The CAMPUS Kids and I are so happy to be contributing to a fantastic new website for tweens and teens, girls in particular. It’s called Young Chicagonista. It had it’s official launch party last night, and I wrote a special song in honor of the celebration. In my household Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten” has been sort of an anthem for me and the girls. Which is why it was the first song that came to mind when I was searching for a tune to use for the event. (more…)
February 28, 2010
Miss Lori celebrates Young Chicagonista launch with “Unpublished”
February 25, 2010
Miss Lori needs OSCAR® cliff notes before her Kodak Red Carpet trip.
I’m going to the OSCARS®! (Boy it’s fun saying that!) Kodak is sending me and 10 other bloggers to work the red carpet bleachers at the OSCARS®! Woo Hoo! However, with all that I have been busy doing for the past weeks, (months, year, decade…well whose counting), I find myself not as prepared as I would like to be for the event. For one thing, I have not seen all of the movies that are nominated. With my own live performance schedule, and my main job as personal chauffeur for my children, getting to the theatre is hard won. Plus, my subscription to US magazine expired over a year ago, so I am totally in the dark about whose hot and whose one the way of the leg warmer. So, I need the cliff notes for the OSCARS®. (more…)
February 24, 2010
Chuck Holton, a quiet National hero disguised in Daddy clothing
When I was growing up we did a few projects at school where they would ask you to name what you parents did for a living. Answering about my Mom was easy, she was a therapist. I always new that. Heck anyone could figure that out just by talking to her for 5 minutes because invariably you would start telling her your life story. She just has that way about her. But my father, well that was a little more difficult. You see, what I knew about my father’s job was that he got up and went to work early in the morning, and came home fairly regularly around 530 at night. Usually I only saw him fleetingly for dinner just before I would rush out the door with my mother and sister to an evening dance class or rehearsal. But nevertheless I did have an answer for people who asked what my father did. He gave away the free cheese! See in Wisconsin there was this program that gave away free cheese to people in need. And though I didn’t know much else about my father’s job, I did know that he had something to do with that program. As I got older I finally got a real title for my father. He was the Regional Director for Health and Social Services for the State of Wisconsin. I still didn’t know exactly what that meant, but it was a great title!
That was his present while I was growing up. His past was something a little more colorful, but truthfully still elusive. From 1952-58 my father was a Harlem Globetrotter. Yes, you heard me right. He was a Harlem Globetrotter. And the only reason I have the dates down pat was because he had this award from the organization that hung in our house and it had the dates in raised characters on the front. I memorized them. I had to, because that was about as much detail as I ever really got about his experience. It’s not his fault totally. I don’t remember if I have ever really asked for detailed memories, I’m embarrassed to say. Amazing how we take the people close to us for granted. Their histories.
Last week I learned something more about my father that I didn’t know. Not from him, but from a newspaper article. (more…)
February 23, 2010
Miss Lori is going to LA to sit on bleachers and look at the stars!
I have been an actress since I was a child. So of course award ceremonies have always been a great source of fascination and fantasy. None more so than the Oscars TM. Singing into my hairbrush, and then practicing my acceptance speech in the mirror for my great movie musical starring role debut, was common place in my bedroom growing up. 3 decades, 3 children and what sometimes feels like 3 lifetimes later, my theatrical career has been a strong one, but didn’t lead to the movies. Instead the path I have walked has been rooted in live performance and interaction, with a sprinkling of television. I am very proud of what I have achieved thus far, and hopeful about what I have yet to achieve in the future. And yet still when awards season comes around I get a little twinge, a slight longing for what might have been. But not this year, (more…)
February 21, 2010
Build a Bear Workshops’ Maxine Clark says kindness is at the heart of business and bears
About 3 years ago my family and I made a vacation of our city of Chicago during Spring Break. It was a lot of fun. The highlight for the kids was the day we spent at Navy Pier, most of which was done in the Build A Bear store. We had never been there before, mostly because it seemed a little pricey for our monthly budget, but this was special. So, we went, and all three of my kids made a special friend. It was a great time. A lasting memory for us all, but especially for my youngest. That day a friendship was born that would stand the test of time, doctors and hospitals.
This story is not unfamiliar to Maxine Clark, CEO and founder of Build A Bear Workshop. I had the pleasure of hearing Maxine speak recently at The Disney Social Media Moms Conference. She shared her very personal, and inspirational story behind the creation of her corporate phenomenon. But Build a Bear Workshop is not your typical International company, because what Build A Bear runs on is kindness, compassion and dreams fulfilled. (more…)
February 20, 2010
Miss Lori needs to get back to Disney World
Ever since I got home from the Disney Social Media Moms Conference I have had a string of bad luck. Truthfully it actually started at the airport on the way home. First my son’s carry on bag broke. Ok, well there are lots of stores at the airport. In fact the Disney store was running a special; you get a great Disney carry on bag at a discount if you buy $20 worth of other merchandise. My girls get some souveniers, and my son gets the bag. Great! Except as soon as he filled the new bag up the zipper broke. Ok, that can happen. No biggy. The store exchanges it quickly and my son just has to take everything out, again, and put it into the 2nd new bag. Problem solved. Now I can finally pay for the items. But wait, my gift card from the conference came up as inactive. In-what! But it is brand new? It’s supposed to have money available on it. Ok. Whatever. We got so many nice things on this trip, no need to quibble, right?
We get home and there were a few more little issues that started to arise, like my garage door remote was missing from minivan, and my TV remote was missing from my bedroom. Well, that kind of thing happens all the time. Right? Nothing to fret about. I’ll just goto sleep after a long day of travel. Ugh, my Ikea bed is broken…again. Truth is I’m way too tired to worry about sleeping on a slope. Sleep on any angle is what’s most important.
Next day I wake up to serious chest congestion. Aww rubber nuggets. Well, I guess I could see that coming. I got barely any sleep all week in Orlando, plus it was cold and I had to fly on airplanes with lots of people coughing and sneezing. (Not to mention the fact that I have had my own wheezing cough since November). So…. Well, the Mommies don’t get to be sick. I’ll just muscle through. We know the drill. Gotta keep on keeping on. Well, maybe I can get on keeping on after one more hour of angled sleep. (more…)
February 16, 2010
At Disney Guy Kawasaki said company’s are listening-are you loud enough to be heard?
This past week I had the pleasure of attending the Disney Social Media Moms conference at Disney World. Our first speaker was the Twitter-infamous Guy Kawasaki. He had many suggestions about how to improve our marketing strategies by maximizing our Twitter presence. But the loudest lesson I learned from Guy was that companies are listening. Listening to what you ask? Why us. They are listening to our tweeting, posting, updating and complaining. Guy gave some examples of high powered companies that were listening and reacting to his tweets of distress, admitting that his experience may not be the norm. But you know what, somebody is listening to me too. In preparation for #disneysmmoms I did something for me. Highly unusual. But I had a gift certificate that I hadn’t used, so I decide to live a little. I ordered two Yummie Tummie tanks. (For all you 6 pack women out there this is what we mommies use to put our kangaroo pouches back in check), I figured what better place to have a Yummie Tummie than at a conference in Disney World where everyone is going to constantly be taking pictures and videos. So, I placed my order. It cost about $36 more than my gift certificate, but I still felt really good and excited.
Then the next day I saw a tweet with a discount code for 20% off a Yummie Tummie order. Aw rubber nuggets! I just placed mine yesterday. I tweeted my lament and then went on about my day. Well, you know what? Somebody was listening. And not just anybody, Nicole from Clever Girls Collective and Yummie Tummie! (more…)
February 14, 2010
Back from the Disney Social Media Moms Conference, and now for the real work; POSTS
We are back from our whirlwind trip to Disney World and the Disney Social Media Moms conference. I am bone tired, but for good reason. So much happened that it is going to take me weeks to recap it all. And not just recap, I need to muse about some great thoughts and conversations that came out of my interactions with the phenomenal participants and speakers at the event. Such as, “What does ‘Princess’ mean, to Disney and to you?” I’m very excited about the posts to come. You can get preliminary exposure to some of my video highlights on both of my youtube channels, MissLoridotTV and MissLorisCAMPUS, and, soon to come, my Whrrl stories. In the meantime, I can tell you my best and worst right now. Best; spending an hour with Chris Brogan coming back with my kids back from Epcot to the hotel. Such an amazing conversationalist. My worst; not getting to take my kids on the “It’s a Small World” ride or to any of the live shows. There just wasn’t enough time. (more…)
February 2, 2010
Miss Lori believes in Disney magic
In five days my kids and I will fly to Disney World for the Disney Social Media Moms conference. It still seems unreal even as I type this. Here’s why…
A little background:
Last year my youngest daughter was very ill. The whole year was about fear. Fear for her health. Fear of the medical bills that were overwhelming us. Fear of what would befall us next. It was very hard. Through it all my daughter remained positive. She consistently had a sparkle in her eye and light in her heart. That’s the way she’s always been, truthfully. A bundle of hopeful, creative, inquisitive energy. The illness robbed her of much of her daily energy, but she never let it take her smile, at least not completely. I ached for her because she was robbed of so much, particularly the magic of Kindergarten, which she had looked so forward to. She lost most the year to doctors visits and procedures. It was a disappointment. She is better now, though we are always watchful since the Doctor’s never did figure out what it was that she had.
Now for my story: (more…)
