nakedjen

Marathon Madness

I'm still training.  I haven't given up.  Today, I'm going for 14 miles.  On Thursday morning my good friend Holly came over and she and I did 8.  Quickly, I might add.  We managed to do it in under two hours.  I'm determined to finish the Marathon in under 6, so I'm really working on my pacing.

My sister, NeverNakedBeth was visiting us last week and she also helped me immensely with my training efforts.  She got up and did 10 miles with me last Saturday.  And went to the track with me on Tuesday evening and helped me shave nearly 2 minutes off my one-mile time. 

I'm getting very close to GOAL in my fund raising efforts, but I still need a little bit of a push to go over the top.  If you haven't yet donated and you'd like to, I would really appreciate it!  It's time for me to hand in my FINAL COMMITMENT papers and what that really means is that I'm saying, "Oh yes, I'm doing the marathon and I'm also very sure I'm going to raise all those funds!"  Which also means that what I don't manage to raise I'm pledging to make up myself. 

I'm hopeful though that I won't have to be sending them a check for $2500.  That's a LOT of money!  $250 I could handle.  $2500 and DearSweetDave might not be so dear or so sweet about it.

I've managed to avoid blisters so far, but not pulled muscles or sore ankles.  My ankles are my weak spot.  They just are not ankles meant for marathons.  But I'm determined to do this and see it through so I'm just pushing them and telling them to be OK!  I've also been getting acupuncture treatments to help and massage and drinking lots of water and I even went swimming. 

I know, big deal.  Swimming!  But it was a big deal.  It meant putting on a bathing suit and appearing in my very white pasty Irish skin in front of hundreds of strangers.  I am telling all of you this right now.  It would have been MUCH EASIER for me to actually go swim in front of all those strangers NAKED than it was in that bathing suit.  I'm serious about this.  For some reason I feel far more confident when I'm naked than when I am sporting a bathing suit that seems to just highlight my "all in my head, I know this!" body flaws.   Go figure.

So there's the update.  We still need a few more hundred dollars to reach our goal.  Any and all donations no matter what the size will be sincerely appreciated.

And of course, there's also this:

We're inviting you to start your Nike Women's Marathon weekend in VIP style!  All participants who raise $7500 or more by October 1st will attend with a guest to the Nike VIP Reception in The Starlight Room at the Sir Frances Drake Hotel in Union Square, San Francisco.  The event will take place on October 19, 6-8pm, and will be attended by celebrities, event sponsors and other top fundraisers.  You'll enjoy drinks and hors d'ouvres, and start your weekend with one of the best views of the City by the Bay!!!

 

The top fundraiser will be invited to join a Nike Celebrity Athlete for a warm up run Saturday morning, October 20th - to prepare for the marathon with a pro!!

 

So set your fundraising goal accordingly and be a VIP at this special reception!

We all know how very much I enjoy rubbing my naked elbows with celebrities!  So if I make my goal, I can do exactly that! 

I can also share that I've lost quite a few inches on my body.  I have no idea about pounds because we don't even own a scale, but my pants are falling off.  They just slide down and land around my ankles.  I'm considering this a benefit.  I can purchase a belt.  I just like knowing I must be getting fit!

www.nakedjen.com

When I launched this blog nearly four years ago, I was already Nakedjen.  But the URL for Nakedjen, www.nakedjen.com was unavailable.  So I did what I could and instead grabbed myself a Typepad account and called my blog Nakedjen and continued on my merry way.

However, it always bothered me that www.nakedjen.com landed you at some German guy's unused very plain HTML page when it could, in fact, be guiding you safely to my very warm embrace.  Well, as warm as I can manage with words on a computer screen and the occasional naked picture thrown in.

Every year, when it came time for the German guy to renew Nakedjen.com, I'd shoot him an email and ask him if, perhaps, he'd like to allow me to have it?  But I never even received a response for him.  Not even a "No, sorry."  or a "How much?" 

This spring it was once again time for the URL to renew.  Instead of even bothering to contact Mr. Silent German Guy, I decided to just use GoDaddy's nifty service that will snap up a URL if it does, in fact, become available. 

I suppose Mr. Silent German Guy decided that he no longer had a use for Nakedjen.  Because he let it expire.  Completely.  And those good guys over at GoDaddy snapped it up for me. 

So now?

Now I am officially www.nakedjen.com 

I feel as if I have finally arrived on the Internet.  Naked as the day I was born. 

Gratitude

Usually when I return home from my annual trek to the Oregon Country Fair I share about who I saw, what I ate, the music I heard and the fun things I did.

I will share that this year was very much the same as years past, only this year I allowed the fair to carry me where it wanted to take me and just sat back and enjoyed the ride.  It was a year of many firsts for me, a surprise even for me, since it was my nineteenth year returning to those magical and sacred grounds in Oregon.

Rather than tell you all about it, I feel compelled to this year just say thank you to the very many and wonderful people who made my fair experience so very special this year.  I say this every single year, but I will say it again.  The Oregon Country Fair is my religion.  I would not be who I am without those very special days spent with all those very special people every July every single year.

So it is with deep and heartfelt gratitude that I send my love to Sarah and Dune for sharing their hearts, their home and their bed with us.  We had a complete blast sharing the fair with you and seeing it through your eyes.   Thank you for coming, for sharing all that you are, for trusting that it would be "fun" and for always saying YES. 

To Bri and Rich and the K-Team.  You all are a complete wonder and a joy.  What an absolute blessing it was to share our camp with all of you.  Your smiles and laughter are infectious and I can't wait to have you back again next year.

Ellie and Ron and Max and Aimee.  You made it.  You came.  I love you all dearly and I'm so thankful that you are a part of my life.

Nadine and Mahlon and Naia and Josie.  How awesome was it to see all of you this year.  Your patience with me and your trust in me while I lead you through the fair was just awesome.  You are my inspiration for my fair next year (believe it or not) so I hope you're coming back!

The beautiful women who shared their hearts and songs with me at the Ritz on Friday afternoon.  How is it possible that I had never done that before?   Such a blessing.  Wow.  I felt so honored to share that sacred space with each and every one of you goddesses!

The security man who welcomed me home every day after he asked to see my ticket.  He had no idea just how special those words, welcome home, would be.  But that first day?  They brought tears to my eyes.  Home.  Welcome home, indeed.

The amazing folks at the Falafel Palace who continue to make the very best falafel in all the world.  Thank you for that.  Really.  I know I told you, but I want you to know it really is the best. 

Those magicians at the Tofu Palace who crank out those Tofu Tias that still manage to fill me up so much I feel like I'm going to burst.  I don't know the secret to your special sauce, but I wish I did.  A year between Tias is too long to wait.  Seriously.

My dear and sweet and wonderful friends at Rising Moon Ravioli.  You've expanded your horizons this year and what amazing things you're doing.  I'm always impressed by your generosity of spirit and good will.  Thank you for sharing it with me.

The goddess who painted my breasts transforming me into an 80's punk Rainbow Brite.  How much fun was that? 

Wavy Gravy for just being Wavy Gravy.  Our planet is a better place because of you.

The myriad of folks who caught my eye and held eye contact with me.  Who didn't look away.  Who held the space between us and let me know that everything was, in fact, always going to be okay.  Thank you.

The fantastic band who camped next door and serenaded us every evening with song.  Your songs filled the air and my heart as you rocked me to sleep each evening.  We were all blessed by your music. 

My SIL Amy.  Who came from Portland.  And who is just so, well, lovely.  Kind, gentle, truthful, real, vulnerable.  It was wonderful to share this fair with her, to have her share herself with me. 

My husband, DearSweetDave.  Who drove me there, who always made sure I had two feet on the ground, and who then drove me all the way home.  He understands better than anyone the importance of this fair for me and I love him dearly for sharing it with me so completely every year.

The hundreds of others who I do not know but who remain in my heart forever for making this fair and every fair so magical, special and transformational.  I am forever in gratitude and thankful that you do exactly what you do.  Please don't ever stop.

Grace

Our beloved Grace said goodbye to her father yesterday.  I can't even begin to imagine what this must be like and I'm not even going to begin to try to imagine it.

At times like this, it is not important what particular religious deity we worship or ascribe to with our own beliefs.  What is important is that we send our own prayers and peaceful thoughts and love to Grace and to her large and extended family. 

Grace wears her name boldly, but I know that right now our love and prayers will be most appreciated.

Sending my warmest and most heartfelt love and peaceful thoughts out to her now and in the days to come.  Fare thee well, Father of Grace.  And may your afterlife absolutely include cellphone reception if that is truly what your family desires.

Peace.

Naked Confession

Twenty-nine years ago, when I was 14, on a Saturday in September after a horse show, my parents and sisters dropped me with my belongings off at boarding school.  I wasn't being punished.  Far from it.  I had actually chosen to go to boarding school because I had pretty much determined that it was going to be the only way I was going to get a decent education. 

For four years, I thrived at that boarding school and learned more about myself, about life, about what it means to be a citizen of this planet than I ever dreamed possible.  I am forever grateful for those four years and owe a lot to my classmates and teachers who loved me and pushed me and allowed me to grow.  I also, of course, owe a great deal to my family who made it possible for me to go and who were not afraid to let me leap from the nest and test my wings to see just how high I could fly.

Last month I returned to my boarding school for my twenty-fifth reunion.  I will confess that I returned with a bit of trepidation and even, I'll say it, nervousness.  I hadn't seen a lot of these people since I had graduated.  And I will be the first to admit that I had done a lot more growing and "changing" since our years together in those hallowed halls.  In fact, I considered just skipping the reunion all together.  Not because I am ashamed of who I am today, but because I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the time "explaining" it.

Here's the thing.  The graduates of my class are quite successful.  They're doctors.  They're lawyers.  They're CEO's of their own multi-million dollar corporations.  And this makes sense.  When you're given the type of first-rate education that we were given and then you go on to HarvardPrincetonYale, you are then practically perfectly groomed to be a SUCCESS in all caps.  Just like that.  Easy as the honors grades that you got in all your classes along the way.

For a while, as some of you who have been paying attention know, I was on that track.  I was playing that game.  I was headed in that direction.  I was scrambling up the corporate ladder and was banging my head against the glass ceiling.  But I think I may have banged my head just a tad too hard. 

Anyway, facing my classmates, who ARE quite successful felt daunting.  But my desire to see them after all these years was larger than my fears and so there I was last month spending the weekend with thirty of my classmates at our old school.

So here's what you learn when you go back after twenty-five years. 

Some folks have aged really well.  Some folks definitely look like they graduated a.long.time.ago.  Your English teacher that you had a major crush on while you were in high school?  Still looks TOTALLY HOT.  How is that possible?  Does he have his own "Dorian Grey" portrait hanging in a closet somewhere on campus?  Your classmate that you thought was the most uptight and the most stuck-up of them all?  Now, he's your absolute best friend.  Seriously, you can't believe he's even the same guy.   You also can not begin to fathom that you never invited the cute soccer player to your house for the weekend.  Why didn't you invite him?  You invited everyone else!  Being there with your best friend totally makes everything seem completely silly and fun all over again.  At one point, you even confess that it was you, YOU, innocent you, who stole K.C.'s school blazer all those year's ago.   And you STILL have it!  Also, when you beg your best friend to take a picture of you while you're standing naked on the stage of the performing arts center make sure she's not so nervous that she actually is able to TAKE the picture!  She did take the picture, but boy oh boy are they dark! 

Then the moment happens.  The person you would totally never in a million years expect tells you that he's been to your website and he had to quickly close it because he was embarrassed by what he was looking at! 

So that leads to the confession.  The big confession.  I found myself sitting in the dining room of the school with three of our most esteemed male classmates.  Explaining, in excruciating detail the history of Nakedjen.  I explain it to them in such detail that at one point, during dinner in the St. Andrew’s dining room, I get up and pull my dress off. And am standing there, in front of all three men, stark naked. 

And it is while I am standing there naked, that one of them says to me, “Jen, I think that you are perhaps the most successful graduate in our entire class!” I nearly cried. Another says, “Oh yeah. Absolutely. You’re changing lives. You’re making a huge difference in this world! Instead of just making corporations richer, you’re actually helping people to love themselves!”

I could have kissed all three of them.

I confessed to them that I had been really unsure about how to even broach the Nakedjen subject. That I knew it wasn’t exactly the “picture” of a St. Andrew’s graduate that the school has for itself. But they all agreed that the school SHOULD be pushing its graduates to be more like me. That we don’t need more Fortune 500 CEO’s. What we need is more original thinkers who truly love themselves, the planet and their brothers and sisters. Who want to make the world a better place for every one.

The school's own mission statement currently reads:

We continue to cultivate in our students a deep and lasting desire for learning; a willingness to ask questions and pursue skeptical, independent inquiry; and an appreciation of the liberal arts as a source of wisdom, perspective and hope. We encourage our students to model their own work on that of practicing scholars, artists and scientists and to develop those expressive and analytical skills necessary for meaningful lives as engaged citizens. We seek to inspire in them a commitment to justice and peace.

If we tweaked that just a little and added in a bit about loving their bodies just as they are, loving their neighbors as themselves, and loving the planet, well then, yes, I think Nakedjen is a shining example of a St. Andrew's graduate.  Even if she did graduate a very long time ago.

8 Random Facts About Nakedjen

Tagged by GreatBlisteringBarnacles!

HERE’S THE RULES…
- We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
- Players start with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
- People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
- At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people who get tagged and list their names
- Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them their tagged.

1. The longest time in my entire life that I ever lived without a dog was the period after Clyde died until Buddha and Stella finally came home to live with us.  I never want to live that long without a dog again.  Please remember this.
2. I have died and revived to tell all of you about it.
3. I have cured myself of stage 4 cervical cancer. 
4. I hate blueberries.
5. I am deathly allergic to avocado.  Please do not serve it to me.
6. I really really like to win, but I am not a sore loser.
7. I can make myself invisible.
8. I really miss being a part of Stephen Badger's life.  I wish I could fix that.  I can not.

I tag:

Born Famous
Gwendomama
Dr. Suz
Parrothead Mom
Gail
Dana Elayne
Paul Ding
You

Can We Impeach Him Now?

I didn't write this.  But oh how I wish that I had.  It is brilliant and I'm more than happy to share it with all of you.

I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war. I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11. I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient. I accuse you of causing in Iraq the needless deaths of 3,586 of our brothers and sons, and sisters and daughters, and friends and neighbors. I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but to stifle dissent. I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought. I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents. I accuse you of handing part of this republic over to a vice president who is without conscience and letting him run roughshod over it.

And I accuse you now, Mr. Bush, of giving, through that vice president, carte blanche to Mr. Libby to help defame Ambassador Joseph Wilson by any means necessary, to lie to grand juries and special counsel and before a court, in order to protect the mechanisms and particulars of that defamation with your guarantee that Libby would never see prison and, in so doing, as Ambassador Wilson himself phrased it here last night, of becoming an accessory to the obstruction of justice.

Can we impeach him now?  Please.  Because I just know he won't have the brains to resign.