Christa Dubrock

Christa Dubrock, 41, balances her busy career and motherhood through a combination of yoga, music and cooking up her signature dishes in the kitchen. Hundreds follow her blog, namaste what?!, to read her observations on “scenes from a West End life…unscripted, but never unexamined.” And certainly never uneventful!

iList Paducah: Christa D., you are cute, cute, cute, no doubt about it. And you do HR for CSI — that’s a lot of letters.
Christa Dubrock: Yes. I’ve been with CSI for three-and-a-half years. It’s a phenomenal company. It’s very employee-driven.

IL: What do you do in HR?
CD: I handle retirement benefits. And before that, I was a recruiter. I visited colleges and talked to students about CSI. It really is the best company they could ever work for.

IL: Did you recruit iDate of the Week Brad Simmons?
CD: Yes! He’s so great. He’s a wonderful addition to the CSI team.

IL: What’s your best advice about planning for retirement?
CD: Start saving early. Even if you save just 1 percent of your income, if you start when you’re 23, it’s amazing how much your savings can grow. And get a good financial planner. We have a designated person through CSI who strictly works for our employees. So we can call and talk to him anytime. CSI offers a profit-sharing program on top of our 401(k) program, but it’s still important to save.

IL: What do you do when you’re not worrying over everyone’s financial future?
CD: I watch a lot of Top Chef. That’s definitely my favorite show. It’s a reality competition among chefs. It’s in its third season, Wednesday nights on Bravo. I’m a faithful follower. I can’t get enough of it.

IL: Do you like to cook?
CD: Yes. I love to cook. I inherited that from my mom. I would love to be a top chef. It hasn’t worked out so far, but I keep trying. You can learn a lot from watching the program. It’s about cooking, but the competition is also very dramatic, which keeps it interesting.

IL: Why don’t you audition for it?
CD: No! Are you kidding me? I don’t know my fois gras from frog legs.

IL: What’s your favorite dish to make?
CD: Roast chicken. You can do a lot with roast chicken. You can stuff it with different herbs and vegetables and create entirely different flavor profiles. Plus it goes with everything — carrots, potatoes — any kind of vegetable. I mainly cook for my family and close friends.

IL: You have quite the cookbook collection, don’t you?
CD: Yes, I have quite a few cookbooks! I like to buy them and read them.

IL: Which is your latest favorite?
CD: I just bought Tony Colicchio’s Think Like a Chef. He’s a Top Chef judge. It’s a cookbook, but it’s more like a “cooking” book because it’s all about the basic techniques of cooking — from basting to braising. It’s like reading a good novel.

IL: You also inherited your love for writing from your mom, right?
CD: Yes. She ran the Carlisle County Courier and it won 125 awards in five years. I come from a very creative family. My aunt is a writer and a blogger. Plus my cousin, Suzanne Clinton, started her blog several years ago and encouraged me to start one, too.

IL: You started your blog in April?
CD: Yes. I played guitar for awhile, so I’d come home and play and it was like everything just flowed out of me — all my cares and worries. That’s how I feel about my blog now. It’s really therapeutic.

IL: How’d you come up with the name namaste what?!?
CD: I started yoga about five years ago. The word namaste (pronounced nah-mah-STAY) is a blessing which roughly translates as "the Spirit of God which is in me blesses the Spirit of God which is in you.” It is traditional to say it at the end of a yoga practice. So I saw a namaste bumper sticker and put it on the back of my car. People at work thought it was some sort of Beastie Boys thing. I thought it was funny that nobody knew what it meant, so I decided to name my blog namaste what?!

IL: Very cute! Where do you practice yoga?
CD: I practice with Tim Whitaker of True North Yoga at the United Church of Paducah, where Karen Winkel preaches.

IL: Love her! She’s one holy hottie! Tell us about your daughters.
CD: Barclay is 22. She’s married and recently made me a grandmother! Heidi is four months old. She is such a doll. And Carson is 16 and goes to Tilghman. She wants to go to vet school. She’s been talking about it since she was 8 or 9 years old.
 
IL: It is hard to date when you have kids?
CD: Well, you always have to go to school functions and ballgames and things when you have kids. It’s easier when they’re teenagers because most times they don’t want to be around you anyway! But yes, I’d say it makes it a little more difficult. I’m definitely open to dating. Top Chef is only one night a week!

IL: You’re out in the community quite a bit, though.
CD: Yes, I volunteer for the LowerTown Art and Music Festival, and I usually volunteer for the River’s Edge Film Festival and the Wine Tasting and Art Auction for the Carson Center. I love Maiden Alley. I saw La Vie En Rose and To Kill a Mockingbird a few weeks ago. It’s incredible that we can get those kinds of movies here in Paducah.

I’m thrilled to see the downtown revived. I remember growing up before the mall came along. We’d go downtown to shop. It was great. You could ride the escalator at JC Penney and go to Walgreens and get a sandwich. I’m glad downtown is being revived and that my daughters are able to see it happen.

IL: What’s your connection with Amnesty International?
CD: I’m very interested in this organization. Human rights are important, and I don’t think that, in this country, we really realize the atrocities that go on. If anyone is interested, I’d like to form a local group. I’m also big on women’s rights. It’s important to me, as a mother especially, that my daughters understand they can do whatever they need to do and be whatever they want to be regardless of their gender.

IL: Well, Christa D., sounds like you’re an awesome role model for them — and a great inspiration to your co-workers and blog readers. And it would be way cool to have an Amnesty International group here! Namaste on with your yoga-practicing, chicken-roasting, human rights-protecting self! You are DAR-LING!

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