"Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation."
--Brian Tracy

This quote has been one of my favorites for a long time and I just felt inspired to share it with you all today.  I am so filled with gratitude for so many things....being born in this time, and place, an American, a woman, with the rights and liberties that I have.  Personal blessings like my intelligence (oops, correct the spelling error!), looks, and not least of all health and fitness.  I am grateful to the many wonderful people I have met through this hobby, both men and women, many of whom will never even see this since they have already moved on in some way or another.  Am I grateful to some more than others?  Perhaps!  But even the experiences which in the moment may be have seemed "less than awesome" had a lesson I could learn, and that is worth gratitude as well.

How about you?  To what or whom do you feel gratitude?  Is feeling gratitude the same as feeling thankful?  

One more:
"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."
--William Arthur Ward

XO

Wendy

Here is a special poem I wrote some time ago, originally posted in this blog.  Recently a dear friend beautifully framed this and I want to share it again:

Escape...

The walls, the halls, the office

The people the contracts, the pressure

The building, the crowd, the street

Escape to a place above this all....

Escape... 

Up the elevator, your cares falling away

Down the hall, anticipating the view

Into my arms, into our own little world

Enjoy the Escape for as long as we are together,

(and perhaps long after!)

xo

Wendy 

I enjoy traveling when I get the chance though it's always interesting to try to find radio stations to listen to. On a recent trip  I had a SWEET car and the radio rocked too, but 9 out of 10 stations seemed to feature "today's Bible verse".  Um.......

Finally  I found a station with some rocking dance music, perfect for enjoying the weather (and the car!).  My driving time tends to be under an hour which is good because apparently the play list was about 20 songs long.  So I heard a few catch refrains over and over and now I thought I'd share them with you.

"I'm know that I'm bad, but I'm really good at it!  Sex in the air, I'd don't care I love the smell of it" (hee hee hee!)

And then the more thought provoking "Everyone dies but not everybody lives"

So they are not exactly Bible verses (LOL!) but I have to say I like them!  The second one... isn't it true?  Every day that goes by, one less day to get out there and live!  It's a big world.  Do what you can to enjoy it as much as possible!  We all have to work, and work can bring achievement and satisfaction, but make sure you also get out there and find some joy and fun in your life, too. 

XOOO and Lots of Joy....

Wendy 

Isn't it amazing what we can, and cannot, manage to get done in a day?  It all sounds so simple... exercise just 30 minutes a day.  Learn a new language in only 45 minutes a day.  For brain health, solve just one puzzle a day.  But we never manage to get it all in!

At least I don't.  Do you?

So then we prioritize, often doing what we enjoy most IF we have that option, but certainly taking care of the urgent necessities.  Eating.  Working.  Returning phone calls and emails before they get too old to be relevant.  Which means that for many of us that exercise routine or new language...just don't happen.  Exercise is hard, learning something new is hard, and it's ever so easy to rationalize other things as more critical.  We live in a world of urgency over importance.

Long term we know our health is more important than, well... almost everything!  Without it 20 years from now where will you be?  What will you miss out on?  So I found a cool idea I'll share with you, let me know if this works for you too! 

Find something physical that you LOVE to do.  A sport, a route, something you do maybe alone or with someone special.  Something you CAN'T actually do every day.  Maybe you set a GOAL (see blog below) of completing a 5k or something...and you write it down.  Then every day, at whatever time of day works best for you, you get out and DO 30 minutes of exercise (or more!) which will SUPPORT being able to do that one thing you really enjoy.  Let's say it's basketball.  You can play a pick up game each week. But if you jump on a treadmill or lift weights on the other days, you'll be amazed at how your game can improve.  Furthermore, you've now given "fun" meaning to something that otherwise you were feeling you "had" to do, turning it into something that will excite you (well, at least a little?) to do because it will improve your game.

You can pick any activity you like.  Something that takes some aerobic conditioning, strength, and flexibility.  oh, oh.... my mind is wondering to less traditional activities where those abilities just might apply.... I have to go now.... 

XO

Wendy 

My goodness I didn't realize it had been so long since I blogged!  Happy New Year!!! 

What a great start to a new year when I looked back on the last couple of years resolutions... and realized I'd ACHIEVED those goals!  I'm stronger, more fit, happy, and very comfortable in my life!  Thankfully there are still things I am working towards since the opposite of moving ahead is moving backwards.  Don't need that!  And staying the same is just too boring.

So my new years resolution is just to keep on the same track I've been on the last half of last year... Keep exercising, keep eating right, and enjoy spending my extra energy in the most fun ways possible (wink wink!).  How about you?  Whatever goals you set, remember that a goal is different from an ideal.  Ideals are these fluffy "wouldn't it be nice" dreams out there, where a goal is specific with a given time-frame, specific action steps, and accountability....sharing it with someone.  Maybe you hire a personal coach (I know some! Ask me!) or a personal trainer, or you just commit to spending some time taking care of YOU by spending time with me!  (I LIKE that idea!)

And what do you say, shall I resolve to write more often too?  LOL!!!

Best Kisses and Happy New Year's Wishes...

--Wendy 

Ok, I just want to clear something up for anyone reading  this who just does not understand:  IT IS NOT WINTER YET IN MINNESOTA!  LOL!  There has not been a hard frost, not even a whisper of a frost in fact.  There are no frozen lakes; it has NOT been below freezing (yet).  The sumac may be turning red, but most trees are still green.

It is however a most amazing autumn.  I think I know the answer but does anyone else find that FALL is actually the best and easiest time of year to begin something new?  Maybe it's all those years of starting school in the fall, but I am seriously more motivated to set goals, resolutions if you will, in September more-so than January.   

But then again, in January it's cold, and staying in bed seems like the best solutions to THAT problem, lol.

Anyway, I hope you are enjoying this fall, crunching leaves and setting new goals and trying new things, just like me.  Wanna know more?  I'd love to hear from you!

Joyfully--

XO

Wendy 

I have been thinking a lot lately about how many people there are in the world, and how relatively few we meet.  Of those we meet, how few we actually know anything about, and yet every person we meet has a history, a past, a present, and a future they are hoping for.  It's mnd boggeling and exciting and in a strange way a bit sad that there is no possible way to know "everything" about "everyone".  But then again, would we really want to?

Recently while traveling I wanted a dvd player in my room.  The technician sent to set it up was a middle age man, nothing extrodinary to look at, but he had a kind face and was easy to talk to.  For whatever reason I no longer recall we started talking about a book I've read recently abuot circus trains, and he had some surprisingly strong opinions about how he guessed those trains had been portrayed.

I could not resist.  I asked more questions.  Who was this man?  What did he know, where had he been in his life, I wondered.

While I still don't and never will know where he was born,  how many siblings he had and how many he still talks to, or if he married his high school sweetheart or no one at all, I did learn he'd been... a circus clown.  Wow, huh?

How did he get into the circus?  What was it like day to day?  Why did he leave?  How did he end up doing what he is doing, where he is doing it, today?  Oh so many still unanswered questions!

But now as I look around, as I walk around, I wonder... who else am I seeing today with pasts, presents, and futures I could never ever guess?  Such an interesting thought!

XO 

Wendy 

Hi!  Yes I know it's been forever since I blogged... I don't MEAN to be bad, I've just been BUSY!!!  I think about things I'd love to write/blog about but then... I never have/take the time to actually log in and DO it.  So now I'll write down a small hodge-podge of thoughts.

I saw an interesting re-run of a HOUSE episode where a woman was a blogger and when asked what type of heart valve she wanted (pig or plastic)  she immediately reached for her computer to  ask her readers what they thought, though her husband was sitting right THERE and the decision also affected their ability to have children EVER.  Ouch.  Blogging is an interesting phenomena... diaries are private, personal thoughts that we write down for ourselves to probably never be read by anyone else.  Blogging?  Private personal thoughts we write down for ANYONE AT ALL to read.  It's really quite odd.

I also found an interesting artilce on Yahoo about things NOT to say at work, and why.  I'm sure you can google the whole thing if you are interested (LOL....did I really just write google??? Google yahoo??)  but a couple of points stood out:  DON'T use the words "Try" and "Whatever".  To quote the article which quoted "Yoda" "Do, or do not.  There is no Try."   I love that.  I live by that.  At least I "try" to!!!!  ;-)  As for "Whatever" for all you "Whatever-ers" out there:  "This word is a trusted favorite of people who want to dismiss you, diminish what you say, or get rid of you quickly. "Whatever," they will say as an all-purpose response to your earnest request. It's an insult and a verbal slap in the face."  Yowzer.  Careful with that one!!!

Let's see, what else has been on my mind.  Comments:  I can't really access them.  If you like something I write, please feel free to email me.

Thoughts on books, movies, life....set up an appointment and talk about it!  I'm even more fun in person than on this blog!!!!

Kisses....

XO

Wendy 

....were a bit more complicated to publish than I thought, LOL!!!

But thank you for your comments.... there are several you can see now under the blog below this one if you click on the blue "Comments" under the blog.

Thank you for your kind words!

XO

Wendy 

I saw the movie Julie & Julia (recap for those not aware:  Julie blogs about her year in which she makes every one of Julia Child's recipes in the Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook).  Julie (the blogger) wonders at some point: Is anyone even reading this?

Well I wonder that all the time as well.  I know people DO read what I write (thanks to those of you who let me know and discuss this with me when we meet!) but someone made this comment recently about a post that was on a discussion board, put up by another escort.  "Really, she writes all this obscure stuff like we possibly could care about what she is thinking about."

Um... wow.  Ok.   Afraid that could easily be me he was talking about!!!

But thanks to the Four Agreements (see blog below, lol) I'm not taking it personally, per se.  I AM however.... drum roll please... enabeling "Comments" (see the little tiny words below my blogs now that says "Comments"?)  So I'm curious to see what comments you might post and be willing to share.

Eventually Julie does start getting comments, and not all of them are from her mother asking why she is taking on this insane task.  First, I agree that doing some 500 complicated recipes in one year's time sounds nearly insane, but I'm not a cook either.  Second, I really really hope my mom does not send me a comment here! 

So to, um, all my fans???  Comment away!

XO

Wendy 

P.S. The movie also parallels Julie and  Julia Child's lives (done beautifully by Meryl Streep) from Child's auto-biography "My Life In France" which I'm discovering is an excellent read!

I was listening to the Snow Patrol song "Chasing Cars" as I was driving recently...it's a GREAT "cruising" song, easy to sing along with and nearly heartrending while still optomistic.   I think what I like best is the idea of just finding time and space to just "BE" sometimes... to "just forget the world". 

Some of the lyrics:

"If I lay here / If I just lay here / Would you lie with me and just forget the world? 

"Forget what we're told / Before we grow too old / Show me a garden that's bursting into life.

"I need your grace / to remind me / to find my own."  

The title of the song, acording to Wikipedia, comes from something the lead singer's father told him once when he was chasing after a girl he liked.  He said something like "You're like a dog chasing cars.  You'll never catch her and if you did you wouldn't know what to do with her anyway."  LOL!

There are many other great lines in this song, you can utube it and watch the video or the lyrics while the song plays.  But  the essense of the song for me comes back to finding space to play, relax and remember that we are supposed to be human "BEings" not human "DOings" and that the grace we are seeking is really our own.

XO

Wendy 

I hope everyone had a restful holiday, I love it when it works out that the holidays are so close to seekends that you really feel you get a good amount of time off to rest and relax and get revved up for the new year!

I saw a magazine article about eating better this year which also said that in addition to making good food choices we need to manage our stress, create at least one "clutter free" environment, exercise, and have sex.  All of these things are condusive to losing weight!  The same magazine had a chart on who is more likely to be overweight:  people who are dating, co-habitating, or married.  Any guesses?

Be well, be healthy, and Happy New Year!  If you need any help with any of the above, maybe we should get together and talk about it!

XO

Wendy 

I am currently re-reading a favorite book of mine, "The Four Agreements" by Ruiz.  I've pondered posting these four agreements with regards to discussion boards of ALL sorts, so now I will!

"Be Impeccable With Your Word" whereas "impeccable" means "without sin" so... say what you mean, mean what you say, and be respectful!  No gossip.  No putting others down... it only reflects badly on YOU.

"Don't Make Assumptions" so if you don't KNOW something to be true, or you find yourself ASSUMING something will be true based on your vast life experience... or lack thereof... ASK questions until you are clear.  There ARE times when asking some questions in "this" world will be in appropriate or taken the wrong way, but in reality... we all have the right to ask any question we want, AND we all have the right to say "yes" or "no" to answering that question, and it can be done in a polite way.   Remember that to ASSUME is to make an ASS out of U and ME.  (That IS how I remember how to spell that word!)

"Don't Take Anything Personally"  Of course I understand that no one on this board "ever" does this (ha ha ha!!).  No really, I "get" that THIS one would be, is, and will always be a challenge for most people!!!  But the way this book describes it (correct me if I am wrong, anyone who knows this stuff better than me... I won't take it personally, I promise!) WHEN you take things personally you are generally making an ASSUMPTION that what they said was actually ABOUT you when the reality is that it is about THEM.  THEY had an idea things would be different than they were, or THEY are having a bad day at work or at home and (wow!) here's a chance to "vent" on a board...anonymously!! Whoo Hoo!  Who knows even who "they" are?  Unless you ASSUUUUUUME you are actually knowing the people behind the aliases on this board just because you read it and based on your vast life experience...well I think you get the point.  For more info...the book is short and readily available.  

Finally, number four, "Do Your Best" and give others the benefit of the doubt that they are also "doing their best" on every given day.  But if the lady or gentleman you are meeting has just  gotten a bad phone call or really is insecure about themselves... why make it worse?  Give them the benefit of the doubt that they are doing their best, and also do YOUR best to make the best of the situation you ARE in (as opposed to the one you had built up in your mind, or wanted to be in, or expected to be in, or whatever other illusion of perfection you may be desiring at the moment.

See?  SIMPLE!

All my best...as always....

XO

Wendy 

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all just be WHO WE ARE?

I missed going out on Halloween this year but I reflected on the fun of it all... a chance to dress up and act a little silly and "be" someone either famous or funny or sexy or something else JUST for a while.  What if EVERY day we could dress as we really LIKE to dress, and enjoy rather than dread being judged on it?  But we are judged, and we do dread it.  "Too Sexy" "Too Conservative" "Too Sloppy" "Too Whatever".  And what do we gain by our fear of being judged?  Are we happier?

At the same time, there is certainly something to be said for doing (and looking!) your best!  I enjoy the show "What Not To Wear" (sometimes more than others!) and have to laugh at some of the ways people present themselves. But on that show these people are really trying to project a new image, and the hosts are helping them.   Good for them.

I am in Las Vegas right now and I have to admit that one of the fun parts of being here is dressing as sexy as I want and NOT being considered (by most) as "over the top"!  Well, only by those fuddy-duddies who just don't know how to have a good time and you know what? When I am here, I just don't care (unless you do!) LOL.

XO

--Wendy