I felt the earth move under my feet...

An earthquake with its epicenter near Richmond Virginia measuring 5.8 on the richter scale rumbled up the east coast this afternoon. Buildings in Manhattan were evacuated and the tunnels were closed for a bit. Wasn't quite sure what I was feeling until it was over. Wow!

Thankfully there is little damage and it appears that everyone in this area is ok. Here's to a quiet and uneventful evening.



Room with a View-Las Vegas Part I

Another adventure---three nights in Vegas for a leadership training event. Arrived at midnight at Caesar's Palace. The place was hopping and the slots were ching-chinging. Morning brought desert sunshine and a reason for me to walk about until the seminar began. Vegas is like no other place on the planet except for maybe Disney World and the wookie bar in Star Wars, entirely and sadly what is seen as quintessentially American by foreign visitors. Volcanos erupting, Roman Gods,the Eiffel Tower in the middle of the desert and just so many things out of kilter and wild. Yes, this is Las Vegas. Looking for Elvis and George Clooney, I went to my meeting and came out after dinner to this..

Elvis and George Clooney were nowhere to be found, just me walking in the masses of people moving from casino to casino----by the way, are we still in a recession? Given the amount of folks walking the streets, I think it is a good indication that we are albeit slowly moving forward...

A Room with a View- Los Angeles-Part I

Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, November 2010

This was my first trip to Los Angeles. What struck me immediately as I was driven from LAX was the city's sheer size and number of different neighborhoods.

 Major office complexes mixed in with three story buildings as far as the eye could see--old mixed with new with palm trees lining the streets.

The reason for my visit was a business conference so I spent most of my time here---

Evidently quite the happening place, built by Conrad Hilton and later sold to Merv Griffin, the Beverly Hilton is located on almost 9 acres at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards and is the home of the Golden Globes. Lots of red carpet events are held here. I spent three days and while I was hoping that Antonio Banderas might show up as I was ordering my Starbucks non-fat latte at the lobby bar or a glass of merlot at the Trader Vic's bar poolside, the closest I got to Hollywood was seeing Florence Henderson aka Mrs. Brady at a charity event the night before I left. Walking about in Beverly Hills is unheard of--we drove each night to a restaurant that seemed just blocks away. From what I gather star sightings are most prevalent along Rodeo Drive.

I preferred to gaze at my surroundings and take in the vistas that are foreign to northeastern folk...

There is a light here not unlike the morning light one sees at sunrise in the east except it occurs in the evening and goes on forever, filling the sky with a gold color like nothing I have ever seen.

I know how long it lasts because on my last night, the lights went out in the hotel for about 2 hours and I was stranded on my balcony hoping the battery in my cellphone would hold up in the event I needed to call for assistance. The day before there had been a slight earthquake in Long Beach and just a couple weeks after I left, Ronni Chasen was shot as she was driving home from a premiere just blocks from my hotel.

So much for paradise. Los Angeles is complicated. Seductive yet treacherous, where the famous and the faceless co-exist in a vast area that is in places extremely beautiful and in others, devoid of humanity. It is the 2nd most populated city in the US, New York being number 1.  

As I watched the sun set and the traffic weave its way past me below my balcony, I tried to feel and hear the pulse of the city, much different from Manhattan, and find a connection to this city, Los Angeles.

Washington Tea Party 2009

Warning---This post breaks a rule I set up long ago when a number of my friends were going into teaching and law school...."never discuss tenure or politics." There will be no photos or quotes that can make one think I may mean something else.The following is my response from an email from a friend that discussed his participation in the above noted event.

"Very cool. A great example for your daughters regarding our ability as Americans to speak freely and express our opinions.
However, I must first make certain you understand I voted for Obama and second, I believe healthcare rather than global warming or China’s surging economy, is something we must pay attention to now. The reality is that it won’t matter if we don’t have water to drink (southwest) or are drowning because of flooding (east coast)because the vast majority of us will not be able to pay for healthcare when we need it. Given our recent financial downfall and the amount of boomers getting ready to go into retirement—how is it that the current system can pay and not effect the younger population? The insurance industry has been one of the strongest lobbyists in our great DC—it is based on greed and not about treatment—Obama has not proposed a plan and that is largely due to the fact, call me crazy, but he has things like the financial system and the economy to figure out. That is not to say he should propose a plan and that is why so many people are up in arms.
We are an ageing economy. The real issue is if we don’t start thinking about what we can do and provide for the rest of the world we are &**^! What makes us as Americans believe that the rest of the world should provide the money necessary to feed our lifestyles? Healthcare certainly will not be part of the whole economic package –I am fairly certain that foreign countries, given the last eight years, will be very hesitant when it comes to funding our healthcare needs. So let’s just say I will join the march when it is about solidarity—not socialism---but rather about the best brains and the best ideas to move this very amazing country forward. Send ideas as opposed to the signs and the rhetoric—let’s get going before we live in a country that is not ours. Hugs -c "

Enough said. Hope and peace to you and yours wherever they are.

Take a Hike

People always ask me how I started hiking.

First, I was tired of sitting on the beach covered in layers, under an umbrella and constantly worrying if my 50 SPF was wearing off. On one of those perfect early summer days, a boy laughed at me, “By the time you get any color, it will be September.”

At the pool, the sight of my lily white legs brought gasps, causing parents to grab their children and reapply their sun-block.

I was always hot, but not in a manner to which I aspired. I was literally boiling under the layers covering my ‘simonized’ body. You see, despite having a bit of Italian and American Indian heritage, the English, French and whatever else, the genetic pool gave me really pale skin. After many beaches, most of the Caribbean and Florida, the reality is, “If I am very careful, I get beige.“

Then there was the thing about sitting still for hours on end, taking a break for lunch or cocktails but understanding the main focus is being 'one' with the sand, the chaise lounge and looking cool. It’s very difficult to look cool when you are being parboiled.

Swimming, as I learned from observing the really accomplished beautiful beach people, was only necessary when one became too warm and or perhaps, to get someone’s attention you ran to the sea and emerged like a god or goddess returning home from Atlantis.

I love to swim and am known to spend hours in the water---two problems, sun-block washes off and at 5’ 4” and well, being me, the image of running along the beach like Bo Derek or Cindy Crawford or Elle MacPherson was not happening.

So, here I was working hard to go on vacation, to sit under really well made beach towels from some very nice hotels, drinking very expensive cocktails, wondering, “WTF.”

Yes, I caught up on my reading, but somehow I always went home feeling, ‘eh’.

Lastly, I work in a very stressful and competitive male-oriented environment. Hence, the idea that beaches with balmy breezes and palm trees will rest the weary bones. Given the chronology of beauties running along the beach, you can see that I wrestled with this conundrum for many years. The reality was that I needed to get away and rid myself of the hoodoos of my work place.
It took some major life lessons and the approach of my fortieth birthday, to make me think.

I had never been to Europe, so I decided that even though the Italian part of me wasn’t enough to get a tan, I would spend two weeks in Italy. Learning from my experience on the beach and knowing that I was a freak for museums, art and architecture, I decided that one week would be spent in Rome and the next hiking through Tuscany so I wouldn’t be by myself ‘on the beach’.

So that’s how it began, one small step, many stories.