I am officially 40 Under 40

I was acknowledged for my contributions to Oklahoma City by OKC Biz. According to the article in the October edition announcing our names, “Forty Under 40 extols the achievements and community involvement these young people demonstrate while exhibiting work/life balance.”

 I am grateful. I do work hard and it’s nice to get a public you’re doing a great job by someone who isn’t my dad. I can’t say that I feel very balanced most of the time, but it’s nice to think someone else thinks I do. Life is pretty hectic most days. 

Want to know a secret? I nominated myself for two years in a row about 4 years ago, confident that I was a shoo-in. Both times never worked out and my second rejection letter convinced me to give up. Those were the immediate post-divorce years and I was desperate to be told I was awesome, because I sure didn’t feel awesome. 

But this year, someone else nominated me. I had a hunch I knew who and asked the suspect at breakfast one day. She confirmed, but it didn’t make me feel any less loved. It was nice. 

Getting this acknowledgement felt more like a gift to the Sheri back then than to the Sheri today. She worked really, really hard back then because she didn’t know anyone. Didn’t have a whole lot of friends. Life was harder, the village was smaller. She deserves this. 

The gift to today’s Sheri was this ad that my company placed in the current issue of the magazine. That evening when I got back from the reception I was on the sofa texting friends, telling them about my evening. As I was flipping through the magazine to see what else there was to see, I ran into this. Totally a surprise to me. I texted the pic and he responded, “You are loved.”

Indeed, I am.

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The Sketchbook Project in Oklahoma City

I needed coffee beans. 

I mean, I have coffee beans, but I accidentally bought beans that were so darkly roasted that they damn near taste like ash. So…I needed coffee beans. I decided that on my Sunday, late afternoon errand-running trip I’d stop by Urban Agrarian and fix the situation. As I pulled up I saw this… 

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It totally piqued my curiosity. After I finished up shopping and hugging my farmer, I beelined over to the black trailer. Two folks were inside and gave me the low down on The Sketchbook Project. It is a traveling library of artists’ sketchbooks. I created a library card and searched the catalog for a sketchbook to peruse. I chose a book by the criteria of where it was created: San Francisco. The system pulled a book from there along with a random selection.

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These books are born as blanks and anyone can purchase them. Then, the artist fills the pages. Or tears the pages. Or cuts. Or glues. or sews. Lots of the books are deconstructed and reassembled. There are no rules other than the books have to be mailed to The Sketchbook Project by the deadline so they can be catalogued and prepared for one of the national tours. For a year the current edition of books tour the country in these mobile pop-up libraries. At the end of the year, the books go back to the mothership, the Brooklyn Art Library. Oklahoma City was an unplanned stop due to a cancellation in Boulder, CO.

I was a teensy bit heartbroken that  I discovered them at 4:30 and they were closing shop at 5:00. But I did my best and got through about 8 books. 

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Daily miracles, people. Daily miracles.

I accidentally found the coolest thing ever. Check out @thesketchbookproject. #thesketchbookproject

I love the Internets

There’s a lot of stuff I share on the Internet every day. Here’s a weekly round up of the things I most enjoyed last week by category. 

Inspiration

  • We all choose our feelings. And which ones do you choose? Do they make the world a better place?
  • Neko Case mentions inspiration for a song. “That song is a verbatim conversation I heard,” Case says. “You can survive and you’re an awesome, plucky little kid, but you have to take care of yourself because your mom’s a fucking asshole, but you’re gonna have to pay for that later; the fact that you can turn around and start singing again, you’re gonna pay for that later, also. It’s really fucking unfair.”
  • I won an award here in OKC. And this is how I acknowledged it: Instagrammed the photo op. Life is a series of meta moments around here. 

Nifty

  • What Real Men Look Like in Underwear Ads Love it. I think its easy to assume only women have body issues. I’m glad someone is acknowledge the pressure on real dudes. And just to be clear, I’d totally put pressure on these real dudes, ifyouknowwhatimean.
  • How well do you see color? I scored an 8 (0 is best), which I was perfectly satisfied with. I had FB friends score in the 40s. I totally win at color. 
  • Husky loves to play in the leaves. That dog likes leaves like I like music festivals. 

Music

  • Van Halen – 5150 David (from Dr. Pants) mentioned this album on Twitter the other day and I’ve been listening ever since. There was a time if you’d asked me what my favorite bands were, you’d likely get this answer, “Journey, Van Halen and The Black Crowes.” The Van Hagar version of this band was my favorite version and this was one of my favorite songs. 
  • Dr. Pants – If I Were John Cusack This song was played in my living room.
  • Marian Call – Shark Week This song was also played in my living room. 
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