I got a new toooyyyy, I got a new toooyyyy!!!

I did the pictures at my work for an event, and the event organizer saw this when she went shopping, so she got it for me as a thank-you gift!!!!!
(obviously these pictures are from my work)

Yes, I have two motorcycles displayed in my office. The first one is all wood and displays more of a LA County Sheriff older motorcycle.

You notice that I have this 'penchant' for stuffed animals...

The stuffed bear is the 'CARE Bear' from CARE Ambulance, and the 'Eat More Chikin'" cow is from Chick-Fil-A.

This below is written by Regina Brett, 90 years old. "44 things life has taught me"

I know this has gone around in emails, but I felt it important enough to have here at hand, when I can look at it anytime I want to and have others enjoy it as well.

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 44 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:"
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy clothing. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ''In five years, will this matter?".
26. Always choose life.
27. Forgive everyone everything.
28. What other people think of you is none of your business.
29. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.
30. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
31. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
32. Believe in miracles.
33. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
34. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
35. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
36. Your children get only one childhood.
37 All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
38 Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
39 If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
40. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
41. The best is yet to come.
42. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
43. Yield.
44. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

This is SO cool. I'm sending it to my inmate friends as well.

Bally Zumba Fundraiser for MDA and THIS IS THE UPDATE!!!

It was a PARTY.

A party for a worth cause, but STILL a party!

We danced and worked out and ate and drank and, well, here are pics. None of me, thank God.

To the right my boss at Bally's, Lisa.

So I'm in one of the videos. Search if you want-I'm not gonna tell you. (But I am in a white shirt and dark shorts and a hat)Grupo odo Olo Ilu Ire, Afro-Cuban Percussion and Song did some AWESOME numbers. Of course, Bally people can dance to ANYTHING.

Whew! A long title, but it's a fundraiser for the MDA and it's going on this weekend! It's a party/workout/BBQ/entertainment/etc!!! The address is close to Whittier Blvd and Colima.

My 'other' work, Bally Total Fitness, is having the fundraiser above for this wonderful association. The co-founder and past President of the Life Fitness Company Augie Nieto, was diagnosed with it in 2005 and Bally's has a fundraiser each year on behalf of 'Augie's Quest' to help find a cure.
http://www.augiesquest.org/AugieAndLynne.html
All monies collected go directly to the MDA.

Ok, you're probably wondering now where do I (Lynne) come in?
I'll be helping and doing one of many dance/workout type things, probably tantric pole-dancing (just kidding, probably brazilian jazzy stuff, maybe, yeah, exotic brazilian dancing with a sensual touch) to get people involved & having fun! If you've been to any of my classes, you know that I have a pretty good following of about 30 regulars and always get asked where I'm teaching next. That's what my Twitter account is for...keeping up with where I'm teaching and what. http://twitter.com/Riding_Lady

People who come to my class, well, they come for the class, they STAY for the show, if you know what I mean, and this class on Sunday will prove to be an 'audience participation' event!

Here's what my boss, Daniece, sent me in an email-how could I say NO?

"You've probably noticed the Augie's Quest donation forms at the clubs. Members are donating and we've been asked to get our classes involved. Here's a flyer for a very special event this Sunday August 16.The $20 donation will get you food, entertainment, etc.
It will be a blast.
Liza (the area supervisor) needs as many of you there as possible (Lynne, she mentioned you by name...you have SUCH a reputation!!), as well as you getting this flyer to your class members."

Even if you can't go, can you contribute to this great cause? I had a girlfriend die of it in the '90's, Sarah Coleman who started the Lilliput Players and the LP Repetory Guild.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is also called Lou Gehrig's Disease. Steven Hawking also has it. It's a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease caused by the degeneration of motor neurons, the nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement. I'm not going to totally bore you with the details about how you get it, the symptoms, what happens gradually, you can find all that stuff out if you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis It's death on wheels to anyone who is active, involved in working out or in fitness. Such as me.

Let me know if you can contribute. We're collecting all this month.

Thank you so much for reading this!!

Stating the (to me, anyway) obvious, stuff going on, visitors etc. UPDATED 081409

1. Since a total of 3 people read this blog, I figure this'll stay a surprise...
Jax is coming to Bike Night Thursday. She's flying in from Santa Fe, NMex.
I'm already missing her-she left this morning after a breakfast of about 1500 calories at Arthur's.

2. I'm only teaching one class this week. SHOCK. I lied, I'm teaching 4; Sunday the 9th is done, Monday the 10th is done, this Sunday morning 8:15 AM the 16th, Sunday at the Muscular Dystrophy Association fundraiser in Whittier also on Sunday afternoon 3-6 PM, then this coming Monday the 17th in Anaheim at 6 PM. I have all my aerobics class info on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Riding_Lady.

3. Damn, CAN'T go with the OC Spiritriders to Solvang this weekend the 15th, ostensibly to the Motorcycle Museum but ACTUALLY to shop. (already been to the museum). SCRC isn't going due to the wildfires and damage up there, but if I don't have to work and do go with them will try to pick up some pins. I WILL stay away from the candy store and ESPECIALLY any fudge. Only a few people know what this refers to. Don't want to be accused of bitching about my diet when I'm stuffing my face FULL of fudge, even though I didn't eat the whole order that somebody bought... I love fudge. And chocolate. DAMN DIET...
I fondly remember that ride, it was one of my very first rides that I put together.
CRAP, CRAP, I gotta work...I KNEW this was gonna happen at the end of payweek...

4. Thought for the week, regarding aerobics..."Sometimes it takes a lot of getting up steam to even get up."

5. The Poor Man's Mocha Coffee-1 extra strong cup of brewed coffee, one packet of Swiss Miss No Sugar Added Cocoa, a little bit of Splenda and some instant creamer to make it a little more smooth.

6. ALII works pretty well. (Don't ask for details)

On Sigalert today 08-07-09 and letters to inmates.

I was writing to an inmate in a prison (ok, now I have two of them because the first one has a good buddy who doesn't have many people to talk with and wanted to know if I could write to him and do you REALLY think I'd say no???!!!), so I was putting screen shots of the traffic from Sigalert.com into a letter, saying "Welcome to my world" and I scrolled over on Sigalert, checking out traffic and saw what looked like a neat motorcycle ride, even though tonight seemed a bit 'yellow' to me...

...check out the name of the area...look closely at the top of the pic.

do you see it?
"South Nowhere".

Works for me...so I sent it to my inmate penpal "Mark" (not his name).

I dunno, does anyone ELSE cry when they open up an inmate's letter, a letter that the inmate had to pay 75 cents for because they have to pay not only for the postage, but the envelope AND the paper, does anyone else get teary when the inmate says that they're so very grateful the positive motivational letters (and some of you guys KNOW how wordy I CAN GET, right?) ?

Mark writes, (and I've kept his spelling in)
"I wanna thank you again for all of the positive read stuff. I'm working on my third month in this program (he's in prison, not jail, but PRISON for 3 years, eligible for parole in 18 months) and I use your reads very often and they help me through rough days. I have a friend that doesn't have many people to talk with and wondered if you would kinda of pen pal with him. He's an awesome dude. I told him to wright a little something down. "

My inmate pen pal was nice enough to put the other inmate's letter into his envelope so that the other inmate wouldn't have to spend 75 cents of his 'book'.

The other inmate Stu (not his name) writes,
"Ok, so I hope this doesn't come off to weird. I'm good friends with Mark and he's told me alot of good things. How you've been a very supportive friend sending him so much positive stuff. I was wonderin if you yourself or you had a positive friend that would be interested in being a pen-pal. if not I totally & completely understand. Thanks for your time."
Stu
USP #12345
(the USP is his prison number-this one's fake)

LIKE, how can I NOT write to him? I'm getting teary just thinking about it.

I send Mark pics of the bikes, stuff from this blog, some of the cute stuff I get from others online, a lot of motivational stuff I pick up from the internet that is sometimes inmate/prison specific.
Now I'll split my writing between the two of them, because I know they'll compare notes and let each other read their stuff.

Now you know what I do sometimes after work in my office, or when I have spare moments or breaks during the day, besides work on aerobics choreography/combos or working on this blog.

NOTE: Even though a friend may seem really together, sometimes a call or something can make them feel even MORE together. Because at times, sometimes, things aren't what they seem.

08-02-09 A Nice Sunday Ride w/Midnight Wolf & the "This Week's Ride" group PLUS an interesting bit of info re:one of the pics!!!!! UPDATED 081209

We met up and I COULDN'T RESIST bunny ears on Mark.
Sorry, Mark.
The LONG wordy narrative is below. It's actually not that long, believe it or not...

Good ol' Mike on his beautiful blue Harley. That is an awesome color.

After meeting the group at the Chevron station, we're on the way through some REALLY pretty terrain. I was 5th in the line of 8, really nice to kick back and not lead, not worry about what the riders behind me think, that I'm too slow/too fast/too far behind/too close/too 'slap-dash' in my riding/too cautious, yada, yada, yada.

Yeah, there were a LOT of stop signs. Oh, well. You gotta pay a price for pretty views, and I didn't mind at all.

We get to a potty stop, Wendy's. It's nice to stop every hour or so to kick back, yak, etc.

Hi, everybody!

This is a nice line of bikes. You see the two Strats' in front? The first one is Don's and the second one is Hannah's. I'm SO jealous. There's Cal and Hannah to the right. Bub and I are going to hook up with them and maybe just the four of us go riding. You don't often see couples who ride and I think it'd be really great.

Still ANOTHER high!

We hit some pretty routes going back roads. I wish I could've gotten pics when we were in Elfin Forest. NEXT time for SURE. It was beautiful.

Ok, you're probably wondering HOWINTHEWORLD I got this pic below...and the other scenic ones?

Um, well....

1. Had camera around neck. 2. Group going at easy pace 3. Could see pretty far ahead

4. Had camera powered on anyway just in case 5. Picked up camera with clutch hand

6. Trusted to luck and aimed it slightly over my windshield and ahead 7. Voila! Lucked out.

The picture above is the one I feel is the most amazing, and this is the one I entered in the Costco Photo Contest today.

These pics were stopped at a light. I took the pic of Don and Roy by facing my camera backwards and pushing the button. Again, trusting to luck. It worked.

Below, notice that you can slightly see Hannah in her rear view mirror, you can see her license plate, BUT you can also see Cal in HIS rear view mirror as well! I didn't plan that, just noticed it when I was washing these pics thru PhotoEditor.

Parking in La Jolla Village is at a premium...thank God for bike parking!

Above, view from the restaurant.

This is where we put on the feedbag.

Group shots-we ate on the patio.

The Cruisin' 101 Cafe looks like a cool place to stop sometime.

Below, it only looks cold-it was actually quite nice, perfect riding weather.

Final end stop, Oceanside Harbor for iced coffee (notice that AGAIN we get the great parking!!!) while I check Sigalert.com and warned everybody that between Pendleton and San Clemente it was around 25-37 MPH, but only for about 8 miles, until the OC county line. It was doable.

And here's the narrative:

It was low to mid 80’s, slightly overcast, beautiful riding weather.
This group that Gregg turned us on to This Week’s Ride in Yahoo Groups. Mark’s the moderator, he picks out a ride destination and sends out an email to everyone in the group to vote and tell him whether they’re coming or not.
Very cool idea.

They meet up at 10 AM and leave at 10:30 from various points, but I usually can’t get there at that time, so I asked mark if we could meet them and he they’d stop at Chevron in Carlsbad around 11:30-11:45. We made it 5 minutes before they did. WHEW!
Great group to ride with, no pressure, just ride, kick back, everybody professional, everybody EXCELLENT riders, these guys know their stuff.
Don Hannah Cal Roy Mark Mike Us

Mark is a great leader, very smooth, varied terrain and scenary, knows where he’s going, plans nice stops to enjoy and potty if necessary. Nobody was in a hurry, it was the ride AND the destination both going to and coming back. Hannah his wing read him perfectly. Unfortunately, CAL was right in front of me.

I really enjoyed this ride and these folks.

Of course I honed in on the couple riding together-there’s just not enough of we riding pairs around!

I KNOW it’s not the safest thing in the world, but I had 3 guys behind me who were ok with me going slower to take a pic then playing catch up, so I used their amiability to practice taking pics of riders ahead. They came out GREAT. Next time, though, I’m gonna try to be in the back so that I can get more of the riders in my pics.

They met at Ortega hwy 74 and the 5 freeway, continued down the Coast Hwy to La Costa and met us at the Chevron Station. From there…well, let me have Mark tell it:
“The route for this ride will be south on the 5 frwy to PCH , south on PCH / Carlsbad Blvd to La Costa Ave. left on La Costa and just before crossing over the 5 frwy there will be a Chevron Gas station & we will be stopping there ( around 11:30 / 11:45 am ) . From there we will continue out La Costa to San Elijo Rd to Elfin Forest to Harmony Grove to 11th Ave to W Valley Pkwy which turns into Del Dios to Via De La Valle to Camino Del Mar to Torrey Pines to Prospect to The Crab Catcher ( 1298 Prospect ) where we will have lunch.
I gotta remember this route, because we had some beautiful scenery. Elfin Forest sticks out in my mind.

We went by Morgan Run and Torrey Pines Golf Courses, went by Del Mar, on the beach, just wonderful.

After lunch we took the coast route back thru Leucadia and Encinitas (there was the NEATEST ‘Encinitas’ sign up over the road but we didn’t hit a stop, so I couldn’t take it.)

I hit a sign with my left rear view mirror that was on one of those construction poles going to Del Mar. It said “Keep Right”. Yeah, maybe I shoulda READ THE DAMN THING.

Cal was making some sort of a 'sign' at a Chippie and accidentally popped his clutch and stalled and luckily didn’t run into Mark even though it was downhill. I DIDN’T GET A PIC. Next time, Cal.

I loved the way that the one side of riders would go over and secure a lane when one lane ended (happens a LOT on Coast hwy and in La Jolla!!) vs. just the tailgunning person do it. This group moves so fluidly.