Tag: women

Women of the Week

11751934_10101471181577145_8442469844993514420_nThis week my life was filled with amazing women. Many of them, from all walks of life, some new friends, some old friends, and all fun. Thursday evening I attended the Bloganista Mixer with a plethora of fellow women writers and want-to-be-writers (me!). Our fearless leader, Javacia, has been knocking it out of the park since I met her a few years ago seeing The First Lady (it was our first date!) and she hasn’t stopped. She founded and runs an amazing group called See Jane Write for women writers and next Saturday, she is putting on the Bloganista Mini-Con – an all day conference for bloggers and boss ladies. The mixer this past Thursday was a nice time to mingle with fellow attendees, speakers, and panelists while shopping at the best consignment shop in Birmingham, Collage Consignment. I left inspired and with a perfect, cheap dress for the beach next month.

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Yesterday, the Birmingham Girls Club was privileged to be invited by BGC member Julia to her family’s place on Yellow Creek. It was a family fun event with lots of amazing food, floats, boats, and laughs. About eight BGC members made the trek, with their families, to a beautiful house on the lake complete with 2 levels, a huge deck and pier, lovely pontoon boat, and more water noodles than you could shake a stick at. We spent the day chatting about life, love, body hair, and so much more. The beautiful women of BGC got a chance to talk in depth in an extremely relaxing environment while also getting to know significant others, which we rarely get to do. After returning from the lake, I then spent with a few more gorgeous gals – pictures below. I hope you had an equally inspiring and relaxing weekend. You deserve it! What did you do to take care of you this weekend?IMG_1876

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Girls, the time is now.

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I was recently interviewed about being a woman in the technology sector, namely challenges I faced getting to where I am and continue to face. This isn’t the first time I’ve had the question; people are fascinated that I’m the director of IT for an advertising and technology company. It wasn’t an easy road, but it wasn’t as hard as people think. I studied hard, worked harder, and continued to move up in positions throughout my career because I proved myself.

My biggest disappointment with the technology sector these days is that there aren’t enough of us in it. By us, I mean women. Many times over the years I was the only female at the table in a room with 10 or more men. It took a while to learn I was there because I earned it and my contributions are important. I was intimidated at first, painfully quiet during discussions. The more meetings I went to, however, the more I realized some things were missing from the conversation and that was my cue.

These days I’m more than comfortable being the only woman at the table, leaning in, learning, and sharing my knowledge. I am grateful I have been in more than one position to pay it forward and hire equally qualified and smart women in the field. The one question I always get asked is what advice would I give girls considering technology as a career. My answer is, “Don’t give up. Stick with it, even when you are singled out or made to feel inferior. It is a predominantly male field, but it won’t always be like that with our brains and determination. Girls, the time is now to start taking over the tech industry!”

 

Day of Women

I had a wonderful, very girl-fueled day yesterday that filled me with such love, inspiration, and awesomeness. Whoa, I didn’t think ‘awesomeness’ was really a word, but just looked it up and yes, WE HAVE A WINNER, FOLKS! Look at me getting all wordy and creative in my blog. 😉

Yesterday was a great day at work divided by a delicious lunch at one of my favorite local spots – Nabeel’s Cafe & Market. They have the best Greek food this side of Greece. I was fortunate enough to enjoy it with some of my favorite lady friends: Cynthia, Amber, Jessica, Rachel, and her two gorgeous children. We got to know each other a little better, shared some female FAQs, and decided to take the rest of the day off to go shopping. That didn’t happen, but we had fun fantasizing for a few moments. I couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of ladies to dine with and you should check out their blogs, tweets, and words of wisdom. And if you need your butt looked at, be sure to give Rachel a call. Tell her I sent you. 😉

After work it was off to my first See Jane Write event. If you aren’t familiar with this group, you are doing yourself a disservice. It’s a wonderfully diverse group of very talented women in Birmingham who share stories, help, meals, and a serious love for writing..all started by the lovely Javacia Harris Bowser. You can check it out at seejanewritebham.com. Last night’s event was a ghostwriting/co-writing/freelancing seminar led by Nancy Dorman-Hickson. Ms. Dickson helped author the book about the real-life socialite behind the movie Charlie Wilson’s War. She gave us great tips on how to be a better author, market ourselves, as well as expertise on co-writing a book. The knowledge was endless, but my favorite thing was how down to earth she was. She spoke on a beginner’s level for those of us new to branching out and answered all of our questions with easy-to-understand guidelines. I’m thankful I was able to attend and take away a lot of action items that I am starting TODAY.

How is YOUR Wednesday going? That’s the real question here. A little while back, I attended a See Jane Write “meet and greet” of sorts. During our dinner, one Jane told us that she begins each day thinking about at least one thing she is thankful for and one thing she’s excited about. We all delved into that for a bit and it has really stuck with me. I need to put it into practice more, but tell me (in the Comments section) one thing you are thankful for and one thing you are excited about. I will be sending something special to a random winner drawn this weekend – just in time for VBS here in the South (Vacation Bible School a.k.a. Football Season).

I’m going to leave you with a wonderful thought that I borrowed from the Chopra Center: “I am loved, lovable and loving.”

Love yourself.
Find peace inside.
Share happiness.