We challenged America to submit to be the IMA’s next top blogger and America answered.  Over the course of the next month, we’ll post the finalists in the IMA’s “So You Think You Can Blog” contest. After we’ve posted all five entries, we’ll let our blog readers vote for the winner. This week: Meet Heather McAlister.

Name: Heather McAlister, but you may call me Diva.  All my friends do, so why should you be any different?

Tell us a little about yourself.

I was born on a cold January day in 19—oops; I don’t think you really want my life history, right? I’ll just give you the highlights.   I’m a 30-something who has lived in Indianapolis for nearly 13 years.  I work for a large International non-profit organization where I develop, implement, and deploy leadership and educational materials. This really means I think up creative ways to educate those who serve the organization and inspire them to be great leaders.   The members then send me emails or call to say either A.) They love the materials I’ve created, it’s the best stuff they have ever seen, and I’m a genius or B.) They tell me what I’ve written is useless and how could I dare change something that was obviously already perfect and they can’t believe I didn’t consult them when I considered a rewrite.

I’ve learned I am either loved or hated for my work, but you can’t win them all and I need to support my Starbucks habit somehow.   Prior to my foray into the non-profit world, I was a teacher for 11 years.  Most of the time I loved it, but then, I started to love it less and less.  It’s sort of akin to a relationship.  You know you love the person, but you soon realize even love won’t keep you from wanting to beat them senseless with a cast-iron skillet when they do things that annoy you and no matter how hard you try, you just can’t ignore them.  I think I stayed as long as I did because I always had an excuse to buy new crayons and markers in August.  Yes, I went into teaching because I love the smell of new crayons and freshly sharpened pencils.    I’m creative—I paint pottery and make greeting cards.  I sing in the church choir.  I am training for my second Mini Marathon—mostly to see if maybe this year I don’t lose four toenails.

I’m also addicted to Facebook, Twitter, Starbucks Hot Chocolate (Ho Cho in Diva World), and my iPhone.   Eventually, I would love to write full time.  I aspire to be best friends with Jen Lancaster, author of Bitter is the New Black, so we can sit around and snark on people, write about it and get paid.  Until that time comes, I’ll keep my comments to myself and occasionally my Facebook page because really, how does anyone expect me to keep all of this in all the time?  I can only keep my ADHD tendencies under control for so long before it all just comes gushing out. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Memorial Day weekend and everyone in Indianapolis knows what that means…It’s time for the THE GREATEST SPECTACLE IN RACING! For as long as I can remember the Indianapolis 500 has been somewhat of a sacred tradition in my family. If the weather is above 55 degrees and it isn’t raining, my dad will turn on the race broadcast and pull into the driveway every car and/or lawn mower he can find. And so the annual race-day car wash begins. With the broadcast blaring so loud you can hear it for at least a half mile, the rest of the family (and neighborhood) is forced to listen. I won’t complain. I love the broadcast. The bellow of Jim Neighbors singing the line “Back home again in Indiana” gives me goosebumps. The first roar of the engines makes my adrenaline rush.

While many people stay at home and listen to the radio, hundreds of thousands more pour into the track every year as spectators. As the largest and highest-capacity sporting facility in history, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway can hold more than 400,000 fans. That means in one day the track gets as many visitors as the IMA does in an entire year. That’s amazing!

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