Don Kowalewski
Writer. Ad Sales and Marketing. Social Media Content Creator. Aeropress Coffee. Makes the best salsa in the world.
Indomitable Spirit
All day I’ve been smiling about the brief conversation my wife and I had with my 8-year-old this morning. Just as I was walking out the door to head to work, she came downstairs with sleep in her eyes and stretching and yawning, but with the biggest smile. She said, as she stretched, “I had the best dream.”
We asked what it was. She replied, “I had a dream I lost both my arms.”
My wife and I looked at each other puzzled and shocked. Oh, and it gets better.
“How was that the ‘best dream’,” I asked.
She continued, “well, we were going on a cruise. And we had to go a day early and stay in a hotel and the hotel caught on fire and my arms burned off.”
Best. Dream. Ever?
“That’s awful,” I said.
“No,” she protested. “I mean, kinda, because the bed caught on fire, too.”
“What does this have to do with the cruise? And how was it a good dream?”
“Oh,” she said. “Because when we got onto the ship, they put me in a room full of puppies and the puppies were crawling all over me and licking me.”
So, you see. It’s all about perspective. Albeit an odd perspective only an 8-year-old (and maybe only my 8-year-old) can rationalize, but there you have it. No matter what disaster may befall her in her life, throw her in a pile of puppies and she’ll be fine.
And now …the best song ever that I’ve listened to about 30 or more times since I first heard it on Wednesday. It’s my new favorite song and I hope it’s my favorite song forever.
Run-Up to “I Love Don Week”
In a conversation with some friends, yesterday, someone brought up “I Love Don Week” and I forget exactly who brought it up and felt like talking about me and my birthday – you know how these things just happen spur of the moment.
Anyway, there’s a tradition around “I Love Don Week” that says it can’t be talked about until it’s talked about and then …boom …it can be talked about and blogged about.
For the newbies, “I Love Don Week” consists of the six days leading up to Don’s birthday – July 11th. During those six days, Don is to be fawned over and given loads of attention – and gifts. It all kicks off, this year, on July 5th (only 9 days away …how excited are we?!?!?!?!?).
Start planning. And to help, I’ll post the initial gift-wish-list or, dare I call it, a “registry?” Hmmmm. That gives me an idea. I might go to Target today and ask if I can get a zap gun and make a “I Love Don Week” registry. But if you’d rather shop online, here’s the list.
- The Blackman 2.0 White Dress Shirt from Mizzen + Main
- JCPenny’s Signature Collection Side Sleeper Pillow (yes, I was a lifelong back-sleeper and now I’m a side-sleeper)
- Kettle bell(s) (and a book by Pavel Tsatsouline)
- Pair of Levi’s 559s (31W, 30L) – I’m putting the cart before the horse with that 31″ waist, my friends
- Pound of Chazzano Coffee (preferable Tanzanian Peaberry)
- Tablet Platform or Tablet Dish (from Evernote Marketplace …see below) …trust me …this is cool.
- Tervis Tumbler Water Bottle
I feel like I should have more. I’ll put some serious thought into this over the next couple of days. Leave a comment if you hear of any “I Love Don Week” sales going on.
Mind Shift, Sleep Shift
Anyone have any thoughts on shifting one’s entire hours-of-operation? I ask because I seem incapable of sleeping past, oh, 4 or 4:30 a.m. Waking up at 4:30 a.m. isn’t the end of the world, but it means I have to head to bed at 9:30 or 10 o’clock each night so I can try like hell to get my 6 1/2 or 7 hours of sleep.
This means I’m going to bed, during the summer months, earlier than my 12-year-old (and at about the same time as my 10-year-old).
Today I’m going to research sleep hours and adjusting my internal clock.
Here’s something else crazy – now that my kids are getting older, and it’s summertime, most of my mornings will be me, awake, having breakfast, taking the dog for a walk, having coffee, reading some articles on the laptop, maybe watching The Daily Show from the night before, shower, shave, and head off to work and I won’t see anyone in my family (which will be amplified if my mornings keep starting at 4:30 a.m.).
I wonder if I stay up later if I’ll sleep longer (it’s never worked in the past). But if I go to a 1980s adult schedule and force myself to always stay up and, at least, see the opening monologue of The Tonight Show, maybe going to bed at midnight will let me sleep until 6:30 or 7:00 a.m.
Leave a comment if you got something to say.
I Like Things. Things Like the iHeartRADIO App
Full disclosure, I work for iHeartMEDIA. But, I promise you as sure as my name B
ob Pittman, even if I didn’t work here, I’d love the iHeartRadio app (for the iPhone). Still kinda grumpy about the iPad version. Just sayin’.
Today iHeart announced they surpassed 70-million registered users. Pretty cool, right? Hey, don’t just take my word for it. Even TechCrunch found it worthy of an article.
And what’s so great about this app, you ask, right?
I’m going to tell you what I think is the best thing – the Shows (aka Podcasts). There’s like an infinite world of Podcasts and shows on any topic.
Just go to your iPhone (or Android, I guess) app and hit the Menu button in the upper left and then hit Podcasts.
Now search …anything. Search “Travel”. Bam.
Search “NBA” and all sorts of sports shows will show up. Like the Nerdist. It’s there. Do you read Men’s Health and want to listen to their weekly Podcast? Just search “Men’s Health” and listen to the current episode or past episodes.
My favorites are Jay Mohr’s sports hours and Sklarbro Country.
What I’m saying is you can listen to your favorite local station, or you can listen to custom stations based on an artist or genre (the Pandora design), or you can listen to pre-programmed stations like My ’80s Station,the ’80s Movie Heartbreak Station, or GenX Radio …stations that someone else curated and researched, or you can listen to a Podcast, or last night’s Jimmy Kimmel monologue, or some financial reports from ABC News Business.
iHeartRadio does it all.
Not sure if I’m a trendsetter, corporate shill, or a fanboy. But I like this better than Pandora or Spotify. There, world. Now you know.
Follow me at @donkowalewski.
A Thirty Day Self-Challenge
Knock knock. Who’s there. Gimme a second. Gimme a second, who? Gimme a second chance to make 2015 everything I’ve planned.
Worst. Joke. Ever.
But I’m not joking.
There are great things that happen when I listen to podcasts from Tim Ferriss, Jeffrey Gitomer, and Gary Vaynerchuck and watch all their videos and read all their blogs. The good? I get motivated. I imagine myself as a future guest on their shows sharing with them the secrets of how I balanced a great job in media and advertising sales, wrote a book, kept up a blog, built a business on social media, kept romance and passion in a 20-year-old marriage, raised three children, lost fat while adding muscle, trained myself and my lungs to handle running and that I ran a 10K, coached my kids’s soccer teams, kept in touch with old friends, read a book every month, figured out how to sleep 7-hours each night, managed my stress, saved for retirement and college, but had a little fun along the way and contributed to society and charity.
The bad?
The bad part about listening to all those podcasts from perfect people who made millions of dollars and seem to have it all figured out is that I sometimes get the feeling I’m not even close and I’ll never get there.
Positive, “I can do anything” thoughts mix with, “you’ll never do any of that” voices.
Did these perfect people ever have self-doubt? Sleepless nights? Stress? I notice they often don’t have kids. Excuse number one why I’m not doing all those things in the paragraph above. Or they are “consultants” and “authors” but don’t actually have “real jobs.” Excuse number two.
It’s like a sink or swim feeling. It’s like there are two options …figure it all out, make millions, and then start telling people they can do it, too. Or just keep beating your head against a wall.
Why this blog? It’s the even of June. June has 30 days. June will be my launching pad for the rest of 2015.
Join me?
A Man of Principle (I am Not)
Remember how I was all like, “I want black running shoes,” and made a big deal about it?
Let’s just say one man’s black shoe is another man’s grey-black-and-neon and blue-orange.
Both pairs were on clearance at DSW and the New Balance 850s will be for long walks and the Pumas might be the sleeper shoe of 2015. Light weight, like a Skecher GoWalk and crazy comfortable.
Black shoes are soooo last week.
My daughter tried to ruin my happiness because when she saw them she said, “no offense, but they look like ‘old man’ shoes,” and I told her to shut up, slammed my door, and cried. Not really. I kinda like that my 12-year-old has the confidence to rip on me, her Dad. I give her those little wins. For confidence. Maybe I’m wrong, but it feels like that’s a good thing.
Thought you’d all want updates on the shoes and a quick bit of parenting advice …fathers …let your daughters “win” some times.
Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about the new fishing boat.
Follow me @donkowalewski.
An Experiment. Subscribe to my #TheBachelorette Newsletter
At the urging of someone in a podcast (specifically Tim Ferriss’s podcast where he interviewed Noah Kagan), I’m conducting an experiment. Actually, it’s more than an experiment.
I’m starting a newsletter about #TheBachelorette. To subscribe, email me at donkowalewski@gmail.com, subject: Bachelorette or leave a comment below (where I can click and get your email) or just put your email in a comment. When I get an alert that someone commented, I’ll quickly grab your email address and then delete the comment (to protect your privacy).
Two reasons I’m doing this. (1) To see if Noah’s suggestion works about creating an email list …and yes I realize I could pick a better topic, but I have my reasons for going with The Bachelorette. (2) Because I want to write and self-publish a guide to dating, relationships, and marriage based on the wisdom collected from watching every single season of The Bachelor and Bachelorette.
Follow me at @donkowalewski.
Oh. And don’t forget to subscribe.
I Love Father’s Day
I’m famous for my birthday lists (detailed during the “Month-of-Don” and “I-Love-Don-Week”) and Christmas wish-lists. Today, I announce the creation of another gift-giving guide – my “Father’s Day Shopping Guide.”
It’s important to have lists, as a father, so some renegade child or wife doesn’t go off-the-grid and improvise about what I think I might need or want.
It’s going to be a quick list, as this list is in it’s infancy stages, but some stuff just needs to get out there into the public sphere so people can start budgeting, planning, and shopping. Oh, and even if I’m not your father or I’m not the father to your children, if you admire the job I’m doing as a father, feel free to get me something on Father’s Day.
Father’s Day Shopping Guide 1.0.15
- MyPillow
- The Blackman 2.0 White Dress Shirt from Mizzen+Main
- Running/athletic shoes (New Balance or Adidas), mostly black or mostly without neon colors
- Kettle bell(s) (and a book by Pavel Tsatsouline)
- Pair of Levi’s 559s (31W, 30L) – I’m putting the cart before the horse with that 31″ waist, my friends
OK. That’s enough to get you started. Happy shopping. If you think of another idea for me, just leave a comment and I’ll flush it out and see if that’s something I want added to my Father’s Day Shopping Guide.
Follow me at @donkowalewski on Twitter.
Time for New Shoes
If you know me, I’m an Adidas man. Always have been. Since I was in my late teens, all my running and athletic shoes have been Adidas, except for a pair of minimal Nike running shoe in the mid-2000s that mimicked barefoot running, and recently a pair of Merrell’s that also are a minimalist shoe given to me by a friend (K.C.) that works at Merrell. Both were great, but as I’m not a runner anymore, I need a new pair of kicks (people still use the word “kicks” in reference to shoes, right?).
Well, I’ve always had a pair of Adidas running shoes on stand-by, but there was an incident Thursday night. While out walking the dog, the dog had an “accident” (not really an “accident” because dogs are supposed to poop while out on a walk, but stick with me). What she did was, well, like poop, but not poop. Looked like some sort of cosmic goo. So I dutifully tried to grab it in the plastic garbage bag but it got away from me and before you know it, the bag was out of my hand and this “cosmic goo” had splattered all over my Adidas. In some J.F.K.-bullet-bending way, it managed to land on and ruin both shoes. It was so bad, and so disgusting, because it was the eve of trash day, I took off both shoes mid-walk and about 300 yards from home, and threw the shoes right in the nearest curbside can.
Am I that prissy that I couldn’t have cleaned these shoes? Let’s just say …the shoes were four years old and I’m not kidding …they weren’t going to be saved. Thank me for not taking a picture for Instagram.
That story leads to one major decision, now . . . a new pair of running shoes that won’t be used for running. Mostly for style and long walks, with the occasional bike ride and running around a park with the kids, thrown in. They need to look good with jeans (I am not ready to do the stark-white shoe with jeans Dad-Look), shorts and short black or white socks, or with athletic pants.
The issue is, most of today’s running shoes feature loud color schemes or at least one color that glows in the dark. I want grey on black or black on black – and that’s no easy task. I’m also considering changing brands – from Adidas to New Balance (collective gasps, I know).
So, for the next month, I’ll be debating between the following two shoes. The New Balance 1012s or the Adidas Powerblaze M Black Onix.
Decisions, decisions. Great blog entry, eh?
Q2 Goals
I’ve looked at my New Year’s Resolutions, looked at my Lenten Resolutions, and reviewed which goals and objectives I’ve hit and which I’ve missed. And, based on that, I’m course-correcting for Q2 and the rest of the year. NOW IS THE TIME TO RE-EVALUATE and set new goals or recommit to the goals set in January.
The goals are simple:
- Dominate the Evenings (8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.) – Realistically, I only have 2-hours to myself each night after soccer practices and other kid commitments. As I’ve previously declared, I dominate mornings (5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.) and I need to do the same with 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Things I need to fit into that 2-hours include chores, walk-the-dog, talk-to-wife, write, read for pleasure, relax. I’m thinking every night needs to be slightly different.
- Dominate My Eating – I’m giving up 4-Hour Body and going with a whole foods, good foods, well-rounded, well-supplemented, proper-caloric amount, and no eating or snacking after dinner.
Oh, and a final thing … I want my work space to look like the picture below. Simple. Efficient. Perfect. Sorry, kids …I’m going to get rid of picture frames in my work space at work.
Don Kowalewski 