Wow!  Did we ever have a great turnout for our second WomenBloom social!  I surprised myself, the RSVPs just kept rolling in!  We were quite a group of 35 or so on Fino’s patio and it was great to see all the mingling and connections happening around me.

Number one thing I heard over and over was what a great group of women it was which is absolutely true.  Truly, it is a wonderfully diverse, accomplished and social group.   Number two thing I heard was how much you enjoyed meeting up with other midlife ladies and that it’s not that easy to do.  A few ladies were relatively new to Austin and were using Meet Up to find groups like WomenBloom to connect.  We’re so glad you found us and, please, we want to see you again!

The highlight for me was the three ladies who left together, not even knowing each other before.  But, they had hit it off and were happily planning to get together under their own steam for some fun times.  And watching Diane Owens, WomenBloom’s Social Security expert who is starting her second career helping us Bloomers make the most of our social security, being asked for her cards right and left was really gratifying.  There were all kinds of little pockets of energy sparking everywhere.  And that’s what these socials are all about.

I want to give a shout out to my cousin, Lynn Helms, who kindly took the pictures you see here.  Thanks, Cuz!

OUR WINNER in the clothes makeover is Barbara Koepp!  Yea Barbara! We are in the planning stages of an event where we will do before and after clothes makeovers for 3 Bloomers.  They’ll show us their regular, ‘before’ look and then we’ll have an style expert suggest some new duds for them, and they’ll get to model the new look!  This one isn’t on the calendar yet, but stay tuned!

Just a quick overview of some of the ladies who were there:

One of my absolute favorite brainstorming/conversation partners, Ann Daly, a speaker, writer and coach for creative professionals, was there. We were still glowing from a stimulating breakfast conversation we had last week.   Cathryn Dorsey, the U.T. Performing Arts Center’s Assistant Director of Corporate and Member Relations, was there whom I haven’t seen in a long time.  Cathryn has been so supportive of WomenBloom and was the member of a brainstorming session early on who suggested the name should be something about blooming and voila! WomenBloom was born.  Brilliant of her don’t you think?

Sue Cullen, a wonderful leadership and career coach, as always was a bright light in the group.  A more supportive person for helping women grow in their profession cannot be found.  Lin Scheib, a life coach and our exciting discussion guest for the upcoming May 12 midlife reinvention discussion group, was there informally talking with ladies about putting more ‘life’ in their lives.  And, Mary Beth Murphy, whose business, Piche, imports boutique olive oils and linens from France, will be one of the sponsors at our June 25 WomenBloom social out at Boggy Creek Farm.  Look for our next Cool Woman profile coming out shortly to learn more about Mary Beth’s delicious midlife makeover!

I got to meet a number of new faces.  Barbara Rodgers and Suzann Madeley were good enough to come.  Barbara has the niftiest and most beautiful gray cap of hair…if you have doubts about going gray, you should meet Barbara. She may change your mind about that.  She runs the operations side of things for small and midsize businesses. Suzann has a fascinating and demanding job working for one of the justices on the Texas Supreme Court.  Both lovely ladies.  Martha Gimbut is a former IBMer who now does business consulting for startups and a sharp lady she is.  She gave me some great connections for the business side of WomenBloom.  Philly Gonzalez is an Independent Sensuality Consultant who holds regular passion parties.  Oolala!  Put a little zip back in your love life!

There were too many wonderful ladies to mention each one individually, whanh.  But, I enjoyed meeting every one of you and wished I’d had more time with you!  And, by the looks of things, you all did a lot of meeting, visiting and enjoying too!  I hope to see you at the next one!

Happy Blooming!

Posted on April 22nd, 2009 by admin
Filed under: Community, Events, Inspiration, Midlife Reinvention