Valentines Day amd the End of Hibernation

I have always said that i'd like to hibernate from the day before thanksgiving until the day after valentines day! Mostly its because I don't come from a big family.

There is no festive Thanksgiving celebration with relatives who travel from near and far and you are excited to see, in fact for my family Thanksgiving usually exists of a trip to avoid the reality of the weekend!

Christmas and New Years come with the same set of facts, but coupled with working for a government agency means no big extravagant cocktail christmas celebrations. In fact in our office its a pot luck and I have a thing about eating food which is cooked in other people's homes, who I don't know! New Years is always a holiday when if i go out i want to be on the road at 12:01 a.m.. to avoid the drunks!

And then Valentines Day, so much hype over a hallmark holiday! My parents asked me to go out to dinner for Valentines Day, how horrifying is that? Although, I have to tell you that the older I get the less I care about Valentines Day. In fact, I was on the phone today and mentioned to a guy who i occasionally hook up with to call me over the weekend since he was sans children. His response was definitely not on Saturday, i'm staying home all day and not seeing anyone its Valentines Day! I started to laugh and said who cares about that!

I guess i'm sort of like the groundhog who comes out on Feb 2, except I come out on Feb 15th every year and don't worry if there is a shadow or not!

The State of Affairs!

I have been listening, reading, watching! What I gather is this, the first round of the bank bailout wasn't very successful, the banks put the money deep into their pockets and didn't use it to make loans super available, and the loans that they did make were only for people who could afford lots of money down and who had good credit! So now the Government is going to fund the next bailout to the banks, not so sure things will be different this time around!

From what I can tell, the new Administration wants to create 4 million jobs, how are those people going to get paid? And lots of pell grants for students, an extension of unemployment benefits, which in the State of Florida amounts to a maximum $265.00 a week! Luckily, I am not on unemployment but can't quite gather how if a family of 4 has only 1 working parent who gets laid off, how such little money will pay for their food, housing, electricity, clothing and basic needs! If you make under $70,000 (don't quote me on the exact #) you gate a tax rebate or if you are super rich you get a rebate!

Where is the stimulus for the majority of Americans? For the hardworking people, who aren't in foreclosure but every week and every month pay their bills but aren't getting ahead!

I read in today's paper that one of the Cabinet members finally realized that the problem is that salaries have never increased at the proper rate for people! I could have told them that!

Today's Paper also said that in Miami Dade County Florida, the school board has voted in favor of deferring part of teacher salaries until after the end of their fiscal year, which ends on June 30th, 2009. So teachers are going to work, and have some of their regular pay deferred, that of course is assuming that there will be money to give them their rightfully owed deferred compensation! How are the teachers supposed to pay their mortgage? Why would they do that to the very people who dedicate their lives to teaching kids in hopes of making successful and educated future generations! How about asking bankers and wallstreet suits and movie stars to defer their excessive salaries, as opposed to teachers!

I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel! I go to bed and hope every day that in the morning the light will be there!

Don't sweat the small stuff and just let go!

I don't make new years resolutions, because i break them! But with the 44th President being sworn in tomorrow, I've decided that there are a few things that would make life so much more pleasant if we all just did them. Remember the movie, Pay It Forward, well I think its time for all of us to pay it forward! Let me give you an example.

This morning I was pulling into the parking lot to pickup / drop-off dry cleaning. The lot is bad, its small, and is home to a kosher grocery, Walgreens, a salon, and the drycleaner. There was a large truck that was pulled far over to the left and so i scooted by it, the lady started honking and i could see she was furiously screaming in her car! When I finally pulled around to park I noted that her truck was parked and hanging from the rear view mirror was a jewish star, clearly made by a child, likely in school!

First, how much time did she lose by me scooting around her, 2 seconds? No big deal! Second, that Jewish Star should have reminded her to be the best person she can be, to be patient and calm and kind and to heal the world! All the negative energy she exerted on honking and raising her hands and clearly screaming at me in her car, was really pointless in the scheme of things!

So here's my suggestion for all of us!

Don't sweat the small stuff

If someone cuts you off, and its not going to cause an accident, let it slide, all you really lost was a second or two and in the scheme of things, that's nothing!

Hold the door open for someone, say thank you to people who help you in the grocery store, be patient with people, speak to people the way you wish to be spoken to, when people are rude and treat you poorly, don't engage, you deserve respect! And realize, it takes so much more of our energy to sweat the small stuff then it does to let it go!

I think that's the change we all need to focus on, and I believe, just that little change will make day to day living so much more pleasant!

At the core, people are good!

Like most of you, i've been captivated by the US Airways plane that went down in the Hudson River. The event has sucked me in for a variety of reasons, I fly from Laguardia often, I am on business on the west side of NY, right near and often on those very piers where the plane went down, and because its hard to imagine that a plane can really land in a river, and everyone can get out safely.

But what has really sucked me in is the fact that at the very core people are good and selfless. I think about all those people who run the ferry boats in NY, who immeadiately headed over to the sinking plane and helped to save every last one of them, dockhands, captains, even the ticket takers, they acted flawlessly and with ease, to just help!

It speaks volumes about human nature. I think it is an innate characteristic that we all have, but rarely are we tested on!

So i raise a glass to all of you, the people of the New York Waterways, and say KUDOS for not only a job AMAZINGLY DONE, but for reminding all of us, what teamwork, and selflessness and the goodness of mankind is all about!

A few Good Ideas!

So i'm getting ready to head to New York next week for the NY International Gift Show! Its a daunting task, and for those of you have never been, picture a huge huge convention center set up with thousands of booths that are 10 x 10 filled with everything you can imagine. I have often thought of pitching a reality game show where you are given an empty house and then you and other contestants are given a certain budget and a time frame to race through and furnish the house, but not just with furniture, you must get everything, and the gift show has it all! Beds, bedding, towels, kitchen sets and placesettings, frames, mirrors, utensils, food for the cupboard, clothing, accessories for the living room and family room! At the end of the show, they deliver everything and they see if you stayed in budget! Admit it sounds sort of fun!

So the problem i face is, i'm out of ideas of new cool gifts to buy, so if you have a favorite product or gift you like to give, a keepsake that's so cute or something fabulous for the desk in your office, email me and let me know so i can find it!

Not sure where to start, so i'll take Revolutionary Road for 100!

So the other night I saw the DiCaprio Winslet much ado about nothing movie Revoltionary Road, the big screen adaptation of Richard Yates' novel. It tells the age old story of people in an unhappy marriage. I will say, it was an excellent character study of the furiously bored. Here's what i take from the movie and can see it applied to so many people I know, but who keep it all a secret hush hush!

Many people think they are destined for something big, something important in their lives, career, philanthropy, world travel, fame, fortune! The truth is, really we are all just human, except for the very few who either by fate or by lots of hard work and devotion, and perhaps a bit of luck become bigger than themselves in life. Most of us go to college, maybe onto graduate school, have our first apartment and our first job, do the 20 something social scene. For some its just regular and for others, its a very impressive high life. But in the end, most people trade it in for a house in the suburbs, 2 kids, a dog, a husband who works very hard to provide a good life, a few trips and some great friends.

There are choices that we make and sacrifices. And in the end, some except the road they've chosen and realize that they are good and kind and hard worker, but really no different than the majority of people. For those that are different, we oooh and ahhh over their lives and sometimes feel a twinge of envy. The ones who suffer are the ones who can't accept who they are and what life is.

2009, full steam ahead!

Happy New Year! I actually like New Years Day, much better than New Years Eve. I like to stay home, enjoy the peace and quiet, clean out the old, organize the new and get ready for the new days ahead. I don't believe in resolutions, mainly because I seem to break them much faster than the time it took me to come up with them. I'll make some general goals, which i'll share with you. Get to the gym more often, don't sweat the small stuff, release negative energy, don't surround myself with people who either stress me out or just make me feel bad, stop and smell the fresh air, aprreciate each day, BLOG MORE!

In honesty, i feel like New Years Day is my day at the Ashram, no talking, no working, no stressing, just being, just flopping in bed, reading the paper, reading a book, decluttering the mind and soul!

I hope you had the same type of day!