As a girl, I always knew that the lady folk among us pretty much rocked this world. I knew we were smart, sexy and sophisticated. Women continue to impress me with their creativity, innovative thinking and commitment to serving others. But it wasn’t until late 2011 that I realized how tough we could be physically as well.

Earlier in the year I met Sabrina, a total sweetheart with a massive smile, super cute dimples and the coolest demeanor. Turns out she also played with the Las Vegas Sin, the Lingerie Football League team out of Las Vegas.

I know what you’re thinking: ‘Lingerie Football League? Chicks who run around in lacy bras and pretend to be masculine?’ There you would be wrong, my friend. These girls wear sexy little outfits, but they also come complete with rock solid abs, hefty shoulder pads and a kick butt attitude once they hit the field. Sadly, Sabrina tore her ACL training with the team (yep, it’s a hardcore contact sport), so she had to drop off the team, but she helped secure stellar tickets for us so we could attend a game. We sat on the edges of our seats for the game as these women whipped footballs down the field and plowed into each other, shoulder pads clashing, as they raced toward the end zones. The ladies of the Las Vegas Sin were tough as nails—no doubt about it—and I was proud to watch these women prove that there’s more to them than racy skivvies. Read More…

I’ve been known to make a new year’s resolution or two in my time, but I’ve also learned to embrace new opportunities as they offer themselves. Though I’ve been doing this on my own for two full years now, my 100 Challenge has come up in conversation with a few people, and I was excited to discover that some friends and colleagues have started collecting experiences as well. Julie, for example, thought of 50 new things she’s done this year, and Jill has suggested such a challenge as an alternative to new year’s resolutions.

Below are 100 new things I did in 2011. Will you join me for the 100 Challenge in 2012?

1. Saw a loop artist perform live.
2. Cried while cutting an onion.
3. Changed my zodiac sign.
4. Was elevated to gold status by American Airlines.
5. Made risotto.
6. Met cast members from the Phantom of the Opera.
7. Made a pot of chili.
8. Ate carpaccio.
9. Ate a sea bean.
10. Went on a whale watching tour.
11. Touched Baja California.
12. Saw a gray whale in the wild.
13. Flew Frontier Airlines.
14. Visited Costa Rica.
15. Planned and hosted an event in Las Vegas.
16. Sat through the whole Academy Awards Show.
17. Saw a spider monkey in the wild.
18. Saw a howler monkey in the wild.
19. Hiked in a Costa Rica rain forest.
20. Saw a Costa Rican waterfall. Read More…

When I started working my way through Corporate America, I knew I’d endure unproductive staff meetings, mindless email chains and menial tasks designed just to keep me busy. Though all of these pre-conceived notions proved to be true, I was surprised to discover that the modern office environment, replete with ergonomic chairs and fancy software, is made complete with food days.

There are birthdays and lunches in. And anniversaries, retirements and days where people bring in snacks just for the heck of it.

And, as a result of all those cookies, slices of cake and piles of chips and dip, there are a lot of overweight people in offices across the nation. Read More…

I love Christmas. I love just about everything about it:

Drinking flavored hot chocolate

Playing music that’s only acceptable for one month out of the year.

Decorating the tree.

Wearing warm fuzzy slippers.

Ripping open wrapping paper.

Stuffing stockings.

Making candy with my husband.

Reading holiday stories (The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a particular favorite).

Spending time with family (though this doesn’t happen often enough).

When the calendar flips to December 1, the giddiness kicks into full gear.

Our tree is up. Mannheim Steamroller is playing in the background. Whipped cream is on stand by to top off the cocoa. A weekend has been set aside for candy making.

Sure, I can skip the long lines at the stores and the ridiculous ads that start piling up mid-November and the fact that Santa Claus showed up before Thanksgiving this year, but those things don’t define the meaning of the holidays for me. It’s about so much more. Read More…

“Life is about the journey, not the destination.”

Words are skewed all the time, so I don’t know if my favorite travel quote was actually anyone’s quote at all, but the message is one I take to heart.

My life journey to the present day is riddled with questions, airplanes, deep sleeps and wild dreams, hard work, long lines, nerve-wracking phone calls, uninspired moments, quiet hiking paths and sleeping bags. It’s taken me across the country several times (by plane, train and automobile) and around the world a few times. My path has made stops in Midwestern towns thick with arts and culture, college towns laced with late nights, metropolitan hot spots that harnessed my wanderlust, dusty villages in remote corners of Africa and studio apartments in Asia (this was really my husband’s stop, but I stayed there anyway).

On my journey to where I am today, I’ve done some wicked awesome things—whitewater rafting down the Nile River, interviewing artists and authors, eating with my hands out of communal dishes, squeaking by with minimal local language, snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, falling in love, volunteering with animals, trekking the Inca Trail, shopping in foreign markets, indulging in beignets for the first time. I’ve also journeyed through some sad, scary and anxious moments too—the death of my childhood cat, waiting to hear if we won the bid on our house, several car accidents, losing my job … twice, wandering around in the rain in Vietnam looking for my hotel. Read More…

I've pretty much decided that I'm in control of my destiny.

I am the queen of goal setting.

I like lists, and I like knocking stuff off those lists. I make lists for shopping, packing, chores, work and just about anything else that can be compiled in a linear fashion.

I also set goals, and I LOVE New Year’s Eve for this reason (though my husband is anti-goal setting and only half-heartedly puts up with my lists). Every year I set new goals, and periodically throughout the year I revisit, revise and review them. I think life is a journey, not a destination, though, so I also give myself permission to remove any goals from my list that just don’t make sense anymore.

And since it’s my list, that’s okay.

Last year, I set two perimeters for goals: My professional goals and my travel goals. Midway through the year, I set a list of personal goals as well (some of which I’m currently working through with Linda Formichelli and her new wellness coaching program).

To give you a rundown: Read More…

Checking out Costa Rica with Dad.

Way, way, way back to a day when I was still packing up Christmas stuff, I got an email that said I had been selected to host Las Vegas’ Meet, Plan, Go! event on October 18. Way, way, way back in the spring, October seemed to be somewhere between eternity and infinity, and I knew I could throw a kick ass party with that amount of time. After all, my imagination was the limit.

Here’s what I learned really fast: Not only is planning an event ridiculously difficult, but even when you think the world’s got your back, that’s not necessarily the case. In a lot of cases, the only thing holding up your back is your butt (thanks Pamie), but when it comes to pulling together a big event without a budget, I don’t care how amazing your butt is, it won’t help a bit.

Given the not-so-long eternity I had to put together the best Meet, Plan, Go! event possible, I did learn a thing or two:

1. Las Vegas is a fickle city. No one likes to commit to anything AND there are a million other meet ups and tweet ups every night competing for attention AND it is incredibly hard to break into the local media. Read More…

Bonding around the campfire.

For the last two years, I have taken some sort of self-focused journey late in the summer that has allowed me to reevaluate my work, my goals and myself. In 2009, I took my life-changing trip to Burning Man, which resulted in my complete and utter abandonment of Corporate America. Last year, I cashed in on a prize I won for a travel writing contest and headed to Vietnam on my own for two weeks where I took cooking classes, had clothes made and otherwise did some soul searching when I wasn’t dodging traffic.

When I looked at my schedule this fall, there really was no time to fit in my “me” trip. Little did I realize that my time for self-reflection, inspiration and motivation would come in the form of a weekend getaway to boon hotel & spa for the invite-only Mighty Summit. I was head-over-heels excited to be invited to this exclusive retreat by Maggie Mason, who I met in Jamaica last year, but I honestly didn’t know what to expect from an event that had a loose itinerary at best. After all, if we were going to Network and Get Things Done, didn’t there need to be some sort of structure?

It turns out the answer is NO. Read More…

A few weeks ago we watched No Impact Man, a documentary about Colin Beavan, his wife and his daughter, who made an effort to live for a single year without leaving an eco-footprint. They traded in their refrigerator for a natural cooling system, washer and dryer for hand washing, vehicles for bikes and long-distance food consumption for anything found within a couple hundred miles of their home in New York City.

It wasn’t the best made film I’ve ever seen, nor was the execution stellar, but the message was an important one: We rely heavily on the earth without thinking about how much we consume and waste in the process. It seems to me that people take the availability of natural resources for granted, and they don’t hesitate to use what they want then dump what they don’t when they’re ready to move on to something new. I’m talking about our neighbors across the street who set a perfectly good couch on the curb for the garbage collectors to pick up and those who simply dump a box of noodles in the garbage because they decide they just don’t like them. Though the water in some American cities may not taste fabulous, it is drinkable, and yet so many people choose to drink out of plastic water bottles made from petroleum, which are then disposed of thoughtlessly. Read More…