With any luck, the average person can expect a plethora of amazing moments throughout their lifetime. Of course that may vary a bit based on your definition of amazing and being open to recognizing it when ya see it. Life-changing moments, well those can be even harder sometimes. Sometimes you don’t even know they happen. You make a wrong turn by “accident,” cuss yourself out for it for like 10 minutes for doing so and never realize that had you not done that, the guy leaving the bar three sheets to the proverbial wind would have plowed into you head on in a few blocks. Sometimes they are obvious and easy- they arrive on your front door step wrapped in a bow with a tag. And sometimes they lurk in the distance. You see it sitting there, but you have to cross a big unknown without any idea how long it will take to get there and if it will be all that you thought it was once you do. Those take some courage to go for.

In the last 60+ days, I have leveled up like mad in the amazing moments and have recognized, embraced and am running full force with my life-changing moment.

And if you are reading this, odds are quite good you’ve been along for the ride and helped me level up. Thank you so very much.

I know I may sound a bit broken recordish when I say how in awe I have been with all the support of every kind that I have received. I’m also sure there’s a couple of you that may wanna smack me in the back of the head for repeating “I just wanna huggle each and every one of you.” But, I whole-heartedly mean it all.

I can’t believe how quickly these 60 days have gone. July 17th, the night I hit goal, will be forever etched in my memory so vividly. Part of me thought things would slow down when it occurred. Silly me, I swear they’ve sped up. In fact, I know they did. Juggling everything has been such a challenge for me. My relatively boring life has been beyond shaken up with so many different things. Things I am very, very grateful for. Balancing it all is my new goal. Because the girls are so excited about UberDork Cafe, sharing everything I’m working on with them has lead to some great family time. It has also lead to two mini business women who can crack a pretty rough whip sometimes. There are definitely some people I value immensely in my life I need to reconnect with though because this last month I haven’t been around for them nearly as much as I usually am and should be.

So, goal and step number one at this point for me is to work on balancing and juggling better. I know that’s not exciting stuff, but it’s honest and it’s necessary. One of the most important lessons I’ve fought to maintain in my life is to always be me, to be true to myself. That means through bad times and good. When I start to slip away from that, I feel horrible. I don’t do well at not being me. When I get burnt out and lose touch with people I care about, I not only am not true to myself , I am a bad example for my girls. Lil self #truthbatting there. : )

The next step in regards for UberDork Cafe is to properly thank my backers and my supporters. The web site is in the process of being completely revamped and built out to help me with that. It will also be the portal for all the news and updates going on with the Cafe. And there are soooo many things coming up!!

The Kickstarter Project was Phase I of the fundraising toward opening doors. It will go a long way in prepping and getting things set in stone that need to be. But, it is far from what I need in total to get the doors open. The next Phase brought me to tears when someone came forward with it. (I know the tears part at this point with me is not so shocking, but trust me- it’s HUGE!) I will be announcing it this weekend on the site. And I’ll make sure to get links out to that everywhere for you to see.

Wow, I just realized this is such a very different post from me. In my quirky way I do tend to self reflect, but not so seriously. Hee hee I’m sure you were expecting a “OMG THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!! I WANT TO HUG YOU ALL!!” post. Trust me, I can’t even being to thank you all for not only getting the concept and all that is UberDork Cafe, but believing in it and in me. For being with me on this trek across the big unknown. If you read my “I Haz A BIG Love” post, you know how much it all means to me, how much you, my community, mean to me.

And there will always, always be huggles.

If physical structures could be built on love alone, there would be a string of UberDork Cafes open all across this world by now. Open, bustling and radiating more #GeekLove. I don’t know that I will ever be able to find the exact words to describe all the emotions this journey has conjured up.

What has started as my crazy lil idea to create a place for my daughters and my community has turned into so much more. Part of me would like to print out the Kickstarter Project pages, the comments, the statistics, every tweet, every amazing blog post, every kind word of support and encouragement and show it to the world. I would say “Look! Look at what this community is capable of! Look at the love! Look at the support! Look at all of these amazing people! Look at what you’ve overlooked! What you have underestimated!!” It is not just the group of people that has been overlooked and underestimated, it’s the power of love, the power of community.

The very thing that UberDork Cafe will exist to nurture, to support and to encourage.

From Apple’s “Think Different” to Einstein’s “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. “ to Yoda’s “Do or do not, there is not try” – these things have shaped who I am in life. Who a lot of us are. They are concepts sadly often drowned out by media, by peers encouraging conformity while growing up, by adults that don’t get it staring down noses and speaking of “the right way” to do things.

This is my way of helping cease that. Media will still be media, peers will still be peers, adults will still be adults. But, we will all have a place to go, our future will have a place to go, that encourages us to simply be us. To embrace who we are, to let it hang out, to help our youth navigate through to be proud of who they are and confident in pursuing their true goals in life. The things that make us all happy.

There are just two weeks left now. Because of all of you I have made my goal. Which I am beyond grateful for. Part of me feels greedy to ask for more. But all of the voices that have come forth with “If only I had a place like this when I was growing up” and “I really need a place like this near me” make me want this open tomorrow. And those that have said “I have been scared to go for my dream for so long, but you have inspired me to go back to it and really pursue it” make me want it open yesterday. The simple fact is to make this happen as quickly as possible, I still need your help, your support. We are currently at $6130 with two more weeks to go. Just imagine what we can do in two more weeks!! Can we reach 200 backers?? $8,000?? Can we blow this completely out of the water?? I think we can!

I can not tell you how excited I will be the day I can stand up inside of the finished, open UberDork Cafe and say:

“Look what WE did!!”

If you’ve been following along, or know me at all, you know that the Wall of Love is going to be my absolute favorite part of this whole place. I will hug it every day and may the Force be with anyone who tries to deface it.

So, from a place for my daughters to go and a community to be nurtured and hope to be given, this has turned into the physical representation of what a community can do when they believe in something, when they believe in themselves.

To those that don’t believe, well my girls and I proudly stick our tongues out at you, wrinkle our noses and then smile and wave are lil geek/nerd/dork flags. And we are honored to have an entire community standing behind us doing the same.

“Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending. “ ~Jim Henson

Eight tiny letters seems so inadequate in capturing how I feel. This morning, thank you just doesn't even begin to cut it. Last night you all rendered me utterly speechless. I couldn't type, I couldn't talk, I just sat here doing this really bizarre mix of sobbing, laughing and dancing around with my girls. For a moment I was scared they would think I had finally completely lost it. But they didn't, they got it. When an IMMENSE amount of love, happiness and gratitude collide, spazziness, squeees and tears happen.

I know that you have all read "thank you soooo much", "I really appreciate it" and "it means soooo much to me" many, many times over the last few weeks. I have meant every single one of them. With all of my big ole dorky heart. I'm quite certain you'll read and hear them many more times over the next 25 days and far beyond. And I will mean every one of those as well.

(Total random side note: it's 6:30 in the morning as I am typing this and my eldest just crawled out of bed, ran down the hall, into my door and has already begun trying to call a meeting when her sister wakes up. "Now we need to get this bad boy open mom!!" BTW when I mean into my door, I mean literally smack in to the door with her sleepy self. She cut the corner too close. hee hee And I am supposed to say "Thank you soo much for helping us get one step closer to opening UberDork Cafe. We want you all to come so we can thank you in person and give you a big ole hug. And a cookie. Forget Vader, Jedi's have cookies too. And they're better." That would be my 5 year old. :) )

This whole project started with one small idea of me and my two lil girls. On of their favorite aspects of it is so simple. They are beyond excited to meet new friends. In their eyes every single one of you that reads this, that has backed this project, that will continue to back it, to post it, to blog about it, to tweet it- every one of you is a new friend. They already get the importance of having people in your life that get you, that support you, that help in every way they can to make your dream come true. (And yes, I'm crying. Again. :) ) How do you thank people for that? I haven't really figured out the answer to that, but I will never stop trying to.

The only way I can think of right now is to continue to make this a reality. First here in Milwaukee and then in other locations. This is for all of you as much as it is for us. For our community. A physical location that looks you in the eye and says "Jinkies you are awesome just for being you!" A place that represents what our community is capable of when it bands together. A place that shows the love of a community of people that most of the "mainstream" will probably never fully understand.

Our family motto is "We're all about the love."

And we love the bajeebers out of you all! Thank you so very, very much.

*Ginormous Group Huggle*

(The picture below is lil me blowing out the candles on my Wonder Woman birthday cake. I'm fairly certain you all just made that wish start to come true. The one below it is of my girls and the life size Yoda cake eldest made me make at the end of last August for her birthday. I'm also fairly certain you have helped make that wish start to come true too. And finally a picture of the girls demonstrating what a huggle is. For those of you that don't know- we huggle. It's not one of those stiff armed, quick hugs with little contact. We latch on and it becomes a mini snuggle. :) )

During two recent interviews I was asked “Why? Why should people who don’t live in Milwaukee, who can’t walk into the UberDork Cafe when it opens back this project?” It occurred to me that it may be a good idea to share this with you all. It seems in all the excitement I may have overlooked that.

UberDork Cafe is more than just a cafe. More than just a place to game. More than just a place to learn. More than just a place for people like me and my daughters- the geeky, the nerdy, the dorky. It’s more than just the dream of one place. At the root, the dream is much bigger than that. It’s about nurturing a community.

I am fortunate to have always had a strong sense of self. From a really early age on, I knew who I was. I also knew that I didn’t quite fit in, but I was ok with that. Though it was not always easy, I have always proudly waved my geek/nerd/dork flag. Being a gnork was just a big part of who I was and am. It’s not based on a set of interests, there’s no test for it, there’s no cred or badge to earn or mark you are born with. If you are one, you just get it. Though “the geek shall inherit the earth” is a phrase most can get behind, there are many who still hide their lil flags. That hide who they are or downplay it because those around them wouldn’t get it.

No matter who you are, there comes a time, even just an instance, in all our lives where we feel like we don’t quite fit in. That there are people that may get parts of us, but not all of us. To feel truly understood is an amazing feeling. To have someone understand it all and nurture it is even more amazing.

Growing up, my parents accepted who I was. Which was a big help. But they will be the first to tell you that they never understood me. “You were just so different from us or your sister.” Being accepted and being nurtured are two very different things. The nurturing I received was at school, from teachers. I lucked out.

Now, we live in a time where programs are being cut left and right. Arts and extra curricular activities that are non athletic are the first to be affected by this. “Gifted and talented” programs are being eliminated, as are “accelerated” classes. Opportunities like I had are dwindling. It’s even worse in the inner cities. Many have never had these programs to begin with. So a cycle perpetuates from generation to generation.

Right now, in Milwaukee, in cities across this country, in a city close to YOU there are children and teens that need a place to go. A place that understands them. A place that supports them. A place that believes in them. There are parents that have lil gnorks of their own that are looking for places to take them to help nurture who they are. There are adults that want to have a place where they can wave their lil flags.

UberDork Cafe is that place.

I believe in my community. I believe in nurturing our inner gnorks and our future gnorks. I believe in providing a place that teens can affordably hang out at instead of the streets, or locked away in basements with their secret gnorky interests and dreams. Where they can meet other people who share their same interests. Where they can turn to in hopes of earning a scholarship that will continue to nurture their gnorky dreams. Scholarships that may lead to the person that develops your next favorite game, favorite comic book, favorite gadget that makes your life so much easier.

I believe in a place where kids can be kids. A place that parents can take them for fun classes that don’t cost an arm and a leg. A place where they can take classes with them. A place where people old and young can leave the world at the doorstep, walk inside and just be themselves. A place that reminds you of the importance of play. The importance of imagination. The importance of letting your flag fly.

We ALL need a place like that. It has to start somewhere- why not here?

And to all the people that have asked “When are you going to open one in…..” The answer is- let’s get this one open and successful. WHEN that happens, I promise you more.

It all has to start somehow, why not with $1.00? How much is your community worth to you?

Did I mention how excited my daughters are about this? For those of you that don't know me, my lil Geek Girls in training are 4 and 5 years old. Don't ever try to mess with Star Wars around them, the eldest will throw down. And when eldest gets upset, lilest is right by her side. If they catch ya drinking water around them, they will inform you that what you are drinking is made up of some of the strongest molecules around and that each molecule is made up of two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom.

This morning they called a meeting. Yup, an actual meeting. We were getting ready to go pick some organic strawberries and scope out a potential local food supplier for the cafe. The issue that was so pressing that needed to be discussed? The robot clings I had snagged at the dollar store yesterday for the cafe. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them exactly, but they were too fun to pass up.

So, it has been decided... the "boys bathroom" will be robot themed. The "girls bathroom" will be Wonder Woman themed.

I gotta tell ya, the meeting was really short. As soon as they presented their case, I immediately said "Heck Yeah!"

And so our bathroom themes have been set and the new fun clings shall have a home.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!
In just a few hours you managed to get me past the 10% mark. I will fully admit that it totally choked me up. Knowing that you all believe in me, in us, in this means so much and jinkies you all came out the gate swinging with such HUGE support!!

I am working on new. fun ways to keep the momentum spreading so I can reach the goal mark by August 13th. There are some potential guest spots on a pod cast or two in the works and I will definitely keep you posted on it.

The girls are soo excited and I think they asked how far we've gotten like 100 times yesterday. At this moment they are drawing out new ideas for the cafe. One involves a big ole wall mural with them, me and Yoda. They are also itching to try out the Star Wars cookie cutters. I have to admit their ideas are pretty great. And kids coming up with stuff for other kids just makes sense.

I have always taught them that ANYTHING is possible when you try, when you work for it. Now, I'm on my way to SHOWING them that. And I have you all to thank for it. Even $1.00 backed at a time goes so far. Every tweet, every post, every time this project is passed along, it increases it's chances of succeeding. Of fully becoming a reality.

It's all so amazing to me. YOU are all so amazing to me.

Thank you sooo much!!!