Happy Saturday!

It’s another beautiful winter/summer day here in Marin County and it is almost Valentine’s Day!

Have you thought about what you are going to give your honey, your child, your best friend or your mom for Valentine’s Day yet? Want to give them something new and different? I have an idea for you!

Go to San Anselmo today!

Tamara Holland is having an Art Sale TODAY.

Where: 2 Florence Ave. in San Anselmo, CA.

When: Today, February 4, 2012 from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.

This is my dog Poncho and his new Vet Dr. Cynthia Steele, whom we both love.

He’s getting old.

He has lumps and bumps and not as much energy as he used to have. Recently he has developed a strange problem with his eye. I hadn’t been happy with my current vet and I needed to find a new one. I was not looking forward to taking my 11 year old dog to a new Veterinarian office. I was afraid they were going to over prescribe treatment for him. Also, Poncho is not a big fan of going to the vet, he gets very stressed & doesn’t like to sit still. It usually takes 2 or 3 of us to hold him in place for an exam.

Someone suggested we try a mobile vet. I had no idea mobile vets existed. A mobile vet is a doctor who does house calls. They come to your house to examine your dog. Way less stressful for you and your dog.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the mobile vet I called but what I got was an awesome vet! Cynthia and Maureen (nurse) showed up at my door and greeted me with a hug. Poncho instantly loved them. He thought friends came to visit just him. They spent a whole hour examining Poncho and talking with us about his health. The  cost of the visit was only slightly more than a trip to the vet but the quality and care was 100 times better.

If you have an older dog or would rather have your vet come to your house instead of sitting in a stressful waiting room with a bunch of other sick pets I highly recommend calling Mill Valley Mobile Vet. Since she is mobile you don’t have to live in Mill Valley to use her services. She goes all over Marin and I think even to the city sometimes.

www.MVmobileVet.com
Cynthia Steele, D.V.M.
415-272-8558

11/21/11 – Update
I’m updating this post to tell you this letter should have been addressed to Men & Women! I’ve had many people tell me they’ve also heard women use the word rape to describe things that are not rape. Men please accept my apology for generalizing & women, What is up with that?!
—–

Dear Men (and Women),
Please do not use the word rape to describe anything other than a rape. When you use the word rape to describe being ripped off or taken advantage of it makes me think you do not comprehend just how serious a rape is. A rape is not being ripped off at the gas station. It is not paying too much in taxes and it is not what a used car salesman does when selling you a car. A rape is a horrible, atrocious offense against another human being. When you use it to describe these minor offenses it makes me think you don’t realize how terrible a rape is which makes me wonder if that is the reason rape is so prevalent in our society.

Thank you,

The women in your life

I had to go all the way to LA to meet a super cool woman from Marin.

MoreMarin

This last weekend I was down in LA with Celia who was presenting at AEA (American Evaluation Association). Celia put together a rock star team for the presentation & I was lucky enough to be included in the after conference dinner. I got to sit next to the fabulous Felecia Gaston (from Performing Stars of Marin AND The Phoenix Project) who told me about an event she was organizing for Veterens Day in Marin City.

Performing Stars of Marin’s Annual
Veterans Day Parade
11-11-11
Honoring the Bay Area Tuskegee Airmen

Parade starts at 11am at the Manzanita Recreation Center.
630 Drake Avenue
Marin City, CA

I have been seeing this image circulating around the social networks and it has really stuck with me. I’ve always been a supporter of local, independent businesses but when things get busy and life gets stressful sometimes it’s easier to just go to the nearest Starbucks instead of seeking out an independent, locally owned cafe.

Working in downtown San Francisco you can spin in circles, walk any direction and in less than a block you will most likely find a Starbucks.

I wanted something different. I wanted to get my coffee at an independently owned place but I didn’t know where to go. Until… I opened my eyes and realized there is an Italian style cafe located near my office called Palio Paninoteca. Actually I didn’t open my eyes and look around, I looked down at my iPhone where I was trying out a new program called LevelUp. It’s a program that lets you pay with  your smart phone. I’ve been wanting to try one of those programs for awhile and for some reason this one called my attention enough for me to download the app and try it.

While searching the current locations accepting LevelUp I discovered this cafe just down the street. When I signed up for LevelUp I got $5 credit and noticed Palio Paninoteca offered $2 credit so I decided to head over to Palio Paninoteca to check it out and enjoy my complimentary lunch. I didn’t realize they served lunch in addition to coffee and gelato. Yes I said gelato!

Palio Paninoteca’s lunch consists of soups, salads and sandwiches (paninis) prepared in advance (kind of like going to the counter at Whole Foods). So far I’ve tried 2 of their salads and they are delicious! Today I had the spinach, avocado, mango salad. Yum!

While trying out my LevelUp for the first time I happened to meet the owner of the cafe. She showed me how to pay with my phone. We got to chatting and that is when I learned that Palio Paninoteca is an independent, local, woman owned business. They’re also green and serve your food in reusable ceramic dishes. Bettie Scodel is a single mom and the owner of both Palio Paninotecas. She’s also a very hard worker. She gets up at 3:30am every day to be ready to serve breakfast to the hungry masses passing through.  She proudly told me of her two children in college. She’s the perfect candidate to help me keep up with my Miss Representation pledge of featuring women doing cool things around the Bay Area.

Two thumbs up to Palio Paninoteca and to LevelUp. I had a great experience with both. I’m looking forward to enjoying many more coffee and meals using my LevelUp at Palio Paninoteca.

If you find yourself in downtown San Francisco around breakfast or lunch time give this place a try.

Oh, one more thing! I emailed LevelUp yesterday to see when there were going to be more locations in San Francisco and they said they are adding more everyday! I also told them I would be mentioning them in my blog and they offered my readers a special code! If you want to try LevelUp (it doesn’t cost anything) they will put $10 credit in to your account if you use the code SALLY when registering. When registering be sure to click on the blue link that says: Have a promotion or friend referral code? to get your $10 credit! So go sign up for then let me know and maybe we can meet for a coffee at Palio Paninoteca.

Palio Paninoteca is located on the corner of Montgomery and Clay St in the financial district of San Francisco. They also have a location near UCSF. More info here: www.paliopaninoteca.com

A few weeks ago, thanks to Twitter, A Band of Wives and a hamburger joint, I met an amazing woman named Shasta Nelson.

Shasta Nelson, MDiv (@girlfrndcircles) is a relationship strategist, life coach, and founder of GirlFriendCircles.com, a womens friendship matching site in 35 cities across the U.S. She blogs weekly at Shasta’s Friendship Blog and for the Huffington Post.

In an effort to keep up with my Miss Representation pledge I’m going to be featuring local Bay Area women doing cool things. I’m starting with Shasta Nelson who agreed to be interviewed and share her favorite things to do around the Bay Area.

Please tell us a little bit about Girl Friend Circles. What exactly is it? Who is it for? GirlFriendCircles.com is a womens friendship matching site. We match women up in small groups in local cafes and wine bars to meet other women their age (from 21-65) who are interested in investing in new friendships. Often it’s because we’ve just moved or gone through some other major life change, but research shows every 7 years the average woman replaces half her friends so it’s a pretty normal need. We’re in 35 cities across the U.S. including Marin, San Francisco, and the East Bay!

What do you love most about the Bay Area?
The culture. It’s hard to describe but I love the open-mindedness, the diversity, and the overall sense of support that there is for all kinds of people, ideas, and ways of life.

Where is your favorite place to hike/bike?
Living in the City, I love heading to Lands End (there is the most beautiful labyrinth on the edge of the cliff!), walking along Crissy Field, and city hiking up all the hills on long evening walks!

Favorite place to eat? Best romantic date restaurant?
I love Saha’s (Arabic Fusion) for a special dinner out, Helmand’s Palace (Afghan) for their vegetarian special plate, B Star (Burmese Fusion) for their drinks and fun flavors, and Top of the Mark for romantic views and martinis.

Favorite place to meet up with girl friends for coffee/tea/Happy Hour?
I’d love any cafe that had my friends– I’m not picky at all! We sometimes meet at Cafe Divine in North Beach for their indoor/outdoor seating and easy menu, but our favorite places are just hanging out in each other’s living rooms. Being in a home feels more special than a restaurant these days!

If you had an out of town guest visiting for a day who wanted to see the Bay Area what would you show them?
I tend to think the most special experience of San Francisco is a day spent as much like a local as possible: breakfast at a neighborhood cafe, long walk along the water toward the bridge, lunch in some awesome ethnic restaurant, then cater to their need for tourism by seeing how many landmarks we can take their picture in front of (sea lions at the Pier, the Painted Sisters homes, Ferry Building), drive through Golden Gate Park on our way to watch the sunset at the beach and then end with an evening at Yoshi’s Jazz Club.

You can get to know Shasta a little better by visiting her YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/ShasGFC

Girl Friend Circles is also on Facebook.

Last week I gathered a group of tweeps together to watch the film Miss Representation. It was a fund raiser for Huckleberry Youth Programs at the Rafael Film Center.

Besides having a very creative name, Miss Representation was a reminder that not much has changed for women in the media (and in general) over the last 20+ years. Miss Representation is about women being misrepresented in the media -> Miss Representation get it? Catchy title.

Twenty plus years ago Thelma & Louise and The Accused came out. I was in college at the time and I was angry about the way women were treated but I was happy to see films addressing the issue.

What got to me in Miss Representation were the statistics: The number of women unhappy with their bodies. The number of women with eating disorders. The number of women who have been raped.

I’m all for focusing on the positive and for individuals being responsible for themselves but I also believe somethings are bigger than the individual and we need to talk about this issue and problem solve it together. However, a pet peeve of mine is people who preach to the choir but never actually do anything, they just talk, complain, blame and finger point. So I’m not going to do that.

Working in the Financial District of San Francisco I often walk by the TV screens with CNBC on. Did you know that people refer to the female reporters on CNBC as the Money Honeys?

I don’t know what the answer is because blaming men is not going to change anything, we already tried that and men are a product of this society just as much as women are.  Blaming individual women isn’t going to work either because if a female news reporter or actress is asked to use a little botox here, show some cleavage there or lose some weigh,t she’s probably going to do it to keep her job. Unless she is Rachel Maddow.

One thing we can do is show our support by paying to see movies: written, directed or produced by strong women, support women in politics, female bloggers, news reporters and companies who advertise with these outlets. In this society money talks faster than anything else!

If we focus on the positive and put more of our dollars in to the positive the media will follow the money and the ratings.

I say instead of boycotting the negative and drawing more attention to it, IGNORE the negative media. Focus on the positive media, spend money on the positive media and shout it out to the world about all the films, shows, reporters, bloggers, artists, musicians, writers and politicians who are doing great things and being positive role models.

I’d love to start a list of all the great media women (and men) are already doing to bring more balance and happiness to the world. Please list  your favorites in the comments below. Also if you saw the movie I’d love to hear your thoughts.

“Energy flows where attention goes.”

Newest Miss Representation Trailer (2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection) from Miss Representation on Vimeo.

Follow the film on Twitter. @RepresentPledge

PS. After the film a group of us pledged to blog our thoughts about the film. I will link to their blog posts below as they are published.

when de ja vu draws the same blank by @Alembic

Women and the Media, Revisited by @CurtisFinancial

Week of Representing: Rachel Taormina by @TamHolland

I’m talking about a wife as in someone who is there to support you, inspire you and be there for you in sickness and in health.

Women: Don’t you wish you had a wife? Well now you can and you don’t have to be gay to have one! (But if you are gay, that’s okay too.)

All you have to do is join the online group called A Band of Wives (ABOW) and you are instantly married to a supportive group of wonderful women. Seriously, it is that easy.

A Band of Wives was founded by the amazing Christine Bronstein.

I joined back in February when I discovered them via the Marin Magazine article about online communities that we were both featured in.

At first I didn’t know if this was the right group for me. I was a little intimidated by all the hip, beautiful and successful women. Then I attended a few of their events and realized they were also friendly, genuine, authentic and caring women. You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.

A few weeks ago, I discovered Bistro Burger in San Francisco. I loved their turkey burgers SO much, I went there 3 times that week. They had one of those fishbowls on the counter where you put your business card in for a chance to win a free lunch. I never put my business cards in those things but for some reason I decided to this time. The next day I got an email saying, “Congratulations you won a free lunch for 4 at Bistro Burger”.  I was super happy but was wondering who I was going to invite. I didn’t have 3 friends in the financial district who would be available to lunch. This was about the same time I had the realization that my only real complaint about my job was that I really missed those coffee and lunch dates I used to have in Marin with my Twitter friends when I was self employed.

I remembered super-star wife Leila (@mizbohemia), the Director of Operations at A Band of Wives, lived in the city, so I invited her to join me for the free lunch. She agreed.

Then I got the idea to ask on Twitter who works/lives in downtown San Francisco and I got a response from someone who just happened to also be a member of ABOW! Shasta (@girlfrndcircles), owner of GirlFriendCircles.com and I invited her to join us for lunch. She said yes! We had room for one more at lunch so Shasta invited Jessica (@50womenproject), author the 50 Woman Project and she said Yes!

On Friday, we all met at Bistro Burger (in Trinity Alley) and were greeted by John who congratulated us and took our photo. I’m guessing the photo is going to show up on their Website under the Happy Winner section soon.  Bistro Burger sells veggie, turkey, chicken and regular hamburgers along with salads so there is something for everyone. And they’re really, really good! You can order your burger without a bun if you’re doing the Sugar Divorce, like I am. They’re also on Twitter at: @BistroBurgerSF

It was a nice day so we sat outside. Our little lunch turned in to a 3 hour magical, brainstorming session.  We ended our lunch full of ideas and inspirations for our own various projects. It’s amazing how the power of group intelligence can get you unstuck from a rut. That’s what A Band of Wives is all about; connecting women, and igniting the spark in all of us.

Thank you Twitter, Bistro Burger and A Band of Wives for connecting us!

Here are the 3 dynamic wives I had the pleasure of dining with:

Jessica Buchleitner, Shasta Nelson, Leila Radan

 I told you they were all hip, beautiful and successful!

Looking for something fun to do this Sunday?

How about stopping by @TamHolland‘s Art Thing? Actually it’s called Under the Sun Flea Market but for some reason I can not remember that name so I keep calling it @TamHolland’s art thing.  Tamara (aka @TamHolland on Twitter) makes cool stuff like…

Greeting cards. Luggage tags. Checkbook covers. Magnets. Business card holders. Collage goodie bags so you can make your own cool things.

Bean Up The Nose Art will be selling all sorts of goodies at the August “Under The Sun Flea Market” at Beach House Style on Sunday the 28th. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 779 Center Blvd. in Fairfax, CA.

The Marin Twitter Gang will be meeting up there sometime after 1pm so stop by and say hi. #TweetUp

All are welcome! Hope to see you!

Check it out! This event was even mentioned on the Sunset Magazine site!

Full disclaimer: @TamHolland sent me an absolutely beautiful bouquet of flowers today to thank me for inviting the tweeps to her art thing but I had plans to put this post up BEFORE the flowers came. It was actually on my list of things to do after work today list. It was such a wonderful surprise to come home and find this gorgeous bouquet of flowers waiting for me. Thanks Ms. Tamara! I love my Twitter friends!

Mountain Biking Marin is holding the last all Women’s cross country mountain bike clinic of the season on August 28th! They’re keeping this clinic small so if you are interested please fill out the assessment form here and contact Celia at Mountain Biking Marin for more information!

This clinic is Women Only – All Levels and LOTS of FUN!

Read about one of their past all women’s mountain bike clinics here: http://mountainbikingmarin.blogspot.com/2010/06/hot-mama-mountain-bike-clinic-was.html

So what are you waiting for? Go for it!