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Adrienne Jenkins Lensography & More About Me

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Hi, I'm Adrienne

I AM A GARDENER
It was a bit scary the first time I wrote down gardener as my occupation on our tax forms instead of Marketing Director. That was 7 years ago. I've been fortunate enough to be able to follow my passion to garden for a living rather than be stuck in a cubicle.

SEMI-RETIRED AT AGE 40
For the past couple of years, you could say I'm partially retired having enjoyed what 4 Hour Work Week lifestyle guru, Tim Ferriss dubs as mini-retirements. In 2007, I took 4 months off to spend time with my parents in Vancouver. In 2008, I managed to flip the equation and took 8 months off and only worked 4 months instead.

I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A WRITER
One of the things I've always wanted to do is write a book. But I love the immediacy of instantly publishing on both Associated Content and Squidoo. I haven't abandoned the idea of getting my book finished, it's just that I decided to stop being a dilettante about online writing and indulge my passion for writing online to see where it leads.

FIND YOUR PASSION
I find Squidoo tremendously addicting. I enjoy it both as a writer and a reader. With Squidoo, it's easy to write from morning to night. Here's my online writing portfolio with a lensography of the many fascinating things which capture my attention.

Following My Passions

  1. My Life As A Gardener
  2. My Life As A Disc Jockey
  3. My Life As A Music Writer
  4. My Life As An Entertainment Reporter
  5. My Life As An Arts Reviewer
  6. My Life As A Book Reviewer
  7. My Life As An Obituary Writer
  8. My Life As A Political Blogger
  9. My Life As A Food Writer
  10. My Life As A Technology Reporter
  11. My Life As A Lifestyle Writer
  12. My Life As A Travel Writer
  13. My Life As A Self-Help Writer
  14. My Life As An Online Writer
  15. My Top 10 Lenses

Do What You Love For A Living 

My Life As A Gardener

Lawn and Garden Manager / Plant & Pottery Buyer / Merchandiser

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination. - Oscar Wilde

Every morning, when I get up to go to work as a garden center merchandiser, I can't wait to get to work. How many people get to say that about their jobs? I'm absolutely committed to the idea of finding meaningful work so it doesn't feel like a job.

Fed up with office politics, seven years ago, I walked away from a generous pay check, retirement plan and benefits, with only a vague plan of action to follow my passion for gardening. Without a formal college degree in horticulture, in less than a couple of years, I was managing a lawn and garden department in a funky old-fashioned hardware store in Washington, D.C.

Getting Dirty: Quit Your Job & Get Paid to Garden For a Living
More About the Book I'm Writing On Green Jobs

Top 12 Worries About Pursuing Gardening As a Living
This article addresses issues and concerns with reassurance that gardening for a living is a viable, meaningful career choice not reserved solely for daydreamers.

Have I Ever Met the President of the United States?
Working on Capitol Hill, people ask if I've ever met the President of the United States? Actually, I have. That's me in the straw hat in the picture below. Plus I've helped other politicians such as Senators Barbara Boxer, Dick Gephart, Katherine Harris & DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton as well as political strategist Donna Brazille. I think it's kinda nice these busy people find time to putter around in their gardens.

George Bush At Frager's Hardware on Capitol Hill 

Green Is The New Internet

Green Collar Jobs Are A Growing Trend

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Books About Gardening For a Living

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My Life As A Garden Writer

Garden Columnist Hill Rag

Here are gardening articles I wrote online for Associated Content.

Do It Yourself Wildflower Wedding Bouquets
Create a Scented Mother's Day Flower Arrangement
Mother's Day Homemade Floral Bouquet
Annual Orchid Exhibit in Washington, DC
The First Day of Spring Gardening
Easy Landscaping Ideas For Winter
Ikea's $20 Cheap Christmas Tree Promotion

For three years, I used to write a monthly garden column called "Hill Gardener" for a local community newspaper with information on how to garden on Capitol Hill.

Books About Green Careers

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Follow Your Passion 

Books To Inspire You

Follow Your Bliss

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My Life As A Disc Jockey

I Tend To Make A Major Career Change About Every Seven Years

All the Jobs I've Ever Had...

Director of Marketing
Dot.com Analyst washingtonpost.com
E-mail Product Manger
Marketing Analyst
Freelance Writer of Soap Opera & Movie Updates
Top 40 Radio Disc Jockey Announcer
Wedding DJ
Office Temp Receptionist Typist

I used to be radio announcer back in the '80s playing everything from the Judds to Nirvana. This was before CDs & digitized music. We were still playing albums and 45s. Commercials were recorded on reel-to-reel tape and a multi-track machine that was about the size of a dishwasher.

This is the automation machine which played overnight, playing pre-recorded announcements, music and commercials. When you got home that night you were supposed to listen to the radio before you went to sleep just to make sure any of the tapes didn't get stuck which if it did, meant I'd have to trudge back in the snow after midnight and hit the automation machine with a hammer to unjam it.

Movies On Making a Life Not Just a Living

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My Love Of Music Lead Me To Be A DJ 

My Life As A Music Writer

Get Paid to Write About Music on Squidoo

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What's On My IPOD

I'm Still A Pop Music Princess

I think music is hilarious these days as songs from the 80s get sampled and reworked like Right Round. I remember the original You Spin Me Round from Dead or Alive back in the day in 1985 when they were just starting to phase out records.

Grammy Award Nominees I Also Love
American Boy - Estelle Featuring Kanye West | Chasing Pavement - Adele
Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis | Better in Time - Leona Lewis
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Much More Music

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Cover Tunes

Feeling Good Original Version By Nina Simone

Jazz has a long standing tradition of different artists covering the same tune calling them standards. As a relatively young form of music, pop and rock are continuing to evolve.

Beyond mere karaoke, cover songs whether remakes or samples showcase an artist's versatility & originality with fresh interpretations that dare listeners to enjoy a new take on an old favorite.

Cover versions by Michael Buble, George Michael, Muse and The Pussycat Dolls can be found here.

When Artists Sing Each Other's Songs

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

I love when artists cover each other's songs. You would think listening to the same song over and over again would be tiring but it's infinitely interesting. For example, my husband has a playlist of different artists doing the blues classic "Stormy Mondays".
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My Life As An Entertainment Reporter

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My Life As An Arts Reviewer

Featured Artists

Washington, DC where I'm based is home to the Smithsonian where I get to spend time with Monet, Chagall, Rothko, Klee, Dali and other great artists and exhibits.
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My Life As A Book Reviewer

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My Life As An Obituary Writer

Some people may consider reading obituaries a morbid past time. But it is actually a way to honor an individual's legacy, to celebrate their joie de vivre. Celebrity deaths in particular shed a spotlight on the importance of living a life well lived.
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Most Touching Obituary

If There's Only One Tribute You Read

The Enduring Legacy of Last Lecture Professor Randy Pausch

Last January, I heard about Last Lecture Professor, Randy Pausch from the Washington Post's 2008 "What's Hot List". I watched his inspiring Last Lecture on YouTube. Fom time to time, I'd visit his blog where he posted updates on his battle with pancreatic cancer -- actor Patrick Swayze has been diagnosed with the same terminal illness.

One day, I checked in and was saddened to hear Randy's body had finally succumbed to the ravages of pancreatic cancer yet his spirit lives on through his love for his children, his wife Jai and his willingness to pass on his life lessons. I quickly set up an online guestbook for people to share their condolences. The outpouring of grief and support for Randy's family was touching.
The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture

by: Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow

Randy Pausch is dying and he's having to weigh his own desire to leave a lasting legacy for his children with finding precious private time to spend with his wife and kids. Read how Pausch successfully lobbies with his wife to prepare The Last Lecture which ends up with her sacrificing her last birthday dinner with her husband.

Yet it is because of his willingess to press on with the idea of The Last Lecture that Pausch's impact leaves an even more powerful and enduring legacy that has far greater reach. Carnegie Mellon has made Randy's lecture and transcripts available in perpetuity for free online and links are included here.

My Life As A Political Blogger

Writing Online for Associated Content & Squidoo

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My Life As A Food Writer

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My Life As A Technology Reporter

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My Life As A Lifestyle Writer

Writing About Quirky, Fun Things

One of the freedoms that online writing for Squidoo & Associated Content allow is the flexibility to write about anything and everything AND get paid for doing so.
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My Life As A Travel Writer

Favorite Travel Destinations

Paris is the first European city I ever visited. Got married in Rome & honeymooned in Venice. We've travelled to Tokyo, Kyoto, Hong Kong, Berlin, Prague, Dublin, London, Morocco, Puerto Rico, San Francisco, Hawaii, New York, Boston, Toronto, Montreal.
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My Life As A Self-Help Writer

Follow Your Passion

I am interested in work life balance issues. My work history includes telecommuting, a 4 day compressed work week & now I take at least 4 months vacation a year. I am interested in sharing my experience so others can enjoy more time off as well.
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Follow Your Bliss

Joseph Campbell

If you follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.

When I met my husband, it set in motion a life adventure that continues to this day, leaving behind the safety and security of living in the city I grew up in to move to the East Coast, leaving behind friends and family. Co-workers at my steady but boring job at the phone company wished me well and sent me off with a copy of this amazing book.

The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell is the perfect gift for graduation, retirement, milestone birthdays and more. There is a less expensive paperback but this illustrated version makes the text come alive. If there's one book I'd recommend about answering the call to adventure, this is it. Check your local library or Netflix to view the companion DVDs with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers.
The Power of Myth

The Power of Myth

by: Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers

Amazon Price: $3.74 (as of 02/18/2012)Buy Now

Following one's bliss, as Campbell saw it, isn't merely a matter of doing whatever you like, and certainly not doing simply as you are told. It is a matter of identifying that pursuit which you are truly passionate about and attempting to give yourself absolutely to it. In so doing, you will find your fullest potential and serve your community to the greatest possible extent.

- Joseph Campbell Foundation

My Life As An Online Writer

Blogging, Squidoo, Associated Content

I was also writing for an abstract service which no longer exists called Brijit.com that paid you to summarize a news story, magazine article or television program in 100 words or less.
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What I'm Currently Reading

Seth Godin's Tribes

Every year it seems, there's a book that ends up as a personal theme for the year. Last year, in 2008 there were actually two that stayed top of mind for me -- Randy Pausch's Last Lecture and Elizabeth Gilbert's eat, pray, love.

The year before in 2007 in re-working my schedule to take 4 months off every year, Tim Ferriss' The Four Hour Work Week helped shape my thinking. This year, it's Seth Godin's Tribes.
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

by: Seth Godin

Amazon Price: $11.42 (as of 02/18/2012)Buy Now

Excerpt From Seth's Blog on Tribe Management

Brand management is so 1999. Brand management was top down. It involved an MBA managing the brand, the ads, the shelf space, etc. Tribe management is a whole different way of looking at the world.

What people really want is the ability to connect to each other, not to companies. It starts with permission to deliver anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them.

So the permission is used to build a tribe of people who want to hear from the company because it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, it gives them a story to tell and something to talk about.

I'd Love To Get Paid to Write For a Living

Wait A Minute, I'm Kind Of Doing That Now

Writing Sabbatical: Take Time Off to Finish the Book You've Always Wanted to Write
Now, more than ever people are eagerly embracing the possibility of taking extended periods of time off to accomplish personal goals such as taking a writing sabbatical.

How to Write a Great Bestselling Book Title: Tips from Timothy Ferriss
Friends and family offer soft research when it comes to writing a bestselling book title. Timothy Ferris, bestselling author of The Four Hour Work Week offers two brilliant tips using Google adwords and observational in store research.

Write Everyday, Practice Makes Profit
Writing is a muscle which only improves with daily practice. The easiest way to make more money on Associated Content is to make writing a regular habit.

Why I Love Associated Content
The real benefit to writing for Associated Content is getting to write about whatever you're most passionate about which in my case is about everything from entertainment gossip, music, movies, travel, food, politics and more.

About Me

This Year I Pledge to Write Everyday

This past year in 2008 my husband and I got to spend 4 months living in Barcelona. One tradition we brought over from Spain we hope to maintain is the Mediterranean time clock of 2 hour lunches and afternoon siestas.
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P.S. One More Thing - Bad 80s Grad Picture 

My Top 10 Lenses

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AdrienneJenkins

Eat, Write, Love. I'm currently living "La Dolce Vita" in Rome, Italy with my husband who's a professor of architecture. I'm getting to fulfill the dr... more »

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