Smoke, Selfies & the Story Behind the Name

I stayed up a wee bit late last night. I was having way too much fun putting together my blog and well, maybe, having another glass of 🍷. But it was worth every yawn this morning. I woke up, went for a quiet walk (it was 24C at 0830!), grabbed (an iced) coffee, and got a surprise call from one of my besties before hitting the road. A good, gentle start to the day.

🚗💨 A Smoky Drive North

Today was a shorter drive, only about 4.5 hours from Ashland up to Portland, but the smoke and traffic made it feel longer. Lots of haze in the air but the drive was gorgeous. Oregon just doesn’t disappoint. An absolutely breathtaking drive. The photos never do it justice.

✈️ Medford and over a Decade-Old Memory

Driving past Medford pulled up a memory from my Airship Ventures days. We flew the airship (her name was Eureka btw … so another reason that I should name my Audi)! … but anyway, we flew her up North to see if Seattle could be a base for us to do our flight seeing tours (it was based in Moffett Field, in Hangar 2, which sadly has been torn down … but … I digress). The Airship had found great success in Long Beach and wanted to see if Seattle held that same magic.  It did not. But that isn’t the point of this story.

More often than not, you don’t know when you’re making really incredible memories. So it’s funny when you look back at moments years, decades, later and you realize that, huh, that was actually pretty cool. All the good, fun, and unique things about a moment come into focus later. Today’s drive brought a lot of memories flooding back, so I wanted to include them with today’s recap. Here are some memories from when we took Eureka across the country with Farmers Insurance as our sponsor. There was a lot of driving. And of course, a wee bit of drinking. 🍻 But wow, am I incredibly lucky to have those unique experiences. 

👨‍👩‍👧 Followed by My Dad (in the Best Way)

My dad has been chiming into my #SoloRoadTrip family text thread, tracking where I am and comparing notes. You see, road trips are in the blood I guess, as my parents drove parts of this very route years ago on their own cross-country fifth-wheel journey. It’s been fun seeing his memories pop up, or the suggested stops based on my location. My dad’s memory is incredible. A trait he didn’t pass along to me, sadly. So while, yes, I’m being followed by my father, thanks to technology, it sort of makes him part of this journey with me. Which means, at least one of us will remember it. 😄 Hence why I write a blog post every day! Ha ha.

🎧 Finished Acquired’s Amazon Episode

I finished up “the pod” (as the cool kids say) and … just, really, all I can say is how unbelievable it was to hear the story about Amazon. And Ben and David (the hosts) are such great story tellers. I also appreciated hearing more about the people and companies that had an outsized impact on the success of Amazon. So I’m super excited to look at the show notes and follow up on some of the links. Starting with the link to Bezos’s shareholder letters, and the famous first one in 1997, I think. I can’t say that I have admired Bezos in the recent years, given some of his choices, but there is no denying he is an incredible visionary and a relentlessly determined leader. The success he has created is off the charts and worth a listen.

🐔😂 Roadside Finds

A couple of things made me laugh out loud today:

a chicken coop for sale that reminded me so much of the farm (although our chicken coop was like, 1,000 times bigger than this one). And this sign caught my eye as I was going into a gas station to buy my lotto ticket. I guess sometimes people really do need you to spell it out for them. LOL  😂

🎰⛽ Tradition Holds

Lotto tickets: purchased. Gas: Costco (and yes I’ll be listening to that story on Acquired very soon). Starbucks, of course. Some habits are worth keeping.

🥃🍷 The IRL Moments

Portland delivered exactly what I needed today: time with two women that inspire me and make me smile.

First, Bonnie, and the chance to visit Soho House Portland. So many wonderful stories and connection points for us to follow up on!

And then dinner with Karen, who has playing a key role in helping me grow my business.

While both of these badass women are more recent colleagues, it amazing how much the time with them oddly feels like being with girlfriend I’ve known for years and could stay up talking for hours. And these two amazing women live in the same city but haven’t met yet. So we’re going to change that.

🔮 Ace of Water & A Frog

This was a cool card to pull today. I have had a vision for my company for many years that includes (okay I’ll be honest), money flowing from above and into the various passions I have – host events, bring women together, angel invest, drink wine while I host women events (okay, maybe not that one, but I do love to do that). 🤣 Anyway, I thought the card was very fitting, especially with how Karen has been helping me bring all of the things I do under one platform. And apparently frogs “carry themes of transformation, opportunity, sensitivity, and moving between worlds.” 🐸

💃 Why “Being Superwoman”

I had a good catchup today with one of my dearest friends. Moselle is the most curious person that I know.  And incredibly thoughtful and kind. But her curiosity is what prompted her to ask “remind me why your blog is called Being Superwoman?”

Good question that I’m sure many of you have. Or the five people that read my blog. 🤣

I came up with the name over a decade ago when I wanted to start blogging. At the time, I was married, and my husband’s daughter came to live with us. She was 10 years old. She didn’t know English, and I didn’t really know Spanish. Overnight I stepped into a full time parenting role. You know the deal- from making breakfast, lunch and dinner, to driving hours for volleyball tournaments, helping with homework (or trying!), organizing play dates, and doing my best to be a good role model, all while working full-time. Somewhere in the middle of all of it, it hit me — oh, this is why mothers are called “superwoman”. Holding down a career and a marriage and a parenting role all at once is a lot.

I didn’t launch the blog until after my husband and I separated so I was no longer in that step-mom role. But I loved the name – not because I’m unique and the only Superwoman out there, but because women everyday are pulling off heroic efforts, most of which really do go unnoticed. One of my team members calls me Superwoman for all the things I juggle (I’m sure she also calls me crazy equally as often but probably keeps that as her inside voice).  

But since this blog has always been personal, not professional, the name, while it might be aspirational, still makes me smile to this day. 

That’s a wrap on Day 2.

Tomorrow is a long day with at least an extra hour, or two, tacked on to avoid the fires. I’ll be entering Canada at a new border crossing, and I can’t wait. These small town border crossings are so very interesting.  #StayTuned!

So now that that blog is published, off to bed! Along with another tradition I have … my night time sleeping buddy, inspired by my sister. Love you, Trish!