Writing Life

While Diane and I were in Rehoboth Beach this week, celebrating our 18th anniversary, we stumbled across this fantastic art gallery along one of the side streets. Detail has been around for awhile, but only moved to this location earlier this year. They have lots of different artists, some local, some as far away as Denver, Chicago and Mississippi. They have traditional paintings (oil and acrylics), photography, mixed media, assemblages and other formats. We talked with Michael, one of the owners, and also met the stores mascot Mirabelle, a cute little Boston terrier.

I picked up a piece called Juice while I was there. It’s a fantastic photo mounted in a wood frame that juxtaposes classic 50s iconography with a more contemporary flair. If you have the chance, visit Detail at 54 Baltimore Avenue in Rehoboth Beach, DE.

As a writer, I’d have to be excited about how Indianapolis has recreated itself. But, I’ve got double reason to be excited. My father-in-law had a great letter published in response to that article (see the first letter on the web page). It was published in today’s Travel section in the Washington Post.

We’re back and I wanted to highlight my workout times from Jamaica. I was a total geek and worked out while on vacation. But, it helped keep in check the frozen drinks, beer and food I ate day and night! I worked out three times, which sync’ed with my home pattern. I ran five miles around an asphalt track at the largest sports complex in the Caribbean. Each lap was 0.5 miles, so 10 times was all it took. The first day, I ran in rain for about 1/2 of each lap and in the sun for the next half. Island weather! The second day was great and cool as I was up around 8 to run. The third day killed me, as the times show, possibly due to the extremely high humidity that day. The times below are for each mile, first through fifth.

Jan. 3rd: 7:46 .. 7:45 .. 8:24 .. 8:56 .. 8:54
Jan. 5th: 7:27 .. 7:59 .. 8:28 .. 9:03 .. 9:02
Jan 7th: 7:44 .. 7:59 .. 8:16 .. 9:34 .. 10:04

What’s amazing for me is that I’d only run six individual miles under 8 minutes since I started running in June of last year. On Jamaica, I ran six miles under 8 on three consecutive workouts. I’m off for a run now, so hope that the trend continues!

At breakfast this morning, Diane & I ran into a couple that we’d been eyeing for the last two days. We thought they might be these two (and here and also here).

Turns out, while I was waiting to get my omelet, they got seated right next to Diane and it was Chris and Dan. We fell right back into good times. They said they’d even thought/talked about us last night, reminiscing about us coming to the wedding in the garden veranda back in 2004. We always remember that wedding, it was beautiful and simple and a perfect cap to our first trip to Jamaica.

They’ve moved out of Nebraska and now live in Missouri. They’re both doing great, and Chris was actually teaching all week over at the workout center. I even passed her this morning on the track as she was warming up her Step class and I was doing a five mile run.

We talked for about an hour and a half and had an awesome time. [Updated] I was able to upload the picture just now.

Komen published their official race results for my first 5K back on October 14th. Since there wasn’t any fancy finish line or electronic tracking, I think these times are a bit fuzzy. They did collect racers’ bibs, which had identifiers, but I’m not sure how they tracked specific times for individuals. But, it’s close to my own estimate of 28:30. It took me about a little over one minute to go from the finish line to where I actually handed over my bib, since everyone was merging into several lines to be processed.

But, without further ado, here’s my official stats:

Place: 1,355 (out of 4,240)
Age Group: 40-44
Time: 30:50.2
Pace: 6:10/K

I was 28th best of the Columbia contingent, and 5th best for my age group from Columbia. But, it was a lot of fun and it was for a great cause. Congrats to everyone who participated!

I just finished my first 5K race! Im blogging from my iPhone! We are up in Hunt Valley, MD, for the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Race for the Cure. I ran it in 28:30, a little off my mark of an 8:30 mile. Running in a crowd is difficult!! Diane’s doing her 5K walk with coworkers right now!

Big shout out to Barb & Bob for their generous pledge for our participation today. We love you!!

I’m out of the States for less than a week and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigns and Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), one of the most vehemently anti-gay legislators around pleads guilty inwhat the Drudge Report has labelled “Brokeback Bathroom.”  I can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow.  (As an aside, I really have to wonder if every conservative or Republican who rails against gays and lesbians is really in the closet themselves and either hates themselves or doesn’t want anyone else to have the type of relationships they have?)

I was in DC yesterday (Tuesday) for a meeting and then lunch with a colleague. In between, I stopped by the White House, cutting through Lafayette Park. In all my time in DC, I really don’t think I’ve been to north side of the White House, viewed from Pennsylvania Avenue. I guess it makes sense since almost all of my DC-based work has focused on Congress. Anyway, here’s a cool self-portrait by the fence.

This past weekend, my mom’s cousin, Fr. Bill, celebrated 50 years in the Catholic priesthood. Our family got together in Scranton (PA) to celebrate over the weekend. It was a blast!

Trivia: Fr. Bill had married my parents one week after he was ordained. They’d waited for this to happen. Fr. Bill also married Diane & I, though obviously not at the same time.

We took a ton of photos and so did the couple we travelled with. So, still sorting and selecting. As I mentioned before, I’ll be writing some commentary intersperse photos within the text.

For now, we wanted to get some interesting photos up. I called these are artistic ones, which Diane & I took on the islands of Santorini and Mykonos as well as ones we took in Athens. We hope you enjoy them!

I haven’t posted in a long time and it’s because I was out of the country on vacation. We went to Greece, visiting Santorini, Mykonos and Athens. It was a fantastic trip with ups and downs. I’ll be pulling together a robust report with pictures and reflections soon, but for now, here’s one of my favorite photos, taken in Santorini. This island is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever visited. It’s dramatic landscape is due to a volcanic eruption that blew away most of the interior of the island, leaving a wonderful caldera. As you walk the area, you’ll see many vistas like this one, where doors seem to lead off cliffs. But, in reality, it’s that the homes are below, built directly into the cliffs and the entrance is from above. Stay tuned for more!

Our trip to Jamaica was wonderful! As always must happen, vacations end. It’s harder, though, when you go into the airport and the sun’s out, it’s in the mid 80s and humid, and you deplane at your destination and find it’s in the 30s, windy, and dark. But, we’re back, we’re unpacked, and plowing through messages, both physical and virtual!

On a cool note, I didn’t smoke on vacation…the first time in ages and definitely the first time I didn’t smoke in Jamaica. It was hard a times, mostly just remembering doing it. But, if I gave it a thought, i.e. if I had one, I realized in my mind that it wasn’t what I really wanted. And, waking up each morning having survived the previous day’s challenge, I was more empowered. 52 days and counting!

And, on a really sad/pathetic note. After Diane & I got through immigration control at the airport, we were still in the secure pre-Customs baggage claim area. I looked around the huge, very modern looking facility at BWI Airport. Not one sign was in any language other than English. Not even anything in Spanish! What shocked and upset me was that this wasn’t a local mom & pop store in the ‘burbs, or the turbo-flop wing of the airport. It was the international arrival facility. One would think that it’s not just English speakers who’d be traveling through this area. Why not a few signs with multilingual instructions?

Having a ball in Jamaica still.  What a trip it’s been, with me drinking Guinness @ the sports bar and pretty much drinking my way through all the types of gin they have here.  I hated gin, and now I’m making choices between Tanquerey, Bombay Sapphire, and one or two others.  Gin martinis and G&T’s rock (less sweet and still great tasting!).

On the non-drink front, heading out to go snorkeling in a few.  Should be a relaxing and beautiful day today!

Just two photos from where spend my morning and evening commute…

Happy New Year to everyone. We had a wonderful time up in Baltimore, ringing in the new year. Best wishes to all.

Our regional director sent me this photo from the speech I gave in LA. I was so in the zone during this speech that I don’t even remember anyone taking it!

After running around like crazy and doing so much, I was able to spend Saturday night with my old neighbors in Columbia, Mary and Sam. We were joined by their youngest daughter, Marrisa, who was in town visiting them. They picked me up at my hotel around 6:15 and we went to this great seafood place south of Long Beach. It was so amazing to see Mary and Sam after so long and we talked and talked about what’s been going on since they moved to LA. I had an amazing dinner of some funky Hawaiian fish that was served with wild mushrooms and diced tomatoes. We washed all our food down with too many martinis and some wine!

After dinner, they dropped me back at my hotel and I grabbed another two pints of Sierra Nevada in the lounge and headed up to bed. I had an 8:45 flight the next morning and wanted to be rested. The trip back was uneventful and not too long. Happily, I was reunited with my honey Diane at the airport around 4:10 PM!!!

I arrived at my hotel, the Holiday Inn LAX, just before 10 PM and was unpacking my bag by 10:05. I grabbed my speech notes, headed to the lounge, and reviewed my notes and slides over a pint of Sierra Nevada pale ale. Feeling tired, I headed back to my room, checked some web news sites, talked with the front desk to set up a 6:00 AM wake up call, and I drifted off to sleep.

I got up just after my wake-up call and checked my email and news sites. Dammit, the world just changes too fast! I made some quick additions, deletion and modifications to my speech. Showered and raring to go, I headed down to Manhattan Beach, where I would hook up with Wendell and his wonderful wife Madelyn and head off to the LA Friendship Center, where I’d be giving my talk. We picked up Tom Hastings, a friend of the Harter’s on the way. Tom and I talked in the back of the van on the way to the Center. He used to work for Xerox as a software designer and we talked about my previous career plus the fact that Diane, Jim, Barbara and Bob all worked for Xerox at one time or another! Small world. Even cooler was that when he was at MIT, his freshman thesis advisor was the one and only Marvin Minsky. Too cool if you’re an AI geek!

Anyway, we arrived at the Center, set up the stage, my PowerBook, and whatnot and greeted people as they arrived. It was fabulous to meet in person all the CGS leaders and activists who I’d spoken with over the phone since 2004! Most were really great people. The morning was filled by Jim Stewart, who talked about climate change and what individuals could do. I very nice catered lunch (which I got about 2 seconds to visit) happened next. I went on at 12:55 (about 5 minutes later) after a truly wonderful introduction by Wendell. I spoke until about 2:30 and then took questions until 2:40.

I have to tell you, I prepped VERY hard for this speech and covered a great deal of ground. As usual, I do enjoy doing these public speaking events, but I tend to “zone out”. I remember Wendell’s introduction and I remember thanking people after the Q&A ended. But, the rest of it? No clue. Happily, many people came up afterwards to tell me that I gave a great speech, lots of information, well organized, well presented. Wow, it’s amazing my head fit out the door!

Afterwards, we broke down our stuff and headed back to Wendell’s. I had a root beer and chatted with Madelyn and Wendell. Then, I headed back to my hotel, around 5-ish in the afternoon.

After leaving Encinitas, I drove up to Orange County to visit my friend and former colleague Angela. She used to work at CGS and now lives out in SoCal. I was meeting her at 6:30 at this Thai restaurent in Santa Ana. As some of you may know, Santa Ana is also home to the South Coast mall. This mall makes my university look like a pup-tent. The mall goes on and on, across several blocks. It’s full of gucci shops, including Gucci, and it’s filled with middle-aged and old ladies who were wearing the latest in juniors fashion. Ugh! But, there was one redeeming feature, an Apple Store! Off I went to worship at the temple of Steve. I picked up an extra power adapter, to use at work, and a new inCase carrybag for my laptop. Woohoo!

After that, I drove up and down Bristol Street trying to find George’s Thai Bistro, where I was meeting Angela for dinner. I finally found it and waited for Angela to arrive. I picked up their local “city paper” rag and was blown away by the fact that the first 15-20 pages of this weekly paper were ads for boob jobs, botox, lipo, and every other superficial modification that plastic surgeons could enact on a human form. It was insane! But, I guess it goes along with the Hummer-mentality of the OC. I gotta tell you, I never saw so many Hummer deathtraps in my life. Every block!

Angela and I had a great dinner (krapow for me and a spicy soup & noodle dish for her). We talked about the office, life, politics, advocacy, pretty much everything under the SoCal sun. It was great that I got to see her and catch up! We parted around 8:45 and I headed up to LA to check into my hotel right by the airport I started at the previous morning.

I just returned from a work trip to Southern California. I was invited out to give a talk to members of Citizens for Global Solutions, the United Nations Association USA and the Regional Council of Organizations. My talk was entitled “UN in the 21st Century: The Continuing Process of UN Reform, Peacekeeping, Terrorism, and Opportunities for Citizen Action.” Wendell Harter, our California Region director, invited me out. Since I was going to be in Southern California for this talk on Saturday the 18th, I went out two days early to visit some Congressional candidates running in the 50th district. The special election there was to replace disgraced former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham. For more on my talk, see later blog entries.

I left Baltimore on a 7:00 AM flight and flew into LAX. I worked on my Saturday speech for the entire flight. I rented a car at Enterprise near the airport. Little did they know to expect a Clark Kent/Superman experience! After securing the car, I dashed into their restroom and changed from jeans and a casual shirt into a power suit. I walked in a tourist and popped out a businessman. Too funny. You should have seen their faces!

I drove down to San Diego county, where the district is. I met Richard Earnest, a moderate Republican running in the district. I was very impressed with their openness to CGS foreign policy ideas. After a great meeting there, I drove back north to Encinitas, where I stayed for one night in a Holiday Inn Express just off I-5. I checked into my room and hooked up instantly to the wireless internet, searching for more ideas for Saturday. I worked until around 8-ish and then dashed out to find the Passage to India restaurant. After driving around a bit and calling 411 to get their number and location, I ended up having an okay Indian meal. Very filling, but not too much to write home about. I drove back, sated, to my hotel and spent the next four hours (until 1:30 AM) working on my speech notes.

I got up the next morning at 7:30 and worked until checkout at noon. I was able to get my PowerPoint presentation completed before checking out. Now, I also wanted to visit another candidate while I was in the area, Democratic challenger Francine Busby. My research associate hadn’t been able to get me a meeting, due to Francine’s busy schedule. But, I got directions online to her Encinitas satellite office and figured I could drop off our candidate questionnaire at least. I first stopped at FedEx/Kinkos to print out my notes and slides, then drove down near the beach, parked, and popped into the campaign office.

The great staff there welcomed me and I explained who I was and why I was there. I pulled out the CQ and was prepared to leave when one of the women asked me if I wanted to meet with Francine. I told them I thought she wasn’t around, but they said she was on a conference call in the back and they’d check to see if she was free. She took my CQ and card into the back and I sat in the front to chat with the staff. The lady returned and said Francine’d be out in a minute and I should just wait a bit longer.

Francine came out about 5 minutes later and introduced herself. I felt a little uncomfortable since I was wearing khakis, a black t-shirt, and a leather sport coat. Since I assumed she wouldn’t be there, I didn’t wear my suit. Fortunately, she didn’t mind at all and she asked if I wouldn’t mind walking outside to talk since it was a beautiful day and she’d been cooped up in the office all morning. I was totally fine with that and out we went, leaving her staff behind in the office. We walked down to the beach, with my explaining CGS and Global Solutions PAC and her talking about our shared issues. The beach was beautiful and we stayed there a bit looking out from a perch up the cliff. Then, we headed back since she kept worrying that I’d be cold, especially with my shaved head!

We stopped in front of her office and I assumed we were almost finished. She asked me what my plans were for the rest of the day and I told her I wanted to grab some lunch and head out to Orange County to visit a friend and then check into my hotel in LA. She asked where I was going for lunch and I said I had no idea but would wander around. She said that she had time for lunch before doing some radio interviews later in the day and invited me to join her. I thought it was great so she told her staff she was taking her lunch and off we went. She asked what types of food I liked and I said I could do anything, except Thai since I had dinner plans that evening at a Thai place. She said if you want good down and dirty Mexican, we should try this place right by her office. It was called Raul’s Shack and wasn’t much more than an enclosed cooking area and some chairs and tables. I was sold and we placed our order and sat down in one of the enclosed sitting areas to talk DC political figures and politics. I had this amazing shredded pork burrito called the Adobado burrito (I hope that’s right!) that was to die for. After lunch, we walked back to her office, had some nice farewell comments, and off I went.