Wellness and Vision for 2020

 Last Saturday, I had a day with Oprah (and 17,000 others - mostly women).  It was better than I even expected - very motivational, very uplifting, very positive. You get the idea - very, very. So much is common sense, and yet from the mouth of Oprah, it sounds like true message.

 Well, I did not get to hug the real deal, but here Oprah and I bonded in the arena.  I bought the ticket back in November and was extremely psyched. The woman commands a room. She'd speak for an hour, have us to some workbook exercises, then tell some stories about her life. All very conversational, like she was just talking to me, and with me.

 Special guests included Julianne Hough who got us on our feet to dance in our space. Just move and be uplifted. Who cares what you look like? Have fun.  She's a teensy sprite and really pretty.

 My goal for 2020 is to try new stuff, exercise more, try to be more positive, and just exert a tad more potential. Eat better too. I do sleep fine - scored well on that category.  Another guest Oprah had was Tracee Ellis Ross (actress currently on blackish tv show). She's also the daughter of Diana Ross. So that was interesting. She talked about her mom, talked about career,  talked about life choices, fears, etc. Funny and personable - Ms.Ross definitely held her own with Oprah.

Yep - fabulous here.  I came away from the day very upbeat. The crowd was predominately women - all ages, all sizes, all colors. It truly was a mix of black, white, latino, asian. Very representational of America. People stayed in their seats, were quiet when they needed to be, kept phones off during serious portions of the day. It was refreshing and showed the power of Oprah. She put on an impressive DAY and gave us a 2020 Vision of possibility, wellness, and focus.


(No, we did not each get a car)

Somebody beat me to it

They say you can't go home again, but I disagree. I'm back in the home I grew up in. The fifty year old kid sled still sits in the garage, the basement is still scary, and there are always sticks to pick up in the yard. We sit at the kitchen table constantly and then if you hear any outdoor noise, you can crane your neck to peer out the front window and see what's new. Truly life hasn't changed much. I visit twice a year or so and laugh a lot.

I read an article in today's paper about a young man (age 28) who moved back in with his parents in San Diego. He'd always found his father (age 73) humorous and wrote down his father's pronouncements, quips, and opinions. Now, in the age of Twitter, he began to post them. Gathering a huge following, he garnered an agent and an opportunity for a book. Drat! Why didn't I think of that? My father (age 78) is a fount of phrases worthy of print.

We also watched a show on CNBC called the Oprah Effect. Essentially, any business, any book, anything that catches Oprah's eye and is on her show is guaranteed to go through the roof. A woman, who's a yoga instructor, has blogged about her attempt to live a life espoused by Oprah. (Think Julie Powell blogging about her Julia Child cooking - 524 recipes in a year). Well, success. The woman has an agent and a book contract thanks to her tie-in to Oprah.

Goes to show, you never know what will click or catch an agent's eye. Perhaps I should have visited my father more often and learned how to tweet. The world is missing out, that's for sure.

P.S. My father has a computer but no port to upload pics and I was lazy and didn't bring my laptop. Yeah, I know. No wonder somebody's beating me to it.

Joanne