Steve and Lauren meet with Carla, Sixthman’s ticketing manager, to talk about her crazy life up until joining the team. Topics include Sixthman Lake Day, Supermarket Sweep, the Good Son, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers, and Shootin’ the Hooch. Start listening now!
Archive for September, 2008
When I first met the 22 year old boyfriend with the spikey hair now better known as my almost 30 year old husband with the slicked back hair (my man loves him some hair product, he’s a Dapper Dan man), I was at first confused and a little annoyed at the way him and his friends seemed to sometimes communicate using nothing but movie quotes. I had been around guys before who liked to trade quotes from Billie Madison and other cinematic treasures (all starring Adam Sandler of course. Duh, it was the late 90′s). My attempts to write off Pat and his constant movie quoting–not to mention his outgoing pager message playing a different movie clip every week (yes, he was the last man in the new millenium to get rid of his pager)–as the shenanigans of just another 2K manboy ended a few months into the relationship. That would be when he revealed that in order to pass the time at work(at the time he was driving a fork lift at a paper factory)he would recite Back to the Future, from start to finish, out loud.
Pat is not your average movie lover. Most people in today’s culture enjoy watching movies from time to time, or maybe more. My husband can’t go to sleep without popping in a movie. Going to see the same film twice in one week means he liked it. Going to see it twice in one day, that means he loved it. Most people have a handful of movies they don’t tire of watching over and over again. Pat has an entire library of those movies. Loving Pat means that I have slowly grown to love the movies that he loves. I do have my limits, he’s never been able to get me to sit through Army of Darkness or Evil Dead. But, never in a million years did I think I would come to appreciate the Lethal Weapon series. I’ve had my own brand of influence, I first exposed him to Annie Hall and other Woody Allen movies from the same period that now rank amongst our all time favorites.
Many years later, the look of confusion and annoyance when Pat trades movie quotes with one of his best friends belongs not on my face, but on that of other friends or anyone else caught in our wake. Below are some of our favorites, see if you can guess which movies each quote belongs to. Bonus points if you know which character is speaking.
1. ”If Christ was a carpenter, I wonder how much he charged for book-shelves?”
2. “I’m finishing my coffee.”
3. ”He vas my . . . BOYFRIEND!”
4. “You sit on a thrown of lies!”
5. “Go ahead Cornelius, you can cry.”
6. “Sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but that doesn’t mean I’d eat the filthy bastard.”
7. “The world doesn’t start and stop at your convenience, you miserable piece of shit.”
8. “Do you see this? Rubs 2 fingers together. It’s the smallest violin playing just for the waitress.”
9. “Love you? I lurve you, I loaf you, I luff you with two f’s.”
10. “You’re really funny.”
“What do you mean I’m funny?”
“It’s funny, you know. It’s a good story, it’s funny, you’re a funny guy.”
“What do you mean, you mean the way I talk? What?”
“It’s just, you know. You’re just funny, it’s… funny, the way you tell the story and everything.”
11.”I think I’ve got the black lung, Pop.”
12. “I don’t want FOP, goddamnit! I’m a Dapper Dan man.”
1. Love and Death 2. The Big Lebowski 3. Young Frankenstein 4. Elf 5. Fight Club
6. Pulp Fiction 7. The Big Lebowski 8. Reservoir Dogs 9. Annie Hall 10. Goodfellas
11. Zoolander 12. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
See you at the movies!
—Joy
Don’t you love the day after you work out? You revel in the burning, achy sensation that means you did something with your muscles. You awkwardly walk around the office making subtle grunting noises or moans so people will recognize your feat of doing 25 min. on the treadmill. You feel almost inclined to flex that group of muscles you did one more set of reps on just cause you know they already look better, buffer, good….
Ahh feel the burn.
I am feeling the burn today as well. But there is no muscle group involved or cardio workout happening. I didn’t push myself that extra mile while having the incline set to maximum.
I am learning to play the guitar. So my burn comes in the form of fingertips sensitive to the slightest touch. Achy and red and begging for a little rest. But i can’t help with mess with them. Pick at them a bit…push on them a little to feel my accomplishment.
I want to go home a strum a D, E, A, or G chord that I learned last night. And maybe, just maybe, play a few chords in unison while making my smallish hand contort to reaching that extra bit for the C.
My dad would be excited. That beautiful guitar he gave me 1 year and some months ago is finally seeing some use. Be it me taking 15 minutes to tune it correctly or just holding it and pretending I already know what I am doing. He would be proud.
My “trainer” (aka girlfriend who is having lots of patience with me since she can rock the guitar and mandolin with ease) has patience and knowledge and pushes me to just keep trying. This with only one lesson.
They say it takes two to three weeks to form a habit. When you start working out you have to motivate yourself for those first few weeks and then you body just craves it. Well I am motivated to learn. I am just hoping my callouses form quickly so my habit can thrive without too much pain.
-Kelly
So, this internet thing, I guess it’s pretty helpful.
I remember five years ago, sitting in my college dorm talking to my brother, a Senior at Duke at the time, about this great new website called “Facebook.” At first, it was only available to a dozen schools, but I found out that it had just been announced for my school. Within minutes I had connected with a few friends online, and uploaded some pictures to my profile. Now, in 2008, I have dozens of photo albums, hundreds of friends, and an unhealthy addiction to Facebook Scrabble (don’t start, you can’t stop). Just as Facebook and Myspace exist to keep friends connected, there are now social networking sites out there for anything and everything: corporate connections (LinkedIn), social micro-blogging (Twitter), even communities created for surfing the net and finding cool websites (StumbleUpon).
Obviously, with innovation comes imitation; it seems like there are hundreds of new sites popping up daily that are trying to copy other networking sites, offering up nothing new. 99% of these should be ignored. However, I recently stumbled across one that is extremely practical and useful, and I have to share the good news. Say hello to Gyminee!
For me, like many people, it’s difficult to stay motivated to exercise daily and eat right while working a full-time job and/or raising a family. Ever tried keeping a diet or workout journal? This particular website was created as a tool to help you keep track of your habits, stay motivated, and reach your particular fitness goals. Put in your information, tell it what your goals are (lose weight, build muscle, etc.), and it tells you exactly how may calories you should eat daily, and in what quantities.
From there, it’s easy, even for those of us who are organizationally challenged. Gyminee has a food database built in with all nutrition information available, so when you say you ate three double cheeseburgers from McDonalds, it will physically reach through the computer and slap you. I told you this site was impressive. Okay so it won’t actually slap you, but it will break down each food item by carbs, protein, fats, and “other.” (What the “other” is, I haven’t quite figured out yet). It will track each of your workouts, and give you a grade each week for how many goals, both diet and fitness based, you’ve accomplished. Don’t want to see a big C- next to your name? Eat better next week and don’t take the afternoon off to watch Dr. Phil; aim for that A!
Luckily, this isn’t just me telling you about a great site, but inviting you to join me on it! Now that the summer is over, and bathing suit season is done, some might start to slack off when it comes to staying in shape. With our cruises right around the corner, why not use this site to keep you on track? Hop on Gyminee by joining the Sixthman group here, and help keep fellow Sixthman cruisers motivated, share tips and workout plans, and help us all stay healthy. In just a few months, you can get on that ship full of confidence, looking good and feeling even better.
…then go hit up the buffet lines and ice cream machine. You’ve earned it.
-Steve
Most people who know me would probably say that I am full of energy most of the time and it’s just the way I have always been. Lately, I’ve been running myself a little too hard and just haven’t had the same energy. Incidentally, a book called “The Energy Bus” ended up on my desk last week and I decided to read it this weekend.
The Energy Bus is a fictional story about a guy who has to ride a public bus to work for 2 weeks while his car is in the shop. He is struggling at work to keep his job and lead his team, as well as with being on the verge of a divorce from his wife. He ends up on a bus with a driver named Joy who demands that he change his attitude by learning her 10 life lessons if he wishes to continue riding her bus.
He does his best to resist her positive attitude but with the help of some of the other folks riding the bus with him, he concedes. Each day she and the other usual riders give him one lesson to focus on and apply into his life. He has some good and bad days along the way but by the end of the 10 days, he is riding high.
Just like the “Work Sucks” book I read a couple months ago, I get so excited reading these types of books but depressed at the same time because it reminds me of the flaws that I have as a husband, friend, and leader.
There are lots of great takeaways from this book but a few that I really liked where:
1-We are all the drivers of our own bus
2-Positive energy fuels the bus
3-Vision directs the bus
4-Only ask people who have a positive attitude and buy into your vision to be on the bus
5-Genuinely care about the people on your bus
6-If people bring bad energy to the bus, kick them off
It was exactly what I needed and it reminded me that positive energy is contagious and that I need to be aware of it for everything that I do, as it has probably been a key factor in attracting such great people in my life.
Joke of the Week: What does a snail riding on the back of a turtle say?……….WHHHEEEEEEEEEEEE (It’s all relative)
Growing up I always knew that my “father” and my “dad” were two different people. I was never one to wonder too much about the one not in my life, because I had everything I needed and did not ever really feel that I was missing out. Once in a blue moon the discussion of my biological father would come up and since I really had very little to say on the subject it would be a very brief conversation. This is not to say that I did not have moments of curiosity especially as I got older and began to resemble him or that I did not have a brief period of rage about it all when I was a teenager, but I honestly did not give it too much thought over my lifetime.
Well I didn’t anyway. Not until about two weeks ago when my boyfriend and I were comparing baby pictures and having a good laugh about our monkey ears and freckles. We somehow got on the topic of my father and one thing led to another. Suddenly I was online Googling names in full on detective mode.
I am still not sure how it happened, what buttons I was pushing, what was going through my mind but I found myself on a Myspace page staring at a picture of a girl that was suddenly making it very hard for me to breathe. This girl looked just like me. Well, just like me ten years ago. There was picture after picture of my big blue eyes staring back at me, except they weren’t mine.
I was floored.In that moment, I knew that I had found my sister.As an only child this was the furthest thing from my comprehension. A sister? Me? What?How had I not known about this?
Still shaking, I wrote what I am sure was a just barely readable email to confirm what I already knew. Almost immediately we were talking. She knew exactly who I was and had even seen pictures of me. She was thrilled that I found her and told me she had searched for me too. It was the best feeling in the world to not have only found this missing part of myself but to be welcomed as if I was, well, a sister.
Since that day we’ve written back and forth and discovered how alike we are. We are both very tall and blond, love art and have a terribly sassy sense of humor. We share a love of guitarists and a knack for rebellion. We both love chocolate and anything covered in cheese. It is almost uncanny what we share. Talking to her is like talking to someone I’ve known my whole life. I have already begun to think like a big sister (which makes me feel really old when I see or hear something and think to myself “…but she’s too young for that!” or “when I was her age…”). It has been seriously the most incredible and bizarre thing that I have ever been through but one of the most amazing. Adding to this, she also has a little sister (who I hear is more like her mom than us) which means that I am now a proud big sister of two. My only child status has been not just tweaked but obliterated.
I have no clue where we will go from here or how to catch up on 18 missing years. It is still so new I don’t have my head quite fully wrapped around what my role is or should be. We have talked a little about meeting around the holidays and I can hardly wait to see this missing piece of me in person.
While I try to figure out this new huge part of my life I can’t help but reflect on the surprises that life dishes out. Just when you think you have your feet firmly planted on the ground and all of your ducks in a row, life throws you that curve ball that rocks you to your core. I’ll have to say though that if the universe is handing out life changing, earth shaking surprises, this is the best one that I could have ever hoped for.
-May
Sept. 3, 2008
Now that I’m forty and loving life, I’ve been looking back on how I got here. I’ve had many amazing experiences and I’ve met a ton of interesting people. All of it has left an impression on me. But the people who have influenced me the most have been my grandmothers. It amazes me how much they have informed my being, even though I only had the pleasure of knowing them within the first twenty years of my life.
Noni was the gentle soul who always had ice cream for everyone. Full of love and compassion, she was a giver and it seemed to come very easy for her. In fact, the last time I talked to her, on her 82nd birthday–which was 22 years ago today–she was ironing my Uncle Joe’s shirts and feeling quite happy about it. Noni taught me that love shows up in many ways, like remembering someone’s birthday or toll house cookies.
Nani, or Camille, as I like to call her, was the most fiery Italian woman I have ever met. She was fierce, direct and unequivocally The Boss. There was no messing with Camille. It just was not an option. And not only that, she could tell you that she “had nothing in the fridge” then go in there and whip out a four course meal for six. Camille taught me how to stand up for myself. She taught me how to be a strong woman. Although, I didn’t realize that until years later.
So now as I keep movin and groovin along in life, learning lessons and growing as a person, I am so very thankful for the influences of my grandmothers. We all have impact people in our lives. I’d like to hear about yours.
–Carla
You all know the legend of Paul Revere’s ride but you may not know how often Sixthman has discussed whether or not to bring a land-based experience to life. We were born on the water in 2001, learned to walk on the slopes in 2004, and have since returned to the sea. As we have matured and looked back upon the mistakes we have learned from, we are investigating the possibility of a land-based concept or two. The magic question is whether or not we can create the same spirited experience on land that we have in the past at sea.
When we talk, it always comes back to the following key elements:
-Captive Audience (Is everyone on the ship or at the resort there for the same reason?)
-Opportunities to Engage (Are there concerts, activities, layouts that encourage interaction?)
-Customizable (Is there an opportunity to choose sleeping, eating, sunning, concert schedule?)
-Price (Is it a good value for lodging, food, entertainment?)
-Escape Factor (Is there a sense of getting away from it all?)
So please tell me what the special ingredients that you think are integral to the ‘experience of a lifetime.’ What are the elements that Sixthman has been able to capture at sea, and how do you think that can be translated to land?
If your ideal vacation was a Church Tower, how many lights would be hanging at the top?
-Andy
I will miss the pool days and tan lines of summer but not as much as I love the days of fall. I grew up in upstate NY, which is probably one of the most beautiful places to fully take in the weather and foliage during September and October. I remember driving up the back roads and around the lakes with all of the bright colors and smells of cooler air with the sounds of the leaves falling off their trees and rustling across the ground, it didn’t make going back to school as bad as it could have been. It also meant that my Field Hockey games were in full swing and camping on the weekends with bonfires and homecoming football games were near. Now that I have since moved south, almost 4 years ago, the fall season is a bit different. It doesn’t mean the start of a new school year but instead a new part of the cruise planning cycle here at Sixthman. There are site inspections to be had, onboard activity planning, stage schedules being made all as we begin to stretch our muscles for the 5 cruise marathon ahead.
With all of the excitement and prepping at the office it always happens, in the late weeks of summer, that I start to become anxious with anticipation for the cooler weather to come and begin to plan out my autumn days here in Atlanta. One would be a Sunday, about 70 degrees with a slight breeze, bright blue sky with a few puffy clouds, I’d start the day with brunch at Murphy’s in the Highlands then head down the street for a hot Carmel Apple Cider from Starbucks, shop around for an hour or two, get a new pair of fall jeans, maybe grab some late lunch at the Vortex with a seasonal fall brew, then head home to watch Sunday football with some pizza, beer and wings, and fall asleep with the windows open in a pair of comfy sweats and a big tshirt. As ideal as that day would be, there are so many things about the fall I think that I could plan a seasons worth of perfect days. Here’s some more of what I love about the fall…
I love pumpkins and apple picking
I love Halloween and Thanksgiving
I love big comfy sweaters and tall boots
I love waking up late on the weekends
I love apple cider donuts
I love opening up the windows and turning off the AC
I love lying on the couch watching the games and playing fantasy football all day
I love running on trails covered in leaves
I love cabins in the woods with no heat and a big fireplace
I love canoeing on a lake with a bottle of wine
I love sitting on a patio under a heat lamp as the sun sets
I love scarves and light fall jackets
I love that we only have 4 months until we set sail on our first Sixthman 2009 event…
Does anyone else get this autumn season elation?
-Melissa