Ew! It's Funny Friday

What a whirl of a week this had been.  Deadlines. Pressure.  Meltdowns.  Not me.  Others.

 

You're familiar with this kind of dynamic aren't you?  I know you must be because there is no way that this kind of stuff only happens to me.

 

How do I deal?  (Did I hear someone say booze?)

 

No my friends I don't drink but I do make a lot of jokes about being in really awful situations because humor helps me cope.  I constantly make jokes about myself -- and believe me there's a lot of material there -- and I also make jokes about the perceived dysfunction and frustration and sometimes the plain silliness of daily situations that life happens to oh so innocently send our way.

Comedian Jimmy Fallon
Photo Courtesy New York Daily News

 



Instead of making jokes I guess another option would be to steel myself through the rough times, white knuckling my chair and holding my breath until it's over, but that wouldn't be any fun!  No, in fact that attitude would just suck the joy out of most situations. 

So meet "Stacy" and "Sara" and get ready to laugh as they hang out with First Lady Michelle Obama and "the girls" talk about different ways to stay active and eat right:

 

Diane Von Furstenberg

You probably know of Diane Von Furstenberg from her infamous dress designs for women, especially her iconic wrap dress.  Her dresses have been worn by First Lady Michelle Obama, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow.  Today, Diane Von Furstenberg masterfully runs a global company, tastefully designing women's fashions, along with fragrances, cosmetics and home collections.

Diane Von Furstenberg

But Diane Von Furstenberg is more than a fashionista.  She is also a passionate and generous person who spends a lot of time mentoring women and distributing her grant and philanthropic money to community building, education and environmental causes, among others.

 

And if that isn't enough, she also offers support by reaching out and communicating through a column that she writes for The Cut, the high-end fashion section in New York Magazine (http://nymag.com/thecut/). 

 

Today, Diane takes a question about negative energy.  The very thing that I try extra hard to keep out of myself and my life.  Negative energy can waste time, money, talent and hurt your outlook on life.  I know it when I am with it, no matter how attractively packaged it is.  What's a person to do?  Walk away?  Feign indifference?

Here is Diane's sage advice:

Dear Diane: As someone who places a lot of focus on inner peace and happiness, how do you deal with the negative energy of others? -- Athena

The most important relationship is the one you have with yourself.  You have to build from within and you will have control.  Be honest with yourself, accept who you are.  Once you do that, you can improve yourself and like yourself.  YOU are the solution!  Look for the light and build around it.  You have the keys to your happiness.  Let others be negative, your light will shine on them!  It also helps to surround yourself with amazing women.  I am so thrilled to be in the fourth year of the DVF Awards, where we award five extraordinary women who have had the courage to fight, the power to survive, and the leadership to inspire.  I have met so many incredible women that make it easy to focus on the positive because they have so often turned hardship into opportunity.  That is the definition of grace.

And that my friends, is also positive energy!

Farmers Are The Best!

Elmer's Fresh Veggies

My vacation sadly has ended and as I drive home I'm thinking about all the fun and relaxing  things that I had a chance to do: eating delicious steamed crabs at Mickey's, swimming in the ocean, sleeping in, finishing a powerful book titled Mary's Mosaics, shopping at the outlets and hanging out with great friends.

But the drive home also has a time-honored ritual that I look forward to:  stopping at a farmer's stand to buy fresh, fresh, fresh vegetables and fruit.

When I was a child, my parents would always stop at Addams market which is the first market you see when you cross over the Delaware state line.  For years, Addams was the agreed road stop until I got married.  My husband didn't want to go to Addams, he preferred Elmer's.  These are not the only two markets on the drive to the beach.  There are scores of other stands, one of which is called Ma and Pa's.

Anywho, the first year my husband and I traveled to the beach, he did compromise (surprise!)and we stopped at Addams but he really didn't like it so the next year I said it would be okay if we stopped at Elmer's and now it has been Elmer's ever since.

I must say Elmer's has the sweetest cantalopes I've ever eaten and their corn on the cob and tomatoes are also very good!  They also sell plants and homemade breads and jams.  This year I am taking advantage of the wonderful Eastern Shore crops that have been harvested and waiting for people to grab them, cook and eat!  I think there is something about the soil on the Eastern Shore that adds a special zing to the produce grown there.

I wish I had a garden so that I could eat my own home grown fruits and veggies but my gardening efforts never succeed so I have stopped trying.  I can grow herbs in a pot which I do -- rosemary and mint -- but I can't grow a tomato if my life depended on it.  My tomato plants grow tall but then they never bloom.  It's very sad but that's why I think farmers are the best!!

Speaking of gardens, here is a YouTube video about the White House garden which I would love to visit if it were open to the public:

Summer In The City

FRESHFARM Markets Photo

One of my favorite things about summer is the food.  Summer food is the BEST!!!  The tomatoes, the corn on the cob, melons, peaches and berries.  I could go on and on.  Everything is so fresh and so flavorful.

One of the places where I find a great supply of summer food is at a Farmer's Market near my office that is also about two blocks from the White House.  We call it Michelle Obama's Farmer's Market because the first year the Obamas were in the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama, as part of her nutrition campaign to get Americans to eat healthier foods, walked across the street to pick out some fruits and veggies for her family.  Naturally, the market got a lot of attention and because of it's prime location you can never be sure when she might visit again!

The FRESHFARM Markets is made up of about a dozen vendors and they sell farm fresh fruits and produce along with flowers, home made breads, home made cheeses, and home made popsicles in exotic flavors such as strawberry ginger lemonade and vanilla honey lavender.  Today, the smell of the peaches was incredible.  I bought some tomatoes and my friend bought peaches.

Besides the delicious produce, you also get a chance to chat up the farmers who grow the food.  They are always ready to talk about the best ways to cook the foods they are selling and how they grew it.  It's all part of the community of vendors who come together every week in this part of the city to promote the unique taste of food grown in the Chesapeake Bay region and expose people to fresh food they might not be able to grow for themselves.

Not only do we feel we're supporting the farmers when we walk down the street to buy their fresh products but we're also doing something healthy for ourselves.  And when you've been sitting in front of a computer for most of the day that's always a good thing!