Two Women

"Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day." ~Quoted in P.S. I Love You

Last week as I was driving from my office to the gym, I was stopped at a red light downtown. While I was waiting, I noticed two women standing on the sidewalk, waiting to cross the street.

The first was obviously some sort of successful professional woman. She was wearing an expensive suit (I know because you can't buy suits like that for $60 at Kohls...I've looked!) what looked like Jimmy Choo or Manolo shoes (based on my having seen them on tv), and carrying one of those purses that people spend my monthly mortgage payment on. Her hair was pinned up, her make up was perfect, and she was chatting away on her iPhone.

The second looked to be a homeless woman. Her hair was ratty and her face was dirty. She was wearing what looked to be several layers of clothing and towing along some sort of rolling cart. She looked cold and tired.

The two women were from different worlds. I began to wonder why. Theoretically, both women could have ended up in suits, or both women could have ended up in the flannel jacket. Clearly at some point, maybe early on or maybe later, maybe by choice or maybe by chance, one of the women was given an opportunity that the other was not. One of the women got a chance to take a different path, that led to a different life. Who knows why her path was different, but it clearly was.

We need to be thankful for the opporutnities we have been given in our lives. It's easy to forget the opportunities that have come our way. Many of them we worked for, but a lot of them were probably luck of the draw. For example, many of my opportunities were based on the family that I was born into. I hit the lottery on that one. Some people don't.
The lives of the two women on the street are so completely different, but in that moment, they were in the same place. Life is funny that way. We can find ourselves having connections to people who are our complete opposites. The thing is, most of the time, we never go beyond standing on the sidewalk. We don't speak to people who have different lives. We don't get to know them, so we never figure out what it is we have in common. Odds are, we have more in common than we think. It might be the same faith, the same dreams, feeling a similar pain, living on the same street, watching the same tv shows.

I guess I have two points. First, be grateful for the opportunites that you have been given. Realize that some people who could have been in your world, just didn't get the same chances as you. Second, the two women on the street will always be different. But that doesn't mean that they have to live in different worlds. Remember that the next time you are walking down the street, standing in an elevator, or even walking around your office.

3 Things I Love!

"A college education should equip one to entertain three things: a friend, an idea and oneself.” ~Thomas Ehrlich

One of my Oklahoma Girls emailed me a great link last week. It involves three things I love: college sports, food and college towns! Before I get to the actual content of the article, let's discuss these three fabulous things.

1. College sports: You might not know I'm a sports freak. Okay, maybe the weekly blog posts about college sports gives it away. :) I just love college athletics. Seriously--watching these kids (and yes, I realize that they are kids because I am old now) play their hearts out is one of my favorite things to do. I credit some of this to my parents, because we watched a lot of football on tv growing up. I can honestly remember being like 5 and watching Notre Dame football on tv. That's when I decided I wanted to go to Notre Dame. Sadly, unlike Rudy, my dream didn't quite come true. Regardless, the college sports fan in me was solidified when I went to Oklahoma State. When you go to a school full of tradition and team spirit, you can't help but love sports!

As you probably already have realized, college football is my ultimate favorite. But don't get me wrong, I do love some college basketball! In fact, when I was at OSU, that was the stronger program. When I was in school there, we made it to the Final Four one year (and were one last second shot from the National Championship game) and the Sweet 16 the next (and were one last second shot from the Elite 8...don't get me started). Anyway, I do love college basketball. I think March Madness is a great time of year. Just about everyone in the whole country is watching and filling out brackets and rooting for their teams.

2. Food. Maybe you remember my blog about family Thanksgiving. And the later blog correcting the amount of food that was served. Yea. This should explain to you that my family loves food. It's apparently genetic. What do you do?

3. College towns. Have I mentioned that I feel a certain college town is the Happiest Place on Earth? Maybe I have once. Or twice. Or three times. Well I do, and probably would have felt that way about any college town where I went to school. There's nothing like a little college town full of 20 something year olds, fun bars, lots of music and dancing and fun.....everything in the town revolves around the University, which I think is the only way to truly experience college.

So, with that background, we'll move on to the actual topic of this blog. An article that puts the three together! The article provides the best places to eat in the home of every college team that made the NCAA Tournament. Brilliant idea! 64 cities/towns are included and they picked not only the best location to eat, but the best thing to order.

I, of course, went first to the Oklahoma State restaurant to see if these guys knew what they were talking about. Their pick for best eats in Stillwater, Oklahoma.....Bad Brad's BBQ! I couldn't agree more! Brad's is seriously the one place that I always try to hit up when I go back to visit Stillwater. So apparently these guys know their stuff.

Just wish I could be back in Stillwater this time of year watching some March Madness and chowing down on some great bbq! Oh yea, and maybe having a limee or two at the Penny (which would totally have made the list if it had been about the best drinks)!

The Priorities Speech

"Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work." ~H.L. Hunt

When I was in high school, I played sports. I was no Sheryl Swoops or Misty May mind you, but I was okay for a 1A high school athlete. Anyway, I also grew up showing and judging in 4-H and FFA. This lead to pretty big conflicts, especially in volleyball season. My volleyball coaches never took to kindly to me missing the first week of practice for the County Fair, another week at the first of September for State Fair, another the first week of October another fair, and finally a week or so to judge at National FFA Convention every year.

More than once I got the speech that I "needed to get my priorities straight" from the coaches. More than once, my response was simply, "I've got my priorities straight, thank you." More than once, my starting spot disappeared before my eyes.

I hated this speech. I was a 5'3 decent 1A athlete with bad ankles. Where was my sports career going? I think the answer was pretty clear. Showing and judging were clearly what was going to increase the savings account, put me partway through college, and ironically prepare me more for law school than anything else I ever did.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who heard this speech, because twice this week this has come up with other people.

First, I read a big article in the paper about New Mexico's own L.J. Jenkins, who rides on the PBR. He's good friends with my little brother, so I try to keep up with how he's doing. Anyway, he was writing about how he played high school basketball at his home town on Texico. He was pretty good--he has to be a natural athlete to be a bull rider for crying out loud--but he got the "priorities straight" speech from his coaches. L.J. is about 5'10. He knew his chances of the NBA weren't good, but his chances at the PBR were. Now, over a million dollars in winnings later, looks like he made the right decision.

Same story came up the other night with a friend from law school. He was talking about how he had played the sax in the junior high band, but also was a multiple-sport star athlete. When he got to high school, practice for the band and basketball were at the same time. You know what came next--the priorities speech from the band teacher. He walked, and ended up playing two different sports in college. Looks like the right decision.

I think this lesson has served me well in life. I learned at 15 to stand up for myself and let people know what my priorities were. I don't think I've ever stopped. I didn't want a job doing a certain thing, so I didn't take it. I changed my mind last minute (more than last minute) about which law school to go to, but I did what I wanted. When I decided I didn't like my specific major, I changed it.

Life's too short. You know what you are good at and what you want in your life. Go after it. You'll probably make the "priorities" speech maker look pretty dumb in the mean time anyway. That's what they call icing on the cake.

Family Farm Friday # 12: Nation of Prisoners

"When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization."~ Daniel Webster

I read a really crazy statistic this week about agriculture. There are more people in prison in the United States than are in production agriculture. Wow. That's a scary thought! We have somehow changed from a nation of farmers into a nation of prisoners.

It's going to be up to the next generation of agriculturists (i.e. us!) to figure out a way to turn this trend around. We can't keep letting the number of farmers and ranchers in America decrease. I recently read a study that talked about the most comon reasons that "farm kids" decided not to return to the farm. What do you think? The top three reasons were: (1) Other jobs offered more income; (2) the high start-up costs required in order to begin farming; and (3) the high cost of renting land.

Farm kids don't leave the farm because they don't want to farm. They don't leave because they are lazy or uninterested in the operation. They leave because they have to. That's something that is simply unacceptable and we have to figure out a way to curb this problem!

We cannot afford to be dependant on foreign countries for our food supply. Right now, one American farmer can feed 129 people. This is up from 25 people in 1960. Without a doubt, the American farmer and rancher continues to become more productive and more efficient. American agriculture can feed the world, but we have to continue to HAVE farmers and ranchers. If young people are unable to afford to get started farming, we'll be out of farms in no time. We have to find a way to invest in American agriculture in order to allow new farmers and ranchers to realize their dream of farming and to protect our nation.

There are some programs out there to help young farmers and ranchers financially, but not enough. We, as a society, are going to have to figure out a way to support the next generation of agriculture. This industry is so important, not only to our national economy, but for national security as well. Thi sis an investment in our future that this country is going to have to make.

Hopefully in the future, we can become a nation of farmers again.

Throwback Thursday # 18: Bay to Breakers!

"Bay to Breakers: A heaping helping of crazy since 1912" ~S.F. Examiner

So my very first weekend in living in San Francisco for the summer of 2008 happened to be Bay to Breakers. Of course, I had never heard of this event, but everyone at the office was talking about how it was a must-see San Francisco experience! So, four of us summer associates decided to meet up and head out to Golden Gate Park to take part of the festivities.

Bay to Breakers is a race that's been held since 1912. It is a run from the west side of the city (the bay) to the east side of the city, finishing up at the Pacific Ocean (the breakers). I figured we'd see some people running and call it a day. Apparently there is some running....the actual runners get at the front of the line. Everyone else, well, let's just say little did I know what I was in for.
There were people EVERYWHERE in the streets--they closed down Hayes street through the city for the race. I'm talking tens of thousands of folks.

There were people dressed in costumes. (the top one was oil executives wearing undewear with money all over them carryin their briefcases)

There were some people wearing nothing at all. (notice dirty man in botton right corner with the censoring box). There were crazy floats being pushed all the way across the city. (we had the love boat, dudes in a shopping cart, and a tent on roller skates)

There were guys running with torches of fire (his broke so they kept kicking it along the ground).

There were people relieving themselves in the bushes.

There were multiple keg stands going on at 10 in the morning!

As a country kid, everyone warned me about how crazy San Francisco would be with all the "crazy California hippies." And while for the most part, I didn't notice anything much different than anywhere else in America, Bay to Breakers was the one exception! This day is what some people think San Francisco is like every day......but, fortunately, it's only like that once a year.

This year will be the 99th Bay to Breakers. To commemorate and remember the fun of my first experience---I'm going back! This year, I won't just be spectating, I'll be running the 7.5 mile race and plan to come home sporting my "I survived Bay to Breakers!" t-shirt. And, no, I will not be wearing a costume. And yes, I will be wearing something. :)

Sneak Peak at the Future

“When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.” ~John M. Richardson, Jr.

College roomie and I were having a chat tonight and an interesting topic came up. If you had a chance to take a quick peak into the future, would you do it?

I've heard lots of people say they wouldn't.....that they would not want to know and want the surprise and want to just see where life takes them. Some people say that they'd rather just enjoy the ride and not know where the destination is.

Yea, I think those people are crazy.

If I got the chance to look, I totally would. Think about how much easier things would be. If you could at least know something simple like who you were married to or where you were living or what job you were doing...that would be one area in your life you wouldn't have to worry about anymore.

For example, if your glimpse showed you that you were married to guy A, then you wouldn't sweat about whether or not you should be dating guy B....or more applicable to my life, if you'd ever find a guy of any letter in the alphabet! P.S.--if you know guy A, send him my way! ;)

Now let me clarify a little bit. I don't want to see everything. I don't really want to see very much. A movie trailer would probably be more than I want.

I'm thinking of just seeing one still shot. Remember those things we had when we were kids that you put the round card into with the little tiny slides? Then you looked in and you could see one of the slides, and if you pulled the lever, you could flip to the next one. My grandma had one at her house and I spent hours playing with that thing. That's what I want for the future---one of Gran's little slide viewers to see one frame.

So, question to the blog audience....would you want your sneak peak?

Daylight Savings

"I'd like mornings better if they started later." ~Author Unknown

I am not a morning person. Like at all. Seriously, I hate getting out of my warm, cozy bed. So, naturally I really dislike having to spring forward. That alarm clock goes off and I cringe and pull the covers up over my head. Losing that hour of sleep just puts me off kilter for like a week.
But after today, I am changing my tune. I left work at my normal time today...which isn't super late, but isn't 5:00 either. Prior to daylight savings, it was always dark when I left. Today, however, the sun was shining. It made me feel sort of energized, instead of like it was time to come home, cook dinner, watch some tv and go to bed to do it all over again.

I drove home, put on my running shoes, and hit the pavement. It was finally warm enough to run outside---yay!! I went on a nice little run around my neighborhood, which has tons of different streets and culdesacs, so you sort of get a different view all the time so you don't have to think about how much farther you have to go. Today, I even found a new little park about a mile and half from my house that I didn't even know was there!
My whole neighborhood apparently had the same idea. There were people everywhere--runners, people walking their dogs, couples pushing their strollers--it was great! It finally felt like the first day of Spring and everyone must have been on the same page.

So, I am no longer going to complain about daylight savings time. Instead, I'm going to just enjoy getting out of work in the daylight. At least until I lose my hour again next year....

What a Tournament!

"If you are not watching, you should start...if you are watching then you might need a drink after Saturday's CRAZY upsets!" ~ Sports Fan Blog

Okay, well maybe my blog has magic powers. Last week I wrote about how I loved Cinderella stories in the NCAA Tournament. This week, there were more Cinderella stories and upsets than I can ever remember. Maybe I should blog about winning millions of dollars and retiring rich.....just in case.

Anyway, here are a few of the best tournament moments so far.
Cinderellas: St. Mary's, Cornell, and Washington. All three of these teams are double digit seeds. But all three are going to the Sweet 16. my favorite story is about St. Mary's center, Omar Samhan. On Selection Sunday, Omar's mother bought her ticket to the tournament in Houston. What makes this great---Omar's team wouldn't play in Houston unless they made the Sweet 16. He warned his mom that she should probably come out to the first round games, just in case. She refused. Her ticket was booked to Houston. Luckily, now so is St. Mary's.

The last 40 seconds of the Maryland/Michigan State game. You have to watch here. MSU is without their leader and star, Kalin Lucas who was injured earlier in the game. Maryland goes down and scores what you anticipate will be the game winning shot. But no....with 5 seconds left, MSU heads down the floor. Hughes passes to Lucious (almost hitting some other guy from their team in the head) and he hits the game winning three.

David slayed Goliath (although I was sad to see my bracket implode and a Big 12 team go down). Kansas should have been unstoppable. They won the Big 12 regular season and Big 12 tournament. These kids had experience. But somehow, Northern Iowa had their number. Brackets across America busted. In the words of my friend, Sara, "If Kansas doesn't pull their heads out, this country will be in crisis!" Crisis it was.
Buzzer-beaters. The first round there were three buzzer beater shots. First, Northern Iowa scores a three with only 4 seconds left to beat UNLV. Don't you know Kansas wishes that shot didn't fall! Next, Texas gets beat with 1.4 seconds left on the clock when Wake Forest hits the game winner. Finally, Murry State pulled the upset to beat Vanderbilt by one point who hit a jumper at the buzzer.

I can't wait for next weekend! Now that my bracket is shot....come on underdogs (and Baylor for Cousin Swiss Mister!)

Family Farm Friday #11: Bull Semen and Bonding

"...she's trying hard, to fit in in some city....How 'bout them cowgirls..." ~George Strait

For my city friends, yes, you read the title right. I know you are all in shock and have no idea why I would ever title a blog -- or anything else, for that matter -- bull semen. Allow me to explain.

It's very common for cattle ranchers to utilize artificial insemination ("AI") to breed their cows. AI lets a rancher buy straws of semen from a bull that he could never afford to own, and might never see in person. So ranchers order their straws of semen, which are kept in liquid nitrogen tanks (see below). Then when their cows are ready, they breed the cow with the semen in the straws.

This technology is a great thing for agriculture in general, but I think it's really great for small ranchers. AI makes it possible for the small, family rancher in the middle of nowhere to get genetics from the best, most expensive bull in the world. These small ranchers would never be able to afford to own a bull like this. But because of AI, they can buy the semen from the bull, breed their own cow, and raise calves that have the great genetics. If they are lucky, they can raise a great bull for themselves out of their own cow. This is how we are going to keep improving the quality of beef in America.


One of my favorite parts of AI is trying to pick out which bull's semen you want to buy. There are so many considerations that you have to consider---genotypically (meaning their genetics, their epds--which are sort of like their stats) and phenotypically (meaning what they look like themselves). You have to consider birthweight to decide which cows you want to breed them to. You need to think about what the weaknesses might be with your own cow herd that you need to try to correct. You need to think about structure and muscle and weaning weight. There really is an art to it.

Last weekend, my brother and I were both home at my parents' house. My mom caught a moment of this analysis on the camera. Here we are, all gathered around the computer analyzing what bulls we might want to buy semen from this year. You want to take a look? Click here for one of the most popular websites. See what you think. Which one is your favorite? Now imagine that you had your own cows and got to actually breed them to your favorite one.....it's a pretty cool thing! FYI--I'm intrigued by Dirty Hairy 2. Little brother likes True Blood. Dad likes Missisippi Stud.


There's nothing like a little family bonding over bull semen. I love being an ag girl!

Throwback Thursday # 17: The Next Chapter!

"She came back from California, full of life with no regrets." ~Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jenny


Well, first it's Cousin Kevin complaining when I write anything he considers "girly." Now it's my Little Brother complaining about Throwback Thursdays. He informed me he's sick of hearing stories and seeing pictures that he's already seen. It's hard to please everyone!
But, since this is my blog, I'm going to continue Throwback Thursdays. :) The next chapter will be......Summer 2008 in San Francisco. I've blogged previously about how this summer changed my life, and have already told one of the crazier stories of the summer.


I won't be giving you a day by day account of the summer....becuase it was a long time ago and I can't remember everything, and because everyone would get bored and complain like Little Brother.


Instead, I'm going to blog about some of the highlights---my favorite people, places and experiences from the summer that changed my life! Hope you enjoy....