Tamara's Blog

Anthem: What is Your Story?

Seven cities. Seven lives. Ordinary people living incredible lives. That is what a new documentary called "Anthem: What is your story?" is all about.

Andrew Morgan and Matt Deuel are part of a movement called Broken Voices. In this documentary, they pack up their families and head out from Atlanta in a beautiful RV - loaned to them by a generous stranger who believed in what these guys were doing! - to capture the voices of ordinary people living incredible lives.

In New Orleans, we meet Jeannie who was called to raise the bar and connect with teenage girls ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Next we go to Austin and meet Tim who lives a simple, but inspiring life as a gift to the people in his community. In Dallas, Kyle shows us how his life was changed after he started prayer walking the streets in south Dallas.

Russ captures the hearts of high school kids in Plano, TX. It's inspiring to hear from these kids - now that they're adults - and learn how Russ impacted their lives. In St. Louis, we meet Ally and Kelli, two high school friends, who get together with their friends to sell their crafts so that they can buy baby items to donate.

In Chicago, we meet Len, a businessman who talks about his work with Jobs for Life, a program designed to train people who are homeless and jobless how to not only get a job, but also get a life - a life of hope, meaning and love. And finally in Grand Rapids, Jon tells us his story of depression and addiction, how he recovered, and how he's now helping others through heartsupport.com.

The stories are compelling and inspirational. In the end, Andrew reminds us that God is changing the world and we all have a role to play. When he and Matt set out on this road trip, he was asking the question "Does God want to use me?" When he returned, the question transformed into: "Am I willing to follow him?"

Check out the short documentary trailer below. Hear some of these people for yourself. Then get the DVD, hear their stories, be inspired, dream, and then share with others. Not just these stories, but yours too.

What is your story? Will you join God in the dreams he is dreaming for your life?

Flying High at the Royal Gorge

Ever hear of the Royal Rush Skycoaster in Colorado? It's one of 87 skycoasters in the world, and just recently was tagged the scariest of them all. Adventure seekers are hoisted 100 feet up in the air to swing 1200 feet out over the Arkansas River at speeds up to 50 MPH...now that's an adrenaline rush! I know.

In April, my friend, Julia Dane, and I took a day trip to the Royal Gorge in Canon City. When Julia had suggested that we go to the Royal Gorge, it didn't take me long to discover this park "ride." Julia said she would go on it with me, but then muttered something about also needing to wear a pair of Depends if she went.

When we arrived at the park that morning and she saw "the ride" - I quickly realized that it was going to take more than Depends to get her on that thing. So I flew solo...while Julia took some great pictures (click image to enlarge):

There's Julia on the right. And then the bottom center picture was taken after the ride. You can see the Skycoaster setup in the background. It is clearly not for the faint in heart.

Dining at the Broadmoor Resort

On our drive back to Denver, we stopped at the Broadmoor for lunch. Neither one of us had ever  been, but it's a place I've wanted to visit for a long time. The experience was absolutely divine. We could have stayed there for days, but we had to scoot back to Denver to meet all our Noetix buddies for a night out on the town. Good times!

Days 17 and 18: TDWI Conference in San Diego

I am a member of TDWI, a leading educational institution for business intelligence (BI) and data warehousing (DW). I work for a company that plays in the BI space.

Each quarter, TDWI hosts a conference and brings in all the industry experts to teach BI/DW practitioners (and vendors like me) about current issues and trends. I attend about two conferences each year. That's why I was in San Diego this week.

It Was a Pacific Northwest BI Summit Reunion

It was great fun seeing many colleagues from the Pacific Northwest BI Summit vacation conference I attended in late July, specifically:

• Jill Dyche, co-founder and partner of Baseline Consulting
• Ron Powell, editorial director for b-eye-network.com
• Shawn Rogers, executive editor for b-eye-network.com
• Scott Humphrey, founder of Humphrey Strategic Communications
• Donald Farmer, principal program manager at Microsoft
• Colin White, founder of BI Research
• Kim Stanick, VP Marketing at ParAccel
• Scott Davis, founder and CEO of Eyeris

From a distance, I also saw Evan Levy (Jill's partner at Baseline) and Claudia Imhoff, president of Intelligent Solutions. I hardly recognized folks - as we were all dressed in our "proper" business attire this round.

I Am Home Now

It was quite refreshing to finally fly home last night. Today, I'm heading back into the office -  the first time in 3 weeks. Of course, I will have to stop by Starbucks on my drive in, say hi to my favorite barista Jenny, and tote off with my grande soy mocha. That will certainly help kick me back into gear.

This post concludes my 18-day adventure on the Caleefohneea Road.

Day 16: A Room with a View, Ghiradelli's and Seaport Village

This is my third time staying at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in downtown San Diego. It's a beautiful hotel located right next to Seaport Village and within walking distance of the Historic Gaslamp District.

During my last visit, I played hooky and took a tour of the USS Midway, the retired Navy aircraft carrier you see in the background of the picture. If you're ever in San Diego, you'll want to check it out. You can see dozens of aircraft, including the F-18 (from Top Gun), and you learn how these crafts depart and land.

I Found Another Ghiradelli's

In my post for Days 5 and 6, I lamented the fact that Henriet and I were unable to indulge at Ghiradelli's Ice Cream Shoppe in Old Town Pasadena because it was no longer in business. Well, on Sunday, I spotted another Ghiradelli's in the Historic Gaslamp District - and last night, I had a Warm Brownie Sundae for dinner. All is well.

Seaport Village Rocks

I don't remember how many years ago I visited Seaport Village for the first time, but it has remained one of my favorite places to visit when I'm in San Diego. I never get bored hanging out there.

Last night, this guy was drawing a crowd by balancing rocks on rocks. I took this picture with my camera phone (click to enlarge it). If you look close, you will see the tips of about a dozen good-size rocks balanced on other rocks. It was a bizarre sight.   

Dan is the Man at Alaska Airlines

It's not every day that you get to be on the receiving end of great customer service. Especially when it comes to the airlines. They say that when someone has a bad service-related experience, that person will usually tell ten or more people. But if they have a good experience, they may tell only one or two people. Consider yourself one of those one or two people.

Meet Dan, the Alaska Airlines Baggage Service Manager at LAX 

As you may have been reading in my blog, Henriet and I spent a lot of time at Los Angeles International airport this past week. Most of our time was spent in the baggage service area, and this is where we first met Dan.

On August 5th, Henriet's bag had apparently taken a later flight than us. Dan was the one who personally assisted us in tracking the bag down. He had a very kind and calm demeanor. He quickly found the bag "in the system," and assured us it would arrive within the next few hours.

Because Henriet & I had a date at the Hollywood Bowl with our friends, Jill and Evan, we couldn't stay and wait for it. Instead, we decided to drive back to LAX after the show to save ourselves (and Alaska) time - so Dan rewarded us with mileage points.

As promised, Henriet's bag was waiting for us when we returned later that night.

We Meet Dan Again

On August 11th, we found ourselves back in Baggage Services. Our flight to Seattle had been canceled and we were rescheduled to fly out the next day, so we came to retrieve our bags. Dan, of course, was on the scene and remembered us well.

Because of the LAX customs computer glitch, dozens of planes were backed up, which created a huge manual burden for his team (and all airlines). Dan was straight up with us about the plight of our bags. He told us it was best that we not wait for our bags and let the process do its thing. He said his team was going to pull a double shift to make sure that travelers' bags made it to their proper destination - either before or on the same flight as the traveler's rescheduled flight.

So Henriet and I headed to the hotel. The next day, we returned to "mile long" lines at LAX. Because we didn't have any baggage (thanks Dan!), we were able to bypass almost all of it. We would have most likely missed our flight if we had our baggage.

When we landed in Seattle, both of our bags were waiting for us. Apparently, they had taken an earlier flight. It's great managers like Dan that make bad situations like this bearable.

Thank you to Dan and his team at Alaska Airlines Baggage Services for all their effort this past weekend!

Days 7, 8 and 9: From L.A. to Seattle and Back

Henriet and I managed to "lose a day" over the weekend - even though we never left the Pacific time zone. We were scheduled to fly back to Seattle on Saturday. That was going to give me one day to get things sorted and repacked so that I could fly back down to L.A. Sunday afternoon.

However, when we arrived at the airport late that afternoon, we learned that the Customs computer at LAX had failed. It impacted over 20,000 travelers - including Henriet and me. Our flight got canceled, so we flew out on Sunday instead. Henriet wrote about our adventure on her blog on Monday. Apparently, we participated in a history-making moment at LAX.

Unfortunately, I missed my flight back down to L.A. on Sunday, so I rescheduled for Monday AM. This, in turn, caused me to miss the first half-day of my new class at Fuller Seminary - The Biblical Foundation of Mission - but my professor was gracious and my group quickly caught me up at lunch.

Dodgers Stadium (and Larry King) That Night

This week, I'm staying with my cousin in Pasadena. It's close to Fuller so it works out well. On Monday PM, I went with her and two coworkers to Dodgers Stadium. It was great fun!

We sat a few rows behind the Dodgers dugout. Larry King sat close by. The four of us ended up on television as we sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch. Almost 50,000 people were there to watch the Dodgers lose. Again.

When we got home, we watched ourselves on Tivo. :)

Caleefohneea, Here I Come!

This is just a quick post to let you know that I'll be switching things up a bit on the blog over the next 2-1/2 weeks. I'll be in southern California attending two weeks of classes at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, followed by a short week in San Diego for a business conference.

I have all sorts of adventures planned. So stay tuned as this blog turns into a travelogue of kewl people, places and things. 

Mrs. Curtis' First Airplane Ride

I am a quiet airline traveler. About 8 out of every 10 times I fly, I fall asleep before we even lift off from the tarmac. So on Monday, as I was preparing to fly back from Oregon, I expected no less from myself-even though I was secretly hoping that I would stay awake long enough to finish up a book I had to read. I had no idea Mrs. Curtis would change all that.

Meet Mrs. Curtis

I had seen Mrs. Curtis get patted down by the TSA as she went through security. I watched as a customer service rep walked her to a seat to wait in the gate area. I walked past her as I gave the attendant my boarding pass. And then from the back of the plane, Mrs. Curtis appeared in the aisleway next to the empty seat beside me. She sat down.

She appeared fragile. And nervous. And I would soon learn why.

The First Time Ever

As I was saying, I am a quiet traveler. Even the 2 out of 10 times I do manage to stay awake, I rarely talk to anyone else-except if I'm traveling with someone I know. Somehow, I knew this trip was going to be different.

It started with the seatbelt. Mrs. Curtis didn't know how to make it work, so without saying a word, I helped strap her in properly. She apologized for not being able to do it, and then explained why: This was her first airplane trip. In her life. WOW! And she was almost 80 years old.

Why Mrs. Curtis Was on the Plane

Within minutes, she started to get weepy as she told me that her 51-year-old son had died on Sunday. He died from a type of throat cancer that was discovered just a couple of weeks earlier. It was really sad because she had just talked to him the night before and all was well. Now two days later, she was flying to Ontario, CA, to say goodbye a final time.

Mrs. Curtis then tells me that on Friday, three days earlier, she had taken her 47-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome, to a nursing care facility. Her daughter had begun to have epileptic seizures, so it was time to move her to round-the-clock care. Up until that Friday, Mrs. Curtis had been the care provider for her daughter for 47 years. And now she had to start letting go because her daughter's life was coming to a close.

And Mrs. Curtis was traveling alone because her husband had died a few years earlier.

Now Was Not the Time to Sleep or Read

Wow. I was still tripping over the fact that this was her first plane ride. I wanted it to be a good experience considering we were on a two-prop puddle jumper. But geez, that wasn't even the half of it. Okay, Tamara, take a deep breath. Just be you. And God, please help us both. Remember-I'm the quiet (read "non-social") one in this equation.

I will spare you the details of how the next 70 minutes literally flew by, but it was amazing. We shared stories, we grieved, we laughed and we remembered that God was always with us and would not give us more than we could handle. And before she knew it, we were flying past Mount Rainier into Seatac. She had forgotten that she was supposed to be nervous about flying. ;)

I Now Have a Pen Pal (Literally)

Mrs. Curtis asked me for my "name card" because she wanted to send me a card once she returned home. And she wanted me to write her back. I believe I have a new friend. As we parted ways, she got weepy again because she didn't want our time together to end. She thanked me for a most delightful time. I thanked her.

God blessed each of us well that day.

Is This a Business Conference or Am I On Vacation?

In my last post, I wrote about the spectacular Weasku Inn in Grants Pass, Oregon. Today, I'm going to share why I was there.

So I thought I was going to attend a 5-day business conference in a natural Pacific Northwest setting, which in itself, was a nice diversion from the typical Grand Hotel-style conferences I typically attend. But now that I've returned, I'm not so sure it was a business trip because I had way too much fun.

Read my Top 10 Kewl Moments below and you be the judge.

The Business Side of the Story: The Pacific Northwest BI Summit 2007

For the last 6 years, Scott Humphrey, founder of Humphrey Strategic Communications, has hosted an annual Pacific Northwest BI Summit. He invites data industry experts and software vendors to discuss the latest industry trends - mostly in the BI (business intelligence) space. And all in a casual, informal Pacific Northwest setting. Gotta luv that!

This year, the industry experts were Jill Dyche, Claudia Imhoff, William McKnight and Colin White.  I've written about Jill previously. On the vendor side, Scott invited a handful of companies, including mine (Noetix) for the first time - and I was the Lucky Dog who got to go!

The event would not have been complete without Shawn Rogers and Ron Powell from Business Intelligence Network. They were fantastic, and I'll be writing all about them in my next post. I'm still chuckling about them.

Top 10 Kewl Moments

Listed below in no particular order are some kewl highlights from the trip:

• I got to hang out with some of the neatest people in the industry (besides those already mentioned, Donald, KimS, ScottD, Greg, Steve, Karen, KimD, Joe and Jeff)
• I did attempted yoga for the first time in William's yoga class
• I did my first podcast with Jill (it's now posted on b-eye-network.com and iTunes)
• We attended a wine tasting party at Colin's house in Ashland
• We had an exquisite dinner at the historic Ashland Springs Hotel
• We attended the play "On the Razzle" in Ashland
• We spent an afternoon hanging out in the Rogue River (literally)
• I learned how to fly cast with Megan, Scott Humphrey's daughter
• Some of us saw Jupiter and 4 of its moons up close & personal with Colin
• On my cabin's deck, I read a book I need to finish before school next week

So you tell me: Was I on a business trip or was I on vacation?

Whatever it was...to Scott and everyone else who attended the Summit this year...THANK YOU! It was great fun!

A Room with a View at the Weasku Inn

When is the last time you stayed at a lodging facility that greeted you with a big, tacky, flashing neon sign? I don't know about you, but those kinds of places tend to set the bar pretty low for me. They are a constant reminder that you get what you pay for - a stinky room, a lumpy bed, thin towels made of sandpaper, shampoo that turns your hair to straw and soap that dries your skin out.

Well, last Thursday, I was picked up by a shuttle at the Medford, Oregon, airport and driven to such a place called Weasku Inn in Grants Pass. I was indeed greeted by a big, tacky, flashing neon sign - but the Tacky Stopped There.

The Weasku Inn

Combine Ralph Lauren-style living with the best that the Pacific Northwest has to offer, and you pretty much have nailed the Weasku Inn experience.

The Weasku is situated on a beautiful piece of land along the Rogue River. The property has several cabins along the river - some with jacuzzis - all with a deck and a wonderful, peaceful view. The pictures tell the story the best (click to enlarge).

   

I was in for a surprise my first night. I usually fall asleep with the TV on (which magically turns itself off at some point). At the Weasku, I had a TV in my room, but I assumed that, at best, only a few channels would come in given that I was in the middle of the rustic Pacific Northwest. Once again, my assumptions were wrong. My cabin TV had more channels and better reception than my three TVs at home. I slept quite well that first night...and the second...

The staff at the Weasku is top-notch. Eric, the site manager, is there to serve you at all hours of the day and night. Randi (see picture) manages the front and does a wonderful job of making you feel right at home. Tracy was there every day to make sure our meal experience was flawless.

Travel and Leisure magazine named Weasku Inn as one of the country's "Top 25 Great American Lodges." If you're planning a getaway to Oregon, this is THE place to stay. Its central location gives you day trip access to the mountains, Pacific Ocean, fishing, wineries and the theatre (in Ashland).

Memories of Deer Cliff Inn

One of the reasons I loved the Weasku Inn so much is because it reminded me of Deer Cliff Inn, a restaurant started by my grandparents back in the 1940s outside Preston, Idaho. The restaurant sits right next to Cub River and is known as the "most romantic spot in the West." Guests can enjoy dining on the patio or dancing in the "Big Room" on the weekends.

Deer Cliff also has a handful of rustic cabins along the river, and just like at the Weasku, there is nothing more magical than walking out of your cabin into a fresh, new day to spend a relaxing time with friends and family. It was fun to learn that Tracy (mentioned above) had been to Deer Cliff.

Stay Tuned

This week, I'll share a few more stories about my adventures at the Weasku Inn and the Grants Pass region. It will give you a glimpse into what else I do besides blog. ;)

• Wednesday: Is This a Business Conference or Am I On Vacation?
• Thursday: Shawn and Ron's SecondLife
• Friday: Mrs. Curtis' First Airplane Ride
• Saturday: Caleefohneea, Here I Come!