Two Truths and a Lie

Have you heard of the game Two Truths and a Lie?  Essentially it is a classic icebreaker game where the players try to determine which of three statements is false.

If you haven’t played before it is a lot of fun – so I decided that we could play it on my blog today.  Read each statement about me and decide for yourself which ones are true and which one is not.

#1 – I climbed out of a boat in the middle of the everglades in Florida and held an alligator. 

#2 – I ran all the way up to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

#3 – I hung out with Amar’e Stodemeir backstage at a Destiny’s Child concert.

Which one do you think is a lie?

The truth is that I actually did all three. 

#1 – True: I went on a tour of Everglades and the tour guide actually got out first, he explained that out in the open it was perfectly safe so I jumped out of the boat.  I also held a baby alligator – it was about 2 feet long. 

#2 – Technically this is false, because I did not run the entire way, but I did climb up to the top.  I visited the famous Leaning Tower when I was in college and people were still allowed to climb up the stairs at that time.  The stairs were made of stone and very uneven and there was no guardrail, so it was actually little scary, but I did climb to the very top. 

#3 – True: I had a part-time job doing marketing at events and I was able to attend a Destiny’s Child concert on their farewell tour.  Because I had a staff pass, I was allowed to go back stage and during an intermission Amar’e Stoudemier came backstage to meet the band.  We actually hung out and talked for several minutes.  He was very nice and very TALL in person. 

Now its your turn, share your two truths and lie in the comments below.

Sorry Girls – You can’t even have One Special Day of your Own

This Thursday is officially Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.  Yes, you read that correctly – our daughters & sons.  I find this extremely frustrating.  This special program was originally designed to encourage girls to learn about various careers – especially focusing on non-traditional fields for girls (science, engineering, etc.) and management positions.  There was and STLL is a need to focus on careers specifically for girls. 

Somehow a group of people began whining that boys should be included too, and the ‘official’ holiday now includes boys.  Let me be clear – I am not anti-boy.  Of course I want boys to learn about career fields too.  I want boys to find their passion in life and be excited about their futures, but that is NOT why this event was created.  Girls around the world still face significant struggles simply because they are girls. 

The facts are pretty clear.  Woman still make significantly less than men.  Women make only 79 cents for every dollar a man makes. The pay gap has barely budged in a decade. At the current rate, the gap won’t close for more than 100 years.  The gender pay gap is worse for mothers, and it only grows with age.  Women face a pay gap in nearly every occupation.  Thanks to the pay gap, women struggle to pay off student loan debt even more than men do.  [1]

Leadership is another area where women still lag far behind.  American women hold fewer than 20 percent of leadership jobs.  Women only make up FOUR percent of the CEO’s for Fortune 500 companies. 

As a mom of two amazing daughters, I feel very passionately about this issue.  I encourage parents to go ahead and bring their daughters to work this Thursday, especially if they work in male dominated fields or in management positions.  Teach girls to strive for leadership roles, but please leave your sons at home this Thursday.  They can go to work another day – Make this one just about the girls.  We owe it to them. 

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[1] http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/

Exploring the Wonders of Arizona, yesterday & today

As I was scanning old photos I came across a whole bunch of family pictures from our various vacations through the years.  Somehow my parents managed to wrangle an entire tribe of children and take us to exciting places.  We moved to Arizona when I was only nine years old, and for the first several years my parents planned trips all over the state to help their children to see all of the wonders of Arizona. 

We explored the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest of northern Arizona.

We visited the Grand Canyon.

We learned all about the large meteorite that struck the desert at Meteor Crater.

We watched gun fights and enjoyed the old west experience in Tombstone.

We went ‘south of the border’ in Nogales.

I am so grateful that my parents took the time to teach me all about Arizona.  I made sure to take my children to many of the same wonderful places in our state and even a few that I had never visited.

We explored the copper mines near Bisbee.

We ate peaches at Schnepf Farms.

We went camping up on the Mongollon Rim…

And climbed up the lookout tree (that smells like vanilla ice cream)

And hiked to the top of Picacho Peak.

Arizona has so many wonders to share with children. I look forward to sharing Arizona with my grandchildren in the future.