I Love NY...NOT!!!

OK before I offend all you New Yawkr's, I am a recovering one...born and bred...BUT... I'm here this weekend to do a gig in New Joisey so stayed a night in Manhattan to see "the son". This is why I live in Chicago (my kinda town, thank you, Frank). NY is noisy, dirty, people are unfriendly, things are ridiculously costly...OK, OK, I generalize but here's what set me off. Jason and I stop in for lunch at Oscar's Brasserie, granted it was mid-town, our first mistake but I was short on time and it was opposite my hotel. We participated in the cold salad buffet and I had an ice tea and one refill of my ice tea. Ta Da...the bill. $78.00 friggin' dollars...$9.00 per ice tea, now reallllllllllly. It's actually insulting. So much for my rant...have an outrageous week and if you happen to be lucky enough to be in Chicago, we'll refill the ice tea for free:-)

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

You all know I'm an "experience junkie" and proud of it:-) Can't believe this was only my first time in Big Sur, CA. WOW! The ride up to my hotel which was a mega-wow itself was awesome and frightening (check the link, that was my room in the second picture, not too shabby, ay?) http://www.ventanainn.com Winding road, not a lot of embankment to the cliffs and ocean below as we went up and up, I was in awe and OK, a little white knuckling. The last time I experienced that was the ride up to Breckenridge in CO and up to Santorini in Greece.

Big Sur, CA

I have been awestruck by scenery before that brought me to tears like the first time I stood and gazed up at the Canadian Rockies. This was also magnificent. Nature has a way of utterly leaving me breathless and longing to see more and more of our world's wonders.

I did seven cities in seven days this week while having a horrendous cold but I still can't help feeling blessed by the places I go, the people I meet and the experiences I have and yes, the air travel sucks but I'm a glass full kinda' gal and would rather focus on the first part.

What are you thankful for today? What do you feel blessed with in good fortune beyond money?
What takes your breath away and leaves you awestruck?

-Mikki

You Won't Want to Miss This Special Event

Don't forget this special event this Wednesday October 20th. Free and open to the public. Just register here.

The Show Must Go On!

Picture you're sick with a really bad cold or maybe it's the flu. Now picture getting on an airplane with that congested head. Now picture getting up and giving a three hour speech every day for a week from NY to DC to NJ to WI to RI to TX to IL. Welcome to the week that was...in my life. I'm actually still in it but Sudafed, Nyquil, Benadryl, Ibuprofen, Vitamin C, Emergen C, Airborne, Alka Seltzer Cold and a few other OTC remedies have been my trusted traveling companions...ah my glamourous life.

On retreat with my executive group this past weekend, the speaker asked us each one thing we were appreciative of, other than family. I said, "I'm appreciative of the blessings of my career that allow me to travel to fabulous places, reconnect with old friends, inspire audiences, stay in luxurious accommodations and create memories"...when I'm healthy:-)

New Yawker in Texas!

Sam Jones, Vistage Chair-extraordinaire, held his retreat at the YO Ranch, "Africa in Texas," a 40,000-acre exotic hunting ranch. This was mty second visit to the ranch, and it's not exactly my typical Ritz experience (check out my bed-mate at right!).

I don't attend many meetings where the client yells to the crowd during the meal, "Who wants to shoot after breakfast?"

At the meeting, I had to laugh when I saw koosh balls (that I also have on the table at my own meetings), but these were Texas-size!

I got to go on my own private safari where I kissed a giraffe, goat and camel, and fed a longhorn. I felt like Billy Crystal in "City Slickers."

Hair Apparent

Hair Discrimination

You've heard about age, gender, religious discrimination but what about hair discrimination? Now, I've lived with this my whole life and it never ceases to amaze me that people can make judgments about you based on that.

I remember when my son was in his teens, had long hair (beautiful, I may add) because he was a singer, it was the style, yet he had a hard time getting jobs as people assumed because of his long hair, he was a druggie or a hippie or something ridiculous. Hair discrimination! I've always had "big" hair and people therefore assume all kinds of things about me...ha, you're thinking of some right now:-)

Blonde jokes, big hair, long hair, none of which define the person, only the person with the judgment.

...but it's dry heat!

Yes, I was in AZ this week where it was 105, now back at my FL digs where it's 85. OK, enough of this "but it's dry heat", well it may be dry but you could fry an egg on the pavement and in my humble opinion, people who live in that dry heat, look parched and old so give me good ol' humid Fl, bugs and all, at least I'll have younger moisturized skin.