Please welcome me in introducing Answer With Action to the world! Contact me about getting started on your big ideas at sloane (at) answerwithaction.com.

What is Answer With Action?
ANSWER WITH ACTION is about taking big ideas and making them happen. Answer With Action is about inspiring you to take your small business, company or nonprofit to the next level. Answer With Action is about combining online tools with offline engagement and creating a robust conversation about you, your brand, your services, your products, and your events.

Answer With Action is a New Orleans-based integrated marketing, digital media and public relations consultancy. Create campaigns and events that have an immediate impact on your business and learn how building relationships online using new strategies and tools can transform the way you communicate with customers, vendors and donors. Answer With Action creates opportunities for you to learn, adopt and implement new media into your existing business. Answer With Action will help you build cause marketing campaigns to broaden your audience and create more depth and sincere story-telling into your current strategy. We provide short and long-term engagements with clients including website reviews, training sessions, webinars, and speaking opportunities to help your business go to the next level by understanding how your content is consumed and make it accessible to your target audience.

Take a look, below are a sample of the services I’m offering:

Strategic Planning
Answer With Action helps you to strategize, think big and then execute on your ideas to create effective campaigns and more cohesive relationships within your business, company or nonprofit. From campaigns to reinventing how you operate in the online space, let us be your partner-in-crime to take your wish list and put it into ACTION!

Relationship Building
It helps when you have a connector guiding you in the right direction, teaching you how to be a better communicator and reaching into their networks to open doors and ignite conversations for you. Services include community engagement, blogger, media relations and influencer outreach and targeting online and offline individuals and groups to help you grow your brand.

Event Planning
Years of experience in planning corporate events and nonprofits galas (plus volunteer events and salons) taught us the importance of attention to detail, strong relationships with vendors and remaining calm in the face of adversity. Let us create the experience, you keep the memory!

Social Media Branding
Listening, monitoring, engaging in conversation. It all seems like so much to handle! Don’t get lost in the social media vortex. We’ll tell you what to look for (we can build out those tools for you), how to respond, and most importantly how to quantify it all so that your CFO will be on board and go “Yes, I get it!”

Philanthropy Matchmaking
You should feel empowered by what you can do, not guilty for what you can’t. Cause, the art of giving back, doesn’t have to be something on your “one day” list any longer. We’ll work with you to identify target nonprofits to partner with and then help build relationships that matter. From volunteering to board placement, cause marketing campaigns to major gifts, we can help make your gift of giving matter.

Website & Technology Review
You think you know what works and what doesn’t about your website, but you’re not sure. You want a blog but don’t know where to start. You know you should be more fascinated by analytics but you don’t know what to look for. You need help! Let us review your business, company, personal or nonprofit website and give you specifics on what you can do to improve your site, gain traffic and feel confident to tell people where they can find you online.

Keynote & Speaking Engagements
Let’s get your tribe excited and motivated! For a list of speaking topics, check out the next section Speaking.

Spokesperson/Evangelist
From conferences to private events, we can evangelize your product or services and walk away with meaningful contacts who are excited to hear more about your company.

FYI it’s the incredible Jeremy Yuricek at electrocinema that put together my new site, thank you to the incredible Taylor Davidson for connecting us!

When I think back on the beginning of 2010 years from now, I will remember it as a whirlwind. How else can I ever explain moving to a new city, diving into new projects and clients, entering my first contest (EVER) and then winning and finding myself in Switzerland days later for the World Economic Forum then jumping back to New Orleans for festivities already described?

Through it all, my main and most important constant has been the amazing Taylor Davidson and Carl Nelson. Without these two NOLAlicious wouldn’t have happened, would not have grown and I would be experiencing this new city without them – an idea so preposterous I can’t even imagine it.

It’s not just their spirit, it’s their ability to launch new projects, take ideas and make them happen and be tremendous friends.

The influences I’ve had this quarter are many. The Young Global Leaders I met at Davos moved and shook me, and the opportunity to connect with incredible individuals at talks I’ve given this Spring including at Rise Austin and SXSW. But if I had to pick two, it would be Taylor and Carl.

And (selfishly) I want them to stay in New Orleans as long as possible, which means they need support for their projects. Let me share…

Narratively: Taylor’s a true photographer. In high school he wrapped his own film, shot it and then developed it himself. As a photographer he’s shot landscapes and weddings, creative series and had public shows and self-published a book. As a lover of photography, he knows cameras and how to promote photography and has written extensively about how to make money as a photographer, the future of the stock photo industry and where the industry is going. In addition to photograhy, he now offers his services as consulting to share experience and wisdom for other aspiring and established photographers and also online strategy and marketing for brands. His approach is analytical yet thoughtful and I recommend hiring him in any capacity you can.

The Dancing Nomad: Carl is an amazing dancer, to be sure, but the fact that he can teach dance makes his contribution to both New Orleans and the dance community that much stronger. Classes in Lindy Hop and Charleston can be had out of his Shiny Step Studios and he consults to other dancers and dance studios about how to navigate the social web and find a space online to promote their business and services. You can sometimes find him busking on Royal Street in the French Quarter on the weekends or at The Orange Couch in the Marigny. I completely recommend taking one of his classes or hiring him for online services.

Here’s to many more experiences with both of them and to more reflections and posts about those who move and inspire me in the months and years to come.

• Three Exciting Announcements: This is the post where I announced NOLAlicious (now at it’s 15th edition and growing rapidly), my contract work with FSC Interactive on the Ochsner Health System social media strategy team and my segment on LPTV for social entrepreneurship. In 3 months, these 3 projects are among my favorite.
• Dear Future Me: Of all the future me’s I write, this one by far is my favorite. It was also a big step to share it, and I felt really brave for putting this foot forward and challenging myself to be more open and honest.
• Crisis Camp New Orleans: After the earthquake in Haiti, I knew I had to get involved. I looked around and asked friends and after about 72 hours heard about Crisis Camp. Since I was (and still am) new to New Orleans, I knew I needed to enlist someone to help make a local event like this a success and finding a great partner to do that was wonderful. Putting on Camps are a lot of work with a lot of reward and it was truly amazing the spirit of the people who came out that day to help create technology tools to help emergency response teams in Haiti.
• I’m the new MySpace Wall Street Journal Citizen Journalist for Davos! What is there even to say? I truly was overwhelmed and amazed by the response I go from friends all over the place who voted for me, supported me, sent me notes of encouragement. It was an opportunity of a lifetime and I can’t even being to describe the way that attending Davos changed my life and my perspective on the world. My biggest wish is to attend again, it was remarkable and huge thank you again to everyone for your support in helping make this dream come true.
  

• World Economic Forum Highlight Reel: Words and photos and videos can’t really describe the experience. Twitter and Facebook and MySpace and WSJ updates can’t give you the whole play-by-play. But I certainly tried best I could and it was tremendous to be a representative of those online communities, and a representative of New Orleans, and a true student of economics, political science and there soaking up the information at every turn.
• Forbes Woman: 20 Inspiring Women To Follow On Twitter. What an honor to be included on this list of power women! I also started getting into Twitter lists here to bring together groups of people and experiences. I’ve created relationships with a few of the other women on this list because we were connected here and that’s been a tremendous addition to my 2010.
• The Causemopolitan’s First Birthday! Need I say more? What a year it’s been. Here’s to many many more.
• My First Mardi Gras: Not only was it my first Mardi Gras (I had NO idea what I was getting into) but I also got to participate in My Mardi Gras Experience by Tom Martin and the Zehnder Communications team. It was amazing to ride in my first krewe (MUSES!), see the parades and experience Mardi Gras as a local. I’m really glad my experiences were captured for posterity and to look back on year from now.
• Living In Los Angeles: Such a bittersweet return to Los Angeles, a place I called home for 5 years and miss terribly. Yes I have this exciting and wonderful life in New Orleans and the two experiences juxtaposed against each other during a week-long trip to LA just floored me. I wrote a little something about that here…
• Tech Tools for Social Good: I spoke at CalTech and it was amazing, I love talking to students! A similar talk was given a week later at SXSW as a panel, but I did this one solo and it really meant a lot to me to be asked and I’m hoping to do a lot more talks as the year goes on. This was a great boost to get that ball rolling (plus it got me to LA!
• GNO 2.0 The Economic Revolution: I do as much as I can for New Orleans every day because of how much I care, and to be asked to be in this video was awesome. I can get overwhelmed with New Orleans, but this post and video remind me how much I sincerely love it here, and that’s always a good reminder in the day-to-day hustle of life.

Lagniappe: I did 8 “Cause It’s My Birthday” Interviews in January and they’re listed on the Cause It’s My Birthday section. I hope to do more. It was amazing to see people who took this idea and ran with it on their own!

This is the first of three posts reviewing the first quarter.

Life goes by fast and I’ve found if you don’t stop and smell the roses, well, it passes fast and it’s hard to look back and remember things. Remark on them. Tell those you care about how much those moments COUNT for something.

A friend of mine told me of an exercise where she takes the printout of her calendar and at the end of each month writes on the back what she is most proud of, who she is happy she connect with or who impacted her the most that month and then looks forward to the next month.

I’ve been wanting to do that for every month of 2010, which of course didn’t happen. It was a whirlwind and instead of fighting the wind, I succumbed to it. I was wrapped up and twisted into post-Davos, Superbowl, local election, Mardi Gras mayhem, trips to Los Angeles and SXSW and wouldn’t you know, a truly terrific cold and cough that once I recovered from, I was staring down the face of mountains of work. The work I love! It just leaves little time to post, to write, to share.

No matter. I can go back and recount what happened a few weeks ago, a few months ago. I’m no less busy now, but sometimes you just have to force yourself to MAKE time. This is me making time.

So looking back on the first three months of this year, I’ve decided to break the posts into three parts:

1) Site (and life) updates.
2) Top posts of 2010.
3) Acknowledgments (and influences).

Lagniappe: Next steps and looking forward to the rest of the year. Maybe even a Master Task List for old times sake!

Secret: I have a huge task list of updates I want to make to my blog and it’s hard to get to them all. I am planning a major overhaul at some point this year, but in the meantime, I just want to make small changes each month. That seems more doable anyway. Here’s what I did in January (and some with the help of my good friends an SEO whiz and easily swayed).

* About Page was rewritten. It now includes a fun bio in 140 characters, a short bio that can be used for speaking and then a longer bio or really first-person story I wrote about why I am the way I am, or why I think I am the way I am. Or maybe just my perception of what things have happened to me that make me the way that I am. You get the point!

Writing about yourself, I think, is the hardest thing. It seems so hard to get the wording right, to remember things just so. It was a great challenge to sum up ME in 140, you should try it (if you do, send it to me)!

* Contact Page: Added a photo and changed the text on the page. I always strive to keep the contact page as simple as possible but inviting. I love hearing from people, and the form just streamlines everything and gives it to me with clear information.

* Added “Work With Me” section. This entire section (and forthcoming consulting site) have been in the works all of 2010. I thought I’d have to put up a page or a site in order to get work and clients and wouldn’t you know, I’ve been so incredibly blessed and crazy busy without them. As I’ve been able to stick my head above water and breathe, I do now have this page up. I also have some bandwidth, so if you’re interested in learning more and working with me, well then let me know!

* Kiva Fellowship section reorganized, parts rewritten, all content optimized for search and to find. I know the Kiva content was in a lot of places on my blog and I wanted it to be clear and easy for both future potential fellows and also Kiva-enthusiasts to be able to see. Anyone who has EVER reworked pages of content knows this is a tedious process, it’s moving things ever so slightly, but making a big difference hopefully in the long run. I hope that is what this reorganization did. The new sections are now separated into:

• Kiva Fellowship Overview
• What Is Kiva?
• What Is A Kiva Journal?
• Fundraising for a Kiva Fellowship
• Kiva Fellowship Donors

* Media section completely redone. This section is far from complete! It’s always changing and I’m not quite sure exactly how I want the page to look or be laid out. But again, it was important to start somewhere! The rest can wait. So for now the sections are:

• Media
• Press (Which is in need of updated even now. It’s endless I tell you)!
• Speaking & Inquiries
• Schedule 2010
• Schedule 2009 (for posterity).

* Sidebar Navigation has lots of goodies!

• First are the six boxes at the top that show where to find me on other social networks. I had wanted to do this for sometime, connecting every together and I’m really excited about it.
• New Twitter Integration with the box that says “Join The Conversation.” It’s just a much better widget and cleaner looking. Clean is good on a blog. Cluttered is way too yuck.
• The box that shows Recent, Popular, Comments and Tag Cloud. I saw this on a few other sites and wanted it on mine. It wasn’t an easy get, and I graciously had a friend help with the coding. But now all of those main calls to action are right there on the homepage and above the fold. Score!

* Additions to posts and the overall content. Last updates! First the RELATED POSTS at the bottom of posts can now be automated. People don’t know this, but I’ve been handpicking the “related posts” for months, mostly because I knew which ones I wanted to include, but there is a great widget out there that helps do this, it took some reworking, but I’m really happy with it. Next, my comments are all through DISQUS now and I love them. Their platform, customer service, the way comments come through. All of it! Last is the “share” bar on the bottom. It allows people to share content across networks simply and with the touch of a button.

* Last thing! All posts now get automatically feeded into my Facebook profile as a note. It allows Facebook people to see every post. I had been putting only some of them in manually. This step to auto takes one thing off my plate.

There you have it! So it might look like everything is the same, but really there have been small-to-medium size changes every month. The list is long and there are more to come, but hey, sharing these was at least a start.

Most of all, I hope everyone reading this knows that I make these changes as much for you as for me. I love this blog, I love this little corner of the Internet that is mine and I thank you for reading. And if you got to the end of this post, well you’re a ROCKSTAR!

I wanted to say thank you to those out-of-towners not only for your friendship but also for the stimulating conversation, the opportunity to have really quality one-on-one time with you talking about life, business, politics, life dreams and everything in between. Since my blog is an extension of me, I wanted to have a blog post that I could update with my visitors so I can look back at the end of 2010 and my one-year anniversary in New Orleans and reflect on those who have crossed my path during their own travels to this town I’ve come to love so much.

Talking about New Orleans to visitors, showing people around, highlighting my favorite nooks and crannies and exploring new ones reminds me of all of the reasons I moved to New Orleans and keep me fresh, excited and inspired. In all honesty I don’t have time to meet with everyone who connects or reaches out to me, there is only so much time in the day. But I try, I certainly always try to be a sounding board and to answer questions about New Orleans and its culture, food, people, history and future to be best of my ability and with the same enthusiasm every time. And when I’m out of town myself, I always have NOLAlicious to pass along. That’s a start to a good New Orleans experience! The rest, like much of life, is up to you.

I’ve created a Twitter List for all these visitors (those on Twitter at least) that you can follow!

Drumroll please:

April:
Wedding season! Great night on the town with my NYC buddy, Michael Gruen, talking about venture funding, creating opportunity, living remotely and wandering through some of my favorite spots including Marigny Brasserie, d.b.a., and the piano bar at Pat O’Briens.

Best friend and partner-in-crime visit from the one and only Casey Stone. My former roommate in Los Angeles who herself has gone through a transformation this past year from working as a Hollywood studio web-publicist to living in Portsmouth, NH working as a social media consultant plus sandwich-maker (!) and I loved every minute with her. Every minute. I miss my good girlfriends from Los Angeles maybe more than I miss anything else about any other chapter of my life and time with Casey was very much needed.

Carla Schlemminger and I are both collaborators on SocialBrite but we had never met in person. Anyone who knows JD Lasica knows he puts together amazing teams of people so I couldn’t have been more excited when Carla said she was coming to town for a wedding and wanted to connect over breakfast one morning. I took her to NOLAlicious pick, Croissant d’Or and had a fantastic morning talking about the future of public relations using social media, new causes and nonprofits to pay attention to, people we are doing cool things and of course New Orleans tips for the weekend.

Bryan Appel and I went to K-8th grade together in Pittsburgh, PA at St. Edmund’s Academy and I hadn’t seen him since. Facebook allowed us to connect again, but as I say time and time again, it’s up to US to take those online interactions and make them real. That’s why Bryan did. He was headed to town with the church in Virginia where he is now Youth Minister and invited me to speak to the group at dinner about my “cause-filled life” and personal experiences in New Orleans. I really appreciated his reaching out to me and enjoyed the evening more than I could even begin to say.

March
Dave Brand is a buddy of mine from high school at Shady Side Academy. We also went to the same college, University of Vermont, and we also both ended up living in Los Angeles. Needless to say, our paths have always crossed in some way, shape or form, so I wasn’t terribly shocked to hear of everyone I know in the Universe, Dave was coming to New Orleans for the annual Ace Hardware Convention. See he owns a company that manufacturers and sells heat lamps, the kind in restaurants or in outdoor living rooms and all Ace suppliers nationwide were in town. We met in the CBD and walked into the Quarter eating at EAT. Catching up with Dave, in some ways, feels like benchmarks for my life since he’s really seen me at just about every interval that has ever existed. We weave conversations about people from all the chapters of our lives and it’s amazing to think we’ve been friends for 15 years.

February
Mardi Gras brought amazing visitors. It was my first Mardi Gras so it was overwhelming for me to meet with everyone, but two highlights stand out. First Steph Dub was in town, and I just love that girl. You know the kind of people that change their flights so they can stay somewhere longer? Well I’m not saying that is exactly what happened (!), but she is the kind of person who would do that! It was a day-long adventure and my first time seeing a good girlfriend from somewhere else in the country since I returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos and my life seemed to have wings of its own and she was really grounding in reminding me that everything happens for a reason.

Barrett Garese came to New Orleans to explore the entrepreneurial community at the end of a multi-city stop. He didn’t know he was coming at the beginning of Mardi Gras, and to be honest, neither did I. Since I’ve know Barrett for a few years and from jobs past, it was a real awakening to see him and talk about where we both were professionally. Barrett gave me my word of 2010: augment. We talked from a business perspective (but I’ve since seen how it can be used in a personal setting too) how each project or endeavor should play into another. It’s that essence than projects aren’t silos that keeps me going and thinking big as I embark on new and exciting endeavors. I owe much of this to Barrett’s straight forward nature and honesty about what works in the online space right now and what doesn’t.

Sala Udin is a true freedom fighter. Friends with my step-dad for umpteen years, we had actually never met. He was in town with his wife and invited me to dinner with them and friends in the Treme. I walked away from dinner floored from the talent at dinner and also at the power of saying “yes.” Saying yes to dinner, going alone, taking my chances, reminded me that sometimes even I need to spread my wings and go out on a limb. I was surrounded by flocks of Sala followers, for he has touched so many people. A true community organizer, he talked about what it takes to bring communities together, especially from a development standpoint having worked with economically and ethnically diverse communities for decades. The rewards can be so great when you don’t have all the answers and just go after something and say, “yes.”

Part of My Mardi Gras Experience by Tom Martin was to bring in bloggers from outside New Orleans to experience Mardi Gras as a local. Of all of the visitors that came through, I most enjoyed finally getting to meet and talk to Peter Shankman aka @SkyDiver aka Founder of Help A Reporter Out. It was from sharing experiences over Mardi Gras that we got to talking about SXSW that we got to talking about an awesome invite-only dinner he was throwing which I was subsequently invited to and was one of my favorite experiences of SXSW Interactive this year. Meeting Peter was the reminder of what happens when you stop to talk to someone, really talk to them, and what can happen from those conversations. There are many of us that live our lives to some extent “online” but nothing can take away from that offline interaction and connection and our brief encounter during Mardi Gras was an excellent example of that.

January
January flew by visitor free!

December
Within weeks of arrival, I was stoked to have two of my favorite ladies come to town for separate reasons. Micki Krimmel came to give a talk at Doing It With Drupal and we hung out more in a few days in New Orleans than in a year in Los Angeles. In LA you can love-love someone, but if they live on the other side of town that can be 1 hour+ driving each way and it’s just hard to see them. It sucks to say geography plays such a huge role in seeing people, but it does. A few good days (and ever better meals) with Micki in New Orleans took the edge off being in a new city.

Erica O’Grady came into town as part of a pack of food bloggers from Houston to promote the destination weekend getaway from Houston to New Orleans. We spent an afternoon touring around Uptown, eating at Domilise’s and talking about life and love. This was before we both embarked on new and exciting relationships and I wonder if the December versions of us knew how the April ones would turn out? This also kicked off conversations about collaborating on a project. Something that is so super exciting, I can’t wait one day to tell everyone about it.

Macy’s Pathway to Peace had an event in New Orleans and James Andrews and other members of the Everywhere team came to town and I got to hang out with them for the evening in addition to Sarah Evans and Jyl Johnson Pattee. It’s also where I started to talk to James about exciting partners and projects they had going on at Everywhere which has become a terrific client for me this year. That was a good night!

October, 2009
The TribeCon 2009 crew. Technically a month before I officially moved to New Orleans, but this crew was in town for the first ever TribeCon and it was fun wandering around the streets of the French Quarter and The Voodoo Experience grounds getting to know these guys: Gerard Ramos, Micah Baldwin, Eric Marcoullier, Andrew Hyde, Mike Karnjanaprakorn and Perry Chen.

So here’s to more visitors, more learning experiences and more sharing of adventures for the rest of 2010 and beyond!

That’s how I feel now.

Much of it I’m chalking up to “3-month transition blues.” 3 months into a new city, new work responsibilities, new relationships with friends. It’s like a speed bump where everything is going along at the speed of light and then !WHAM! it feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. Much of it I’m chalking up to putting stakes down and letting go of my vagabond lifestyle. It’s not so fun sorting through receipts, going from point A, to point B, back to point A at night, feeling dragged down by the day-to-day of life. Much of it I know shall pass. Like all bumps in the road do because after 30 years of life, I know myself well enough to know that these lows happen but they’re few and far between and that usually, on most given Sundays, I’m upbeat, chipper and ready to take on the world.

But for the part that I’m not chalking up, I’m worried. I’m scared. I’m frightened and I feel captive by my own decisions. I spent most of last year thinking BIG. Like how do I really impact the world and leave it better than I found it. You could see that through my time in New Orleans, Kiva Fellowship, Cause It’s My Birthday campaign and musings here on The Causemopolitan. I felt bigger, stronger and more in charge than ever. The reality of every day life feels like a cold shower shocking my system into routine and daily life and it’s hard to keep that eye on the prize. And hard to think so big that it shakes you to your very bones.

I’ll keep pushing forward. And I’ll put my best foot in front of the other. I’ll ask friends to lend an ear. And most of all, I’ll be good to myself, listen to what’s in my heart. Make sure I’m doing things for the right reasons and not just running from one experience to the next.

But if you’ve been wondering why I’ve been quiet lately. Well, that’s why. I was away for most of last month, traveling to Austin, Los Angeles, and back to Austin for SXSW and loving every moment of being on the road and away from my “day-to-day” and feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders and guilt from here to next Tuesday about how free and great it felt to be on the road traveling instead of in the one place that I choose to lay my head. It felt like looking a gift horse in the mouth. Then I realized it’s not that at all. It’s just a growing pain. And sometimes when your muscles cramp it feels good to get some blood flowing in them, even if that does mean running. Just as long as you remember you have a place to call home at the end of the day.

Related Posts:
If There Is No Wind, Row
Riddle Me This: 9 Table Topic Questions
New Environments Are Hard

“I just find myself crying randomly at stop lights or while on a run at how absolutely comfortable I feel, at how many memories come washing back over me, about how much of my life happened here.” I say, “It still feels like home. I remember all the shortcuts, I’ve randomly run into people at half the places I go.”

“All of that doesn’t go away because you’ve moved away. Who knows? You’ll always have friends and professional relationships and ties here. You’ll always have a reason to visit. Life might bring you back here, you just never know and the amazing thing about you is that you know that. You allow yourself to stay open to the experience.”

The wisdom of friends…

Walking along the bluffs of Palisades Park in Santa Monica overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the breeze and the sun mixing together like sand and suntan lotion on a summer day, my heart feels just about to burst as I talk with one of my closest friends who I’ve missed so terribly since I left LA in December, 2008.

Everything about Los Angeles comes flooding back to me. When I first arrived in the fall of 2003, October 16th to be exact, I was in love and felt like LA was this place where opportunity grew on trees and you could make your own path and create your own existence. I felt like anything was possible and moving into a one bedroom apartment two blocks from the beach in Venice, my (then) boyfriend and I were struggling to figure out what to do with our lives, what our mission was. We both felt like we had a greater calling, something spectacular beckoning us, we just weren’t sure what it was.

After my five exceptional years in Los Angeles, I still felt that way. That hope and excitement for the future. I created a full, rich and deep life. Not just the friends that crossed my path, or the rocks I overturned discovering and defining a city on my own terms but in my understanding of who I was in a city that would just as likely chew you up and spit you out as it would embrace you and call your name. It’s not an easy place to live, LA challenges you. The traffic alone is enough to send some people running back to where they came from.

However, like anyplace I’ve ever been, it’s about the people and the experiences you create. One of my favorite activities when I had visitors was to show them how big LA was from a vista point. But everyone is different so I had three varieties. One was to hike Temescal Canyon (canyon side first not ridge) for when you hike that last bit and look out, on a clear day you can see to the South Bay and Downtown and out to Malibu and the Pacific Ocean’s blues layer on top of each other deep into the distance.

The second option for the less athletic or more culturally inclined is to visit the Getty Center. Arguably the best art collection in Los Angeles, taking the tram (or walking) up to the Richard Meier designed buildings, you see the same view and it’s spectacular.

The third is to drive deep into Hollywood and up, up, up Laurel Canyon Blvd to Lookout Mountain Drive to Wonderland Avenue and there’s a hidden little spot where when you go at night the lights just shine and play off of each other until they blur together into spots deep into the distance.

I suppose, thinking about Los Angeles now, it’s not surprising that the views come to mind, the expansive and world-opening view of the city. After all, it’s that world is your oyster gut-feeling I get every time I see them. I look out to the roofs of houses and think about the people inside, their families, their struggles and I think about my own life experiences, my struggles and my triumphs and I feel a tug from the Universe to not go quietly into the dark night but to keep pressing and pushing forward, regardless of who thinks what or what happens where, because I know there is more out there for me. LA helped make me that way and I owe her credit for creating both the calm mindfulness and the ambitious drive, the two complimenting each other instead of battling for first place.

It’s people that make any experience come to life. It’s the people in Los Angeles, the friends I’ve made, that make my heart ache a bit when I’m not here and missing them so terribly. And then, it’s the magic of California, the way it’s always made me feel alive and alert and thoughtful of my surroundings in a place that some people dismiss without really knowing it.

I don’t try to predict the future. I love my life in New Orleans and the people I’ve gotten to know there in a few short months, some of whom have come to mean quite a lot to me. And New Orleans has been incredibly good to me. But I guess what I really want to say, is don’t think for a minute that I’ve forgotten anything or anyone in LA, and don’t think that because it seems like it’s all roses in one place, that quite frequently, my heart and my mind are wistfully looking off into the distance thinking about a chapter of my life that I never ever want to shake.

Related Posts:
New Environments Are Hard
Spontaneous Trip To Paris
Cause It’s My Birthday Video Update

I had owned The Causemopolitan’s domain name for awhile, and with the help and support of friends, I got her up and running in a just a few days.

The Causemopolitan was born with the post, It’s About Time, and in a lot of ways, I was reborn. Over the past year, I’ve come to be known by some as The Causemopolitan, and as a name takes on meaning of its own, having that moniker reminds me daily about the kind of person I want to be in the world. I have never wanted to change my name, the way a friend from middle school Katie is now known as Cate. I never knew nicknames as Sloane was never short for anything the way Jennifer becomes Jenn. A few close friends have terms of endearment that I got by, but nothing in my life could have prepared me for what it would be like to take on another name. The Causemopolitan has taken me quite by surprise. A wonderful, full of life, amazing surprise.

I know that blogs are like post-it notes on a gigantic wall, but that my little post-it just means the world to me.

I’ve thought a lot about how I want to celebrate the one-year anniversary and birthday of my blog. Who I want to thank, how I want to spend the next year, but as the past few days have gone by I’ve realized I want to just most sincerely say thank you. Thank you to everyone for reading, for reaching out in the comments, contacting me, saying hi, making donations to my campaigns, asking me to participate in panels, at conferences, involve and include me in the midst of what was at times, a turbulent and tumultuous and at other times a serendipitous and miraculous 2009. Through the clouds and smoke and the uncertainty of what was around the next bend, I always found solace in writing a blog post and putting myself out there, sometimes a little and sometimes a lot.

Here’s to another dynamic year of growth, both for The Causemopolitan blog and for me.

Ever yours,
Sloane

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So it goes. My first three months after moving to New Orleans (3 already really?!) have gone by and my current furnished sublet is coming to a close at the end of February. It’s been the perfect spot in the Lower Garden District, a cute little creole apartment of an artist and art curator. Walking distance to a few bars, restaurants and coffee shops. Walking distance to the CBD (Central Business District) and French Quarter and Uptown. Has a small home office I can work out of. Has a balcony I can walk out onto in the mornings with my tea look towards the Mississippi River. It’s been comfortable and felt like home about an hour after moving in.

The terms of the sublet were through February and as Mardi Gras was coming to a close, I knew the time was coming to look for another place. I’ve been looking at Craigslist, but I find much more in life with targeted asks to friends. So I have an email going out to friends and I’ll utilize my blog and social networks to find a new place in the next 7 days.

Here’s what I’m looking for:

• 1 bedroom furnished apartment
• 3-6 month lease or sublet
• Starting March 1st
• Rent between $700-1000

I’m more flexible this time on location because I know it’s harder to find a furnished place than unfurnished, but I’m still just a few months off from being able to afford and have the time to bring my stuff from storage in California and Pennsylvania.

Location might be French Quarter, Uptown or Mid-City. It’s really more about the vibe of the place than the location. It would be nice to be near a park or running trail and have a nice neighborhood to walk around in with a few local spots nearby. And safety is a concern so I have to keep that in mind as well.

About me, for potential landlords…
My personal blog (here duh)
Website
Twitter (daily digest of what I’m up to)
Facebook

Thanks for any apartment/housing leads in New Orleans or e-introductions to friends. My email is sloane@thecausemopolitan.com

Round two of New Orleans on the way,
Sloane

P.S. I already know of one person looking for a new place in New Orleans too. I’m happy to share places that get sent to me so if you’re looking too, just let me know and I’ll forward places along to you too.

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In reflecting on my reflecting of 2009, I looked back at the resolutions I made a month ago and can’t believe the progress I made. I joked recently to a friend that January brought so much positive change and sheer brute force that I’ve flown through a lot of these. January was one of the best months of my whole life. I felt in control of my path, I got back on track and back to work. I received a paycheck again. I swooned and awed and danced little happy dances in my apartment when no one was watching celebrating life.

Nonetheless, one of the things I want to do in 2010 is sharing of my goals and the things I work on behind closed doors to make things happen.

First a note. My mom requires my sisters and I submit our New Year’s Resolutions to her in-person, by phone or email by 11PM EST on New Year’s Eve. No exceptions. I have dialed mine in from Cairo to Buenos Aires. My mom puts our Resolutions on paper and in a bottle in the back of the freezer to look at again the next year. I’m being bold sharing my resolutions with you here hoping that this mix of self-determination will lead to fulfilling my “official resolutions” for the year.

I develop many more goals as the year goes by, but these, well these are the starting point for the adventure and state of mind I wish to be in for 2010.

My resolutions (as I wrote them to my mom):

1) Adventure: Go skydiving, get a tattoo, visit Japan, learn to drive a stick (carry over from last year), visit one state I haven’t been to yet.

2) Professional: Attend one conference I haven’t been to before, give at least 10 talks on “cause-filled living,” publish at least 10 articles in magazines or longer form blog posts (separate from repurposing content), blog every day for one month. Write a book and get it published. In general write more, publish more, continue to build a brand around “cause-filled living.”

3) Personal: Be a good friend. Be on time with birthday cards. Make time to connect with people in real life who I meet and connect with online. Don’t be scared of the good stuff and embrace what life throws at me.

4) Volunteer and Philanthropy: Volunteer at least 10 hours every month. Donate at least 10% of what I earn in 2010. Track both extensively to share with friends and on my blog.

5) Health and Wellness: Teach a spinning class (this is multi-step – get certified, get a part-time gig teaching, make the music mix, teach a class). **To note I was actually going to take the certification class last weekend in January and ended up at Davos instead. Always had a love of spinning and yoga and thought this would be a fun challenge. Go vegetarian for a month. Go on the wagon for a month. Do at least one 10-day cleanse. Attend a retreat (spiritual or spa for one week).

What were your resolutions and how are they holding up after 30 days? Refresh yourself to hit February with gusto. Did you ever stop to think maybe 2010 is YOUR year and the only person stopping you from realizing it is you? Sometimes we gotta get out of our own damn way to make our own dreams come true.

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