Ageless Passions by Karen Putz

Author: Karen Putz

  • Decide That You Want It More Than You Fear It

    How many times have you held back because you feared something?

    I’ve been pondering “fears” lately.  Recently, I received a comment from a reader who is hard of hearing and struggling with anxiety– “Social groups are almost impossible at times,” she relates.   She has agreed to teach a weaving class in her community and is scared that she will have trouble getting through it with the communication challenges ahead of her.

    Boy, oh boy, can I relate.  Social situations, parties, group discussions– they used to strike fear inside of me and sometimes, they still do.   Communication in those situations becomes a rapid-fire ping-pong game– sometimes so fast that the ball is just a blur and you get nothing out of the game.

    I emailed the reader and this is what I shared with her:

    I can understand being scared about teaching the weaving class but let me tell you– you can do this!  At the beginning of the first class, be honest about your hearing loss and explain to the class what you need to make communication happen– that everyone has to face you when talking, to speak a bit slower and that if they need to get your attention– to raise their hand before they speak, etc.  It takes a tremendous amount of courage to do this but the rewards are great– students will adjust and you’ll have better access to communication and be able to share your skills with less anxiety about trying to follow everyone.  Communication is a two-way street but you have to teach others what you need to make that happen.

    In another email I shared:

    It’s ok to be nervous, just don’t let it prevent you from moving forward.  Face your fear head on.  My daughter sent me this picture at a time when I was dealing with some fears so I’m passing it on to you:

    Lauren sent me that photo during Women’s Barefoot Week at the World Barefoot Center.  She had no idea how timely that photo was.  I’ll have to back up a bit to explain.  In March, when I first went down to Lake Conine to learn how to barefoot again, one of the questions that I asked Keith St. Onge was, “Are there alligators in this lake?”

    Yup, that’s right.  I’m not too fond of alligators.  In fact, they downright scare the daylights out of me.  As long as they’re far away with a fence between me and their sharp teeth, I’m good.  When Lauren was in Girl Scouts, she came home with a picture of her holding a baby alligator.  I was very glad that I wasn’t there, or I would have had visions of the taped mouth coming undone and my little girl devored on the spot.   One year, Joe and I took the kids to an alligator attraction and I was happy when we finally left.

    Keith’s response to my question was simply, “Yes, but they don’t bother us.  The boat engine scares them away.”  I wanted to barefoot more than I was scared of the marine life, so off I went into the water.

    Then in the middle of Women’s week, I was sitting in the water after a barefoot run, waiting for the boat to come back and pick me up.   The boat was taking forever to idle back to me.  I turned around and stared into the open jaws of an alligator coming to attack me in the water…

    And then I woke up.

    That’s right, I had a nice little alligator nightmare.  I couldn’t fall back asleep for a long time after that.  The next morning, we did a photo shoot on the water.  I was sitting in the second boat, waiting for my turn on the water.  One of the gals pointed out an alligator swimming by.   The other boat began coming closer and the alligator disappeared.   I tried to put the image out of my mind, because I knew I had to get in the water.

    Come on, Karen, nothing’s going to happen.

    Well, what if I’m the first person to get attacked on this lake?

    Don’t be silly, the alligators are scared of boats, they’ll stay away.

    All too soon, it was my turn to get in the water and my legs were shaky.   I fell on my first attempt to get up and I tried to tumble around to get back up and finally let go.   David Small was driving and he asked me if I was nervous about the photo shoot.  I could only shrug– I wasn’t about to explain my silly alligator fears at that moment.

    Later that morning, I told Keith about the alligator nightmare and he grinned at me.  “Face your fears!” he told me.

    “I face my fears every time I get in the water,” I grumbled at him.  But he was right–when you face your fears, you move beyond them.

    But that night, I had another alligator nightmare.  This time, I was watching the alligator swimming closer to me and I tried to yell at everyone in the boat.  They were talking and laughing and too far away by the time the alligator chomped on me.   And then I woke up.

    Good grief.

    Lauren’s photo came that day.  “Decide That You Want It More Than You Fear It.”  I laughed when I saw the photo– laughed at how uncanny the universe is in delivering nuggets of wisdom into our lives.   She had no idea about the fears I was juggling that week– she simply saw the quote on someone’s Facebook status and decided to turn it into an inspirational picture.

    So the next time you face something that scares you or fears that hold you back from something you want to do, decide that you want it more than you fear it.   The next time I jump into Lake Conine, I’m not going to give alligators a second thought.

  • The Last IEP Meeting

    It hit me like a ton of bricks this week when the school counselor remarked, “This is the last IEP meeting for David.”   I looked at my son sitting next to me.  How did the time fly by so fast?  He was a little toddler when Joe and I sat in on his first IEP meeting.  David had just turned three and was diagnosed with a profound hearing loss just a short time before that.  I had attended many other IEP meetings as an advocate for other families, but it was a whole new ballgame to sit in the IEP meeting as a parent.

    One of the hardest things for me to do was to put him on the bus for a 45-minute ride to school.   It was hard to trust someone else to drive my child, hard to trust someone else to care for him and protect him.  I didn’t like the bus driver, a young man who seemed distracted.  My gut feeling kept telling me that something was wrong.  A few days later, I went to get David off the bus and spied a half-smoked cigarette on the floor.   That was the last time that bus driver picked up my kid and I requested an aide on the bus after that.

    David attended a school with a deaf program for three years.  In kindergarten, the supervisor came up to me and told me that they felt the best placement for David would be in his home school district.  I struggled with that view, because I grew up solo in the mainstream– I was the only kid with hearing loss all the way up until I met Shawn Haines in high school.  Then it was solo and a friend.  I didn’t want that for my kid.  I wanted to make sure he grew up with deaf and hard of hearing peers.  So at first, I balked at the suggestion.  Joe and I had days and days of discussion, wrestling with the decision.  Should we fight to keep him in the deaf program or should we try the mainstream option?

    Finally, we came to the conclusion that we would give the mainstream option a try, with the intention of putting him back in the deaf program if it didn’t work out.  From day one, I was determined to make sure he had a different experience than what I went through growing up.   Our subdivision had built a brand new elementary school right across the street from our house and it was just about to open up.  I went in and introduced myself to the principal, Randy Vanwaning.  That turned out to be one of the best moves, because Mrs. Vanwaning stayed on our side throughout the whole elementary school experience.

    There’s a saying that I learned at a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) conference years ago:  “Bloom where you are planted.”  Once we decided that we were going to mainstream the kids, we kept that philosophy with us.  We made the best out of it.  I volunteered at the school and in the school library so that I could get to know the staff and the teachers.  I went into class and read books to the students using sign and voice.  I became involved with local playgroups and neighbors.  The school hired an interpreter whose parents are deaf.  Mrs. Mac is still interpreting today for Steven.  Mrs. Mac started an ASL club at the school.  The music teacher embraced sign in every single concert that the school put on and Mrs. Mac volunteered her time to teach the students one song per concert.  Many of the students signed the school song at assemblies.

    There were many experiences along the way that were challenging and it wasn’t always easy. I teamed up with Janet Des Georges to write The Myth of the Perfect IEP as a result of those challenges.  I often reminded myself that it would have been the same in any environment– it’s the nature of the journey and of life.   There were times when we questioned our decisions and explored options and considered changes.  One of the most difficult IEP meetings we ever had was David’s transition to high school.  A staff member felt strongly that we should keep him in the home district.  We felt differently– we wanted David at Hinsdale South, where he would have deaf and hard of hearing peers as well as a mainstreamed education.  We couldn’t come to an agreement at that meeting.  That was a meeting where tears were shed– I’ve had a few of them over the years with the three kids for different reasons.   We worked out that agreement and it paved the way for a smooth transition for Lauren as well.

    At David’s last IEP meeting, I sat and thought about all of this as I watched him talk about his experience at the “Explore Your Future” camp to the VR counselor and the district representative.  I sat in awe as I watched him share his views of what he wanted for his future– this little boy of mine has turned into a young man– when did that happen?   I thought back to preschool, and how he cried during the Christmas show that the teachers put on.   The teachers tried to encourage him to say his lines, but all he did was sit in his chair and cry while the other kids took turns saying and signing their lines.  I look back at that time and laugh, because I have a son who can get up on stage and put on a show now.  Go figure.

    For a long time, I was the parent teaching the child–guiding David through life and sharing what I wanted him to know.  Lately, I’ve been aware of how much the roles have shifted, I’m learning things from my son.  When we head to the gym together, he teaches me things about muscle development and he becomes my coach as he runs me through drills.  “Come on Mom, you have to do one more set”– which sounds a lot like the stuff I tell him at home:  “Clean the bathroom and sweep the living room.”  Just yesterday, he made a stir-fry dinner while I was glued to the computer and I was surprised at how delicious it was.  There he was, sharing his newly-made recipe with me and teaching me how to make a better stir-fry.

    I mentor families who are just starting out on the journey of raising deaf and hard of hearing kids and the beginning of the journey always seems so overwhelming, so impossible, so challenging.  “Hang on to every bit of time that you have with your child,” I tell them.

    Because before you know it, in the blink of an eye, all of a sudden, the last IEP meeting arrives and you wonder how it went by so fast.

  • Barefooting with Karen Putz, by Judy Myers

    Judy Myers, my mentor and inspiration who got me back on the water, asked me if she could do a guest post for the blog. This post made me cry. Thank you, Judy. You’re awesome and you ROCK!
    Karen Putz first contacted me last spring when she saw a video of me barefoot waterskiing on MSNBC’s Fit To Boom series.She explained that she had barefoot waterskied years before and had taken a fall, which caused her to lose her hearing. This is not the usual result of a barefoot fall, but rather the result of a deaf gene that runs in her family and causes deafness from a hard hit.On her 44th birthday, she was feeling very down about the fact she had given up barefooting after becoming deaf and felt just maybe she could try it again.She told me that I was somewhat of an inspiration if I could barefoot at 67 then she certainly could try again.

    I convinced Karen to come down to the World Barefoot Center, in Winter Haven, Florida to ski with me and be instructed by Keith St. Onge, the current barefoot waterski World Champion at that time.She agreed and we arranged for her to come down in March.I must admit that Keith and I were a bit apprehensive about trying to teach a deaf woman how to barefoot.How would we communicate? What if she could not understand us?What if she fell and hurt herself what were we to do?

    Karen arrived, and what a positive, delightful person she was to work with.She made us feel completely at ease and “listened” well with her skill at lip reading.

    From this first moment, we developed a relationship that has turned into a great friendship. After skiing together with some other “older” barefooting gals, we decided to all head to the World Barefoot Center and hold a Women’s Week for “older” female barefooters.This past week we had fifteen women skiers—twelve of them were over the age of 40,and four of us over the age of 60.What fun we had!

    My purpose for asking Karen to let me write this for her blog was to tell you what Karen has taught me.

    She always holds me up as a mentor, but let me tell you, this fantastic woman is my mentor.She has taught me more about overcoming obstacles and facing life head on than anyone I know.Her ability to laugh at herself and make light of her deafness puts everyone around her at ease. She is straightforward and explains to us what we need to do to help her. She has taught me not only how to converse with others while looking at her so she can be included in the conversations (and trust me she does not miss much) but more than that, she has taught me that I was the “handicapped” one. In the begining I saw her as a person with a disability, rather than a person who can’t hear, but she can accomplish anything she puts her mind to. She is driven to succeed and she does.She has a great outlook on life and brings so much to those she comes in contact with.What an inspiration and role model she is.This is a lesson I can and have brought into my own life.

    What a remarkable woman, friend and barefooter!!

    Karen you are AWESOME and you ROCK.Thank you for all that you have given me!!

    Judy Myers, aka “Old Lady”
    67-year-old Barefooter

  • An Entire Week of Lipreading

    At the ZVRS booth on Saturday, the Z Team showcased a water ski video that had some clips of me barefoot water skiing in it.   One by one, customers began coming up to me and asking questions about barefooting and my trip to Florida for the Women’s Barefoot Week at the World Barefoot Center.  One of the questions that came up over and over was a question related to communication:  what was it like to be the only deaf person among fourteen gals for a whole week?  How did we communicate?

    Quite simply, I lipread my way through the week.  One hundred percent of my understanding of speech comes from lipreading.  I can’t understand anything that is spoken to me without some kind of visual input– whether via sign, written English or lipreading.  I can handle most one-one-conversations with relative ease, that is, most of the time.  There are some folks that I have a tough time lipreading and it requires an adjustment on their part for a conversation to take place.   There are probably times when I think I’ve lipread correctly, but later discover that my information processing was totally off.

    Group conversations are a literal nightmare at times.  As soon as I finish lipreading the first person and then ping-pong my eyes to the next person, by then a third person has already chimed in.   Lipreading becomes useless at that point.  The only way to handle group conversations is for folks to take turns talking and making eye contact with me before speaking or to have someone summarize a conversation.  Fortunately for me, the group did both by the second day.   Judy Myers and Joann O’Connor became my interpreters for the week.  We got to the point where I’d just have to look at them and they’d summarize what was going on or the conversations that I missed. I still missed out on huge chunks of conversations, but that’s the nature of being deaf among a group.   By the end of each day, I knew when my exhausted mind had enough– the lips would move but nothing was making sense.  It was time to call it a night at that point.

    Getting instruction from Keith St. Onge was a piece of cake, as I could lipread him easily.  In some cases, I had an advantage, as I could lipread him on the water over the roar of the boat.  He definitely didn’t have to shout to communicate while I was barefooting.   When it came time to instruct me on the basics of backward barefooting, Keith called me up to the hull of the boat and had me lie down on my stomach.  Judy sat in front of me and repeated everything Keith said as he positioned my feet through the steps.  This instruction method worked well, as I was barefooting backwards by the third day.

    What really touched my heart was watching everyone in the boat signing “awesome” and exploding in deaf applause after my first backward run– that’s a sight that will forever be etched in my mind.

  • Women’s Barefoot Week, Day 5 and 6

    Women’s Barefoot Week at the World Barefoot Center flew by way too fast.  Day Five dawned cloudy and a bit on the cool side in the morning.  We drew names out of a cup and this time, I joined David Small’s boat.  “It’ll be good for you to work with Dave, he’ll teach you in a different way,” Keith St. Onge said.   It was a blast with Dave– I managed to lipread him well despite his British accent.   He started me off with some one foots and then I wanted to try the back deep start without shoes.  No luck getting up, unless you count the two seconds my chest lifted off the water and I keeled over backward:

    “Turn your toes down at that point,” David explained.  I tried it a couple more times and then switched to shoes. I managed to get up on shoes and have a nice long backward ride and David cleaned up my form.

    By noon, it started to rain so we headed into the garage for a foot painting project.  The original plan was to stamp our feet on a square piece of canvas, but one of the gals is an artist and she cut out a foot.  It turned out amazing!  Even the dogs had their paws stamped too!

    We headed back out for an afternoon set where I worked on one foots again and the back deep without shoes.  Joann O’Connor and I ended the afternoon with some doubles on the boom, which brought back memories of our three days in Wisconsin this summer.

    By the end of the last set, I was p.o.o.p.e.d.   We headed back to the house and sat in the hot tub to nurse our aching muscles.  We kicked back with a glass of wine, courtesy of Barefoot Wines. Even when I was a teen, I don’t think I ever did so much barefooting!  Between the wine and the Motrin that Judy Myers passed out (no, we didn’t combine those!), we felt pretty good!

    We cleaned up and headed out to dinner at Longhorn where we all dug into the food with relish!  Vibram Five Fingers sponsored a pair of barefoot shoes for the “Most Improved Barefooter”, which was given to Joann for all of her hard work that week.   I received a cool World Barefoot Center t-shirt signed by everyone for accomplishing some new skills that week.

    Friday was the final morning for some of us and we woke up to some very cold weather.  A photographer and writer from Waterski magazine came out to do a photo shoot and story.  The photo shoot was an interesting challenge: not only was it cold and windy, but the water was rough.  The plan was to run two boats side by side with all of us barefooting off two booms.   During the first take, we all managed to get out on the booms, but one by one, we began dropping like flies as our feet skipped over the rough water.  The photographer wasn’t able to get a good shot.  On the second take, we nailed it.  David and Keith skillfully steered the boat close enough so that it looked like we had one long boom and the gals barefooting in a row.  Stay tuned to the March issue of Waterski magazine to see what it looks like.

    All too soon, it was time to head to say goodbye and head to the airport.  The first annual Women’s Barefoot Week flew by way too fast.  I could have stayed another week.  At least there’s next year to look forward to!

    To see photos of all the gals from Women’s Week, head to my Facebook page:  Karen Putz’s Facebook Page

  • World Barefoot Center Day Three and Four

    I’m blown away.  The gals who are at Women’s Barefoot Week at the World Barefoot Center are nothing but phenomenal.  A breast cancer survivor/dentist who does a front-to-back effortlessly.  A gal with a broken neck who’s back on the water after a two-year hiatis.  67, 66, 61, 60 and 58 and 50 year olds, all doing toe-holds, backward barefooting, tumble turns and more.  A bunch of younger gals– some relatively new to barefooting and others who are pros.  What a great mix of women!

    Swampy, Keith and David gamely joined the fun.  They got in touch with their feminine side this week.

    As they came out of the house one by one in their pretty, pink “Handle Boy” t-shirts and skirts, the laughter roared on and on.  At first, it was clear they weren’t too comfortable in their dainty wear, but they soon loosened up and pranced around.   Take a look at the sexy legs on these guys:

    On Day Three and Four, I focused on learning the backward deep water start.  I had this start on my vision board at home– a picture of Judy Myers skiing backwards.   Yesterday morning, I got up on shoe skis for a very short time and fell.  In the afternoon, I tried again.  On my second try, I found myself staring down at the water and thinking, “Wow, the water’s quite a ways down there…” and I realized I was up and skiing backwards!

    What an amazing feeling!  As the boat idled back, the whole gang was standing up waving some deaf applause and signing “awesome!”  I’ll treasure this day forever!

    I finished off the set doing doubles with Judy Myers.  Most of you know the story– I was inspired to get back on the water after seeing Judy  on the Today show.  So it was a great honor and pleasure to ski with the gal who helped me unwrap a passion that was buried long ago! Thank you, Judy– you’re awesome and you ROCK!

  • Women’s Barefoot Week, Day One and Two

    I headed to the airport to pick up Val Shinn and we arrived at the World Barefoot Center in the late afternoon on Sunday.  We quickly changed into our suits, grabbed our wetsuits and headed out for the boat to join the other gals–Sharon, Judy, Joann, Claudia and Lauren.  Swampy Bouchard, the center’s Elite Coach was our driver.  The plan was for each of the gals to take a ride on A. J. Porreca’s back– while he was barefooting backwards.

    What a way to start of Women’s Barefoot Week!  A. J. was a trouper!  There were seven ladies and a few false starts, but everyone got the chance to experience a backwards barefoot ride.  What a thrill!  A. J. had a smile on his face every time and he even did some one-foot barefooting with a gal on his back.   Judy Myers and A. J. attempted a forward ride and Judy ended up hanging on the rope upside down while A. J. barefooted.  The rest of us were laughing in the boat.

    We are staying at a beautiful house down the street from the World Barefoot Center complete with a pool and hot tub.  After skiing all day, the hot tub is a welcome blessing for the sore muscles.  Barefoot Wine sponsored the week with wine, t-shirts, bags and hats.  Vibram Barefoot Shoes sponsored shoes for the “Most Improved Barefooter” for the end of the week.

    Yesterday was day two and what a blast!  We did two sets in the morning, took a break for lunch and then back out again for two more sets.  I was in awe of these gals and what they can do on the water.   In one day, Keith St. Onge had me doing one-foot on the short line, slalom on the long line (yes, I got up on the deep-water start– the thing I had been battling all summer!) and I’m learning how to plant my feet for a backwards start.

    Joann O’Connor and Judy Myers are my volunteer interpreters for the week so I’m in the boat with one of them all the time.   During yesterday’s preparation for learning the backward start, Keith called me to the front of the boat to practice the start.  I laid down on the hull and Judy sat in front of me.  As Keith instructed me from behind and showed me what to do with my feet, Judy repeated everything so I could lipread her.   It worked out well, as I was able to do what Joann calls “cockroaching”– planting one foot at a time at 12 mph.

    I can’t wait to hit the water again today. We’ve got more ladies coming today, tomorrow and Thursday.  Off to don my suit!

  • Happy Birthday to My Girl!

    A little over 15 years ago, the ultrasound tech said, “It looks like it’s a girl.”

    “Are you SURE?” I asked.

    “I’m about 90 percent sure,” he said.  “There’s always a little possibility that it’s a boy.”  He smiled.

    My heart danced.  I had always dreamed of a little girl.  Pink dresses.  A pink bedroom.  Barbies, dolls, and a little kitchen set.  I couldn’t wait to meet this little one.

    “It’s a girl!”

    Sure enough, the ultrasound guy got it right.

    I painted her room pink.  Bought loads of pink dresses and pink outfits.  Pink socks.  Pink hair bows.  Even Barbie had a collection of pink stuff, including pink plastic shoes and a pink purse.

    Then one day, she came home from preschool and announced, “I hate pink.  And I hate dresses.”

    Thunk went my heart.

    I did everything I could to cajole her.  “Honey, we’re going out to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, how about you wear your pink sundress? Or the blue one?  Or the cute purple one?”

    No, no and no!

    She went through several years where she never donned a dress.  Or anything pink.  “I hate pink!” she would remind me.  She stopped asking me to braid her hair.  She borrowed her brother’s clothes and held her own when roughhousing with them.  I resigned myself to the fact that I birthed three boys.

    Then she became a tween.  Pink was suddenly vogue. I got my little girl back!

    And the arguments began.

    “That skirt is too short!”

    “Those heels are too high!”

    “You’re not going out in public wearing that!“

    Lauren’s favorite way to pass the time was to grab a gal pal and go shopping.  They would try on dresses.  For hours.  And snap photos of the two of them pouting and posing, pretending to be famous models.  I would view the pictures with amusement when they uploaded them to the hard drive.

    Today, my little girl has blossomed into a beautiful, amazing… girl.  I’m not ready to say “woman” just yet, because every single time I look into her eyes, I see the baby that arrived fifteen years ago.

    Happy Birthday, Lauren Marie!  I love you!

  • Life is Too Short to Pout All the Time

    Many years ago, I began writing for a website that produced product reviews and I had to come up with a personal tagline or quote to reflect something about me.   Mine was simply:  “Life is too short to pout all the time.”  That line came to me years ago, when my kids were four- and two-years old, and my youngest had just been born.

    As you can imagine, life back then with a four-year old, two-year old and a crying baby included days where the kids would pout and whine.   After juggling everyone’s needs, keeping track of who was fed and who needed to be fed, refereeing two fighting toddlers, all this on top of attempting to keep the house in some semblance of order–by the end of the day, I was pouting myself.  As soon as the hubby arrived home from work, I whined and unloaded on him.  Then one day, after a particularly trying day with the three kids, I said to them, “Come on, guys, life is too short to pout all the time.”  We took off for the kitchen and made brownies together.  Soon we were all happily chomping away on warm brownies.

    I learned a valuable lesson from those younger days with my kids:  life is meant to be enjoyed with your family and your friends.  The toys on the floor could wait to be picked up, after all, we were busy playing and learning.  So what if the house was in shambles– it was more important to connect with my neighbors over a pizza while the kids played together.

    There was another lesson to come.  One day out of the blue, (that’s usually how it happens, doesn’t it?) my husband learned that his close friend, Tod, was dying.  Diagnosed with cancer at Christmastime, he only had a few months to live.  We talked about taking a dream trip somewhere together with our families, but Tod was too sick to travel.  So we called up a bunch of his friends, piled them all in a van and drove down to see Tod.

    We spent a magical weekend together filled with laughter as well as tears. “Remember this? Remember that?”  We asked each other, as we relived memories and fun times together.

    That night, the snow fell, covering the trees in a glistening white.  We had a quiet moment gazing out into the backyard and seeing the moonlight bounce off the snow.  Tod’s wife came up to us and simply said, “Thank you for this weekend.”  We knew what she meant, because we were all feeling it:  happy, sad, connected, and at peace.   Just weeks later, Tod passed away.   He gave us a gift: a gift of appreciating life, of appreciating family and friends, and the gift of appreciating love.

    After Tod died, I reflected on what I wanted to do with my life.  How did I want to be remembered when it was my own time to go?  I had three deaf and hard of hearing kids that I was raising—what could I do with my knowledge, my skills and my journey?  I took on projects, volunteer work and paid work that brought meaning to my life.  I have to say that Tod’s death raised a lot of questions inside of me and drove me to appreciate life more.  Just weeks after he passed away we made some changes in our lives and did some things that we had been putting off.  We quit decorating the house and bought the used boat that we had been talking about for years.  We took cheap vacations with other friends.  We spent more time up in Michigan visiting my parents and the in-laws.

    Of course, I still have some days when things go wrong and I’m about to tear my hair out.  I had a day like that not too long ago, grumbling and venting to anyone who would listen.  My daughter took one look at me and said…

    “Mom, life is too short to pout about this.”

    Originally published on Chicago Mom’s Blog, April 2009

  • Women’s Barefoot Week at the World Barefoot Center

    Way back in March, when I first met Judy Myers, she casually mentioned that she was going to organize a Women’s Barefoot Week at the World Barefoot Center this fall.  “We never do anything for the ladies in barefooting, so we’re going to have a whole week devoted to us!” she said.

    Women’s Barefoot Week is set for November 1-6 and coming up quick!  I still haven’t found my ugly hat for the Ugly Hat contest but I know that Joann O’Connor has been madly scouring the flea markets and intends to win.

    I’m looking forward to seeing Judy and Joann again and meeting lots of new gals from all over the U.S.  Back when I was a teen, I only had the guys to barefoot with on Christie Lake (not that it was a bad thing!) but there’s something about having another gal role model that just does wonders for the soul!

    Speaking of guys, we’re going to teach Swampy, Keith St. Onge and David Small how to tap into their female sides all week. They’ll learn to embrace pink nail polish and some lovely women’s wear.  Yes, we’ll be sure to get photos.

    It won’t just be a week of fluff, we’ll be out on the water working on deep starts, tumble turns, toe holds, backwards– the goal is for every gal to learn something new and have a blast on the water.  My goal is to conquer the darn long-line deep start beast that I battled all summer.   My other goal is to learn to barefoot with my heels leading the way– that is… if the Master (KSO) determines that I’m ready for it.  Judy and Joann, my cheerleading team, have over-ridden KSO’s expertise and have signed me up for some backwards barefooting–starting off on shoes, of course.

    The World Barefoot Center is discounting their pro shop items just for the ladies that week.  After a day of skiing, we’ll be kicking back with some Barefoot Wine and fun activities.  At the end of the week, the gal who is the “Most Improved Barefooter” gets to go home with a pair of Vibram Five Fingers Barefoot Shoes. A big thank you to our sponsors!

    We have a few spots left for Women’s Barefoot Week so if you want to join us, come on out!  It can be for a day or two or the entire week.  Call the World Barefoot Center at 863-877-0039 to reserve your spot on the boat.  After all, it will be the only time of the year that Swampy gives out foot massages.