An advocate for air conditioning

I'm a little late with this post, but I was honored May 23 as the Small Business Administration's Georgia Media Advocate of the Year.
What a surprise and honor!
The award came with a very nice luncheon.
There were several folks being honored that day by the SBA, and it was wonderful to hear about the other winners, including a company that provides peeled hard-boiled eggs to restaurants and grocers. My table mates and I remarked at it's such a simple idea and why hadn't WE thought of that?
So, here I am receiving my award:

Receiving the award

Group photo of all of the winners

What made the day even more special was that my mother and my sister Kristine were able to join me at the luncheon.
The one downside of the whole event was that the day before my mother was to arrive from South Carolina, my air conditioner decided to quit! Wouldn't you know, it had been just beautiful in the days leading up to her arrival, in the upper 70s and no humidity. I didn't even have the air conditioner on. But with my mom coming to visit, I thought I had better turn it on.
Well, the repairman couldn't get to me until Friday, the day my mom left to go home.
I quickly borrowed three box fans and we managed to survive. The house got to about 84 one day, but thankfully it wasn't too humid, so it wasn't a sticky heat.
In addition, I was invited to speak on Jim Beach's School for Startups radio show. Here is a link to the interview, and my part begins about 29 minutes in.
So I guess I got three surprises last week. Two very pleasant, one less so, but the experience has made me an advocate of checking the air conditioner before you need to turn it on. :)

My kind of town

I'm just back from my first trip to Chicago, where I met up with two college friends and completed a 5K race in Illinois.
That brings my bucket list of running a race in each state to 11 completed.
More importantly, why had I never been to Chicago before? What a great city!
I flew in Friday to Midway and my friend Pat picked me up at the airport. She lives in Hyde Park, not far from President Barrack Obama's house. She showed me where it is on Sunday, although you can't drive down the road to see his home close up. All we could see was the wrought iron fence and a little bit of the house.
But back to Friday. After me and my college friend Susan were checked into our hotel, Pat and my Aunt Rose picked us up again and we had dinner in Chicago's Chinatown.

Me in front of Chinatown

Susan and me in Chinatown

 We didn't know which restaurant to pick, so we just kind of walked up and down the street before stepping into the May Flower. I think we may have been the only English-speaking patrons in the place. And the food was great. I love a find like that!
The only issue with the restaurant was that I asked for a glass of wine with dinner. Wine was clearly an option on the menu, but apparently the bartender/cashier was not in Friday night and the waitress said I couldn't have wine that night!
So Rose, Pat, Susan and I then began the hunt for a bottle of wine that Susan and I could take back to the hotel room.
We found a little grocer and got the ultimate bottle of wine for a girls weekend -- Bitch wine.

Bitch wine

Susan with Bitch wine

 

Saturday morning Susan and I met up with Patti, whom I lived with for four years at the University of Missouri. Susan lived across the hall in Gillette Hall for the two years Patti and I lived there.
The three of us and Patti's husband walked up to the Chicago River and took the Wendella Boat Tour on Lake Michigan and the Chicago River.

Susan, Patti and JD about to shove off

View of the skyline from Lake Michigan

Notice how overcast it was!

The John Hancock Building

The Sears tower

View down the Chicago River

 It was really great, except for the weather!
I mean it has been so cold here in Atlanta this spring, but it was super cold in Chicago this weekend. Highs of 55, if that! I had to bring a coat.
Our next stop was Giordano's for some famous deep dish pizza. Ours was Patti's favorite from college -- Canadian bacon and black olives. 

My first Chicago deep dish pizza slice.

 From there we just wandered back to our hotel, stopping first at Millennium Park.

Susan at Millennium Park

Me and Susan at Millennium Park, being silly

Silliness

I carried that umbrella all day so it wouldn't rain. The sun finally came out!

The skyline as seen in the bean 

That's us in the bean

Skyline in the bean

 We headed back to the hotel and after some snacks and another glass of Bitch wine, we took a walk in the evening and saw Buckingham Fountain lit up.

Buckingham Fountain 

 

The sun sets 

 

The fountain show

Going pink

 It's hard to see, but the Sears tower's spires are lit pink for the Komen walk the next day.
Susan, Patti and I were up early Sunday for the walk.

About to start the Komen Chicago 5K 

 

At the start 

 

Along the walk

At the fountain again

Lovely downtown views

 This walk was really nice in that we really saw a lot of downtown. At the end of the walk, I got to meet Yuri, whom I had never met in person, but knew through an online cancer survivor's network. I was so excited to finally meet her. We had gone through treatment during the same time, which was about seven years ago.

Me and Yuri

Me, Yuri, Patti and Susan

Aunt Rose and me

 

 It was nice that Aunt Rose and Pat came to the finish to lend their support as well.
The weekend went by too quickly, and I already know I want to go back to see and do more in Chicago.
It's my kind of town.

Buzzword Bingo

I spent most of today listening to local businessmen and women make pitches about their companies as my role as a judge for the annual Business Person of the Year awards.
It's my second year as a judge. I'm neither Simon Cowell nor Paula Abdul. But I will say me and my fellow judges can get pretty randy.
This year, we started a rousing game of buzzword bingo during the presentations, which were three-minute "elevator pitches."
The business owners and leaders have three minutes to wow us on their companies and themselves, or about the time you'd have to sell yourself and your company if you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett or Bill Gates.
Each judge selected five overused buzzwords, and if during the daylong presentations -- there were 42 of them -- all five words were spoken by the interviewees that judge "won."
My words were win-win, out of the box, paradigm, outsource and collaboration. Others in the group chose words and phrases like next level, boutique, green and transformational.
I didn't win-win.
Only one of us achieved buzzword bingo, and it came at the end of the day.
I'm not saying I'd do any better with buzzwords during a presentation, when I'd likely be nervous, but it certainly made me realize folks rely far too much on clichés.
Some of the top buzzwords spoken by today's presenters were: strategy, impact, passion, niche, innovation, value-add, expertise, virtual office, premium brand, uncharted waters, talk the talk, walk the walk, one day at a time, augmented reality, award-winning competitive advantage, bandwidth, best practices, sustainable initiatives, vertical solutions, in our space, end-to-end business platform, core values, integrity, results oriented, game changing, and best and brightest (lots of folks have been hiring the best and brightest. How many of those are there really?).
Then there was one business owner who told us running a business is like a marathon, and another who told us, twice, that his ego was in line with his ability.
There were some gaffes on our part, too. Trying to conduct a three-minute elevator pitch via conference call can prove difficult, particularly when the phone won't work.
One businessman said he was hearing an echo and suggested we mute the phone then unmute it. We asked him if he could hear us, only we still had him muted.
At the end of the day, we realized some had come very prepared, and it showed. Some had not, and it showed.
Some business owners came in and never introduced themselves, nor told us the name of their company.
Some never said what the company did. Some gave an explanation of the company using buzzwords, so that I never really knew what they did.
Some were thrown off by the three-minute time limit and squandered their time by starting out with a story that didn't help the pitch and just wasted time.
One business owner made us all laugh by stating the obvious: "It's the Don King microphone."

The Don King microphone

The whole day was being recorded for video presentations at the upcoming awards. I'm afraid of what the outtakes will look like!
But I hope the videos will also help folks improve their presentations for next year.
It will be a win-win for everyone.

Running in liquid sunshine

Another run completed this Saturday in liquid sunshine.
I was lamenting on Facebook this morning that I was about to run a 5K and it was pouring outside. My running shoes had just dried from LAST weekend's race. A friend pointed out that Mother Nature knew I had experience running in the rain.
And I realized I was a complete runnerd when I thought "Damn, I'm going to get wet on this race," not "I'm sleeping in."
So, the rain poncho is getting quite the workout lately.
Today's race was the Cox Trot 5K in Chamblee, Ga. My friend Carolyn had signed up with her partner Susan, but Susan couldn't make it, so she invited me to take Susan's number. I think Susan got the better end of this deal today. She stayed dry!

Carolyn before the race

Me and Carolyn, ready to face the rain

Carolyn has a similar bucket list as me. While I am trying for a race in all 50 states, she's doing marathons in all 50 states. Last weekend she picked up Kentucky and is headed to Delaware soon. I told her I need to start traveling with her to run some 5Ks or half marathons to get a few more states in!
This morning's race was supposed to be a 5K, but it turned out to be abut 3.6 miles or so. That would have been just fine on a lovely spring morning, but in a cold rainy morning, not so much. What happened to spring in Atlanta? Tonight it is still raining and about 52 degrees, when the average temperature for the day is 77 degrees.
Well, the liquid sunshine means I've been enjoying some Earl Grey tea and snuggling with two very lazy cats.
Stay dry, friends!