Be Noticed, Be Different

Hey, I received something so cool late last week and I've decided to share it with the world via this here lil' blog. I've worked with Trucker's Connection magazine for about 15 years now. If you're in trucking, you know this magazine. If you're not in trucking but you know me, you know this magazine. It's a magazine for truck drivers, coming out monthly, digest sized. You know, Reader's Digest, Golf Digest...altho somehow Golf Digest manages to call itself that while being a full size magazine. How does that work? Truth in advertising, anybody, anybody?

I digress. When I first came on board here, we used to feature a fancy, pretty, shiny truck driving down the road on each and every cover. We were original that way. Then we transformed into having topic-specific front covers. If the main feature inside were about money, we might have a driver standing with a wad of cash in his hand. If we were talking about who to trust to fix your rig, we'd have a guy waist deep under the hood on the cover. And in those years, we occasionally had an illustrator draw a front cover, still featuring an article inside, but we could be more clever because when you work with an artist, the sky's the limit.

We noticed quickly that the hand-drawn covers were wildly popular with drivers. Magazines flew off the racks when we had illustrations. And when you're in publishing, being noticed among all the competitors sitting alongside you is critical. These illustrated covers were different and we were noticed more because of them. So after a couple years, we made the genius leap to having every cover be illustrated. And that's where we are today. We have fun with these images--sometimes greatly exaggerating the theme of a feature, sometimes just capturing an idea in a way that a photo can't. To be noticed, be different. And that's what we are.

So I meet with my illustrator Joe every month to bounce ideas and sketch rough covers for consideration. And when he heard I'd started a blog, Joe did a caricature of me. Actually, this guy is known to sit in any public place and just start sketching on paper or even a napkin someone around him. He's very astute when it comes to bringing out the traits of someone's personality through features in the sketch. Take a look at my animated mug to the left. Here's a bigger shot:



He's talented, right? And clearly thinks I have a much bigger rack than I actually do, but hey. Perks of knowing an illustrator. Ha! The two things I noticed (after the rack) were the size of my mouth and my hand gesturing. Ok, the hand thing I gotta give him because I'm Italian and absolutely always talk with my hands. I don't even realize I'm doing it until I hit someone nearby accidentally or knock over a drink of notoriously hot liquid. Hand-gesturing? Guilty.

But the mouth? What's the implication there? Big mouth. Of course, this is the typical female in me managing to turn something that might be intended as flattering into a derogative. "Wow, your hair looks great today" is heard in my mind as "Your hair typically looks like crap and yet you somehow managed to make something work with it today. Amazing." Right? Ladies? I'm not alone in this. "Have you lost weight?" I actually hear this a lot (thanks to my preference for comfy clothes rather than fitted stuff; I'm no slave to fashion) and I think it'd be a great complement if indeed I had lost weight. But since I haven't, it just means someone thought I was fat before. It's just the way my mind is wired. Turns out, Joe said my smile was one of the most eye-catching things about me so he played it up. Yeah, fast thinking.

Anyway, I thought it was a cool to have a snapshot of me in the same look of the book I've poured my heart and soul (and rack) into for so many years. And I thought it'd be cool to include it here. Now you now me, now you know the cartoon me and now you'll instantly recognize my magazine that I insist you pick up, read cover to cover and then call a few advertisers out of because that's who pays the bills.

And I'm going to give Joe a plug. If you're ever interested in a caricature of you, your kids (kids love these), for a birthday present, etc, check him out here: http://www.joedinicola.com/ or http://joedinacola.blogspot.com/ Ask him for the Big Rack Special; he'll know what you mean.

Getting Used to Nothing

It just never seems like the disaster of an economy is far from the minds of all of us, right? Many of you have shared with me different tricks you're implementing to buckle down and save pennies during this rocky time. I've heard everything from canceling cell phones or home phones to breaking down and car-pooling to a local job with that smelly neighbor whose favorite shirt features a certain yellow cartoon sponge to placing grocery shopping on a tighter budget, renting movies for entertainment rather than going to the theaters, eating in rather than so much eating out, and even canceling cable TV service. That's right people. You can actually survive without having 2,097 channels of television to occupy your time. Shocking, I know. I hope you were sitting down when you read that.

And that brings to mind another story. Last Wednesday was the beginning of Lent for Catholics everywhere. My family is originally Catholic but I personally wasn't raised Catholic and now, we choose to attend a protestant Christian church. So my son was questioning what Lent is and we offered a simplified explanation about giving up some activity or item as a way of honoring Jesus's 40 days and nights spent in the wilderness, resisting the Devil's temptations. Folks today give up things like chocolate, candy, soda, fried foods. Growing up, I used to try and take this time to give up cracking my knuckles simply because I hated that habit. And it was really bad for me; I could pop each finger five different ways. I know, very ladylike. But I thought if there was this challenge to give up a bad habit, I could stick with it. The fact that this is what I tried to give up for Lent for many years tells you just how successful I was. Apparently not even the church could keep this died-in-the-wool knuckle cracker on the straight and narrow.

Anyway, I told Chase about how his best friend's dad used to give up television when he was growing up. The look of sheer astonishment on his face was second only to the one on my husband's face; neither could comprehend a life without TV. Not just cable but no boob-tube at all. What would they do?! Once Chase recovered, he asked if they could just give up something they didn't like. Like brussel sprouts. Or going to bed on time. Or ice cream with nuts in it. Of course, we explained that's not exactly honoring God.

But it did make me think about how much we have all given up thanks to the change in economy and the uncertain future. You know, when it became apparent that the economy wasn't going to bounce right back (and then snub its nose at us while laughing with friends at how gullible we all were to believe it could actually be so bad), I was no different from most in lamenting the new life I was about to inhabit. One where you couldn't just run out and drop $50 to occupy your Saturday afternoon with 10 pins, a 10 pound ball and a bucket of brewskies because you felt like it and without consulting your entire financial statement to see if you could afford it. I envisioned a future where days passed slowly, chained to my couch and wishing I could go and do any number of things I used to (which all required blowing dough). But as I sit today, watching it snow outside (that's right, in Atlanta, snow--big, fat, white flakes that are wet and gross and just leave a soppy mess on the ground as opposed to the fluffy, dry white stuff that blankets the glorious slopes of Colorado), I'm pleasantly surprised at how used to doing nothing I've grown accustomed to. How nice it is to spend the weekends inside, snuggled on the couch in front of a roaring fire, with nowhere to be and no time to be there. Especially refreshing on a snowy day where going outside to do much of anything would be no fun a'tall. It's amazing, the life change.

So if you're just joining those of us who've reevaluated life and what it costs to live it, I'm here to tell you this non-bowling, non-movie-going life...it ain't so bad. Especially if you still have cable since it is, after all, NASCAR Sunday. Gentlemen, start your engines!