Hey T9ers! By popular demand we’ve gathered up the recipes from last weeks bake – off (well most of them!) and have them here for you to take home and try yourselves. Enjoy!
Ingredients (You’re going to have to eyeball these! Time to harness your inner Julia Child!):
Say YES | NO:
to a workout with friends | to another session on the ellipitcal
to quantity time | to quality time
to fried chicken | to beets
to the Sunday New York Times | to daily “news”
to community | to Facebook
to summer boredom | to summer fully-booked
to Kindle app | to books
to mountain biking | to stretching
–
What do you say YES or NO to?
Share it with me.
– Missy Park –
The girls in their courtside seats on the sidelines.
We love it when our stores have the opportunity to get out into the community and share some Title Nine feel-good vibes. This last week our girls from the Title Nine Evanston and Lincoln Park stores were able to make some dreams come true by sponsoring 81 athletes from Girls on the Run, Girls Rock and Girls in the Game to attend a Chicago Sky WNBA game. Between giving away goodie bags and seeing Olympic Gold Medalists, they made one heck of a night out of it!
Title IX shirts by Chicago Sky
Before the game the girls were able to watch the Chicago Sky team warm up which also meant they got sneak peeks of Olympic Gold Medalists up-close and personal! Too cool for them to see their idols so close! And too cool for our girls to be there and share it with them! The team also happened to be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Title IX that night and were giving away free t-shirts and sporting warm-up jerseys in honor of the legislative bill. It was just meant to be for the crew to be there!
Of course, it wouldn’t be a great Title Nine event if we didn’t bring along some goodies to give away to our biggest fans! So the stores brought plenty of T9 goodies and hosted a raffle to give away the surprises in the second half. Two lucky ladies went away with T9 Tee’s, Smartwool Socks, and water bottles while the final Grand Prize winner scored a $250 gift card!
Happy Winner!
Loving her new bag of goodies!
It was so wonderful to see so many Mom’s and daughters out for the game, excited to be there and having a little bit of fun. Being able to provide Girls on the Run, Girls Rock and Girls in the Game with a great experience was definitely rewarding because they are three organizations that speak directly to something we hold very highly around around here – getting at-risk girls off the sidelines and onto the field. Or in Girls Rock’s case, behind a microphone! Many thanks and high-fives to those who are working to keep those organizations a success. If you’d like to learn more about Girls on the Run click here; Girls Rock, here: and Girls in the Game, here.
Anna Blake of Infinity Farm first caught our eye with her bra humor. A gal who isn’t afraid to voice the idiosyncrasies of trying on a bra is someone we’re obviously going to get along well with (have you seen our Bounce line?!) and when we heard she runs her own horse training business we fell in love. Well, and maybe the fact that she found her perfect riding bra at Title Nine. Thank you Anna for taking the time to blog and to share.
I’m going to be blunt about sports bras- not trying to offend anyone, (or exclude either of my male readers.) If you work with horses, or dogs for that matter, you should probably be wearing one. The good news is that they have improved!
Note: No one wants to model, or even see a sports bra, so I chose this photo of Clara in her fly sheet. It has that certain look sports bras lack.
Back in the dark ages women were not expected to do anything un-ladylike enough to worry their underwear. Still, they were laced up tight, and elastic hadn’t been invented yet, so I am guessing they were shallow breathers. Early feminists threw away their corsets for a more full lung approach to the world, but I’m not sure how many of them were riders. Some of us do ride and we can become distracted by a certain contrary wave motion happening in our front torsos. It’s hard to focus on rhythm, and seeking that horse/rider oneness, while some part of your anatomy is jumping up and down, and name-calling in a heckling sort of way.
It was always a challenge, but once I came to dressage, home of the sitting trot, I clearly needed a better solution. Department stores were useless, so I scoured tack catalogs, took my best guess, and placed the order. That sports bra arrived with not one bit of elastic anywhere. I mounted up and went for a trot. The good news is that there was a graveyard-like stillness on my front torso. The bad news is that nothing else moved either, especially my lungs. Its truss effect also managed to round my shoulders, so now I was riding hunched and clamped and flattened and deflated. But at least the bra was expensive. I went back to buying a size smaller and layering.
That was then, this is now. When I was preparing to start riding my young mare I thought I might buy her a starting present, but I got myself one instead.
I had been getting catalogs from Title Nine and there were pages and pages of sport bras, labeled in ways that were more amusing than offensive. Strength of support is categorized by a barbell symbol. Three barbells should be good for riding. And there is a local store. (Unsolicited opinion, Title Nine does not sponsor me.)
Ever had a ‘fitting’ like this? I am not the sort to volunteer, but someone had to know more than I did. I left my ego at the door and when the clerk said to throw my hands up over my head, I did it with abandon. Not too mono-bosom, not too elastic- I could breathe and move my shoulders. They are less expensive then tack catalog options and returnable for a full year.
I remember when I finally got a new horse trailer. I left the old trailer with the dealer and flew down the road, checking the rear view in happy disbelief. Trailer technology had really improved in 34 years. My old trailer was like dragging a box of rocks.
I guess this new sport bra experience was kind of like that. Two months later, I am on the brink of zealous. So nice to focus on my horse’s movement, stay cool and breathe, simultaneously!
At the risk of too much information, (but why stop now?), I come from a long line of German women who use bras like pockets. It was common to see women pull hankies, cash, keys- you name it- out of their underwear. It’s a good tradition. Frequently I ride alone and I like to keep my phone handy for safety. These new age sports bras can pack along a smart phone. At the trot. Impressive, isn’t it?
(Titillation-free zone: I chose my words carefully in this post. Internet search engines sometimes bring the unwanted visitor looking for that p-word that rhymes with corn. I hope they are very disappointed with my blog.)
Anna Blake is a full-time horse trainer and riding instructor based out of Colorado Springs. Anna’s clients are both two and four legged. She spends her days training horse and rider using the classic method of dressage, training relaxed forward gaits, and ads a touch of her own slightly unconventional approach and a positive sense of humor. If you and your pony are in the Colorado Springs area and are looking to rekindle your bond riding to music, Anna Blake is your gal. You can find her blog here, and learn more about her business here.
Here at the T9 Clubhouse we work hard and play even harder, even when the summer sun sings it’s siren song. Sometimes moving seamlessly from morning meetings to a quick lunch, a few pull-ups, then back to the grind, one might mistake us for a very serious bunch. And we are very serious — about getting outside and trying something new, just like our parents used to hound us to, and most importantly, we’re dead serious about having fun at every opportunity. Knowing what is going to happen around here is just not possible! If there is one thing I have learned in my six years here at Title Nine, it’s that the unexpected that you didn’t expect is exactly what you should expect. No, really. When someone says “Megaball,” they really do mean a six foot tall ball used to play some sort of crazy game. When someone starts dancing at the end of a company meeting, it very well could be a full blown flash mob kicking off. And when someone emails a video in jest, it just might end up being an official (well supervised!) Feats of Strength event.
When you do step out and try that something new this summer, just make sure you make those parents extra proud and wear clean underwear.
Mom, Dad, you’re welcome.
– Christina @T9