Yep, that's me.
It's not my shirt and I'm wearing makeup (a technical photography concern described as "cranial glare") but at least the same type of grass grows in my back yard. We're actually clustered by the side of Kamehameha Highway next to an old cane field above Haleiwa.
Best interview ever. Andrea Peck is a freelance journalist and a military spouse who's been working on this article since last fall. I had no idea that Clark Howard was a USAA member, and she even tracked down Ellie Kay (another military spouse and speaker who's written 15 books on military families). She did the interview in October and Pace Communications swapped several e-mails with fact-checking questions. I think they went to press in April. Considering that most freelancers don't get paid until the edition is mailed out, she's been working an awfully long time on this one.
The photographer (MarcoGarciaPhotography.com) brought two crew to my house. We spent four hours in my yard and Haleiwa Ali'i Beach Park (and old cane fields) for literally hundreds of shots. I even got to go surfing. Now that the article is out I'm going to see if he'll sell me a few more photos for the family album and for my own social media use.
This whole idea (Andrea, Ellie, me, and USAA staff) grew out of USAA's annual blogger conferences that they've hosted for the last few years. I think one reason that USAA wanted to quote me in particular was because of my perspective on the "Member since 1981" geezer demographic...
