Being in ‘The Wall Street Journal’ has drawn some excitement into my life.  Before the article, not many people knew me.  And now, thanks to the article, maybe a few more people know who I am!  But most of all, people who already knew me or perhaps met me briefly recognize my name or picture in the article.

Here's the second picture of us published in the Wall Street Journal.

I work in concerts and events for my full-time job.  It surprised me to hear from someone I had recently worked with from Live Nation.  Live Nation represents big names like Tim McGraw, Sugarland and Ke$ha.  So it surprised me when I heard from someone with Live Nation who remembered working with me earlier this year, recognized me in the Wall Street Journal piece.

A local radio station in Sioux City also thought it was a big deal.  Since I work in concerts and events, I’ve been on the radio on a few occasions in the past, so they called me early in the morning to talk to me about the article.  Tony Michaels and Candice Nash with KSUX 105.7 woke me up the day after the article came out.  Tony always refers to me with my first and last name so when he first woke me up around 7:30 in the morning, I didn’t realize I was on the radio right away.  Then I caught on.  You can kind of hear that in my voice.  Melissa on KSUX 105.7

I talk about The Traveling Journal for most of the interview, but Tony and Candice also ask me about the other thing that made me very infamous in Sioux City.  My ‘We Built Sioux City’ video.  Go ahead and watch it.  I made both videos on this website and I made ‘We Built Sioux City’ around the same time last year.  It got a lot of local and a bit of national attention.  People often think the city of Sioux City or the Chamber of Commerce made the video, but that’s not true.  I did, on my own time.  Some people collect stamps, others make model planes; I enjoy making videos.  So when Tony and Candice ask me about the video at the end of this interview, that’s what they’re referring to.

My internet and Wall Street Journal fame have both been fun.  They’ve both been good conversation pieces and both made me somewhat famous.  In my mind anyway!

Often times people just wanna hear about the good things or the exciting things that happen in life. When people ask, “how are you doing?” They want you to say that everything is alright because sometimes people don’t know how to respond to, “it’s not a good day.” You’re true friends want to hear about the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I am so lucky that I can share those bad days with four best girlfriends and they will love me no matter what. My father passed away this year and I could not have received more support from each one of these girls. This event will definately be something I add in our journal. So know that this journal can have its ups and downs throughout it but what is amazing is how you can look back at these challenging events in five years and see how you’ve grown from them!! It has been a difficult year for me but I know my friendship with these women and our traveling journal are constants in my life and give me something to look forward to. So don’t be afraid to add the hardships that come along in life with your journals! “That’s what friends are for….in good times and bad times I’ll be on your side forever more….thats what friends are for…” haha …click here to see the video!!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oSpBp4QX74

How many of you remember the MASH game we used to play in junior high school? Anyone? Well, I remember playing this with my best friends at sleep overs and on road trips.  I loved naming my future wedding colors, job, car, honeymoon and husband. Then, the anticipation of friends reading you the results of your future life.

Even as an adult it is fun to play the “what if” game… especially if the hypothetical situation involves hot guys! My friends and I play “the island” game when we get together.  The hypothetical question is, if you were on a desert island with five gorgeous men, who would you want to be stranded with for the rest of your life?  My idea of a HOT island would include Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds, Josh Duhamel, Paul Walker and Channing Tatum. I would be greedy and want an alternate choice which would be Ryan Goslin, but he needs to be as romantic/passionate as he was in The Notebook! What gorgeous men would be on your island? Share your answers on a page in your traveling journal!

Funny thing about the Wall Street Journal– a lot of people read it! So when our business was mentioned in Elizabeth Bernstein’s article last week our web traffic shot through the roof. And lots of those people placed orders leaving us scurrying to replenish our inventory. But the thing that makes us unique is that our journals are handmade. Real, talented people here in the great US of A design and fabricate them for us which takes time. So as you peruse our online store you may notice that ordering some items will require a little bit more patience. But we promise everything will be fulfilled as quickly as possible because we want every one to experience the joy of owning and participating in a traveling journal. If you place an order for an item on back order we promise to add a little something extra in your package just as our way of saying thank you for your patience.

Image Credit

It’s not every day that you get your smiling face printed in millions of newspapers. So we’re still celebrating after yesterday’s appearance in The Wall Street Journal. (Didn’t get to see it in print? You can still read Elizabeth Bernstein’s article online.) We loved the flood of comments pouring onto our Facebook pages. (Why yes, we do see a resemblance to the cast of Sex and the City!) But it’s moments like these we wish we could be together to celebrate instead of typing each other giddy text messages. We did the next best thing– we each posed for pictures with our copies of the newspaper:

That’s Tonya in California posing with her paper.

That’s Dawn in Illinois. Her little boy Jack took this shot at Starbucks.

I think I was the first one to see it in person. I bought three copies at my South Carolina Starbucks.

Morgenne bought all four copies at her neighborhood Starbucks in Arizona yesterday.

That’s Melissa posing with her coveted copy of The Wall Street Journal in our hometown of Sioux City, Iowa.

The funny thing is, Melissa wanted ten copies of the paper. (She’s just a little sentimental.) But her husband drove all over Sioux City, and discovered the only place you can buy The Wall Street Journal is at Barnes and Noble. He bought the last two copies in town. Melissa even did a radio interview in Sioux City this morning trying to raise awareness about the severe lack of Wall Street Journals. (Yes, the Missouri River may be flooding but this is a serious problem people!)

So hopefully the rest of our families and other friends there aren’t disappointed they can’t get their hands on their own copies. Because it may be a while before attention like this comes around a second time.

All of us here at The Traveling Journal are a bit giddy today. That’s because we’re in The Wall Street Journal! The lovely Elizabeth Bernstein was writing an article on long distance friendship and interviewed us for the piece. Much to our surprise, we opened today’s Wall Street Journal to see the five of us in full color on the front page of the Personal Journal section. We are completely thrilled by this attention and are so excited to share our story with so many people. (Did you know The Wall Street Journal is the largest circulation newspaper in the US?) We thought it was funny because Elizabeth mentioned one of the most embarrassing things in our journal which happens to be photos of a certain girl modeling a homemade bikini. Don’t worry, I’m not naming names! The Wall Street Journal also included a photo of the INSIDE of our journal which we don’t let many people see. And we cannot say enough good things about photographer Elizabeth Morrisey whose took the photos that appear in the paper. So get your copy of the Wall Street Journal before we buy them all up!

We’re all about real mail here– the kind that’s delivered by a mailman right to your mailbox. But we also like technology so when the two combine we get a little giddy. Millions of people use their cell phones to snap photos. Now you can turn those photos into postcards with just a few clicks thanks to the Postagram app. It’s a free app that let’s you upload photos from your phone’s photo album or from your Instagram account. Type a message, click send and your postcard will be printed and delivered in two to five days. Each postcard costs just $.99 to send and that includes the stamp! We have some pretty embarrassing photos we could turn into postcards that might have the mailman blushing. How about you?