After years of working 70 hours a week at jobs I detested, I felt like the proverbial "hole in the donut" - solid on the outside, but empty on the inside. Searching for meaning in my life, I abandoned my successful but unsatisfying career and set out on a six-month solo backpacking trip around the world to pursue my true passions of travel, writing, and photography. My blog features stories about the destinations I visit, people I meet, the crazy things...Read more here....
I voted in Florida’s Presidential Primary today. This is the most interesting, exciting, and engaging presidential election of my entire life, and I have a few years on me. I’ve always felt that voting was a right and an obligation, though there have been times I was so apathetic about the choices that I skipped voting entirely. But this time, I rushed to the polls and for the first time in my life, it was a privilege to vote.
I admit it. I’m a coffee snob. I fancy myself to be something of an expert on good coffee. Once, in Kauai, I spent an entire day touring a small coffee plantation to learn how the beans were grown, harvested, sorted, graded, roasted, packaged, and marketed.
I know that, at $160 per pound, Kopi Luwak is the world’s most expensive coffee. The Kopi Luwak bean is gathered from the jungle floor by Asian farmers after the Palm Civet has eaten the coffee cherry (the green fruit), partially digested it, and then excreted it. I know that a bag of coffee labeled “Kona” (another of the world’s most highly regarded and most delicious coffees) does not necessarily mean that it is any good. Companies often buy the lowest quality Kona beans from the plantation – those just one grade above the beans that the grower throws in the trash – and mix a small percentage of these Kona bean with cheaper beans Continue reading
The band, Five For Fighting, has generously agreed to donate $0.49 to Autism Speaks every time the following video is viewed:
What Kind Of World Do You Want
The funding goes toward research studies to help find a cure. When you have a moment, please visit the above link to watch the video and pass it along to your friends and family. They are aiming for 10,000 hits, but hopefully we can help them to surpass this goal. Thanks to my friend, Bill Holt, and the Outer Banks Association of Realtors for passing this along.
Many of my regular readers are aware that, about a year ago, I walked away from a successful real estate career to pursue writing. I slapped a backpack on my back and headed out to travel the world for six months. I returned to Florida in early October last year and since then, have been writing a memoir about my travels and the circumstances that led to my decision to make such drastic changes in my life. Simultaneously, I have been contacting various local magazines about writing for them on a freelance basis. My biggest hurdle is the fact that I have never been published with a byline. Everyone I talk to requests clippings of my published writing. Although I have been writing for years, none of my articles have ever been published with my byline. Continue reading
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Florida, light sport aircraft, LSA, Sarasota, Scene Magazine, Travel writing | 
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Yes, I made a New Year’s Resolution. But instead of the ones that everyone breaks, like losing weight or exercising, I decided to make a simpler resolution. I promised myself that, from now on, every day will be either a good day or a great day. Now, I’m not a Pollyanna. I know that difficult things will happen to me, that there will be things that do not make me particularly happy, that there will be tough times, but despite these things, every day can still be at least a good day, because happiness is a choice and I have much to be grateful for.
It’s the 13th of January and so far, so good. I haven’t had any GREAT days but they’ve all been good days. This morning was the first test of my resolution. I was awakened at 7:30 AM by the landlord, who was dragging the trash cans around the parking lot. Just as I was about to drift off to sleep, he began hammering in the office on the first floor, directly beneath my bedroom. I finally gave up on the idea of sleep when, at 8:30, he began running a saw to cut tile. It was not an auspicious beginning to the day, but I refused to let it get to me. As I walked to downtown, headed for Sarasota’s annual Arts Day, I repeated over and over, it’s a good day, it’s a good day.
My mood lifted immediately when I arrived downtown, where thousands of people were meandering past hundreds of booths or attending performances at one of five stages set up around town: the Jazz Stage, the International Stage, the Contemporary Stage, the Teen Stage, the Student Stage, the Dance Stage, and the Circus Sarasota Stage. Immediately I joined the crowd on the lawn to listen to acoustic guitarist Ishmael Katz:
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Louis, the giant Pacific octopus who resides at the Blue Reef Aquarium in the UK, was given a Mr. Potato Head as a Christmas present. He is so attached to it that he attacks the net that aquarium staffers use whenever they try to fish the toy out of the tank. According to one staffer, octopuses are “very intelligent and like to be stimulated and busy.” Apparently. This six foot creature is so smart that he’s even learned how to dig food out of a secret box hidden in the back of his Mr. Potato Head. It is indeed an uncommon love affair but I’m a firm believer in the ‘Live and Let Live’ philosophy. There may be hard times ahead for Louis and Mr. Potato Head; especially for their mixed race children. But Mr. Potato Head is a master of adaptability, and he’ll certainly pass those traits on to the kids. There’s just no figuring out the laws of physical attraction, except to say that opposites certainly DO attract.
Posted in Uncategorized | Blue Reef aquarium, Humor, love, Mr Potato Head, Octopus | Leave a comment
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