I have gratitude today for...
* treating myself to a cheese steak today. I barely ate anything yesterday, had cramps and only ate half anyway!
* meeting with Gabrielle and expressing our appreciation for her hard work. It was nice to be able to give her a gift card to Nectar to say thank you.
* talking with Lorin about working for Suburban Life. She officially starts next week!
* going to a networking meeting tonight. You never know what will become of the people you meet down the road.
* American Idol- I think it's one of the best seasons so far!
* acknowledging my sleeping issues and trying to figure out what's going on. Most of the time it's that I can't stop thinking. Maybe journaling, reading, or making lists will help.

I have gratitude today for...
* that I am becoming more comfortable talking about Stream/Ignite.
* choosing to go to yoga over everything else I had to do tonight. I'm trying so hard to stick with it!
* listening to my body and reminding myself I need to eat more regularly; I sometimes feel dizzy or like I'm going to faint when my blood sugar is low.
* finally watching the movie "The Kids Are Alright".

I have gratitude today for...
* meeting Carlos from Coyote Crossing at the Ignite meeting.
* Andy coming to learn more about it tonight.
* dinner at Totaro's.

I have gratitude today for...
* WaWa Low-Fat Cappuccino
* making some good contacts at the home show.
* watching the Vita-Mix demo for the 100th time and finally taking the plunge and placing an order for one.
* Andy's homemade pizzas for dinner.
* catching up on Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice and Army Wives.

Taking the plunge!

I think I'm in love!

We've all been there. You see an infomercial and want to call the 800 # before they say "but wait, there's more!" Or, you're walking around Costco and you see a demo for some awesome 'something or other' and it takes more will power than you'd like to admit not to buy one on the spot. For me, it was the homeshow...year after year after year.

Now, let's talk about why I've found myself at one or more of the local home shows every year (almost) since 2006. I've worked in magazine and cable advertising for over five years, many of my clients have been home improvement oriented companies...they all exhibit at the home shows. I either go to visit clients, or go to find clients.  I question why people who don't have to be there would spend a beautiful sunny day at a home show...apparently people get really excited about free frisbees and chip clips.

It never fails, I find myself sucked into the demos. The magic mops, super absorbent towels, exercise equipment---these are the ones I watch for just a few minutes. As for the $2,000 pots & pans and the Vita-Mix; they've drawn me in for 15, 20 even sometimes 30 minutes. I stand there saying to myself "can this product possibly be worth the money?"

I've probably seen 8-10 Vita-Mix demonstrations. Assume I watched each one for 15 minutes (it's probably more like 20-30 minutes) and that's at least 2 hours of buying into the Vita-Mix hype. I tasted the samples. watched magic happen in that thing that looks like a blender but is presented as "so much more!" Every time I'd come home and read reviews and find nothing less than 5 stars no matter the source. Could this really be worth $400+?

After spending a Sunday afternoon in March distributing approximately 1,500 copies of Suburban Life magazine I willed myself to walk around and introduce myself to some of the exhibitors that could be potential advertisers. I rounded one of the corners and there it was, the Vita-Mix demo. It started with a sample of fruit juice, then salsa, then tortilla soup, then peach sorbet. My desire to buy this super-duper blender surged and I kept trying to tell myself I was crazy to even think about spending this kind of money on a blender. Albeit super-duper, it was still a blender and it cost a lot of money.

"It's not just a blender" the demo guy says, "it's a chopper, food-processor, dough maker, ice cream machine, juicer, blender-in-one. Think of all of the appliances you won't need to buy if you buy this one machine." He had a point. I've been working on our wedding registry and just added a number of the aforementioned appliances. They add up to well over $400. It's made in the US. It has an 8 year warranty.

The combination of the woman standing around the demo raving about the Vita-Mix she bought recently trying to convince her friend to buy one, my desire to incorporate more whole foods, fruits and vegetables into our diet, my desire to cut out processed foods as much as possible and the realization that I've been eyeing one of these for over 5 years made me do it.

Sign me up, I'm in. Here's my credit card. No looking back.

I took the plunge.