Four Perfect Pebbles

Today Marion Blumenthal Lazan came to speak to the 7th and 8th graders. She's a holocaust surviver and wrote the book Four Perfect Pebbles. She told her story - just horrific! Tears a flowing the entire time. She is a very strong, powerful women who has the incredible ability to be able to talk and share her experiences. Others in her family can't. Her message was clear - don't just follow along because everyone else does. She came with her husband, Nathaniel, who has obviously been an amazing support.

Weird Coincidences....

Ok - so here's a list of randoms that have happened in my life:

1. Walking down the street in Hong Kong ran into my friend Lisa who I had known since 1st grade, but had no idea that she was living in Hong Kong at the time.

2. Walking just off the beach in Bali ran into another friend that I knew since first grade - from the same class as above! I had no idea she was living there either.

3. On a business trip in Madrid hanging out with Miguel from our Madrid office in a random bar - ran into Emilio and Melinda!

4. In Florence, late one evening I was dying...I had to go to the bathroom so I ducked into an alley (yes, this was ages ago) and I ran into my cousin (non blood - by marriage) Seth doing the very same thing!

5. In Puerto Vallarta spring of my junior year in college I ran into Torrence - someone I knew from my gymnastics years!

keep checking for more...as I remember them I will post them!

One Stop Shopping

Mark had his surgery today. All went well. He's just been moved to the recovery room. He'll be there for an hour or so and then moved to a waiting area where he will stay until they release him.

And we have time...

The mini van broke down on the way down here to Rutland this morning...I called AAA, told them where it was, left the keys under the mat and told them to tow it to the closest Chrysler dealership. So - should we hitchhike or call a taxi? Before we had a chance to put our thumbs out - the people, whose driveway we were at the end of, happened to be leaving and asked if we needed help. Why YES! We said, can you give us a ride to the hospital? We crammed into the jump seat of the pick up truck... And they drove us both to the hospital...

We were only 20 minutes late!

I tell you...why do I always have these little 'bumps' in the road? Drama. It always has a way of finding me. I guess life would seem so boring & mundane without it!

I called the dealer and the coolant lines had corroded and therefore leaked...hence the overheating engine and massive amounts of black smoke that bellowed out from under the passenger seat side of the car...so much that for a moment there we thought the car might blow! $329 and I can get the car between 3 and 4...which will be just about the time Mark will be ready to go home. The timing is perfect and the parts were in stock!

Note to self: figure out how to get the dealer and where it is!!!

And as I always try to see the good things in any situation... All I can say is thank goodness the minivan didn't die on the way home....

Can you imagine???

The Over 30 Crowd - Yes That's ME!

you know me - I am such a nerd that some of these email thingamabobs I get I just have to post so that I can enjoy/refer to them again. Here's another:

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tearswith their tedious diatribes about how hard things werewhen they were growing up; what with walkingtwenty-five miles to school every morning ... uphill BOTH ways

yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up,there was no way I was going to go on about how hard I had itand how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age ofthirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.

You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to mychildhood, you live in a utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today youdon't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have TheInternet . If we wanted to know something,we had to go to the library andlook it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually writesomebody a letter with a pen!Then you had to walk all the way across the street andput it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted tosteal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ' d usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no on screen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! There was no such think as channel surfing! You had to get up and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons.

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a fire . Imagine that!

If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

C'est Moi & The Story It Tells

Ok so scanned in this photo last night...for various reasons....

It tells so much! It was taken in Greece in the summer of 1988 in Athens. Notice a couple things that crack me up:
1. It's 20 years ago. Am I really that old?
2. The sunglasses
3. No bra
4. The necklace - the long one - was a gift purchased by Mark on Santorini that trip
5. The HUGE scab on my left shoulder - we had a bad motorcycle accident on Ios and I kissed the payment
6. No wrinkles
7. Still have those puffy eyes

6 degrees? or only 2?

My last trip to New York was the most amazing trip in terms of happenstance and coincidence. So, if you have a moment - read on and enjoy - I just had to write....

I got up at 5 am on Sunday morning, packed and headed to the airport for my 7 something flight. Parked the car, kiosk check in, into the security line. Behind me in line walks up Susan Z who was headed to Las Vegas for business. We start chit chatting, put our stuff on the belt etc etc and once through security I realize my phone, yes my blackberry, is still in my car charging. I hand Susan my stuff, grab my boarding pass, ID and car keys and run back through security, through the airport, up the stairs (you ever notice how there is no up escalator? there) and through the garage to my car. Success!

The flight was uneventful, got my bag, got on the Air Train and headed to Jamaica Station. Got my LIRR ticket etc and headed for track 2 for Penn Station. While standing there a young woman comes up to me and says that we were both on the flight out of Burlington and then here we are again standing on the tracks.

"Why are you going to the city?" I ask. "I'm going to the GoGreenExpo", she says. Can you believe that? Both from BTV to JFK for the expo?

Anyway, she works for a company called Lindblad Expeditions and they have just moved all their video work up here to....the next town over and she, Amy has been transferred up here from NYC with the company. So she was an exhibitor at the show - they had the best booth!

So that was weird...ok I think to myself - it's really common to know people on flights in and out of BTV....but that she was going to the Expo? NYC is massive with so many events going on on any given day.....weird.

I went to the show - which was great and I can write another entry about all that - and while there I saw that they were showing a couple movies. honestly I didn't care which movie - but by 1:00, I was tired of walking around and was looking forward to being entertained and sitting down for a bit. I found one of the rooms that had a movie and was told it was full and there was no room. I am not really sure why I stayed standing there in the hall, but I did. I just stood there waiting to get in. And I didn't even know what the movie was. I had no idea what I was waiting for. But I waited.

And less than 5 minutes later some man in a suit came out, grabbed me and guided me to an empty seat. And there I sat for the next 2 hours.

The movie was called, Fields of Fuel - check out the link or go here and check out the clip on Youtube. Amazing! Just amazing! I could also write a novel about all that as well....

But anway, there was Q & A after with the Josh Tickell - the guy who made the movie, the producer (who was the man in the suit that shuffled me in) and Josh's fiancee, Rebecca H, who is the marketing manager and they were talking about how they would like this movie to be shown in schools all across America and how they are looking for funding.

I'm not sure why? or what I was really thinking, but I went up and introduced myself and started talking to Rebecca. I told her I would be interested in learning more and getting a copy of the fundraising package etc...as I might know some people who would be willing to donate. And would they consider looking at a small state, mine for example, and try to get into all the schools there first? She says - of course! She's from the very next town to the east of us! Ok - bizarre! She reminded me there had been an article in the press about her and the movie before Christmas - I remembered it.....

So the rest of the day was normal - walking around, shopping, thoroughly enjoying the alive-ness of New York! I just love that city! It sends energy through every vein in my body!

At breakfast, Neil's, I see this woman come in and sit at the counter. We finished breakfast. Dad went off to the office....and I took a wild shot and leaned over to this woman and said, "Glynnie?". Yup. it was Glynnie and I hadn't seen her in about 18 years! We went to college together and I think the last time I saw her was at our wedding! So great to catch up!

Went to MOMA, saw the color exhibit - which highly recommend if you get a chance, then took a car out to JFK to catch the 3:10 JetBlue flight. I start chatting with the driver - he's Pakistani, blah blah blah, used to work for a company with HQ in CH. In a small town "called Lachen, but you probably haven't heard of it" he says. "Oh yes, I say, I lived just down the lake from there. He then says he worked for Transamonia! GET OUT! Our great friend has worked for Transamonia for 20 years - both in the Lachen and the Stamford Offices. My Pakistani worked in the NYC office, so I didn't bother asking if he knew Richard. What a small world we live in!

So, go to check in at the handy dandy kiosks and low and behold - the machine doesn't recongize anything I have - my CC, my trueblue #, the bar code, the confirm # - nothing! Trouble. I look at the board - the 3:10 flight is cancelled, the 9:55 flight is delayed until 11 something and the 10:45 flight was delayed until close to midnight.

"I can put you on the 9:55 flight the guy says or I can give you your money back." I looked over at a UVM student and asked her if she wanted to rent a car and drive up together - she looked at me like I had snakes coming out of my head. I took that as a definitive "NO!".

So I make the guy give me all the 800 #'s for the car rental companies and start calling. As I am making that first call to Hertz - old habits die hard - I look up and see Idoline and Angie (ski friends)...I am not at all surprised - we run into this family in random airports around the world so this was almost expected!

Yes, they were also on the 3:10 flight. So we rented a car and were on the road by 3 pm - Biddle driving us off LI, over the Throgs Neck and onto 95 through cats and dogs! It was pouring! Seven hours of chatting - what fun!

I arrived home (after returning the car at the airport etc) at 10:10 pm.

This morning I found out that the 9:55 flight had been cancelled and the 10:45 flight got in about 1:15 this morning.

What a 48 hours I had - so many degrees of seperation and weird coincidences!

Doesn't the world work in the most mysterious ways?

If you got this far, thanks for reading!

Bill's 11 Things

I just got this in an email and I think all points are absolutely valid. I'm posting it here so I know where I can find it!

"Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping g you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.