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Last night (Thursday night), I was all set to write a blog post that would demonstrate my anger at some petty and insincere people who are just a bunch of elitist snobs. I would burn them! 

But after I arrived home and switched on the news, Frank and Amelia started telling me about all the tornadoes around the state. I forgot about the blog post and focused on my thoughts of home. The news reports were saying that funnel clouds were being spotted all around Albert Lea in Freeborn County. 

The place I consider home. I may own about 1000 square feet of worn out carpeting in Saint Paul and have a job in the area (sure can't say metro), I'm still an Albert Lean at heart. And at times, a rather homesick one.

 (photo by Arian Shuessler/The Globe-Gazette)

In its usual frustrating style, the news was coming in bits and pieces. Between the reports on TV, I was keeping watch of my friends back home via their posts on Facebook.  The immediacy of the web was a gift last night.

While at work today, it was hard to focus and I was constantly visiting the Albert Lea Tribune website. I knew that one person had been killed and many more injured.  Did I know any one of those people? But I was 100+ miles away and feeling anxious - wishing I could be there.

The Tribune posted an article this afternoon that contained a friend's name in the teaser copy. A quick rush of adreline hit me just seeing a name I knew. Fortunately, the language was the present tense and Terry was talking about the devastation all around him in Alden (just outside of Albert Lea).  

Late this afternoon, the Tribune added a flash gallery of aerial photos of  Freeborn County that were taken Friday afternoon.

Albert Lea Tribune | Gallery of aerial photos of tornado damages 

As the images cycled through of farm after farm demolished, I began to notice something interesting in many of the photos. Beside the outbuildings ripped off their foundations and trees uprooted, there were cars. 

Lots of cars. Lined up in a parking lot fashion.

Not cars overturned or damaged, but the cars of the neighbors and friends of those affected, who had shown up to lend a hand. Amidst the near obliteration of the landscape in the photos, you saw the community. 

I would be there if I could, but all I can do right now is pray for all those who lost homes and particularly for those who lost a mom, a wife and a friend.

The nasty blog post that I had planned on writing isn't going to happen. At least not right now. As ticked off as I was when I walked through my front door last night, the storms reminded me of what was really important. 

And a blog post about petty people would have made me the petty one.

I'm finally a Mommy Blogger!

There seems to be only two types of bloggers - Mommy bloggers and everyone else.  I'm in the "everyone else" group due to my severe lack of biological children. But with today's post, I get to move into the Mommy blogger category because today, my blog post is about my Mom. (Work with me, here....)

This Friday, my 83-year old mother will be joining the digital age when she gets internet access in her independent living apartment. OMG, my mom could potentially be on Facebook soon.

I doubt she'll be friending anyone in immediate future as this is the same women who required me to visit two weekends each year: the beginning of daylight savings time and the end of daylight savings time. It seems that I was the only one of her children who had the technical training for resetting all the digital clocks in her house. (oh, and don't lecture, I visit my mom more than twice a year.)

I know this will be an educational opportunity for me because I talk techie all the time and make assumptions that if I know it, everyone else must know it, too. I've already learned how much I take for granted in just trying to explain some Web 2.0 basics to my mom.

Recently, I was explaining how I left a note of sympathy on my home town newspaper's (Albert Lea Tribune) obituary page.  I explained, "I wrote a note to the family about my memories of their mom."

To anyone reading this blog, that would be simply enough. But how could someone who has never used the internet for communications, only to view things, understand writing on a website that doesn't belong to you? It took a bit of time to either explain it or get her flustered enough to stop asking questions - I'm not sure what the real outcome was.

Mom called me last night to discuss the selection of her email address. Could she really use whatever she wanted? More or less, yes. You tell them what you want for your user name (oops).

Explaining the "@" part and how she only chooses the part before the @, was a bit more tricky. "It's called an ampersand and it means 'at."

She wanted to know, "How did you get to have 'family' in your email address?"

"Mom, I didn't choose that part of my email address, I have 'usfamily' because that's the name of my ISP...um....service provider." (drats!) 

-silence-

So, ask yourself - ten or fifteen years ago, would you have understood this? 

This will definitely be a learning experience for me. And perhaps a very drawn-out learning experience. I'll just consider it fodder for having more Mommy blogger posts. (So I can be more like the other kids...) 

www.nataliedee.com

People, let me tell you about my best friend...

I've had the same best friend for 40 years and I'm quite proud of that fact!

We met in the fall of 1969 when we were in third grade at St. Theodore's Catholic School in Albert Lea. Mary and I were two of the eight girls named Mary in that class. (And people wonder why I go by my middle name?)

It was my second attempt at third grade and as traumatic as it was at the time, if I hadn't stayed back, Mary and I would most likely not have become friends. It took me about 38 years to figure that out and at my surprise 50th birthday party, Mary thanked my mom for holding me back in third grade. It might have been the first time my mom even realized the impact of that choice.

(So there's another positive to having ADD!)

I don't know many people that have had the same best friend since grade school. Albert Lea is a smaller community, so even though Mary and I went to different schools in 5th & 6th grade (Catholic school was shuttered after our 4th grade year), the friendship maintained. From 7th grade until graduation, we were back together again in the same schools. 

I'm sure many of our friends wondered if we were fused at the hips. 

It would be disingenuous if I didn't admit to a fight in college that was so nasty, we didn't talk for a couple of years. The topic of the fight? A guy. What a mistake! But it also made us realize the value of our friendship. When I talk to young ones about their best friends, I always warn them about the "guy" issue and to promise each other that they would never fight about a guy!

*I did create a voodoo doll in the likeness of this guy and stick pins in it regularly. Because of this fight, I have no photos of the two of us (Mary & I, not the guy) prior to 1983 cuz my evil twin destroyed all the pictures!* 

Today, we live hundreds of miles apart from each other (She's in Atlanta & I'm in St. Paul) and we may not have time to talk for weeks, but when we are together, it's like no time has passed since our last conversation.

Mary comes home to Albert Lea twice a year -the Christmas holiday time and the week of the Freeborn County Fair. Those are two of my favorite weeks and are required vacation time.  When I was a kid, the week of the county fair was always the signal that summer was almost over and we would be back in school soon. Now, instead of dreading fair week, I look forward to it!

I've been so blessed to have a friend who knows all my weakness and strengths and loves me anyway!

Who is your oldest and dearest friend? Do you know anyone who has the same best friend since 3rd grade?

Where are the celebrities and Spill-Aid concerts?

A friend of mine recently posted a comment on Facebook that really got me thinking. She asked, "Where are all the "Save the Gulf" concerts? Where are all the TV benefits with celebrities and musicians giving heart-felt speeches about those fisherman, wildlife, beaches, etc.?"

Where are they?

I know the media is talking about the oil spill. Watching "Morning Joe" recently, they kept showing a video clip of a bird struggling to breathe and so coated in oil, you couldn't even tell what type of bird it was. I couldn't watch it. It was painful and just sad to see an animal struggle like that.

When I lived in Texas in the mid-1980s, I would travel down to Galveston and spend time on the beach. It was an incredibly peaceful place for me. But, I could see off-shore oil rigs in the distance and there was always a tar ball here and there on the beach. I'm not a big fan of big oil, so I would be disgusted by the tar ball, but thought that an occasional tar ball wasn't a huge environmental risk.

The disaster that looms now in the gulf is overwhelming to comprehend. It's been happening now for 56 days. (The counting of the days is reminding me of the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1979/1980) Plumes of oil are being found 150 miles away from the oil leak site. No one can say for sure, how much oil is escaping from BP's containment cap.

It has occurred to me that the reason we're not seeing these celebrity fundraisers is, unlike Katrina and 9/11, this is a disaster was caused by a corporation. While it doesn't lessen the horrible impact on the economy or the economy, the expectation is that BP will be paying and cleaning up. I don't know if that is even realistic.

I've seen the public relations ad campaign that BP has started running and it just serves to anger me more than improve my opinion of BP.

I learned yesterday that BP had over 700 citations for safety, pollution and other violations - in just the last 3 years. Tony Hayward said that it wasn't an excessive number and they have been improving since he took over.The other Big Oil companies (such as Shell & Exxon)? The individual count for their violations weren't even double digit (yes- less than 10!)

How do you know when Tony Hayward is lying? His lips are moving.

A bit distracted

I wish I could say that I've been distracted. I've been busy, but not so much that I couldn't have written something. I can't even say that I couldn't think of something to write about - again, not true.

I'm floored that it has been two weeks since I last posted. Here's a quick catch-up (glorified excuses for being lazy):

On Thursday, May 20th, I joined with a group of Minnesota Bloggers at Nye's Polonaise Room in Minneapolis to talk about blogging and support @MollyInMinn with her campaign to "End Child Hunger." (Molly's blog, The Snyder 5, was part of a campaign through ConAgra to raise awareness of child hunger here in the U.S.)  The event itself was great. There were about 40 or so bloggers in attendance. I love having conversations with other bloggers to learn about how they started blogging and what keeps them going. Additionally, I got a chance to get caught up with my friend Molly from seriously, who had only been blogging for three weeks.

In the spirit of Nye's, Molly Snyder hopped right up on the bar and thanked everyone for coming and thanked the many who had brought food for the local food shelf.

Two days later (May 22), the bloggers came together again to help raise money for "End Child Hunger" through a 20-family rummage sale. The sale was held at the Highland Park Picnic area, and although I may have been quietly skeptical that people would find us, we had a lot of people shopping at our sale. Everything was priced to move - from $0.25 to $2.00 for the high end stuff. It gave me the opportunity to sell some of the stuff that I was getting rid of in my decluttering challenge. (But since I only had done one day of decluttering, I didn't have much) 

The day started out sunny, but a bit chilly, but by 10ish, the dark clouds were rolling in and we had a downpour of rain. The picnic shelter was large, but the roof was in two parts (as you can see above) and there was a small opening between the two sections, so the rain came into the sale area. 

We had a couple of kids who helped see the fun in rain and reminded us that thunderstorms and rain can be awe inspiring, not awe-full.

The rummage sale raised about $900 for the charity and everyone had a great time! 

Last week (May 24-27) was long hours at the office to get as much work done as I could since I would be out of the office all of this week. (More later) I didn't get any of my running done - I was too tired - and my 5K is June 12th! 

Memorial Day was spent in my favorite place - my hometown of Albert Lea and doing something I really enjoy - running the show! Well, sort of... I helped out two friends who have graduating seniors with their open houses. Mary Jo's was on Saturday. Since I had done one for her two years ago, as well as several other parties at their house, I knew what to expect. She had a great group of friends helping out and, although I was officially "in charge," I really didn't have to tell people what to do, they had their assignments and knew what to do. It was a beautiful day outside and everything was easy!

That's Mary (not the host Mary, but another Mary), Darci and I with fresh fruit and chaffing dishes ready to go...

Sunday's open house had a few more challenges. We had a sudden rainstorm hit about 90 minutes prior to the party - and we had already set up the tables and chairs outside. The wind was nasty and at one point, the rain was going sideways. It only lasted for a short time and we were ready to roll again. Jill (the mom/host) is one of the most creative people I know (as are her daughters) and they had the most interesting theme to their party - CANDY! 

And the candy was color coordinated to the party colors, as were the dresses worn by Jill and her two daughters (Sam, the graduate, and Ashley, next year's graduate); they were pink (Jill), yellow (Sam) and green (Ashley). I like a person who doesn't miss any details! 

There were M&Ms, jelly beans, pixie sticks, suckers, chocolates and PEEPS! (I love Peeps!) The guests were instructed to make up goodie bags for themselves to take with them. They weren't just sugar loaded, Jill set up walking tacos (chips, meat, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, sour cream and salsa) to feed her guests. And continuing the color theme, most of the serving containers for the walking tacos were pink, yellow & green. 

The rain held off during the time of the open house, but within minutes after it was over, the rain started again.  But it left us with a gift - the most amazing rainbow that arched completely across the sky. Then it morphed into a double rainbow. Very cool!

During my free time this past weekend, I broke through a huge barrier - I ran OUTSIDE! Albert Lea has amazing running paths that hug the lake and I was determined to get out there and use them. So Saturday and Sunday morning, I got up and ran. They weren't impressive runs, but the point was to learn that I could run outside. Now, I just have to learn to pace myself...

It was a great couple of weeks and right now, I'm in beautiful Seattle for a conference. And my hope is to get some posts written while I'm here! That's if I don't get distracted...

Yes, Virginia, There Are Positives to Having ADD

Everyone is always willing to give you a list of the problems that occur in one's life when you have ADD or ADHD. Forgetting things, losing things, losing concentration during a conversation, clutter, blurting things out, messy, negative self-talk and the list goes go on. They can rattle off the bad things and all the negatives, but you rarely hear about the positives of having ADD. 

Seriously, there are positives to this disorder. 

Lately, I've been writing about my personal campaign to bring more order in my life. I've been looking for ADD coaches and how they might help me. I found a great website called "Adult ADD Strengths" by Pete Quily (he's an ADD coach in Canada). His blog has a page that is a list of the 151 Positive Characteristics of People Who Have ADD. (It's not really 151 because several are the same thing, just phrased differently, but still a great list)

It was just what I needed to read - to remind myself that ADD isn't the worst thing to happen to me, that perhaps it's been a blessing because of the skills it has forced me to learn. I printed out the list and have posted it on my refrigerator to be a daily affirmation system. 

I'll write about many of them over time, but starting at the top of the list:

The Ability to Find An Alternative Path - growing up with untreated ADD, I created coping mechanisms for things most people don't give a second thought. I had to find a way around barriers because I didn't want to be left behind. ADD'ers think outside of the box largely because that's where we've spent the majority of our lives - outside of the box looking in. 

Adaptive - This a great positive to ADD. I have never had any problems adapting to anything new because new things engage me (and ADD'ers like to be engaged). I'm always curious and willing to try new things. Change rarely upsets me. I've found myself to be socially adaptive, too. I can be put into most any situation without feeling trapped. (Except on airplanes, sitting next to people who think I want to know all about their life. I don't. I usually want to sleep.)

Artistic/Creative - Those aforementioned coping mechanisms? I think I'm creative because I've had to be. And that creativity helping me cope, spills over in to my personality and keeps my creative spirit alive.(Occasionally a little too creative with multiple projects going at once.)

Adventurous - Here's that negative "impulse control" is turned around. I'm always willing to take a risk. When I started doing social media at work, I did it without long discussions with leadership (Who would have required a large amount of education) and I did it on my own because committees don't get anything done. Oh, sure, that pesky impulse control issue can be a problem, but if life isn't an adventure, why bother?

Honestly, in the last couple of weeks, I've had one thought cross my mind many, many times: I rarely regret saying "yes," but usually regret saying "no."

I hate saying no.