2009 – Welcome! — It’s All About The Lifestyle!

WELCOME!

The wealthiest and most successful people in the world know that the best way to build a fortune is to own your own business. Most people work their whole lives trading time for money; and they stop getting paid when they stop working. But does your mortgage stop when you stop working? Or your car payment?

OF COURSE NOT! — So you’re a full-time spender and a part-time earner… (READ MORE…)

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Finally back in cold cold Chicago after a week in the Caribbean for my first ever cruise! I had an absolutely mindbogglingly incredible time, although I did miss the Windy City as well. (by the way, did you know mindbogglingly is actually a word!)

I’ve posted some amazing pictures up on Facebook so head over there an take  a look! We flew out of Chicago early Monday morning, heading for Atlanta, Ga for our transfer to Miami, FL. Everything was going smoothly and we were on time with several hours to spare before we boarded the ship. We did have an unexpected change when Air Tran transferred our connecting flight to a flight TWO HOURS LATER in Atlanta! Miraculously we made it to the ship with 15 minutes to spare before the boarding dock closed! Phew! Talk about your close calls! Thank you thank you to the incredible taxi driver that FLEW to the Port of Miami.

Life Boat Drill

We boarded the ship, exhausted but ready for fun! Of course, they start snapping photos of you as soon as you board for purchase later. Which, I might add, is COMPLETELY unfair when you’ve just flown two flights and raced to the port in the heat while still wearing midwest attire. Not attractive. Everyone else on the ship (who were on time like good little boys and girls) had time to detox before the life boat drill which we all packed together for on deck. It was worth it though to watch the ship pull out of Miami Harbor. What incredible beach houses people have along the gulf! And we saw dolphins our first day, curiously leaping beside the ship!

My New House in Key West

The View From Our Cabin

After the life boat drill, Chase and I headed down to our stateroom, where we found our bags waiting for us outside the door. The room was small, but totally appropriate for what we would be using it for (which is sleeping.) The funniest thing was that they have a curtained window beside the bed. Chase pulled back the curtain to see the view and there was just a whiteboard behind it! Hahah! Why put a curtain in there at all? After unpacking (and several bouts of Chase jumping out of the closet and scaring me……repeatedly) we went to explore the ship!

 

Champagne Art Auctions in the Morning!

 

The Carnival Imagination is one of the fleet’s smaller ships, but was still enormous and packed full of incredible things to do! A casino, art

gallery (yay for Champagne art auctions at 11am!), auditorium stage, disco, 3 clubs, pinnacle bar, karaoke and comedy lounge, and TONS more! I took FULL advantage of the all-you-can-eat sushi bar and the 24 hour food offerings that are on every deck! What an incredible selection of food! I think I might have eaten myself to death in fact.

And that’s not even including the elegant dining room which we eagerly visited every evening for our “formal dining’ experience.

Getting Ready For Dinner with Adri and Tiffany

At dinner we met up with some of my Network Marketing friends including Coach Mark Davis, Mary Jo Leonard and Mike and Tiffany Potillo! It was great to see them and everyone looked beautiful! The food in the dining room was out of this world. They offer you a different menu every night and you can order anything you like (and as much as you like!) Some of my favorites were the Gazpacho (which they think it’s funny to serve in two parts, first you get a tiny pile of tomatoes, and after your look of disbelief at the size of your meal THEN they pour in the gazpacho around it, haha!), Prime Rib and Lobster Tail, Smoked Salmon and Basil, and the sinful Chocolate Melting Cake. mmmmmmmmm. Like I said. Ate. To. Death.

Tuesday we pulled in to Key West, FL which was HOT and WET! Key West is a fascinating place. I’m pretty sure that you can do whatever you want there. Haha, my Dad’s favorite description is from a bumper sticker seen on a lamp post on Duval St. It read “Key West! A work free drug place!”

One of the most curious things about Key West is that wild roosters just run all over the island! Usually a sight I expect to see in Mexico, it was funny to see these birds pecking in the yards of these huge multi-million dollar mansions.

After some tasty conch fritters with key lime mustard, Chase and I walked down Duval St; which runs through Key West, connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. We went to a butterfly conservatory that we found there which was breathtaking. These HUGE bright-colored butterflies zoomed around us everywhere in the conservatory, which was also filled with exotic finches, baby turtles and (strangely) tiny quail birds running around. I have some great pictures of the baby quail that just hatched that day. So cute!

After staring at the incredible houses, cool old trees, and various art displays along Duval St., We stopped for a drink at the Hog’s Breath Inn, which is apparently “the” place to go if you’re visiting Key West. This place had…..VERY…… strong drinks. As we were leaving we saw a man sitting in a cafe across the street reading his daily newspaper. This WOULD be normal enough if the man had not been wearing a sequined showgirl hat, a painted on shirt, large black feathery wings and…… NO PANTS! Go figure. That’s Key West. He went nicely with the 3 80+year old women wearing leopard print Vegas dresses who were dancing and singing all the way down the street.

Leaving Key West we sailed west to Cozumel. The same humid heat that was slightly suffocating in Key West was cut by a magnificent breeze once the ship started moving. We reached Cozumel early because, unfortunately, a woman in our group had a complication with a blood clot and collapsed on the ship! I think she’s doing all right now, but I’m sure it was scary (I’m praying for you guys Roberto!) . They airlifted her to Miami from the hospital in Mexico.

Coumel

Cozumel was incredible. We docked at the pier in the gulf next to the Carnival Legend (which apparently crashed into the Norwegian cruise boat several weeks ago at that same pier! — I think it’s on YouTube). Chase and I rented a scooter and cruised around the whole island!

Atlantic Cozumel After Scootering

The beaches on the Atlantic side had much bigger waves and were completely deserted. We bought $3 Mexican blankets because we had forgotten our towels and lounged in the shallows behind  huge rocks. Gorgeous. Meanwhile, my parent’s visited Jimmy Buffet’s restaurant in Cozumel which they said you can swim in the ocean right at the restaurant. People were throwing their tortilla chips into the water and all the tropical fish were coming up to swim with you! Probably the funniest thing about Cozumel is how quiet it is with its small-town feel. In fact, Chase and I were scootering along and we randomly saw my sister Stephanie and her friend sitting outside a little Margarita hut. After telling her that my parent’s were looking all over for her, my parent’s pull right up next to us in a cab! It’s a small world in Cozumel.

 

Back on the boat for our last full day at sea, we took it easy getting ready for the night’s Halloween festivities. I did some reluctant packing while Chase terrorized the cute towel animals that the steward left for us everyday (they cleaned our room 3 times every day. Now that’s service!) We sipped champagne at an earlier art auction, and caught a 15minute film that Walt Disney and Salvador Dali did together.

The last day was HOT for sure! In the middle of the Caribbean ocean with no reprieve from the sun, the water slide on deck was a welcome entertainment. It was a good thing that it was windy or else it would have been TOO hot. It was so windy that when we went up to the front of the ship, we leaned into the wind and were held up by it! Haha, so much fun.

After lounging around by the pool we ate for the last time in the dining room (complete with ghost-shaped pumpkin cheesecake), where the waiters danced to the ending theme from “Slumdog Millionaire”. We changed into our costumes (Chase was Arnold Swarzenegger and Dad decided on the Dos XX’s “most interesting man in the world”.) then headed over to the Guru Cruise Private Cocktail Party. Afterwards it was off to the disco for some dancing and then on to more kareoke where a new networking acquaintance, Paulie, did a surprisingly accurate interpretation of “The Real Slim Shady and “Baby Got Back”. Oh yeah…..see my YouTube Channel for further details.

Chicago Leadership Summit!

Just a quick update! I have to scoot soon because my Dad just returned from a trip to New York with a bushel of apples and 6 gallons of juice to make hard cider with!

What a whirlwind! This past weekend was the first Chicago Leadership Summit! We had an incredible turnout (standing room only!) as Art Jonak, Keith Schreiter and David Bertrand flew out to Naperville for some fast-paced training that left everyone feeling pumped up and excited to use their new skills!

Friday Art spoke for our generic local Meetup group and I had an awesome opportunity to pick his brain afterwards over dinner (well — by dinner I mean great food at 1am). Poor Art! Haha, he must have been TIRED after flying in, teaching all day and then being forced to converse with the crazy Chicago team after the event.

The next day was our Vitamark specific training which was inspiring and innovative!

At Portillo's after the event

My Mom did a great job organizing the event! Although she was a bit NUTS driving all of the speakers back and forth to the airport — seperately…. I’m sure it was a great opportunity to get her questions answered. We took the guests to Portillo’s for a real Chicago hot dog experience and they loved it!

Keith and I sucking in our Portillo's food babies for the picture. haha

 I ordered a mondo meal for Keith (who triumphantly devoured a Dipped Italian Beef with Hot Peppers, a Chicago Hot Dog with everything, Cheese Fries and a slice of Chocolate Cake! phew!) Haha, check out his facebook profile for pictures.

Art and Keith getting ready to devour Portillo's!

Mark, Adri and my sister Stephanie at my house this past summer

Next week we have Coach Mark Davis flying in from Melbourne, Australia to do a session for our Chicagoland Networking meetup group on making money by becoming famous on the internet (or something along those lines. ).

Can’t wait to see Mark again! He’s crashing at our place so I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to catch up.

Ciao for now! I’ll let you know how the cider turns out!

Is that aligator claw giving me the finger?

When you start your evening with a desperate dive up the beach to escape a renegade firework, you know it’s going to be a good weekend.

There’s an overwhelming sense of freedom and a simple “everything will turn out great” feeling as you drive up to the lake house at the dead-end of Culver Road in upstate New York. Today Lake Ontario is an angry churning of brown and green waves behind the stretch of our sandy backyard beach; and the front of the house faces the calm bay with blue waters that face the large bridge off into the distance. A varied array of boats parade in and out of the canal next to the little shack on the lake, and with them a diverse set of summer-goers ready to steal every moment of the nice weather we’ve been patiently waiting for.

the backyard by the water

The Backyard

The frontyard bay

Friday night we drove up to the smaller Conesus lake to become a link in the ring of fire. As night fell the lakeside dwellers lit their flares one by one to create a ring of red flame (10,000 flares by 10pm). Everyone had fireworks, some professional bombshells and some simplebottlerockets. By 9:30pm the sky was lit with falling stars and sparkling diamonds. The show was better than downtown Chicago on the 4th! Our independence day on Saturday was spent gathered around a huge bonfire at the beach house. Lake Ontario roared in the background, pushed by the high winds. As I sipped on homemade wine and look around the fire at the faces of my family. I realized we had 4 generations and several branches of my family with us there. My great uncle arty sitting behind me talking about strange bodily functions reminded me how quarky family can be — well, that and the fact that my second cousin, Jimmy Bones, took me aside to bestow upon me one of his favorite treasures…….. a preserved alligator claw giving the finger. Ahhh, love and memories.

At Consesus Lake for "ring of fire"

My family at the Beach Summer 2009

After all of my Dad’s homemade wine had been passed around for tastings (Grandma’s Montepuciano and SeaBreeze Sangiovese) Jimmy Bones and I stopped in at Marge’s Lakeside Inn a few beaches down to check out the live music and see the crowd. On the way back, the neighbor’s catapulted the trees beside us with professional fireworks (unintentionally of course — if not aided by celebratory libations) and we found ourselves diving up the beach away from the explosions.

Never a dull moment at Casa de Mazza Seabreeze.

Today itself has been fairly tame. I ended up taking a nap at the far end of the beach with my cousin Ben, who apparently is now the youngest Sergent in the United States Army (congrats!). As my nap ended, and the waves lapped at my toes, I looked around at the eight lounge chairs, full cooler and small wooden table that we would need to lug back up the beach to the bonfire pit. Just as I was dreading the long hike that would not be aided by my sun-drunken fuzzy-head and my severely burned thighs, the neighbor rolls up in his bulldozer. Go figure. It’s good to have friends with heavy-machinery on hand at the beach.

We loaded the huge shovel up with the cooler and chairs, and plopped down on the sheet of heavy canvas dragging behind the treads for smoothing the sand. A ride up the beach was a perfect transition to the bonfire we’re having tonight.

It’s been the most fun I’ve had here since we bought this Lake House. Incredible food (homemade gnochi’s, tripe, and other sicilian/calabrese delectables), an extended (yet close at heart) family gathering, beach, bonfire and the beautiful lake Ontario. I can’t imagine anywhere else I want to be right now other than here. This is the best weekend I’ve had in a long time. It’s been a challenging last few months, and thanks to the lake and my family, I’m ready for the new and upcoming opportunities to grow, change and move forward.

More pictures Here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelmazza/sets/72157620883162911/

Mom's Side of the Family

Bring me more meat Gaston!

It is June! Yay! If May had lasted a few days longer it might have destroyed me with it’s whirlwind of busy-ness.

The fam went to Zed451 for my Dad’s birthday last week. Out. Of. This. World. In fact, it may have been one of the best restaurants that I’ve been to yet!

The concept revolves around the idea of a Brazilian steakhouse . Meat meat meat, and more succulent meat (sorry you veggie-pals).

Zed451 Harvest Table

Zed451 supplements it’s endless array of delicious juicy morsels (served in tiny bite-size portions for maximum tasting) with it’s Harvest Table. The Harvest Table is a beautiful layout of hand-crafted vegetarian dishes, each served with it’s own customized sauce or reduction. 5 year old Goudas, sesame broccoli with miso sauce, Mediterranean couscous with tomato-pesto-fusion sauce — and my personal favorite — french bread with white truffle butter. mmmmm.

As your sampling your Harvest Table spoils, you keep noticing these men in white hats carrying large spits of meats. Just circling — waiting. When you’re ready, you take a small, smooth stone from the middle of the table, and place it on your corner of the table.  In an instant a shank of lamb appears. You grab the thin slice with your tongs as the chef shaves off a fresh piece. He leaves and is instantly replaced with a man displaying seared tuna — accompanying wasabi sauce of course. As the tuna man leaves, you look up to see (and smell) Moroccan chicken waiting for your plucking. 17 specialty meats later and two trips to the harvest table and you’re begging for a second stomach. sooooooo goooooood.

Sorry. I couldn’t stop myself and I think i may be drooling. Anyway, things are really heating up in the business. The power leg is growing FAST and people are REALLY starting to get excited! I mean, who wouldn’t be excited if you have a new team member already in your downline the day you get started in your new business. Not only that, but you have a full team of leaders to help you train and sponsor your new affiliate. After all, getting a bonus check your first week in business is exciting to most people that I would know.

Tailgating with Section 8 at the Fire game!

I’ve also been working with a luxury bus service to get people to the Chicago Fire games. It is so much fun! Basically the deal is, you get on the bus at your favorite bar (several stops along the way in the city — only 1 in the burbs), there’s free beer on the bus, bathroom on the bus (oh yeah you know you’re excited). When you get to the game you head over to tailgate with Section 8 — those guys are amazing! Throw them a

Watching the Championship with the Fire, Redstars, Windy City Wanderers, and Fire player Calen Carr!

dollar or two and they’ll stuff you full of burgers and a keg of half-acre or some other microbrewery treat. We take care of your tickets, parking, gas and tolls. You get on the bus after the game and get dropped back off at the bar. It is a blast!

Random note: I dropped my digital camera on the hardwood floor and now the lens is stuck out. By stuck I mean bent into an odd position and unable to retract. Any suggestions? Or is it a lost cause?

Enough with the pleasantries — I’ll have a new blog up at NotYourParentsLife soon!

Ciao

Who stole my cooler on the lake?

Post Memorial Day Catch-Up Week is always an adventure.

Things are really getting going with the new Power Leg we’re building in our Vitamark team. Thanks to some incredible upgrades in the pay plan, we’re building a huge organization that is heading towards 100 people deep! Very exciting!

Memorial Day Weekend was a 4-day tornado of craziness. The family and boyfriends drove over to our beach house in upstate New York. The tiny two-bedroom cottage was supplemented by Chase’s tent on the beach.

Walking in the back-yard with cousin Bethany

We tried to camp out — and ended up getting robbed.

After watching the dying embers of the bonfire we built dwindle, we pitched a tent by the water’s edge. We heard some rowdy kids camping out on the public beach a ways down, and decided to put the cooler up against the tent for safe keeping. There’s someting about the water that really knocks you out. Definitely brings on a sleep of the dead. Well apparently we WERE almost dead since we didn’t hear the cooler being stolen along with a cute wooden table that the neighbors gifted to my Dad. The back-yard beach is quite long, and our house sits pretty far back from the water. In fact, you can’t even see the house in the dark if the lights are all off. Around 1am Chase sat bolt upright and says

“The cooler is gone”

Lo and behold the hoodlums had stolen our cooler from right under our heads, and burnt my Dad’s table. WHO DOES THAT? Really…. That’s the short version anyway.

Kitesurfers on a windy day at the lake

The weekend was still amazing though. The lake is intoxicating. I didn’t want to leave.

Grandma Lori and her Grandgirls

We had driftwood bonfires every night and even a mini graduation party with some friends and family. It was great!

The radiator blew on the van that my parent’s drove down there, so the ride back was a little cramped with Chase, Steph, Eric, Dad and myself all crammed into the pick-up truck. Luckily most of the crowd slept the way through.

Rachel, Allie and Bethany at the bonfire

Poor poor Mom — she’s still stranded up at the lake house with a blown radiator and our 2 dogs. I can think of worse places to get stuck. She’s probably having the time of her life down there the bum.

But all is well, my great-grandmother, Annabelle Hodges is visiting NY tonight from Ixtapa, Mexico. So I’m sure my Mom will catch up with her as well.

Well, lots to catch-up on! Toodaloo!

My sister jumping for joy on the beach

Honeybee Champagne in the Birthday Piano

This may be one of the busiest month’s I’ve had in years – but I love it!

Every day is packed full and I don’t mind one bit because it means that things are really moving forward.

Started off the weekend with a trip to the Garfield Park Conservatory in Lincoln Park,  Chicago. It was gorgeous! Saw the most beautiful flowers and trees, and even dragged my boyfriend Chase along with me (Shhh, I know he liked it even if he won’t admit it :0D ) They were just putting out all their “bee boxes” — relocating the hives from the winter. It was quite a site to see. We got pretty close but since we were the only ones without face nets — we left after they started slamming the bees into their hives.

Last week ended with a great visit from Google Superman, Coach Mark Davis and his great fiance Adri. I think I ate my weight in pate and smoked Gouda that night as we masterminded into the wee hours of the morning.  His seminar on how to use Social Media to build your business was great! Everybody loved it and it was perfect for both beginner and advanced Social Media players. Mark also serenaded us (sort of) in honor of my younger sister’s 17th birthday. Here’s the video.

   Good Job Mark!!

This week I look forward to my “official” graduation ceremony (although I’ve been finished since December), which is definitely more for my parent’s benefit than mine. Although, closure to that part of my life is probably important. I am definitely ready to be done with my “formal” education, and am fiercely pursuing a personal development “self” education day in and day out! Your success can only grow to the extent that you do!

Mother’s Day was relaxing and filled with great food! We took Mom to Tango Argentinean Grille for a Skirt Steak and Crab Leg Champagne Brunch. Ohhhhhh maaannn was it good. I don’t think I ever need to eat again!

We had an incredible call last night with Art Jonak and the rest of the Power Leg Freedom Team. It was great to meet the other team members who are committed to building a MASSIVE organization of network marketers. And we’re starting right NOW! There are completely life changing things happening here. I am SO EXCITED!

I took a whole day and re-built my website. I’m having trouble using my current domain to host the site here (at this site) so I’ll have to work on that. But check out the site and I would love to hear what you think!

Stardate: 001:0024:02009

Perhaps I should apologize for the geeky Star Trek reference in the title of this post. Sometimes i just can’t help myself. — i get it from my mother.

I’m not sure what it is about the month of May, but things really do seem to creep up on you and… BAM!!!… everything is ganging up to be taken care of all at once.

My schedule for May is filling up fast! But I think things are going to be fun!

• May 5th – Parent’s 25th Anniversary
• May 7th – Ozzie Mark Davis comes into town to visit
• May 8th — my younger sister’s birthday
• May 10th — mother’s day
• May 15th — Columbia College’s stupendous Manifest Festival
• May 17th — Graduation Commencement
• May 18th/19th – Chase’s Parent’s Bday
• May 22nd – 24th — Memorial Weekend Trip to the Lake House in Upstate, New York
• May 31st — Dad’s Birthday

PHEW!!!! We made it. — It definitely looks like a party this month! Now if only I could find a few spare hours to get some work done. (haha).

For those who I don’t see on a regular basis to talk talk talk your face off — I’ve really gotten things going with my Graphic and Web Design business at RachelMazza.net

The most recent additions include working out some graphics and flyers for AVON Retail Store owner, Tina Kapton in Naperville, IL and launching the new Caribbean Group website which is pretty cool. It’s an organization that my Dad is involved in. They’re buying an island of the coast of Puerto Rico believe it or not.

(any investors out there?)

So I’ve been cleaning up the site, writing copy, getting the material online, etc…. It’s a work in progress for sure, but check it out the initial set-up at http://www.thecaribbeanrealestategroup.com .

Other than the usual hullaballoo (guest bartending – Windy City Wanderers – imaginary social life ) I’ve been doing a lot of planning with my wonderful beau, Chase — he’s thinking of attending flight school to become a pilot, and there is a lot to be done!

Right now we’re checking out ATP in San Diego,  I don’t know a ton about it so I would LOVE LOVE any insights or experiences anyone has had with the school.

sooooo, yes — boring post I know — but take this as a sign of good things to come since it’s been just too busy to blog (or sleep for that matter — eh, I’ll sleep when I’m dead )

Ciao

Life’s twisted sense of humor is a stolen purse on Rush St.

Last night, my purse was stolen at a bar. Actually, my purse wasn’t even stolen, a girl had gone through my purse, stolen everything of value (along with everything NOT of value), and then left the purse on the bathroom floor.

While standing outside, clutching at my heart in despair, I see this girl walking out of convenience store on the corner – with my Coach sunglasses hanging from her shirt-collar.

I furiously stormed across the street where she was gaily prancing down the sidewalk like freaking drunken Shirley Temple or something.
I’m sure I was scary. Oh yes, I thirsted for blood. When I reached her I very pointedly said that she had my sunglasses, and to my surprise, she said “oh.. um… yeah I do.”

I blanched and stood there like an idiot, blinking in surprise.
What! You have the nerve to steal my stuff and then don’t even deny that you did it?

I gathered my wits and reached for the cord swinging from her hip pocket and pulled out my digital camera. I held it up in front of her face as I slowly removed my lotion, lipstick, license, credit card, prescription medicine, and hair clips from her pockets.

Honestly, who steals lipstick? Ew.

Through the whole process of patting her down like an inmate, she could only say
“Sorry, I’m a real clepto when I’m drunk”

Wow. Really?

Honestly after the whole ordeal, I wasn’t even mad. Looking at this girl who was just a mess and thinking how vulnerable I was in letting this person almost ruin my night was actually comical. It was just funny.

I think it’s important to laugh about these things. If we take life too seriously, then it becomes personal. When it becomes personal, then we act out of emotional revenge or stubbornness instead of common sense.

It’s the same way with any type of negotiation (and life IS one big negotiation after all). If you remove yourself from the situation and act as if you’re negotiating on someone else’s behalf instead of your own, things become clearer and oh so much easier to maneuver. My Mother taught me that, one of the greatest negotiators I know.

It was Oscar Wilde who said, “Life is too important to be taken seriously,” and honestly that’s the truth. If you can’t laugh about life’s twisted sense of humor, then what can you laugh at?

So don’t take life too seriously. No one gets out alive anyway.