She and her pals want to organize UGC’s all over the country as they travel to get the word out that a girl’s best friend is the gal she likes to spend Saturday mornings with (with no makeup).  Bets and I will be talking to her right soon.

 Valerie says that she won’t send a picture until she gets her official UGC ballcap, tee shirt, and Elvis glasses.  More later!

This is Mary Margaret Oberdeen from Pasadena, California. She says she hasn’t aged a day in over 27 years and declines to reveal her age.

Mary Margaret reports that when CB’s were all the rage brought about by truckers, she used the “handle” of Little Ole Lady from Pasadena; and she uses it now as her chat nickname. She has met people from all over the world and had her heart broken and has broken a few hearts through internet dating relationships.

She thinks she should be the President of the Ugly Girls’ Club Fan Club because she has the time and inclination to correspond with folks from all over the globe on behalf of the girls. She is fluent in three languages. Her grandson is a trucker, and she feels she would be able to travel to wherever the Girls might be doing remotes. Currently, she is making plans to attend the Tomato Tasting Festival in Hoboken.

She writes, “I listened to the pilot podcast and was just hooked.” She thinks she can elevate the girls’ market share by responding to the numerous communications that come asking for public appearances as well as pictures and autographs.

Mary Lynn promises to “be there for us” should we select her as our fan club president. She says it is not necessary to live near the girls due to the numerous internet meeting opportunities available to us. Mary Lynn thinks that the entire city of Poughkeepsie will be enhanced by her association with the UGC.

JT comes to us from Myspace.com where he talks about how he’s listened to all episodes of our podcast over 100 times. JT says that if he could be the president of our fan club that he would be willing to relocate to Dustbury, OK; so he could spend every free minute helping edit the podcasts to our satisfaction. He works at PetSmart as a cat groomer and is pretty sure he can get a job at the Dustbury PetSmart. He claims to love Harleys and has numerous pictures of them.

Well, we have had an email from Simbo (photo above) who is associated with the Hoboken Historical Museum in Hoboken, NJ. He wrote to say, “I think you girls are the funniest part of my day. Each morning after my morning run of 5.6 miles, I check my Itunes to see if there’s another episode of the Ugly Girls Club.”

Simbo goes on to write, “I would love to be considered for the presidency of the Ugly Girls’ Club; however, I am pretty busy with my full time association with the Hoboken Historical Museum. I would like to invite the UGC to come to Hoboken to podcast live from th Heirloon Tomato Testing Festival on Sunday, August 27th from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Perhaps we can discuss then the full responsibilities of being the president. Until then, happy trails to you!” Simbo

The girls have agreed to provide Mr. Douglas 25% of their gross profits from their extremely successful and internationally famous podcast for his services. 

We’ll keep our fans updated.

Now Taking Applications:  President of the Ugly Girls’ Fanclub; apply by email to TheUglyGirlsClub@aol.com.

Do you have a good wardrobe misfire story?  Tell us about it at theuglygirlsclub@aol.com; and you might be selected to tell us your story in one of our next podcasts.

Here’s a picture of Christi and Dr. Jan on the occasion of her goodbye party when she left for Vegas over two years ago.  Betsy wasn’t there because she was in… can you guess?  Bolivar.

Betsy announced today that she will be returning to Dustbury on Saturday because JoBeth (her mom) has had all she can take of Betsy and her three young children.  The Ugly Girls will celebrate with an original podcast within the next week.

 Wonder what to wear when you convene your own Ugly Girls’  Club?  Get Cameron’s Elvis sunglasses, a ballcap, and a tee-shirt.  We are hoping to offer this to you real soon.

 Dr. Jan is still majorly complaining about the technical aspects of being a podcast “star.” 

See you soon!

Welcome to the Ugly Girls’ Club hosted by Dr. Jan and Betsy!  This is episode #003, The Mosquito Ringtone Episode

In this podcast, tune in to hear Betsy and Dr. Jan discussing…

1)     Missouri and Tennessee.  Betsy is still in Bolivar, MO (much to Dr. Jan’s disdain) teaching graduate level education classes.  Jan has just returned from a road trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee (a 14 hour one way drive with surly teens).  They are both worn slick.  They conclude that the two happiest minutes of their respective visits are:  1) the minute they arrive and 2) the minute they leave.

2)     Mosquito Ringtone.  The latest tech rage for teens is the mosquito ringtone; originally developed in England to annoy and chase away errant teens from businesses, the ringtone has become a hit with teens because only they can hear it (no adults, with faulty high pitch hearing, allowed).  Check the ringtone out here:  http://www.ringtonesgalore.co.uk/enhanced/animal-soundbites/mosquito/mobiletonescom/

3)     Our favorite health club.  The girls routinely work out (that’s their story and they are sticking with it) at the local Dustbury International House of Pancakes.  Dr. Jan checks the internet to see if Cameron (in Australia) knows about the IHOP.  The girls are appalled to find out that IHOP is only international in the USA and Canada.

4)     The North Korean Missile Crisis.  Dr. Jan decides that the North Koreans are wildly misunderstood.  She believes they set off the missiles to celebrate the American Independence Day of July the 4th or concludes that the North Koreans are incompetent and totally lame. 

5)     The Rosarito Drug Cartel.  Betsy warns about the drug cartel down in Rosarito Beach (Acupulco), Mexico.  The girls decide to not visit the beach (as if).

6)     Homer the Beagle.  Betsy relates the shoe mystery story.

7)     Swiffer.  The girls discuss the tragedy of having to clean their parents’ homes during the visit; Dr. Jan extols the virtue of Swiffer cleaning systems.

8)     Pat’s Pickles.  Every year Dr. Jan makes a homemade batch of old fashioned sweet pickles.  Here’s the recipe Jan was given 17 years ago in Darlington, SC by Mary:

1/2 bushel cucumbers (washed)
 

Day 1-            Bring to boil 2 gallons of water and 4 cups of pickling salt.  Pour over cucumbers.  Let stand 24 hours.
 Day 2-            Drain cucumbers.  Bring to boil 2 gallons of water and 1 cup of Alum.  Pour over cucumbers.  Let stand 24 hours.
 

Day 3-            Drain cucumbers.  Bring to boil 2 gallons of water.  Pour over cucumbers.  Let stand 24 hours.
 Day 4-            Drain cucumbers.  Bring to boil 2 gallons of white vinegar and 1 box of pickling spice.  Pour over cucumbers.  Cover and let stand 9 days.
 

            Slice cucumbers.  Put cucumbers in layers in the “pickle container”, alternating a layer of cucumbers and a layer of sugar.  Use 5 lbs. of sugar to gallon.  Carefully stir pickle mixture each day until sugar melts.  Once sugar is melted, place pickles and sugar in pickle jars and process through boiling water bath pickling process.
 

 9)     Joke of the day.  Betsy tells a Bill Clinton joke that Dr. Jan totally doesn’t get; so she has to explain it.

10)   Bye now.  The girls sing Roy Rogers and Dale Evans’ song, “Happy Trails to You.”

That’s about it.  You can, of course, start your own UGC at your own locale.  Life can be sweet when you and your buds appreciate the glory of feasting with friends!

Today I want to write about the importance of friends. And, this blog entry is dedicated to my best friend Betsy.

A couple of years ago when I thought I was dying (enduring the rigors of chemotherapy for breast cancer), I really began to think about what was important in life. I had spent the majority of my adult life in hot pursuit of career advancement and had made it to the top of the heap (as far as education goes) as a school superintendent… only to find it was a terrible job for which I was ill suited. I like being with teachers and kids; but the superintendency wasn’t about what I thought it was… at all.

So, there I was with my fancy doctorate from Vanderbilt, all prepared to be a superintendent… just to discover that I hated the job. Shortly thereafter, I was felled by what I call a “bout” with cancer (hope it’s gone and never returns).And, I began to contemplate what life was all about during my bout.

And, I came to a startling conclusion. It was all about your relationships. It’s not about who gets to the finish line first and best; it’s about the relationships you develop as you race along; it’s not about the race… it’s about what you make of the race. If you fall down in the race, it’s about getting back up. And, it’s about helping everyone else around you in the race. And, it’s about a million other things than what you think it’s about… and it’s not about the race.And, that’s where today’s blog entry is taking us. It’s about relationships.

And, today, I want to write about my friendship with Betsy. I first met Betsy when I hired her to be a teacher. It was my first year there as principal (as I was fast tracking it up the educational ladder of success). The school was a mess; the principal before me had taken it up from the abyss, but she was promoted to high school… and I got the beginning of my dream school (which always starts with a big ole challenge). We were projected to go on the state at-risk list that year, and the school was covered with graffiti… in fact, the bathrooms were painted black so that graffiti couldn’t be read there. Anyway, I had a larger enrollment than expected that year and was given an additional teacher allocation after the first weeks of school.

Now, Betsy can tell you the exact date because she was just hankering to get a teaching job and remembers those kinds of things. Just like she knows where you were reared and who your people are; but I don’t remember those kinds of things. There’s few dates that I remember, but I remember meeting Betsy. There she was, a newly-wed, all fresh and preppie looking and just aching to teach. She had just gotten married and moved to Oklahoma City from Bolivar, Missouri and had cried the first day of school when she had yet to locate a teaching job.I had a big job on my hands, and I don’t remember what I said to Betsy.

But, she, too, is a motivational speaker; and I have heard her talk about the situation. Apparently, I told her I was giving her the biggest problem children in the school for a self-contained class. She (who had been a second grade teacher) was supposed to whip them into shape, not give me any cause for concern in the discipline area, and was to teach them to read, write and do algebra. Oh, and I didn’t have a classroom for her; so she was going to have to conduct the class in the teacher’s lunch room.

Well, she did it. Her kids progressed more academically than anyone else in the school. They learned algebra AND to read and to write. And, Betsy learned algebra, too. And, they did amazing things; like raise money, so they could go to Dallas and investigate the JFK assassination and meet with the big wig who wrote about the book. She even got Zig Ziggler to donate his shoes to her (and a bunch of other big wigs like Troy Achman) to prove to her students that they could walk in the shoes of people who were successful… and they could be, too.

So, my friendship began with Betsy based on my deep admiration of her practice. And, just about everywhere I went after I left that school, I found a way to get Betsy there with me because she was successful in every endeavor she put her mind to.

And, she always lifts me up when I am enduring some trauma on my job (which, since I have a problem with authority figures, is pretty often); and she always believes in me.

And when I was having that poison chemo dripped into my body, she sat beside me, holding my hand and telling me it would be over someday; and we would laugh about it.

And, she just kept after me about going to elementary school and coming to “her” school, where she was the instructional facilitator. And, I did go there. And, then after one year, she  left to go be the principal of her own school. And, we are still as close as ever.

 And, every Saturday morning, we put our cell phones beside our respective beds, and as soon as one of us wakes up (has to be after 5:01 a.m… even if only by seconds), we call the other. Then, we throw on our clothes (with no makeup or shower) and we meet for breakfast; and we laugh and support each other in our endeavors. And, we call ourselves the Ugly Girls Club because I guarantee that we are really ugly when we meet (middle aged women should never go out in public without makeup).

And, my relationship with Betsy is very important to me. And, I have clung to one of the lessons I learned during the chemo wars. The most important thing in your life is your relationships. As you are running along in your race of life, make sure you find your Betsys… because they make all the difference.