A friend just sent an email out listing some great non-profits that are looking for money before the end of the year. Despite the state of the economy, many of us could still do more for others. Consider checking out the list at the following address.
Peace.
http://inspiredlegacies.org/resources/tippingpointfund.htm
Monday, December 22, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
PNewL PNewS Volume 16, Issue 4
PNewL PNewS
Volume 16 No. 4 “All the pnews that phits.” December 2008
Oh What a Jumbled Life I Weave
Sometimes I think of myself as a self-aware person and then something happens and I recognize that I am clueless. Like I wind up in a house that I lived in off and on for seven years, and I think it will be a mini-vacation with no emotional upheavals. Who am I kidding?
Within 24 hours of arriving on Sanibel, I couldn’t stop crying. It started when I finished “Bowling Across America,” and he talked about missing his dad, and about bowling and family and life. It made me think about my life and happy bowling times), and this being my parent’s home and then my home where I actually found my people and the familiar feels so good.
And Peter and I meant to write a book like “Bowling Across America” only different and how come I seem to have good ideas but never follow through. (See my blog for more) And while life in North Carolina is feeling remarkably good, it’s nothing like returning to the familiar and being the prodigal child. Gini was the one who pointed out the “duh” factor of this whole transition. And Carolyn who has been in this position confirmed it was “normal” to be a wreck. And that helps, I suppose. And as Mom always said, “This too shall pass.”
A couple weeks later, I am facing significant construction projects and the holidays and am oddly looking forward to going “home,” and can’t wait to come back here (so much for being in the moment) but the sky is blue, the breezes are soft, the salty warm musky smells drift in when I sleep. Ups and downs. Life is good.
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Things I am Learning
& Miscellaneous Observations
& Miscellaneous Observations
• Perhaps it’s just me but doesn’t it seem like we get a new phone book every couple months?
• In Bhutan, there is a national dress and it is handsome. Men wear ghos which are more complicated than they look. Lonely Planet describes them as “a long robe… [they] hoist the gho to knee length and hold it in place with a woven cloth belt [which] is tightly wound around the waist, and the large pouch formed over it is traditionally used to carry…” anything, including lunch and files and well…anything! I loved the concept and some of our chillip group bought ghos and looked smashing in them. I envied the large pouch and so in Cambodia purchased a cloth bag/purse ($3—probably paid too much) and it held everything including groceries, books, my purse, binoculars and more. When I was in the market, I kept saying I didn’t need a bag, I could put it in here and the women would inevitably peer in with amazement at the seemingly bottomless pit.
Oh back to Bhutan, the women wear kiras which are also more complicated …they are a rectangular piece of cloth that is wrapped around and somehow fastened with clips at the shoulders but can be simplified with a skirt, and an under blouse and a jacket- sorta top. I got the jacket part but skipped the rest. The fabric combinations were fascinating. I am not sure what the fashion police would say (we are talking not just stripes with plaids but clashing colors), but it worked there. I like the idea of a national uniform. It sure would simplify things and the Bhutanese options are very attractive…and the teeny kids in them are darling. Aw heck, the kids there are all just darling. (There is more about my trip to Bhutan on my blog.)
• Cell phone numbers are now available to telemarketers. Call the National DO NOT CALL list at 888-382-1222 from your cell phone or go to http://www.donotcall.gov/.
• Worried about failing eyesight, I was pretty impressed at my relief when I cleaned my glasses and realized my eyes are fine.
• I’m getting really frustrated by photographs. Experiences are so much bigger—the frame cuts the experience down. So many times on my Asian trip I thought/wished I could really remember the experience—the sights, sounds, smells, vastness…the vista of the rice paddies dotted with houses, the houses dotted with chilies drying on their roofs…the light that the butter lamps cast on the altar in the temple, the people who just want their pictures taken and to see it on the screen of the digital camera. All those images have to be mini movie files in my brain ‘cause the single image just doesn’t capture it.
• I never know when I go to the best place first until later.
• Experiences—like the group part of my trip to Bhutan—often seem to end with a whimper rather than a bang. There we were at baggage claim at the Bangkok airport and there were a few goodbyes and then poof. It was over. The end of my whole trip was also a big anti-climax: After close to 30 hours of being upright, I got into my car and drove the 2 ¼ hours from Charlotte to my house. No one welcomed me home, no one at the airport celebrated my successful voyage. It’s kind of funny—it seems to warrant a big brass band and what I get is…well…bed.
• Netflix Alert: I am on a listserv with a bunch of really interesting people, not to mention I have superbly interesting friends and so I keep getting great suggestions of movies I should watch and instead of writing them down, I use my Netflix queue to store that data. Among episodes of “Sex and the City”, “Six Feet Under” and “McLeod’s Daughters” (fun Australian soap about women running a cattle station), I just saw “Natural History of the Chicken” (thanks Evie) and “King Corn”, two really interesting documentaries…very different. The first one is oddly titled, but very entertaining and the latter is making me re-think how I eat. (The woman who recommended “King Corn” has another one coming out about pigs…I can’t wait.) I have many other titles in my queue which come from many sources and it will be interesting to try to remember why they are there by the time they surface. A related note: I recently rented “Lara Croft Tomb Raider” to see the tree that I just saw in Cambodia. Never again will I rent a movie just to see a tree that I actually saw--unless the reviews are better. Life is too short or something like that.
• Speaking of changing eating habits, I was reading the NRDC magazine “OnEarth” and found I may have to re-think the beer I drink. In the Winter 2009 issue, writer Ben Carmichael is attempting to be a locavore when it comes to beer drinking. This is a problem if you live in a lot of the country because hops and barley don’t grow everywhere. The bottom line is drinking a craft brew is way better than drinking one of the big brands. They have a pile of chemicals in them just to “stabilize the foamy head.”
• If you want job security, go to work for Verizon Technical Support (and add Comcast Tech to that too). I can’t see that they will ever NOT need these folks.
• And now for something totally fun: go to http://ecodrivingusa.com/ and click on Virtual Road Test. It’s like a video game only environmentally oriented, and it’s very funny for those of us with lousy hand eye coordination.
• Looking back at “Bowling the West”: go to http://pnewlpnews.blogspot.com
• Cell phone numbers are now available to telemarketers. Call the National DO NOT CALL list at 888-382-1222 from your cell phone or go to http://www.donotcall.gov/.
• Worried about failing eyesight, I was pretty impressed at my relief when I cleaned my glasses and realized my eyes are fine.
• I’m getting really frustrated by photographs. Experiences are so much bigger—the frame cuts the experience down. So many times on my Asian trip I thought/wished I could really remember the experience—the sights, sounds, smells, vastness…the vista of the rice paddies dotted with houses, the houses dotted with chilies drying on their roofs…the light that the butter lamps cast on the altar in the temple, the people who just want their pictures taken and to see it on the screen of the digital camera. All those images have to be mini movie files in my brain ‘cause the single image just doesn’t capture it.
• I never know when I go to the best place first until later.
• Experiences—like the group part of my trip to Bhutan—often seem to end with a whimper rather than a bang. There we were at baggage claim at the Bangkok airport and there were a few goodbyes and then poof. It was over. The end of my whole trip was also a big anti-climax: After close to 30 hours of being upright, I got into my car and drove the 2 ¼ hours from Charlotte to my house. No one welcomed me home, no one at the airport celebrated my successful voyage. It’s kind of funny—it seems to warrant a big brass band and what I get is…well…bed.
• Netflix Alert: I am on a listserv with a bunch of really interesting people, not to mention I have superbly interesting friends and so I keep getting great suggestions of movies I should watch and instead of writing them down, I use my Netflix queue to store that data. Among episodes of “Sex and the City”, “Six Feet Under” and “McLeod’s Daughters” (fun Australian soap about women running a cattle station), I just saw “Natural History of the Chicken” (thanks Evie) and “King Corn”, two really interesting documentaries…very different. The first one is oddly titled, but very entertaining and the latter is making me re-think how I eat. (The woman who recommended “King Corn” has another one coming out about pigs…I can’t wait.) I have many other titles in my queue which come from many sources and it will be interesting to try to remember why they are there by the time they surface. A related note: I recently rented “Lara Croft Tomb Raider” to see the tree that I just saw in Cambodia. Never again will I rent a movie just to see a tree that I actually saw--unless the reviews are better. Life is too short or something like that.
• Speaking of changing eating habits, I was reading the NRDC magazine “OnEarth” and found I may have to re-think the beer I drink. In the Winter 2009 issue, writer Ben Carmichael is attempting to be a locavore when it comes to beer drinking. This is a problem if you live in a lot of the country because hops and barley don’t grow everywhere. The bottom line is drinking a craft brew is way better than drinking one of the big brands. They have a pile of chemicals in them just to “stabilize the foamy head.”
• If you want job security, go to work for Verizon Technical Support (and add Comcast Tech to that too). I can’t see that they will ever NOT need these folks.
• And now for something totally fun: go to http://ecodrivingusa.com/ and click on Virtual Road Test. It’s like a video game only environmentally oriented, and it’s very funny for those of us with lousy hand eye coordination.
• Looking back at “Bowling the West”: go to http://pnewlpnews.blogspot.com
HAPPY MERRY HOHOHO. Here’s to a brighter future.
With lots of good thoughts from the editorial staff here at PNewL PNewS.
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Things I am Thankful For
I find myself mid-way between the time of giving thanks and making resolutions. For now…I am thankful for
• New neighbors and friends in a new and welcoming place
• Old friends (that is…long term—we are not really that old…) and old neighbors (some of them!)
• Travel
• Relative good health
• I will probably never have to eat bugs. (This is the way I remind myself that my situation, no matter how the economy tanks, is nowhere near what many others in the world face every day.)
I find myself mid-way between the time of giving thanks and making resolutions. For now…I am thankful for
• New neighbors and friends in a new and welcoming place
• Old friends (that is…long term—we are not really that old…) and old neighbors (some of them!)
• Travel
• Relative good health
• I will probably never have to eat bugs. (This is the way I remind myself that my situation, no matter how the economy tanks, is nowhere near what many others in the world face every day.)
Bowling the West: RIP
While many of you won’t remember and many others weren’t reading this back then, once upon a time, my brother Peter and I had a project we called "Bowling the West." We were going to tour the western states, one of us driving while the other was tapping away on a laptop with our observations of bowling alleys and the culture that surrounds them. And then it would become a phenomena with trendy gear and guest appearances. The series would eventually cover the country: “Bowling the Eastern Seaboard”, “Bowling the Midwest” etc. and eventually even, “Bowling the Provinces, eh?” and “Bowling the EU.”
Recently, Evie called to say she had read a review in the local paper of a book called “Bowling Across America: 50 States in Rented Shoes” (Mike Walsh, St Martin’s Press). I went to my local bookstore and ordered it, ostensibly for Peter for Christmas, but mostly because I wanted to see a) if this guy did a better job than we would have and b) how he managed to get it done and we didn’t.
First of all, it’s not the book we would have written. We wanted ours, of course, to be funny—bowling for most of us is just plain funny—but also to include nuts and bolts information with reviews of not only the bowling facility but also, the snack bar, bathrooms, and safety issues--a travelogue of bowling alleys skewed by our perspective of the world. On the other hand, “Bowling Across America” is a pretty good book. He gets you hooked in with a story about the death of his father who had always wanted to play handball in all 50 states… and off he goes. I would say he has three reasons for his success:
Recently, Evie called to say she had read a review in the local paper of a book called “Bowling Across America: 50 States in Rented Shoes” (Mike Walsh, St Martin’s Press). I went to my local bookstore and ordered it, ostensibly for Peter for Christmas, but mostly because I wanted to see a) if this guy did a better job than we would have and b) how he managed to get it done and we didn’t.
First of all, it’s not the book we would have written. We wanted ours, of course, to be funny—bowling for most of us is just plain funny—but also to include nuts and bolts information with reviews of not only the bowling facility but also, the snack bar, bathrooms, and safety issues--a travelogue of bowling alleys skewed by our perspective of the world. On the other hand, “Bowling Across America” is a pretty good book. He gets you hooked in with a story about the death of his father who had always wanted to play handball in all 50 states… and off he goes. I would say he has three reasons for his success:
- The subtitle. It’s brilliant and catchy and with “50 States in Rented Shoes” you know he’s not trying to be terribly serious here.
- He’s young (27) and has nothing to lose. His mother loans him her car and he sleeps on friend’s (and friends of friends) couches.
- He spent five years in advertising and wrote press releases and was on radio shows all over the country and a few TV shows. He also solicited sponsorships and again, so far, he actually got one: Miller High Life. I am impressed
It takes some pressure off, knowing that yet another book I thought I could write has been written. This is not all good but it makes me want to write the other three in the pipeline that no one has written yet...just to say I beat someone to the punch. I still think Bowling the West paraphenalia would have made us a lot of money, but not perhaps in this economy.
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