Life's too short to play it safe
Monday May 31st is Memorial Day, and on this day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service, I thought of showing you the video of a man who lives life to the fullest. My husband sent it to me, and there’s nothing more to add.
When I first moved to California, I heard people say, “Why travel? We have it all here.”
I wanted to say, “Well I feel sorry for you. You must be blind.”
I’d like to focus on what traveling and seeing the world does for me, and share my perceptions and some cross-cultural comparisons. (For a quick sightseeing trip of Big Ben, the Natural History Museum, Oxford Street, Picadilly Circus and South Kensington tube station, please my Flip video.)
Traveling around London is easy with an Oyster card. You can catch a tube as many times as you wish. I’m happy to inform you that the English are extremely polite and patient. Even young women offer their seats to elderly women–not me yet– on the tube.
A few things you need to know if you’re from the U.S. “For here or to go,” in England is, “Eat in, or take away.” It took me a while to get the hang of it.
If you like half and half in your coffee at Starbucks, you won’t find it. They only have skim and whole milk. When you ask for cream, you don’t get to pour it in yourself. The barista will reach down, in his hidden fridge and take out a container of heavy whipping cream. He will then pour a 1/4 cup of heavy cream into your coffee, turning it completely white, and because he has been so kind, you’re too embarrassed to complain.
Trash cans in London and Paris are almost non-existant and yet, there is no litter. How come?
I have several theories: People don’t snack, therefore there’s no extra trash. I know this applies to the French who frown upon eating between meals.
All trash cans in Paris are see-through.Why?
To avoid terrorist bombs being placed inside. This is the explanation I was given.
The restrooms in London and Paris rarely have paper towels. Why? Probably to reduce waste, so the British have these high-tech hand dryers, that almost blow your hands off.
There are still holes in the ground toilets in southern France.
Fortunately, these are not as common as when I lived there.
In a small French cafe in the town of Cahors, southwest France, I heard Lady Gaga, followed by a French Brittany Spears. A couple of middle-aged French women hummed to Lady Gaga’s Pokerface, while filling out a Rapido (lotto card) and drinking their on-the-way-to-work espressos.
A pharmacie in France is a combination of a US pharmacy and a beauty supply store. They are all over the place, more common than grocery stores. With a minimum of ten people working to serve you, they give advice on medication, aromatherapy, anti-wrinkle creams, self-tanners and perfumes. Customer service in French “pharmacies,” makes it pleasant to be sick, unlike the unpleasant, overworked and stressed out local pharmacy staff in my neighborhood.
So why do I love to travel? Because we don’t have it all here. There are too many places to see, things to learn and minds to open.
News from southwest France and a meal at a one-star (Michelin) restaurant in Belcastel, a fairy-tale village. See photo below.
I’ve been running into a few articles lately, discussing the behavior of some bloggers. Apparently, there are some bloggers who like to wage war with the blog author. There are others who only care about making money and accepting freebies, (not quite sure what that’s all about, as I don’t read those blogs.) Finally we have the civilized crowd, like my followers, who blog with integrity.
Yesterday, I stumbled upon an interesting website: BLOG WITH INTEGRITY, and after reading the pledge and viewing the msnbc interview, decided to sign it and display the badge on my blog. The April 9th interview entitled, “Mommy meanest? The dark side of mom bloggers,” is quite interesting and offers useful tips to all who blog; not just mom bloggers.
What caught my eye in the pledge was the following statement:
“I treat others respectfully, attacking ideas and not people. I also welcome respectful disagreement with my own ideas.”
Furthermore, they acknowledge we all make mistakes, but as long as we take responsibility for our own words and apologize for our mistakes, then we are blogging with integrity.
I found it interesting that we need to remind people to “remember that you can attack an idea, but not the person.” You see, when I’m visiting family in Paris, watching French TV and having meals with French friends, the French openly argue politics, social issues and religion, and remain friends afterwards. They are in fact disagreeing with others’ opinions, but not attacking the person. Here in the U.S., people stay away from discussing these issues as disagreeing with others, often turns into a personal attack. I’ve often wondered why it has to be that way, and why the difference between the European way of discussing and the American way of (avoiding discussing?)
A NOTE FOR WRITERS AND WANNABE AUTHORS BELOW
Editor Lynn Price from Behler Publications wrote a very interesting article called, “Footprints in the sand-Online Presence,” about this. Please read here.
She states:
“I google potential authors because I want to know who I’m dealing with in order to avoid potential trouble downstream. Maybe a manuscript looks really great and the author’s platform is fabo. But if I see where the author yelled at an interviewer [happened, pinky swear], or behaved horribly in some other public forum, then I’m going to run in the opposite direction because if they’ve done it once or thrice, chances are they’ll do it again. On my dime. Who needs the aggravation? I’m in this game to sell books, not play referee.”
Thank you Lynn for this helpful article.
Thank you Rayna, for handing me the “Sunshine Award.” Please visit Rayna’s blog from India where she lives. She definitely blogs with Integrity.
I leave for London and Paris on May 9th until May 24th. I shall celebrate my Father’s 85th birthday in Cahors, the south of France. Might blog if I can, if not lots of photos and stories when I get back.Take care and
Happy Mother’s Day.
It seems a few of my blogger friends thought I was going to meet the President. Well in a way, I did meet President Obama, as did thousands of other parents, however, if you paid close attention to my words: “I shall of course shake hands and get a photo with President Obama. (I must be dreaming, but who knows?)” you realized I was being plain old Gutsy.
If you care to see the President’s commencement address, you can view it here.
As usual, he was amazing. The one thing my family noticed was the speech seemed more political in nature than inspirational. Normally commencement addresses are focused on inspiring the graduates. In a way this speech seemed geared towards getting students involved in the democratic process. Some may call that inspiring the students.
My husband and I at 6:30 a.m., waiting for the gates of University of Michigan stadium to open. Lighting resulted in the security scanner not working, so everyone had to wait outside.
They estimated 90,000 people attended.
Feeling like a drowned rat after hours in the rain, a proud mom and her son.
(Did I mention I got food poisoning from a bad oyster? Oh well, we won’t go there. The special day made up for it.)
I’ve been debating what to wear when I meet President Obama in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Saturday. I haven’t worn a dress in so long, I had to buy one. I don’t think my fuschia and black, above the knee dress will do for the occasion so I purchased this one at one at my favorite store: Ann Taylor. I can also wear in Paris, for my dad’s 85th birthday on May 20th.
I love the necklace my husband gave me for Christmas. It just happens to go well with the colors in my dress.
My problem is the weather. It seems like there’s a 40% chance of rain on May 1st, in Ann Arbor, and I plan on wearing sandals. I shall of course shake hands and get a photo with President Obama. (I must be dreaming, but who knows? My next blog post will tell.) President Obama is making the commencement address for graduates of the University of Michigan, and my oldest son is graduating. (Yes, he’s the one who triggered our move to Belize in 2004 to get him back on track, and I’m happy to say IT WORKED!)
Do you think I can film the President with my flip camera? We are not allowed to bring any fancy cameras and have to go through airport style screening devices.
Why do I always have to organize my house before I leave? Is it in case I don’t make it back, and want to leave a good impression?
I gave my dog a bath and washed her covers so she would smell clean, just in case.
