Thanks, bro... sheer brilliance

It's not every day you see "by the power of Graysull", beer and beef jerky on a website. Well the time has come. So check it out: http://thanks-bro.com/

Here's why this is relevant... because these are three guys who cut all sorts of strings.  When they started this venture, I'm sure someone out there said "You can't have a product called 'The Fuck You Bro". Their response, "Yeah, watch us. Bro." And with that, I'm seriously impressed.

If ever there was a good idea, this is it. It's simple, it's smart, it clearly was created out of necessity (the mother of invention, recall). It's just brilliant.  And a really fun way to thank someone. As long as that someone likes beer and jerky. But in reality... who doesn't?

Now go say thanks and support three really awesome guys. 

GSD,
Kristen

A Different Kind of String

My dad is a dentist, so growing up it was always about brushing, flossing, and treating sugar like the anti-Christ. I hated flossing, because let’s face it, who doesn’t? Hey, why don’t I jam some twine in between my teeth until my gums bleed? Great, and when I’m done maybe if there’s time, I can wash my face with porcupine quills. Over the years I’ve stopped flossing completely, except for the two weeks leading up to when I fly home for Christmas, so hopefully I won’t get as bad of a lecture from my dad. (The first day I’m home I have to go to my dad’s office to get my teeth cleaned. It’s annoying, and the worst way to start a vacation, but it makes dad happy. Plus, I put Kahlua in my coffee on vacation, so who really cares about anything else?)  The lecture always consists of the same annoying meaningless phrases that I’ve heard since I was seven, “You only have to floss the teeth you want to keep,” and “If you don’t floss, you’re going to have to go see a Periodontist,” whatever that is.

One of the many men lucky enough to be my “ex” (because they were ever with me, not because they should be thankful we’re no longer together, obvi) used to get the lecture from my dad all the time. I haven’t talked with him in forever, and he texted me the other day (I swear men have a radar of when you're really happy... that's when they come back). Anyways, he texted me to tell me that he had to have a FIVE HOUR surgery in his mouth, with stitches for a month, because his gums were receding so badly. The man is 35. That is not normal. 

Here's the best part. The part that's given me nightmares for three nights straight, and has me flossing twice a day like I'm auditioning for an Oral-B commercial: He didn't have enough skin in his mouth to graph, so they had to use cadaver skin to make new gums. CADAVER SKIN. DEAD PEOPLE SKIN! SKIN. FROM. A. DEAD. PERSON. Be right back, I have to go floss. 

Ok. Back. (Ouch.) I gave the normal text response back to someone saying they had dead people skin stitched into their mouth for the last month, which is, "??!!?? ARE YOU F*CKING SERIOUS?! WTF. OMG. BRB, I have to go throw up while flossing." I immediately called my dad, horrified that he had never properly warned me about what was going to be my inevitable fate. His response? "I told you, you'd have to go see a Periodontist. That's what they do. I've been telling people for years! You only have to floss the teeth you want to keep!" Dad. And Dentists everywhere! Wake up call. That doesn't mean shit to anyone. Now, you start talking about dead people skin stitched to my face? You have my full undivided attention. 

I bought a 10 pack of floss at the drug store, so I figure that should get me through the end of the week. I usually have to learn all the hard lessons myself, so I'm glad someone else learned this one for me. And thank God I broke up with him. Can you imagine dating cadaver mouth? I don't think so. For now people - go grab a string! Put that floss between your teeth and let it make sweet baby-makin' love to your gums. Your dentist will thank you.

GSD,

Nic

Divorce sucks. There, I said it.

I'm a child of divorce. And although I don't like to give myself labels and I don't like to put myself in a box... Child of Divorce is my label and I am in a box whether I like it or not. As such, I've carried around some seriously heavy baggage for my entire life and try as I might, it inevitably has an effect on my personal relationships, my outlook on life and my emotional well being.

Having said all that, I'm a firm believer that past pain and heavy emotional baggage doesn't have to ruin any chance of a normal life or healthy relationship. However, unless you can come to grips with it and unless you can stare that baggage head on and say "I see you, I know you're there and I won't let you weigh me down", that normal healthy life will always be a far-fetched ideal. Step one: facing the facts.

Fact: When I was 3 years old my parents got divorced after 12 years of marriage and 2 children. And it was definitely for the better as their relationship just wasn't a good one anymore. Until recently my thought process was the following: I know the divorce affected me, I know that it changed me, I also know it was for the best, but how much could it really have done to me emotionally?

Step 2: Understand that we are emotional animals and ALL things have their lasting effect. As I now look at my 3 year old niece and how she's attached at the hip to her father, and how the whole world disappears when he walks into a room, I know how much it really did to me. And for the first time in my life I can open the baggage, sort through it and start to put it all away.

Step 3: See things as they really are. I was a lucky kid when my parents got divorced. My mother remarried a man who took on her two children as if they were his own. And it couldn't have been an easy task. Not because he wasn't ready for children... but because he wasn't ready for children who hated him.  And when I say hated, I mean H.A.T.E.D.  He would come near me and I would spray him with imaginary "you're gross" spray, screaming "EWWWWW" as I ran as far away as my little legs could take me.  Really?  What kind of a kid does that?  Was I that evil?  Or was I just that angry because I was getting love and attention from a man other than my father?  Oh wait, I failed to mention that this extreme hatred and disgust went on for about 15 years! What kind of man deals with that? A saint, that's who. Like I said, I was a lucky kid.

Step 4: Forgiveness.  This can take years, if not a lifetime. But starting the process makes a world of a difference. Since I was a child, my mother has stayed close with my father. He has been at almost every holiday, birthday, graduation, baptism... hell my mother, stepfather and my entire immediate family even went to his 3rd wedding!  Why?  Because what she taught me was that anger gets you nothing but angry and life is just too short for that. She also taught me that parents are just people. And they make mistakes and screw up like every person on this Earth. We look up to our parents thinking they'll always do the right thing, but that's just not reality. Sometimes their relationships fail, they do the wrong thing and they just screw up. Forgiveness...

I just got some emails from my father, who is finally (at 65) doing what he wants to do with his life. He's working in a fun job that allows him to travel, he's married to a woman he loves, and he's coaching college basketball, something he's been passionate about since he was young. I can see the happiness in his face every time I see him and I know it's because he's forgiven himself.  Who am I to not do the same?

I'm finished carrying the weight of the world on my back. I'm finished being angry. I'm finished holding grudges and being sad. Strings cut. Moving forward. I only take what I can carry.

GSD,
Kristen

From the mouths of babes...

The day I first watched this video, it had 5,000 hits. Nicole shared it with me by posting it on my facebook wall, as she does so many awesome things. My first comment to her was "We need to find this kid."  So we super sleuthed and found him while he still had only 5,000 hits.  We exchanged emails and promised that one day we'd meet and exchange ideas.

You see, not only do we want to have free exchange of ideas with the likes of Bill Gates, but we want to have that with Kid President. Why talk shop with a little kid who hasn't experienced "reality" yet?  Because those of us who have experienced that reality forget how simple this world can be. Be amazing. Be awesome. Dance. And treat every day like it was your birthday.

8 million Youtube hits (as of today)... Kid President is onto something.  Let's not forget about him!

Kid President gives the world a pep talk and we listened!

When we woke up...

The realization that I was in a dead end job and was turning into someone I hated. That happened. It took 4 1/2 years but it happened. Still trying to figure out what psychological damage I have that made me "stick it out" that long. But in the end, that really doesn't matter. I quit. And I never felt as good as I did that day.

Far too many people have this realization every single day. And the majority of them don't take that scary leap into the unknown and quit. "I have to pay my bills", "I have to do the grunt work before I can move up", "It's such a great foot in the door." We've probably each said those things a billion times either in our heads or out loud. I know I have. But what I realized recently is that the longer I made excuses, the longer I was going to be unhappy. So I stopped. One day, I just stopped.

No more excuses, no more justifications, no more selling myself short. I sat with a friend who, before we were friends I convinced to join me at that terrible job (she’s the other brain child behind this blog, Nic Rock), and we talked. And drank. And talked and drank. And like a breath of fresh air, or being struck by lightning - your choice, we looked at each other, laughed and at almost the exact same time exclaimed... "WHAT ARE WE DOING?!"

That moment, that very instant, we began the process of cutting our strings. And the landslide of amazing that has consistently occurred since has been somewhat overwhelming.

My posts on this blog are going to be funny, ridiculous, inappropriate at times, helpful, inspirational and motivating. We hope No Strings will be as life changing for you as it has been for us. Because it's not just a fad and it's not just a phase. It's a different outlook, a place to start your journey, and a place we hope you can come to be reminded that you are amazing. And you deserve a life with no strings.

GSD,

Kristen

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What are the strings that hold you back? Fear of the unknown? Being comfortable where you are? Being overwhelmed about how to make a life change/career change/relationship change? Change might seem scary. To me, what’s really terrifying is the idea of never reaching my true potential because I have not allowed myself to, or pushed myself forward.

As Kristen and I sat (and drank) and talked about our current work “situation” (which we now appropriately refer to as “when we worked in Hell for Satan himself”), it became so crystal clear what the real problem was. We weren’t satisfied, we weren’t fulfilled, and we definitely weren’t happy – we were scared.

Once we gave each other a severe reality check, and reminded each other that we were smart, talented, and had so much to offer a company that wasn’t completely retarded, Kristen had found a new assistant position at a hedgefund in Manhattan, and quit Hell within four weeks. The look on her face was so happy, it could only be described as what Christmas morning would look like on a face.

My Christmas face came two months later, and my co-workers did say I hadn’t looked that happy since… well… they had never seen me that happy because I was always so freaking miserable there. Cutting the strings that held me to Hell was one of the best feelings I’ve had. The most satisfying part was probably telling Satan that I believed he was a liar, and a sexist, and tried to trick young ambitious women to work for him for well under the market price by offering them a career path that he never actually intended on following through on. And then when he offered me a $60K pay increase effective immediately, I said I was insulted, and that if I was worth $110K a year, he should’ve been paying me that the whole time I worked there.

Oh yeah, I’m Nic Rock. And when I cut strings, I cut them for good.

GSD,

Nic