Try40

A year and a half ago, someone I love very much committed suicide. Years of untreated depression and alcoholism culminated in the loss of an incredible person who absolutely did not have to die. I can't go back and undo the terrible loss for a family and a worldwide community of friends and loved ones, but I can and will make a difference for the people in my own community who depend on services like those offered by NAMI Mid-Carolina.

Cocky cheering for the 2013 NAMIWalk

I live with depression and anxiety. I LOVE people with depression, anxiety, OCD, addictions, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and more. 1 in 4 Americans are living with mental illness - which means chances are, so do you... either yourself, or someone you love.

We're not in this alone, and funding the mental health services in our Midlands community can help ensure that nobody who needs help has to feel alone or go untreated.

Every dollar helps. Every step counts. All we need to do is TRY. I'l be using the hashtag #Try40 for my walk, as I try to make it the entire 5k at age 40. :)

Yes, that's right, I'm about to turn 40. If you are inclined to give me a gift, please consider making a donation to sponsor my first EVER 5k (at age 40!) instead. You can also sign up to join Team TryJen, and come out and walk with me at the last public event at the old Bull Street "Asylum" before it is demolished and new construction begins.

Sponsor me: http://namiwalks.nami.org/jbb
Join Team TryJen: http://namiwalks.nami.org/tryjen

THANK you.

Columbia, ABC Fixed A Problem

In my post Columbia, We Have A Problem on March 19, 2013, I did like we bloggers do when we can't get information or answers via regular channels: we take to our respective soapboxen and start making a lot of noise on the internet. Like Jerry Orbach said to Patrick Swayze in the Emile Ardolino magnum opus Dirty Dancing, if I'm wrong I say I'm wrong. My loud-mouthiness aside, let me tell you what I know to be actual evidence-based reality: ABC Columbia listened. ABC Columbia stepped up, fixed a problem, and in doing so they made important information available again. Not to mention they warmed my cold and blackened heart.

Fussbudgets, I am so happy to report to you that the previously identified problem has been resolved. ABC's interview with Emma Davidson of Tell Them and New Morning Foundation has been re-posted on YouTube (thus, the direct url has changed), and WOLO updated all of their various social media channels to reflect it:

ABC Columbia on Facebook
Good Morning Columbia on Facebook
@abc_columbia on Twitter

Watch the interview:

Thank you, ABC. You did a good thing today.

Screenshots:
YouTube: http://flic.kr/p/e53tHJ
ABC Columbia on Facebook: http://flic.kr/p/e53rx1
Good Morning Columbia on Facebook: http://flic.kr/p/e53rxh
@abc_columbia on Twitter: http://flic.kr/p/e53rDN

About That #LiveLikeRick Tribute Video

James and George created this tribute to Rick Stilwell. James will say that he AND George made it; George will say that he just contributed a few bits but that James did all the work. He said/he said aside, this is a bittersweet video for those of us who knew Rick... It's nice to hear from him again, it's funny, he was funny, and he's just so missed.

The thing for me, though, is that this tribute video is especially important for me: It includes a bit of footage where Rick talked about me (!), suggesting that people should be following me on Twitter. Me! Of all people! I'm just some dweeb, and he was talking about ME! I seriously couldn't believe it. Rick was the coolest of the cool kids, and I was a total nobody... at least, an in-person nobody, and he was talking about me? That's why I'm here talking about him, to tell you not just about this video, but also about that day.

If memory serves, the day Rick recorded the bit about me was a blazing hot day in late August, 2011; it was the day when I finally got to meet Rick in person, on the steps of Cromer's Pnuts during Food Truck Food Court. I heard he would be there, and told The City Girl I wanted to meet THE Columbia social media guru. She made sure to find him; rolled me right up to him in the middle of his lunch, and made a proper IRL introduction (we'd known each other online for ages). That August day in 2011 was a big deal day for me in a lot of ways: It was the first time I beat back the social anxiety enough to attend any of the tweetups; the first time I met most of the "Real Twitterati". I was just standing up the social media department at work for real, and I needed to turn my virtual connections into real ones. Everybody who was anybody knew: RickCaffeinated was the guy you talked to about that in Columbia, SC.

So there I was: Sweaty, self-conscious, scared, nervous, and by the end of the day I had a raging sunburn, too. As it turned out, though, every single person I met was not only super fun and kind, but 100% welcoming and friendly, just as if we'd known each other forever... which, well, we had. Rick was so nice to me that day, answering tons of questions, inviting me to Social Media Club Columbia, and telling me he would happily tell me about how to do what he did, for his going price of a cup of coffee. :)

Anyway. I have been wondering what happened to that clip, and to find that not only did The Misters K and N locate it, but that they chose to include it in this tribute... well, that just means the world to me. In mid January 2013, the day after Rick died, I would go back to Cromer's - which now houses Jamestown Coffee Company - along with lots of the same people who were there that day in 2011. In 2013, we raised our mugs in toast to Rick, shared memories, and said our goodbyes to him.

Please take a minute to watch. Thank you.

Why, Hobby Lobby, Why?

Source: Tell Them!

As you might have noticed by now, sometimes I write things, and these things are occasionally for contribution to other websites or organizations.

Here's one I wrote recently for a South Carolina based non-profit, my former office neighbors and buddies over at Tell Them! Presently the post shows over 450 combined visible shares, which I believe makes it their second most popular blog post (to date). I guess we hit a nerve?

Without further rambles: please enjoy my ranting and raving over at the Tell Them! blog in a guest post entitled Why, Hobby Lobby Why?!: Experiencing the Five Stages of Hobby Lobby Grief.

A Good Day

Today? Today was a good day.*

Today is the day CJ made the honor roll in high school for the first time! I am so happy for him; so proud of him. He has absolutely blossomed this year, and it fills me with those bittersweet 'my baby is growing up' feelings.

Today I had lunch with the lovely and talented Eme of the incredible TellThem!, she claimed to find me interesting AND funny, but the joke's on her, because she's the one with all the interesting and all the funny!

Today one of my brothers, Robb, posted a photo of Trina, the Project Manager at DeliverGood, offering to give her paid time off in exchange for likes. The largest potential prize is every Friday off - forever - AND no expiration date for collecting the likes! What a nice guy. What a fun idea! There's so much joy in what he does, and it's contagious (update: less than a day and already more than a thousand likes!) Not too shabby! Please consider furthering the #FreeTrina cause by clicking 'like' on this photo, eh?
(Look, it's Canada, okeh? I can't help it, eh?)

Today I did stuff, I thought things, I had ideas, I helped people get closer to their goals, and it was a good, productive workday. A fun workday. I counted my blessings to be surrounded by such good people.

Today I reached 700 followers for my public account on twitter (@tryjen). These 700 people include my entire immediate family (even my dog!), my extended family, friends, my work accounts, and then somewhere around 650 people who obviously recognize schadenfreude when they see it.

Today I arrived home from work to find four great things: 1)Tim cleaned the house! 2)He set up our christmas tree! 3)A package arrived from Joe! 4)Meredith's finger didn't fall off - I checked and everything!

Today I wrapped it all up with a celebratory bulgogi trip to The Blue Cactus for Mr. Honor Roll and his friend Victoria, and neither teenager seemed even the tiniest bit horrified. I'm shocked. Awed, even. They didn't even try to sit at a table other than the one where I sat. Internets, I daresay they even enjoyed my company! I don't think CJ was even a little embarrassed to hang out with his mom and his friend at the same time, and that... well, that feels like a pretty epic mom win.

* I didn't even have to use my AK.

20 Questions with JBB

Source: PalmettoParent.com

Recently I was asked to answer 20 questions for the local monthly magazine Palmetto Parent.

I worked previously with the nice journalist lady on an article about my work with Adluh, and I was pleased to have an opportunity  to work with her again.

Then I was asked to participate in a brief photo shoot and I was horrified at the idea, since... well, I address that below. I couldn't get out of it, though, and the magazine sent a photographer over to GraySail to point her clickything at me. She was super friendly, very understanding about my nervousness, and did a great job in spite of her subject matter. You can see one of the two shots she submitted to the editor along with the interview on page 30 in the October 2012 issue of Palmetto Parent. It's on newsstands now and will be the only thing available to read in the offices of pediatricians throughout the midlands.

The literal fives of readers who previewed this article mentioned to me that the answers don't sound entirely like... me. That's due to editing; space is very tight in the publication and because I could talk and talk and TALK, the nice journalist lady was faced with the daunting task of editing my answers down to fit. My original answers are printed below, because I know how you are about Schadenfreude, gentle readers. Yes, I know.


20 Questions with... Jennifer Bailey Bergen (Palmetto Parent, October 2012)

Adluh Flour Explores Social Media

"Beth Ellis, controller for Allen Brothers Milling/Adluh Flour, says the family-owned company has always kept up with the changing world. Some of its early advertising centered around the Adluh Knocking Man. “We had a truck that went around town in local neighborhoods,” Ellis says. “Our customers were all home consumers. We would have people drive around and knock on the door.” If the homeowner could show the Knocking Man a bag of Adluh flour – Ellis says it was akin to a “like” on Facebook, in today’s terms – she was rewarded with a cash prize."

Gosh, that all sounds so familiar. Oh! Wait! That's because I'm quoted in this article, available on newsstands now, in the April 2012 edition of Columbia Business Monthly. :D

Adluh Flour is truly a beloved fixture and a landmark in my adopted hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, and I'm so pleased to for GraySail to be working with them. Talking with people, connecting, and exchanging information... well, it's just an awesome thing to do for a living, and I love doing it.

Huge thanks to writer Chris Worthy for taking the time to speak with me, and with Beth, and ultimately for turning out such a great article: Adluh Flour Explores Social Media.

Welcome To The Jungle

If you are a sixth grader 'round these parts, chances are you're going to have to produce a project for science class on the topic of one animal and one plant. Not one to be saddled with just any old animal or your run-of-the-mill Venus Flytrap, oh no indeed, Miss Merry chose the the albino dolphin (it's PINK! You guys! A pink dolphin!) and the Pitcher plant.






That's her albino dolphin... cake. FOR SCIENCE.

Pitcher plants are carnivorous; their prey-trapping mechanism features a deep cavity filled with liquid, known as a "pitfall trap". As you might imagine, Pitcher plants aren't exactly the easiest plant to find, here in the 'burbs of Columbia, South Carolina.

That's a Pitcher plant.

Well, you might imagine that a Pitcher plant would be difficult to fins if you don't know about Jarrett's Jungle !Jarrett's Jungle has been locally owned and operated in West Columbia since approximately the dawn of time. Okay, so really it's more like 30 years, but the point, and I do have one, is that they've been around awhile. They also happen to be within walking distance from our house, staffed by some of the friendliest folks you will ever have the pleasure to meet, and when you walk in you are walking into an actual greenhouse, and that is cool. In a warm and humid sort of way.

So, when Mer asked if I knew where we might buy a Pitcher plant, I remembered the pleasant shopping experience I had with Jarrett's Jungle when we bought the Venus Flytrap for CJ's sixth grade project in 2009, and I looked 'em up on facebook. I love it when I find a company not only ON facebook, but actively engaging with their customers and using facebook. So I left a comment on their wall inquiring about Pitcher plants.

Score! They had three in stock, going for about $35 each. Yep. Thirty. Five. Dollars. Each. As in actual people moneydollars. But wait! There's more! Right there in that same comment, before even giving me the tiniest chance to choke on my coffee at the price of a plant I would certainly kill in record time, they proceeded with an offer to cut pitcher for us - like buying a single rose, only a carnivorous and honestly, fairly creepy, single rose. No charge. Free. On the house. On the greenhouse! Just because!

Internets, this is how you do it. This is how you earn customer loyalty and word of mouth advertising. This is how you absolutely thrill an eleven year old kid, her mom, and her science teacher. Because it would have been the easiest thing in the world for those nice folks to just answer my question: Yep, we carry them. $35. But, instead, they took the opportunity to perform a little act of kindness, and that little act of kindness made a big impact.

Thank you, Jarrett's Jungle.  Here's Meredith with her project board, Pitcher included:






Science!
Contact Jarrett's Jungle:Via Email: jarrettsjungle@gmail.comOn the Web: http://jarrettsjungle.comOn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jarretts-Jungle/94055097418Business Hours: Monday - Saturday: 9am - 6pm

Location: 1621 Sunset Blvd. West Columbia, SC 29169 

Phone: 803.796.4670



Jarrett's Jungle offers a variety of services including: Horticulturist on Duty, Local Delivery, Custom Arrangements, Plant Maintenance, Funerals, Weddings, Altar arrangements for Churches, Repotting, Insect and Disease Diagnosis, Pruning, and more. Visit their site for more information.

Hold On To Your (Clown) Butts

Click to embiggen
Obviously I took this photo because I could use it to simultaneously accost both Tracy AND James, with a side of Renée. That's just how things are done. But it wasn't just that... it was the butt. The bare butt. The bare clown butt, which is the object of monkey hilarity (like you do).

This terrifying display of horror/horrifying display of terror is depicted on the exterior wall of a funhouse at the South Carolina State Fair. Lots of things are happening, here. First, the thing which grabbed my attention and possibly yours: That's a bare butt, right there.

In fact as we approached I said, to Tim, "Is that a bare butt, right there?" to which he replied "That is indeed a bare butt". It's almost as if it's an afterthought butt, though, and that bothers me. Like maybe the artist was doing something else and then was like "eh, an afterthought butt will do." Because the butt doesn't seem to be any actual cohesive part of this image.

Sidebar: That monkey is terrifying; it is wearing a pointy hat instead of a fez, and what's happening outside of the frame is some really unsettling monkey-on-monkey kickpuncher violence.

So. The clown is facing us, his nauseated audience. Which means his back is to the funhouse mirror. Which means his butt is facing the mirror, so, okay, a butt! Non-sequitur butt nudity! This is the focal point, this butt, and it captures one's attention so thoroughly, as bare butts are wont to do.

And I know why. It is because of the obviously haunted, utterly gut-wrenching, clearly disembodied, wrong-way, hat's not attached to the severed head, floating in space in evil backwardiness, HEAD.

LOOK AT IT.

Clowns. They're evil.

The Glee Closet

If you know me, you know I love Glee.

It isn't a secret: I force Tim to watch it with me (he's in the same room while it's on, anyway), I own Season 1 volume 1 on DVD (holla, Renee!), CJ now knows almost all the words to Defying Gravity - not because of the award-winning Broadway musical Wicked, oh no, but because it was performed on Glee, and I bought both volumes of the soundtrack.

It's the soundtrack that brings us here to this blog, today. See, I went out to lunch with my dudes, and we went to the Blue Cactus Cafe (holla, again, Renee!), where I had my usual: Be Bim Bob (why do I always say Bop?), double egg, 2 scoops of spicy bean paste, and sweet tea. The thing is, I drove. I always drive because I have the sweet parking spot, and you can probably deduce that I drove mine very own car. In said car is a stereo with a cd player, and in said cd player is a cd. Two guesses which one it is.

Right: One of the Glee soundtracks. Which I love, love, love. I drove to work this morning belting along at the top of my lungs for the entire commute (it really helps alleviate my otherwise foul mood lately, to sing along with Glee)... and yet, with my dudes in the car?

I didn't even turn the stereo on. I was... embarrassed! I'm in the Glee closet, and did not even realize it.

He Turns The Seasons Around, And So She Changes Her Gown

Ever get the sensation the time is passing you by much more quickly than previously authorized by you: The boss, queen, captain, lord, and master of your particular domain?

Me too.

I've been doing stuff, and stuff, but mostly I am completely enslaved to: My kids, their lives and commitments and schedules; then there's Tim, and his life and commitments and schedule, and lately the same could even be said of the cats, and then of course mine own self; my job and commitments and such. Oh, you're still stuck on that part back there about how I'm a slave to the lives of THE CATS? Sad, I know: It's something I never thought I'd find myself saying, like, "hey, oh, me? Well I'm spending a great deal of time making sure my cats get to their veterinary appointments, and giving the one her medicine, and making sure to keep her contained, and OY the trouble with that abscessed anonymous-animal bite, would you believe that anonymous-animal gave her the Feline Leukemia? But it isn't even Leukemia at all, but rather that's a misnomer, and..."

Sad. So sad. At my girl Mandy's birthday party way the hell over yonder in Prosperity, SC, I found myself making polite dinner conversation with a friend-of-a-friend (who I'm pretty sure wanted to be way more than friend-of-a-friend with Tracy's rad hotness; we blame the $20 beer), and I had so much to say: About my kids and my cats. At least Tracy was there with us, and whenever Tracy is present, fun is had. Ave Maria Her Holy Hilariousness was there too, but way down at the other end of the table, so all I could really do was send her two texts from six feet away (which may or may not have had anything to do with ampalamps).

Speaking of birthdays, as of the last posting, you may recall, I was busy surviving my 36th birthday. As it turns out, my 36th birthday was the best birthday I've ever had (even beating out that trip to Vegas for my 21st (sorry mom), and that time I got my first tattoo) . It just so happens that my birthday was awesometastical - even though at the outset I did not believe it would be so: First, the Snowpocalypse. Our decennial snowfall with accumulation ("SnOMG, it's sticking!") happened to occur during the afternoon of my actual birthday, nearly ruining the carefully planned surprise celebration. Second, I was sick as a something that is really super sick; had been (and would continue to be) for days. Let's just say getting through the evening required two Aleve, three Imodium, and a bargain with the Universe. Third: I was having a giant cow over The Getting Old.

As it turned out, none of that even mattered: Tim and Aaron wore shirts with actual collars (and jackets, even!), T-dawg sucked it up into Spanx, and I wore a dress. We went to Hennessy's; I had a great meal (I spoon-tapped that crème brûlée for ages before finally eating it), great company, and utterly astonishing birthday presents. Three weeks later, I'm still completely gobsmacked over the presents I received during dinner and then the eventual party.

Aaron even chauffeured, and when we returned home he drove the car into the church lot and we did a few hilarious doughnuts in the snow.

Birthday Awesome: 1,000,000

Plague: 1

Snowmaggedon: 0

Hanna

There's lots of talk in the news about Hanna making landfall in South Carolina sometime Friday. This is probably true, BUT! Columbia is far enough inland that the most we will likely experience is heavy rain and possibly some power outage; the real concern is the coastline. Our city has set up shelters for people who may evacuate from the coast, although mandatory evacuation notices haven't been issued just yet. Here in town, city storm drains are being cleaned in case of the aforementioned heavy rain and grocery stores are stocking extra bread, milk, eggs, and bottled water (the things that people seem to rush for before a storm).

In short, don't worry that we're going to die in a hurricane this weekend. We'll be fine. :)

In which I relate observations

When I went to preschool as a child, I learned many things. How to tie my shoes, how to weasel out of naptime, how to write my phone number (and I still remember that number, today). Barry, the director, was one in a million; the sort of person my grandmother would and probably did describe as "such a character!"

"Bug," he'd say to me - yes, that's right... Bug. My childhood nickname. Shush. "Bug, keep your eyes peeled. You'll notice all kinds of things that you might be missing, things that are right under your nose."

I try to remember that. Typically I notice things, and then I think to myself "I should tell Tim about this". And then, usually, I forget. I'm good like that.

One of the things I saw which I did remember to mention was a hand-painted sign outside of a dry cleaning business. SEAMSTRESS AVAILABLE FOR ALTERCATIONS, it read. I had to resist the urge to go inside just to see if I could start a brawl.

I sat at a stoplight and watched a minivan pull out of the take-out Italian food joint near our house, the other day. As the van accelerated, two styrofoam containers of food went tumbling down the length of the roof and crashed to the ground. A complete waste of parmesan.

In the grocery store parking lot, a license plate which said "HTML". I considered hanging around long enough to see if the car happened to belong to somebody I know, but then decided against it. It's pretty likely, though.

This morning I headed over to le botique Target to procure a new office coffeemaker (the heating element died on the one we had... it was a crisis) and on the way back down through the Devine Delta, I spied seven police cruisers and a handful of onlookers, all gazing down over the guard rail into a creek. I can't help but wonder what was going on down there.