Day 12: Life Lessons from Rebecca...and the Back Roads of Ohio

Today's episode begins with another memory of my dear friend, Rebecca, and the incredible role she played in my life. When I unexpectedly found myself stepping into the role of Managing Editor at a newspaper, I quickly realized I knew the production side of the business—but journalism itself was a whole different world! Thankfully, Rebecca was only a phone call away. She patiently walked me through everything I needed to survive that first week, proving once again that the people who believe in us can change the course of our lives.

Then we trade newspaper deadlines for country roads.

I share the story of a much-needed day spent exploring Ohio with my best friend. From visiting Grandpa's Cheese Barn to stopping at an Amish nonprofit grocery store that supports women choosing a different path in life, to wandering back roads in search of roadside produce stands, it was one of those simple, unhurried days that reminds you how refreshing it is to slow down.

Sometimes the best adventures aren't planned. They're found somewhere between good conversation, winding roads, and making memories with the people who make life better.

I hope you'll come along for the ride.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning everyone. Welcome to another edition of 10 Unedited Minutes with Marlena. It is Friday, July the 3rd, and it's hotter than you know what out there. And um yeah, today's episode is brought to you by a very sweet, amazing friend of mine, Rebecca Conklin Kleibomer. Rebecca has agreed to sponsor my podcasts for two months. And um as a way to just kind of honor her and our friendship, um, I decided to dedicate the next uh two months worth of episodes to Rebecca. So to do that, we start each episode with a memory of Rebecca and I's friendship and my friendship, whatever. In today's memory, um I wanted to talk about the time. So Rebecca helped me become a journalist. So I was starting a new position. I was becoming the editor of a newspaper, and I had come up the the newspaper ranks in the uh graphic design and the print side of things. So um, as you all know, I worked for 10 years at our daily paper in the pre-press department. And then um after that job, I went to our local um weekly paper here in Bluffton and started out designing, uh doing graphic design work for them, selling ads, and eventually ended up being the office manager of that newspaper. And then from there, I landed a job with another weekly county paper as its managing editor. Now, let me tell you, when you go from graphics side of it to the journalism side of it, you may think up, you just, you know, go out, gather information, and write a story about it. There's so much more to it. There's so much more to it. And when I landed that job, um the the Rob Creklow, I'm gonna call him out, he's the man who hired me. He knew that I didn't have a lot of journalism experience, but he was a teacher at heart, and he was a great mentor to me. And he he hired me on the condition that I let him mentor me into being a journalist. And he he the reason he hired me was because he had foresight, right? I had multimedia experience. I could edit videos, I could um edit sound bites, I could work a website, I could work the social media. And he saw the direction that the newspaper industry was taking, and he put a multimedia uh person in the editor seat of that newspaper, and it was a great decision. Um, I truly feel like I was one of the best editors that that newspaper had ever seen. Um and Rebecca played a part in that. So when Rob hired me, I called Rebecca and I said, Okay, Rebecca, you gotta tell me everything you know about being a journalist because I don't want to walk in there on day one and just be a fish out of water, right? So she said, Okay, come over and we're gonna talk and we're gonna go through some stories together. I said, Okay. So she had me over one day and she taught me everything there was to know. I actually learned about the sunshine laws, I learned about um AP style, and just now that stuff just comes uh naturally to me when I write a newspaper story. But um, Rebecca, you played a huge part in in starting that phase of my career. And I've always been appreciative of that. And you also continued to mentor me throughout that um journey of holding that managing editor's position, and I'm grateful for that. So thank you. You're amazing, you are an amazing journalist, and um maybe the reason why we connect in that aspect is because you are an online editor at heart. So um, yeah. Thank you, Rebecca. I love you so much. I just love you so much. You are just an absolutely amazing person, and I am grateful that you helped me through that. So, what are we going to talk about today? Um, we can first talk about the gratitude jar. If you are watching me on YouTube, uh, I have started this little thing where I put just a plain old mason jar. You can see it here. And if you're listening, I don't know if you can hear that or not. But it is a glass jar. And every day for the next 365 days, I'm going to take a little slip of paper and write something I'm grateful for. And, you know, speaking of Rebecca, she's the one who kind of started me on this gratitude journey. Um, you guys have heard that story. You can refer to an old episode of that. And let's talk a little bit before I write down what I'm grateful for, and we'll do that at the end of my show. So, yesterday, um, as I said, my best friend and I spent the day together, and it was it was a really great day. Um, on a whim, we just headed east and we went out to Ashland, Ohio, and we visited grandpa's cheese barn, and we bought lots of cheese, sampled lots of cheese, um, went and sampled some of their fudge, which was amazing, by the way. And then um got this big ol' this big old bag of cheese that we didn't expect it to be that big. But anyway, we we had a great day, we laughed the day away after after um grandpa's cheese barn. We went to a uh grocery bulk food store, I guess, and it was uh um a nonprofit organization that helps women who want to um walk away from the Amish lifestyle and its traditions. So I guess when an Amish woman um decides to step out of the order, they they don't get anything, they leave with nothing. So this nonprofit organization um helps them rebuild their lives, gives them a job, gives them purpose, and it's great. I mean, we we went in there, we had lunch, uh, I had just a plain old turkey and cheese sandwich on a wheat bun. Um, Lisa had a Reuben, and it was delicious. It was almost like a doe hook sandwich, and that's exactly what I needed. So that was great, and just a great um organization, a great nonprofit, and help them out was awesome. And then I don't know if you guys can hear what's going on in the background here, but my granddaughter is here and I'm not sure what what we're trying to do.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

She needs to be in on the action and get a chair up here to my desk.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Is it good? Okay. Okay, so then after that, after lunch, we just started Googling and we started finding uh produce stands and farmers markets out there. And we as we were driving to one, we saw another one, um, which by the way, I didn't realize that there was an Amish cluster north of uh Wooster and Ashland. I know whenever we say Amish country, you always want to go south down by Millersburg or Loudonville, Ohio. But um I didn't realize there was one north, and there is quite a big one because there were horses and buggies all over the road, and we were taking some backcountry roads to get to these uh produce stands, and we found another one. And um we pulled in, it was a long driveway. There was nobody in the driveway, no other cars. And this place had like two or three of the greenhouses, and um, they were empty, there was nothing in them. So we pulled up and I told Lisa, I said, let me just go to that door and make sure somebody's in there. And as I'm walking up, I truly thought it wasn't open because it was completely dark. Well, here it was an Amish guy, and they truly did not have any electricity. They did, you know, they're Amish, they don't have electricity. So we walked in and he had some beautiful produce sitting around. Lisa got a cantaloupe. Um, while we were there, a few other people came in and got their sweet corn and some peppers, and it just was really, really good. But then as we were walking out, I looked over and there was a flat of um mums, like you know, chrysanthemums, fall mums, and they were little plugs so you could grow your own. And he was selling them for a dollar each. And I told Lisa, I said, I kind of want some of those. I want to try to grow my own mums this year. I'm kind of on this plant journey, if you will. And um so they were a dollar each. So they only took cash at this place. So Lisa and I scrounged up five dollars, and we I went back in and I told the guy I wanted five of his mums, and he ended up cutting off nine plants and giving them to us. So when I got home yesterday, uh I ended up planting. Lisa gave me five. I ended up planting five of those plants and Googling how to grow a mum, and we're gonna try our hand at growing some fall mums. And by the time um we want them for our display, they should be big and bushy and ready to go. So hopefully, hopefully, hopefully I can grow some mums. My garden's looking looking pretty good this year. So, I mean, between my husband and I, we kind of teamed up on that and are doing it together. Um, it seems to be doing a good job. So, and yeah, so yesterday was just a great day. It was hot, but we spent a lot of time driving in the air-conditioned car, and so we didn't have to be out in the heat so much. But the greenhouses we stopped at, I really felt bad for the people working because they were sweating as they were watering their plants. So try to stay out of this heat. I think it's going to break tonight or tomorrow sometime. We should get some rain, maybe some storms, and then the heat will break. So that will be good because it's hot. But I'm not complaining. Again, I'm that person in the wintertime when it's zero degrees out. I'm like, give me 95 in high humidity over this any day. So that's me. That's why I'll probably end up warm, end up in a warm place someday. Um, yeah, so that's it for today. Uh, we are camping this weekend. Excited about that. So again, I will try to record from my picnic table at the campgrounds, but I'm not sure what the cell phone reception is going to be like. So it might you might not hear from me until Monday. And if you don't, you don't. But oh, my gratitude. I gotta write my I gotta write what I'm grateful for. Thank you for reminding me, whoever just popped that into my head. Um, so what am I grateful for?

SPEAKER_01 11:51

I am grateful for I'm just grateful for so many things I have to pick one. Um you're playing spell the beans? Okay. I'm pretty grateful for this little munchkin sitting beside me.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

I'm just grateful today. I'm just feeling the feels of uh everybody who loves me and supports me.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

That's what we're grateful for. So today I am grateful. All the people in my life.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

January 3rd. Tomorrow is our nation's birthday. So go out there, watch some fireworks, and enjoy your weekend, guys. I love you. Pray for me. I pray for you every day, and we'll see you either tomorrow or Monday. Bye guys.