Momentum

PHOTO: CHECK OUT THESE GUYS. I SEARCHED FOR "OLDER HORSES" AND THESE DUDES CAME UP ON THE FIRST PAGE. LOOK FAMILIAR?

I don't think I wrote a post last week about the horse I fell in love with. His name is Lancer. He's a bay thoroughbred, not so big, the sweetest pet and fun as hell to ride. I love him. He gives me good love, too. He loves being scratched behind his ears, he's ticklish and when you poke and tease him he turns around to grab at you with his lips, ears perked forward and friendly.

Lancer lives next to what might be the oldest horse at the barn- a skinny old guy named Moses. Moses dozes (it rhymes!) with his head hanging out his stall, and I think he's even sometimes asleep with his eyes open. His eyes were gunky and I cleaned them out for him. I think he liked that. Anyhow, I got to ride Lancer AGAIN this week and I was so looking forward to it. I also had an epiphany about riding, which happens sometimes.

I used to ride on autopilot. Not only am I not as strong as I was when I was 15, 16, 17 years old, I also have to think about a lot of stuff I used to take for granted. I Amazoned George Morris' Hunter Seat Equitation because I need to read about some of the stuff I have a hard time making happen now. Brush up!

More momentum on the Kidzillions side. Totally happy with the progress. We met with Rudy again, which was great, and ran into a few other people who also had advice. Everyone's got advice. I want it all, but some folks really are opinionated.

Cold On The Inside, Hot On The Out

PHOTO: IMAGE FROM THE FIRST PAGE IF YOU GOOGLE "HORSE BUDDIES"

So the DreamIt offices were so freezing cold today that my team jumped ship for the Green Line cafe. Good for them. The coffee's better there (as is the internet, unfortunately!). I stayed at the office and think the cold made me work more quickly. I'm DEFINITELY more efficient now than I've been in ages, so I'm reluctant to change ANYTHING. I love doing what I'm doing. I said it before, but I really feel like these are creative juices that are flowing when things are happening- the team is so good, everyone's on target and I feel like thinking of the business in the big picture is fulfilling. Ha! Week three. It's only Monday of the third DreamIt week.

We've been organizing since Aprilish, though, and so even though it's only the third week of the program, we're jamming further in. I saw the new Star Trek movie last night and loved seeing these characters that are so iconic in my mind in a new place, with a new vibe. Contemporary, but not untrue to the people I "know". The casting was awesome, btw. But seeing these people as young and beautiful, getting their jam on, locking in to the brain sharing space that is required to do something like, oh, SAVE EARTH, confirmed the magic in the specific momentum we've got going. Heavy (handed)! If you don't know what I mean it's a sad thing. This type of energy can feed you. Again. Week three. What a goof.

Brain is Stuffed

PHOTO: SUMMER, THE HORSE WITH THE LONGEST TAIL IN THE WORLD

So DreamIt started and all my team is here. I made meatloaf last night for dinner, which was good, and I crashed. Today was another day of brain juicing. We are a smart batch of people and it's fantastic to all be working together, seeing eachother, across desks from eachother. 4 long desks, set 2 by 2. It's perfect. Only thing not so perfect is the internet connection is slow, but I think we'll have a solution tomorrow.

Tomorrow. Megan is away and so there's no lesson, however I still get to ride. Maryanne and I will practice the dressage test and call out the letters to each other. I think I more or less know it. It's test one, but sadly, I'm supposed to learn the walk/trot test first. It's hard to put that down and admit that even though I'm jumping full courses in lessons that if I had to do a dressage test I'd be better off in JUST walk-trot. I think it depends on who I'm riding. Which is also a pisser. Can't pick up a canter right on command? Shoo. Feels like 8 years old.

Totally Jamming

PHOTO: FIRST IMAGE WHEN "FUZZY MUZZLE" IS SEARCHED

We are totally jamming. Things are coming together at an alarming rate and the only thing that keeps me believing that I can keep up with it is my team that is full of ideas and good direction. Everyone works well (so far) with everyone else (famous last words) and I still have the luxury of thinking that my job in all this is to be the glue and forge ahead.

I had a really hard riding lesson yesterday, but it was hard in the good way. I rode a horse called Lancer, who I'd never ridden before, and he was a champ. He was awesome. We did a lot of flat work- only flat work actually, and a lot of poles that would be spaced further apart and closer together, which challenged us to change the stride length at every pass. Not only that, in between every pass was a circle and leg yields in and out. At the end of the lesson, after we'd put our horses away, I looked at Maryanne, one of my lesson mates and noticed how sweaty she still was. It was a good ten minutes after that when I left and upon getting in the car, I noticed that my own face was PURPLE still. No. Joke. I stopped for a Gatorade on the way home and felt like I could conquer the world. Today my legs feel like the world conquered ME yesterday, but it's great. So, fully, completely great.

Well, Shoo.

PHOTO: FIRST IMAGE (.GIF, RATHER) WHEN "I LOVE HORSES" WAS SEARCHED

I had written a post last week and I guess I didn't finish it or something. It's not here! We made incredible progress last week, especially with the Wishlisting tool, which allows our users to send information about items they like back to our site. The parent side of the site is pretty well assembled, though there were some "had to build it to see it" questions we had about how things would fit together on the back end and what the future use scenarios might be on the site.

We are also looking to begin meeting with more families, some schools and some possible financial partners that we could refer our users to. Things are totally motoring.

My team is awesome and their momentum is as much responsible for the direction we head as anything else.

Things I want to be aware of: responsibility creep, morale and forging ahead. Everything feels good and I know there will be bumps in the road, but I feel if we keep open and alive, we will be able to address things as they come up.

Basic Updates

PHOTO: COOL PIC I FOUND ONLINE

Saturday night went well, people seemed to like the presentation and it was fun to get up in front of a group (http://technicallyphilly.com/events/ignite-philly-3-packs-johnny-brendas-again). The photo's... taken from an unfortunate angle. Afterward we went to the launch party of OUR SHELF, another DreamIt company, and it was a good time. Between those two events and the Friday Mashable/Indy Hall party (which I STILL can't figure out what it was about- anybody?) I got plenty talk-about-myself practice.

Mmmm, started a new Twitter account today: KidProject. Please find me there, follow me, refer your friends with kids or anyone you suspect who'd be interested in my project.

I did a lot of research today and while it seems everyone agrees that allowance is a tool to teach kids financial responsibility, there is a lot of disagreement as to what that might mean. For some parents it's getting kids to buy their own stuff and "feel the pain" when money runs out, and for others it's a way to get their kids used to saving- as in the few dollars I give you is for holding on to. Many of these parents still buy their kids stuff, which seems to defeat the purpose of the lesson.

Comments section: Did you get allowance? Regularly? How did you negotiate with your parents for stuff you wanted? If you have kids, answer these as a parent, too.

Tomorrow!

VIDEO: FROM DRAGONS' DEN

Tomorrow I do this: http://www.ignitephilly.org/

I'm really excited because these events are sort of a big deal and I love the idea of "entertaining AND educational". I feel like it's a really special thing to have been asked and I modified my presentation from the DreamIt Kick Off Weekend as my presentation.

20 slides, 15 seconds each slide. That means 5 minutes to share your idea and present it cogently to the group. It's at Johnny Brenda's- a music club, and when I'm feeling it (as in a *leetle bit sassy*) I really enjoy being in front of a group. I don't have a whole lot of experience in this UP IN FRONT OF PEOPLE category, but I'm happy to have the practice.

When we went for our DreamIt interview (speaking of needing practice in front of people) we sat opposite from a group who quite literally determined the course of the next phase of our project. Impressing them meant fast tracking our plans. Without their support, we'd be plugging away at a much slower pace. I was nervous but REALLY didn't want to be. I wanted to be confident and crisp.

We were in the building, waiting to be called in to our interview when I remembered a trick I used to use when I'd get nervous at horse shows. It goes like this: "This feeling right now? The fluttering, sweaty one? THAT'S WHY YOU'RE HERE. You're not nervous, you're EXCITED. Because this is fun." I wanted it to be fun. I really wanted to enjoy being there- shit like that doesn't happen every day and I didn't want to miss the moment. Tomorrow's kind of like that. I'm seeing this as more momentum. Another way to share my project and get feedback.

I'm attaching a clip from Dragons' Den. It's a cool show and I joke that our DreamIt interview was like being on Dragons' Den...