Friday, February 1st is Go Red for Women Day!  Celebrate the energy, passion and power we have as women to band together to wipe out heart disease and stroke. Wear red - it's a simple and powerful way to raise awareness that it's not a "man's disease".

My own heart has always been close to the fight against heart disease and stroke. My father suffered multiple heart attacks before the final one which killed him as he was closing his business for the night. My mother died in a nursing home at the age of 65 of complications following a stroke. Much progress has been made since then, but more needs to be done. Learn all you can and do all you can. Visit www.americanheart.org to "Learn and Live".

Where the Girls Are

Saturday, February 2: 8 AM - 4 PM at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino. Direct Selling Women's Alliance presents Celebrate 2008 and Build It Big with DSWA Co-founder Nicki Keohohou and other inspiring and educational speakers. Register online at www.mydswa.org or call 1-888-417-0743.

Monday, February 11, National Association of Female Executives (NAFE) breakfast, 8:00 – 10 AM at the Wild Horse Golf Club, 2100 Warm Springs Rd.  For information and reservations, contact catie@authenticsuccessteams.com

Thursday, February 14 , Moms in Business Network (MIBN) and Here’s to Girlfriends, will host a Girlfriends Get Together, 11: 30 AM at Dan Marino’s restaurant in Hooters Hotel & Casino. www.mibn.org

Saturday, February 16, 9:30 AM League of Women Voters meets at the Main Street Station Social Club. Guest speaker Secretary of State Ross Miller; www.lwvlasvegasvalley.org

Thursday, February 21: National Association of Professional Mortgage Women Dinner Meeting  "Self Promotion & Branding for Mortgage Professionals" with special guest speaker, Jill Lublin at Big Dog’s; www.napmwlv.com.

Friday, March 28, Richelle Shaw hosts a Boot Camp for women who want to participate in “Make Mine a Million $ Business”. The program, sponsored by OPEN From American Express, has a goal of bringing 1 million women business owners to $1 million in annual revenue by the year 2010. For information on the program, visit www.makemineamillion.org. For information and reservations for the Boot Camp, contact richelleshaw@gmail.com.

April 18 – 20, the Direct Selling Women’s Alliance Education Celebration will be held at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino with powerful speakers including Jack Canfield, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Meet those women you’ve heard about – the ones who made a million in MLM. They are real and they are fantastic! Take advantage of this great opportunity right here in our own “hometown” by visiting www.mydswa.org.

I'm still new to this blogging thing. Last week I wrote this post but forgot to hit the "publish" button. So it just sat neglected in "drafts" until today. Hopefully I won't make that mistake again.

Now I know how the people in Iowa feel. Well, not totally because Iowa is the first caucus of the year so they have candidates and accompanying media camping out there for months. They were there when we visited my mother-in-law last August. They were there when we went back for Christmas. And then poof, they were gone - to New Hampshire. This year despite all the jockeying for position, Nevada maintained it's spot as the third caucus of the year. When my husband called to say that Hillary Clinton was coming to visit the place where he was working I said "Yeah, sure." I know how these things go. She won't come - her "people" will decide it would be better to visit a day care center so she can be photographed with cute little kids. Or maybe Letterman will call. She won't come.

Boy, was I wrong. On Thursday, January 17 the Secret Service people were swarming A&B Printing, a union print shop owned by my friend Kathy Gillespie. A bomb sniffing dog was showing a lot of interest in the graphics department. Big trucks with satellite dishes were lining up in the parking lot. Hillary was coming at 10 AM the following day - for sure! I just had to be a part of it. The idea was that I would be a customer who just "happened to drop in". Soon we abandoned that plan in favor of having a few "VIPs" who were allowed to participate.

I didn't have to be a Hillary supporter to get caught up in the excitement. The parking lot was filled with trucks and cables. Inside there were reporters and cameras from every major U.S. network and all over the world. I've never seen anything like it in my life and I was so glad I was there. Just about the time I thought they couldn't fit even one more person in that room, the Clinton bus pulled in and here came Hillary and her entire traveling press corps.

Even if you are not a big fan of Hillary Clinton, you must be thrilled by the historic importance of this woman attempting to break the ultimate glass ceiling. We have never been so close to having our first woman president.

The Democratic caucus was either a failure or a success, depending on who you talk to. At my precinct it was great, but I guess some others didn't have such a good experience. Both Republicans and Democrats drew thousands more participants than were expected. That alone is cause for celebration.

If you want to get "plugged in" to the political process, check out the national bipartisan public policy organization, Women Impacting Public Policy, www.wipp.org.

Welcome to the newest feature of Here's to Girlfriends, a virtual kaffeeklatsch (a German word meaning coffee and gossip)  where we can share ideas and news. I just thought we needed something a little more spontaneous. It's cheaper than Starbucks and you don't have to get dressed if you don't want to.