Meet-Tweet-Up! Calling all Bend bloggers, Twitter-ers, Geeks, Chubby Mommies, not-so-chubby Mommies, and everyone in between:

Join us on Friday, October 17th at The Blacksmith restaurant downtown, in the Anvil room. We'll start at 5:30 p.m., for happy hour and hang out 'til we're done.

I'll be at The Bend Venture Conference, which officially ends at 6:00 p.m., and I'll try to bring some Entrepreneurs and VCs and Angels with me. Because everyone loves angels. Especially the kind who want to give money to Start-ups.

So, if you're a Twitter geek, follow Jen @fiveforefun, or Sarah @SarahCofer or Collin @cjgraphix or Julio @SocialJulio and they'll tell you where we are and where we're headed next.

Bend Film: Meeting Cornelia and The Dark Horse

I crashed the Bend Film party last night. I got in the tent.

Technically, I was hanging out at the Film Oregon Alliance party at Bella Cucina, and a friend had an extra ticket to the Bend Film awards dinner, in the tent across the street.

Untechnically, as soon as I got in, I spotted another friend, Julie G., at a table near the door that happened to have an extra place. It was the Fairy Godmother's table. Seemed like a good spot for me.

So I swooped in, grabbed a chair and sat down next to a lady with 4 feet of strawberry blond hair. I mean, seriously, her thick, wavy hair goes down below her knees. She had to put it on the outside of the back of the chair. It touched the floor. Intriguing.

Her name is Cornelia Duryee Moore, and she wrote and directed The Dark Horse Movie about coming to terms with the potential loss of her childhood home on Orcas Island, and how a grown woman grieves the loss of childhood while dealing with family drama.

She was sitting next to her friend Karen, from Bend, who shared her childhood with her. BFF's always sit next to you when the film you made about your life gets into a film festival. That's just what friends do. Especially cool friends like Karen, who make cute skirts out of neckties.

So anyway, I quickly sat down next to Cornelia and introduced myself.

"You are so beautiful!" she said.

I was kind of speechless, then, which doesn't happen often. Huh? What?

"Wow, thank you!" I stumbled, and grabbed her hand to shake it. Seems like you should shake someone's hand when they say that to you.

"Are you an actor?" she said.

"Uh, no," I stammered, wondering if I should tell her about my Improv. Troup days in college, or my stint as Queen of Hearts in 3rd grade. "But I think you and I should be friends now!"

She agreed, so we whispered and giggled a bit more, and she told me about her movie and Karen's amazing costume and fashion designs, before we figured we should listen to the speaker.

Later, during a break, Karen told me that Cornelia runs a production and casting company up in Seattle with her husband and her sons, which I think is interesting, but not because I was thinking about my acting career, and wondering if she wanted to cast me in her next film, since I wasn't, since I don't have an acting career, I just hang out with actors and film makers. Because they're interesting.

And then it was time for the "Best of the Northwest" award, worth $2,000, which was sponsored by Integra Telecom (who I wrote about a while ago) and I told her I'd met the CEO and he was nice.

They announced her name! Cornelia won! She won the big cardboard check and one of those amazing, 40 lb. bronze Bend Film awards! And it was so exciting, our whole table clapped and clapped, and I grabbed her camera and took some great pictures of her accepting that heavy statue thingy. She was beaming, just beaming!

After all the other awards, we stood up and hugged and chatted about how she's a 5th generation Washingtonian and I'm a 5th generation Oregonian, and maybe we're cousins, and then Karen went somewhere, and then some bigwigs came up to talk to Cornelia, which is good for her career, so I decided to go home and let her move on with her career without me.

We didn't exchange emails or phone numbers, I didn't have any business cards, and I didn't even tell her about this blog, because I was a crasher, not there to network. I was there to swoop in and spread cheer and clap for winners. And get compliments on my looks apparently, but I swear that was just a bonus!

I am anonymous to her, she probably can't even remember my name. It's kind of fun, in a way, to be a representative of the Bend Community who just happened to sit by her and share in her joy and accomplishments. I want her to remember Bend as a friendly town, even though we were freezing, freezing in that tent. The air is cold here, but not the people. That's what I'd like her to remember.

But I would like to find Karen, because I want her to make me a neck tie skirt. So, if anyone has any information about this amazing seamstress/fashion maven who sells her creations out of her living room, sometimes, when the mood strikes her, please let me know.

And of course, if anyone's looking for a middle aged chubby mommy to play a middle aged chubby mommy in their next film, I'm happy to audition.

Running Tricks: Hop to it

Gold star for me! I tricked myself into running today. It's true, I did.

When I walk with my husband and the dog, I usually carry weights to keep my heart rate up, because I don't walk as fast as I run. I figured the weights were working, because I keep gaining muscle and losing fat, which is great.

But, now I'm up to carrying two 15 pound dumbbells, which is dumb, dumb, dumb, because my wrists were starting to hurt. I know carrying 30 extra pounds in my hands, while walking 3 miles up hills, is not the best thing for my wrists and shoulders.

So this morning, when Pierre the Puppy started ringing his bell for his walk (there's a bell on the door that we taught him to ring when he has to go potty, but now he rings it when he's bored, and when it's time for a walk-pretty much all day-argh!) I decided I'd just walk, without weights. I'd just walk, leisurely, socially, for fun. I'd just walk, and enjoy the beautiful, but windy Autumn morning here in Bend.

Nothing wrong with a walk, I said to myself. Every outing doesn't have to be so intense. It's okay to relax and enjoy people and puppies and leaves that are turning scarlet and gold. Besides, you can run later, I said. It's better to get out than sitting in front of the computer, after all. Don't fret about running clothes. Just wear your jeans. Just go. Just go now.

So off we went, before I could talk myself right out of the mood.

The puppy runs. He runs for three miles. He could probably run six miles. But before he settles into real running, he hops. He hops like a bunny, actually, because he's so excited to get out and go.

I wish I could be like that. I thought about hopping. Hopping is harder than skipping, it turns out, and I wasn't in the mood to skip (although sometimes I am) so I just started to do a light jog to keep up with him. Just a little, to warm myself up.

And what do you know? I thought. Look at me, I'm running. I'm actually running, and it's not so bad, because I do run, after all, I am a runner, you know, I said. I mean, I even write a blog about running, I reminded myself.

So we ran. We ran up the hills and down the hills and over to the park, and back up the hills, through the woods. I stopped a few times to catch my breath, and the puppy stopped too, to wait for me. So I started running again, which made him happy.

Because running is so much easier on his wrists and shoulders than hopping.

Hot Pants for juliejulie?

Red Hot, Chili Hot. Youch! I think I just burned my eyes looking at this picture.

Just because you can, does it mean you should?

My legs have never looked like this, and I highly doubt they ever will. But if they did, would I wear these pants?

Would you?

Where do you wear red hot pants like these, anyway? Where would I wear these pants, if I could, if I wanted to?

To parent teacher conferences? To Safeway to get Milk? To Cupcake Meetings with my tech girl friends? To business networking events? To pick up my kids from swim team? To client meetings? To volunteer at the non-profits I work with? To pitch our web start-up to potential investors? To walk the dogs along my 3 mile hill route around my neighborhood? To Pilates?

Hmm...let me know where you'd wear these pants, if you would, if you could.

COWPU Boots and Brownies

This is me showing off my red boot at the last COWPU meeting. Jen took this picture, but I cropped it.

I didn't crop out the brownie I was holding in my right hand on purpose. I wasn't worried that my nutrition coach or my Pilates teacher would say "Oh, so that's why she hasn't been in lately...she's been eating brownies instead."

I didn't crop the picture because the brownie was distracting me and I want to find another one; nope. It was distracting to the composition of the picture (yep, that's it.) I'm thinking of art, here, not just trying to hide my sudden, secret cravings for chocolate and red wine.

But look at my boots! These are my best boots. I got them at a second hand store about 8 years ago and they are still fabulous. I've been waiting all summer to wear them. Thank goodness it started raining this week. Perfect boot weather, here in Central Oregon, finally.

We'd love to see some locals at the next geek meeting, which will feature Bob Calfin author of "Selling Your IT Business" who will share practical suggestions for leaders to build into their business plan before they consider selling their company.

I may or may not wear my boots, but please wear yours, so Jen can get some good pictures.

Holey Shoes, Batman! That's Some Fast Walkin'...

Darcy is a dedicated walker. You can tell by her shoes. Yes, those are holes on the top. This girl walks so much that she burns holes in her shoes on the way up Pilot Butte, in Bend.

Speaking of Pilot Butte, I was excited to see that a 12 year old girl won the race up Pilot Butte last weekend. Amazing.

The Pilot Butte Challenge is a 1-mile run from the base of Pilot Butte to the top(493feet of elevation gain)!

I did not participate. I should have. I will next year. I think I need a year to train for it, actually, since walking up the Pilot Butte still gives me pause. Maybe I will walk fast enough to burn a hole in my shoe

Pikachu Goes to Work

Another gem from the eye of Patty Freeman Martin, one of my favorite artists. Pikachu looks so happy to start the day. I can't tell if that's a bottle of soda, beer or vodka in the front though. Whatever it is, it obviously helps our favorite Pokemon start the day off right.