Uncategorized – Lauren Warnecke

My favorite-est posts of all time

This post is short and sweet. I’d like to take a moment and share with you a mini-memoir of a few of my posts. Inspired by one of Dance Advantage’s upcoming circle time, I started reflecting on what I think is my best “stuff”.

Maybe these aren’t the best written, the most impactful, or even the most particularly useful to the greater body of knowledge, but these are the five that stick out to me.

1. On the blog at Art Intecepts I recently wrote a post about stillness, or lack thereof, and compared to the greater context of my life. It was a healthy reminder to me to slow the heck down, but not too much. Read about that here.

2. Shortly after returning from San Francisco this summer and speaking at the Dance/USA conference, I wrote on Dance Advantage about some conference take-aways, and the crtical need for a more effective conversation to take place in order to effect change in the dance community. Read about that here.

3. If you didn’t know I was gay, I guess you do now. Here’s my story, as told by me, on The L Stop.

4. I love to travel, if only to have a reason to write. One of my favorite travel posts came not from the coast of Italy, but from the middle of Wyoming. Read about the middle of Wyoming here.

5. Although first published on 4dancers.org, I love this post because, if for no other reason, it was my first appearance on The Huffington Post. If I had known all it was going to take was a jab at a famous dance critic and talking about naked dancing, I would have done so a lot sooner. You can read that one here.

Ok, so those are mine… what are your favorite posts?

Oh, stop it… you flatter me!

What I meant was, give me YOUR best stuff. For all the other bloggers out there, what is a favorite post you’ve written?

A quick moment for gloating

When I first wake up in the morning, I usually take a big stretch, scratch my belly, and check my feeds. I browse Facebook and Twitter and update my Words With Friends. Occasionally I glance at the news. Then I eventually roll out of bed and get my day going.

So this morning was extra special when I pulled up the Huffington Post’s Arts and Culture page and saw this:

That’s me, the headliner, dishing about naked dancing. ON THE HUFFINGTON POST.

Maybe you didn’t know that this isn’t my only blog… I also write about dance on my own site, as well as here and here. And did you happen to catch the guest spot I wrote here?!? And it just so happened that my recent post on 4dancers.org was pitched to HuffPo and they liked it.

Anyway…

Had I known all it would take was talking about modern dance in the buff to get in at Huffington Post, I would have done it a lot sooner.

In any case, I’m simply tickled to be part of the the team of esteemed bloggers at HuffPo, and couldn’t resist taking a minute to brag.

A quick plug showing some lovin’ for Bloglovin

Much like Mailchimp is the sarcastic, hipster version of Constant Contact, I recently came across Bloglovin as an alternative reader that’s equally witty and totally user-friendly. I won’t faun over it like I did Workflowy, but if you’re looking to coral all your favorite blogs in one place, this might be the reader for you!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Cheers!

Starbucks Around the World: Near Clyde, OH

An ominous sky hung over the Ohio turnpike on the return trip from Cleveland to Chicago. I was fairly hyper-caffenated already, but this being one of my last opportunities for a Starbucks before the Ohio state line made the stop imperative. I should add that I’d much rather pee in Ohio than in Indiana; the famed swing state is notorious, in my experience, for roadside rest cleanliness. No disappointment here, and since I was already 3 cups of coffee down from breakfast with friends I opted for the over-priced, but super delicious Iced Soy Chai. There were three lovely Midwestern Grannies running the floor – which made me rather giggle inside – and when I asked one of them what town I was in her reply was a confident “Well, you’re near Clyde, Ohio.” Well done, desolate rest stop at not-on-the-map-but-near-Clyde. Well done.

Starbucks Around the World: Elkhart, IN

Elkhart, IN proved to be an ideal rest stop en route to my first stay in Cleveland. In an effort to escape the NATO summit, it took two full hours in an un-air-conditioned sedan to get past the Chicago Skyway that overlooks scenic Hammond, IN. As such, Elkhart was as far as I could make it before needing a toilet and a refreshing specialty coffee beverage. Aside from asking if I wanted whipped cream on my grande coffee frappuccino (silly, the plain coffee ones don’t ever get whip), legendary service with a smile with a side of fries and stuffed crust pizza to boot from the neighboring Burger King and Pizza Hut (I kid, I kid).

Grounding and granola

I admit it. I have a easy time making goals, and a hard time keeping them. Some say I’m over-committed, others say I’m wishy-washy. Over ambitious. Unrealistic. Even simply a jerk for making promises that I can’t possibly keep.

In a last-minute lenten experiment in February I swore off the vending machine for 60 days, and hopefully for good. While it might seem trivial, this was no small feat for me. Perhaps more so because of my reputation for making and breaking goals, as time wore on my chemical dependence on sugar and chemical additives faded and my resolve grew stronger.

And I did it.

It’s in those dark moments of your life that you go toward the toxic things that give you shallow comfort. It could be drugs or alcohol; cigarettes or food. For me, the vending machine was that thing. So I find it particularly awesome that during a particularly chaotic time for me I haven’t strayed off the path. Even after Easter came and went.

How did you do it, Lauren!?!

Simple: granola.

I can’t completely deny my personality – I’m a person that requires a pacifier from time to time. I replaced M & M’s with granola and yogurt, nature, and namaste. Not only did this satisfy my need for a crutch, it gave me energy and health and fortitude. And now, not a day goes by that I don’t get a little granola in my life.

Starbucks Around the World: Lebanon, IN

The idea of Starbucks (at least when I was an employee there) was always to come, stay, let it be your “third place” to hang out and relax. This is completely contrary to what much of America now understands Starbucks to be: just another drive-through fast food joint with really expensive, tasty coffee. Such is the case with stores like this one in Lebanon, IN, and so many others like it that have giant Siren’s thrusting above the interstate next to the golden arches and the BP signs.

This is not necessarily a criticism, simply a response to what “America” seems to want… which is to have their cake and eat it to. At 7:30pm, I found this Starbucks to be somewhat sub-par… they were completely out of sandwiches and salads, and the barista put whip on a no-whip hot chocolate that (by my palate) was obviously made with reheated milk.

“Long day?” I asked.

“You don’t even know…. I’ve made like 100 hot chocolates today.”

What I didn’t tell this Barista was that in my day I’d make 100 hot chocolates an hour…

In any case, the staff was pleasant, they fixed my drink – unbegrudgingly and apologetically – when I noticed it was made incorrectly, and the bathrooms were nice and clean. Plus, if a Siren in the sky gets a truck driver off of bad gas station coffee every once in awhile, then I guess the bending of the business model a bit is totally worth it.