It’s Four O’clock in the Morning, I Really Should Be Snoring!

My life since I started blogging in 2009 has felt like I have been strapped into a wild roller coaster ride and I am in that tiny little car about to launch over the hill into the centrifugal force.

At the top of the hill I was singing out an F6 opera note and reaching nirvana, but as the car plunged I was like a dragon, wings extended, the sun highlighting my veins along with my vulnerable soft spot exposed between my armor. Exhaling plumes of fire I prepared for the death defying impact, both exhilarated and petrified at the same time. If I was to go down, I would go down to a standing ovation.

I’ve never really shared these emotions with you, but it’s four o’clock in the morning and I’m in the mood to be raw. Here is the picture I paint every morning: Waking up at 4:00 or 5:00am, I put on my leopard printed slippers and flannel pajamas and descend to our new kitchen to make coffee before making breakfast and lunch for the family. It is a kitchen that has been lovingly decorated by the previous owners with shit brown granite counter tops and a bright pink and green diamond tiled back splash. A slight departure from the house we moved from where I took immense pleasure in wiping down the white Quartz Reflections Caesarstone countertops until the metal flecks were illuminated by the Schonbek lights hanging from above. I loved those lights….and that kitchen. It was ideal, and peaceful as I cooked up gourmet meals while watching the boys play in the yard outside.

Okay, maybe the meals weren’t gourmet and the boys playing outside were naked and covered in mud from the pond, but I was filled with a calmness caressed by the expansive views of horse, coyote and cow-strewn fields and snow covered mountains. No people, no traffic, only the occasional crash of thunder and flash of a lightning bolt to disturb the peace.

Here, in our current sweet home, we still harmoniously move together, albeit much less peacefully as the boys tend to stay inside more. As soon as the tiny tornado of testosterone leaves the house I shut the door and lean against it looking at my faithful Daemon, Muki, while inhaling deeply. Time to work.

Heading downstairs to my cold, dark dungeon of an office to write I gather my mop into a Flintstone type of floppy bun. Pj’s still on. Dishes dirty and stacked in the sink. I have eight hours to work before becoming a mom again.

Hitting my newsfeeds hard I dive in, wondering what social media will throw my way today. And then I dive into the center of the web, spinning my threads until Muki lays her head on my lap at 12:30pm reminding me that it’s time to release the back and get outside.

As we plow our way up mountains, I take the time to breathe, experience and gather more material. And then I head back to the cellar to wrap things up before I shed the blogging skin and return back to my family.

As they say, with adversity comes opportunity. Things are pretty good despite the fact that our spirits are on the edge of being broken from working so hard, leaving little time for revival. Where I once had an office with windows clouded by the breath of White-Tailed Does peaking in with curiosity, their white speckled Fawns by their side, I am now hunkered down with no windows, working through editorial concepts and mapping out a tour-de-force agenda in an attempt to execute the master plan and build an empire of gold.

Can’t say it hasn’t been a rough road up here in the mountains where many businesses have yet to understand the concept that social media is about connecting and giving back. But I’ve reached beyond Aspen and have found my niche, beginning with the Dragon Girls. A group of women with very similar lives, who are all working fast and furiously to share the love and connect readers to brands and brands to readers. The businesses they own are; Mountain Town Magazine, Brave Ski Mom and Green Girl Media.

With them, I know I am not alone. The fact that we found each other online is a true tribute to social media and the parallels in our lives are just outright universally unifying; We all have boys (which may explain our need for creative release), we all live in the mountains, we all are fiercely committed to our husbands, our family, our friends and our community and we all are extremely driven to succeed in these unchartered waters.

Malcolm Gladwell is on to something with his “10,000-Hour Rule,” where he claims that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. At least I’m giving it a shot. Its tough though, pulling it off when family comes first. But I’m doing it and trying to do it well.

The other evening I attended the Aspen Business Expo held at the St. Regis Aspen. I went in determined to alert the world, or at least Aspen, to what I am doing. Together with my new friend, Alan Morris of Morris Design, we willed ourselves to win the grand prize, a pass to the 2013 Food and Wine Classic in Aspen. As we stood there we agreed to concentrate our efforts together to win. Alan concentrated out loud, “AlanJillianAlanJillianAlanJillianwinwinwin.” I braced myself and focused intently on the hand that was digging into the box to pull up our cards stickered up with the 45 vendors we had visited. I guess we were being too silly. It didn’t happen.

But I do believe that if one is passionate about something that involves giving back, by exuding great effort and the will for success, it must come whether you are silly or not.

These days I’m not sure if I should duck and cover or announce myself as that blogger who just wrote an article about that particular business or person I happen to be speaking with.

I was in this predicament yesterday when I put in my order at the meat department at Whole Foods Roaring Fork. I hoped that Rusty wouldn’t be too upset for my telling the world that he sings to his fish and so I re-introduced myself and asked if anyone had read my latest article that happened to be on them. They lit up and told me that they had it hanging on a bulletin board in the back and that they loved it. I walked away shining. It takes so little to make somebody happy and a thank you goes far.

As I gain force, I need you, my peeps, to help me to take this blog to a category 5. If you have any kind of affection toward the belief that sharing is caring, please share and get the word out that here is a website/blog like no other. A place where “Real” is, and shall remain to be, the essence of the site. A place where connections are made, ideas are spawned and unpredictability leaves you wanting more. A place where travel takes flight in every post and readers are whisked off on adventures at any given moment.

The community is catching on that Aspen Real Life is a social train that is chugging through town and that it is time to jump aboard. I know…I know…I can’t stop with the roller coaster/train/plane analogies, but I am a traveler and this journey I am on is all about the ride, with hopefully some monetary rewards tossed in, in addition to all the amazing travel.

Let’s bust this thing out together shall we?

Watch Baddy Speak About What it’s Like to be Married to a Mommy Blogger: