Monday, September 18, 2017

The Rebel, the Rye & Rishikesh

J.D. Salinger, left, after the Normandy invasion. World War II, 1944

September 17, 2017

I didn't know Salinger was in the war (and had PTSD) when he wrote Catcher in the Rye. I knew he went into seclusion and never published again and I knew that he died in 2010. But I didn't know he was big into meditation and Hinduism until I saw it on the screen at River Oaks Theater today while I was watching Rebel in the Rye. I got goose bumps.  …
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Friday, March 27, 2015

kukukachu

March 27, 2015, Houston, TX
I’m finally going to get my shit together. 
Really.

My dad & sister referred me to an eccentric guy with a long beard and baby blue eyes who works behind the Boy Scouts building on the third floor in a windowless office piled with papers, boxes, outdated electronics and a yellow bound Blogging for Dummies book atop his file cabinet. 
He's a CPA.
I knew I’d like him because …
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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Desire, Drive & Disconnect

November 2014 - Houston, TX.  Patio on Sabine.

November 23, 2014
Houston, TX

I’m kicked back on the patio wearing slippers I put on after spotting spiritual guru Gabby B wearing a similar pair in a Facebook post.   Danielle LaPorte’s Desire Map is on my lap and the first few pages have energized me to plot how I want to feel instead of what I want to do Just ten minutes ago I was curled up in bed on Sunday morning, reading on my iPhone Eric Barker’s weekly blog Barking Up the Wrong Tree.  Today he features the work of Daniel Pink, author of Drive:  The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us. 
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Monday, November 10, 2014

Santa Monica Pier Pressure

Santa Monica, California 11/6/2014

November 9, 2014

I had only fifteen minutes to stare out at the Santa Monica Pier last week during a quick trip following a string of endless weeks of almost continual travel.  In the past couple months I've had the privilege of seeing countless inspired thought leaders speak live (including Oprah, Simon Sinek, Elizabeth Gilbert, Malcolm Gladwell and Danielle LaPorte), had my Beirut BFF Derek spend two weeks with me on his inaugural trip to the USA (Texas), moved some cool stuff forward at work, spent a lot of time with my guru sister, and reconnected with four of my Wayfinder friends (thanks to angelic Abby for enticing me to California on a whim).

My brain is an amusement park right now and there are lines at all the rides.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

A House in the Sky



April 2, 2014
Grapevine, TX

My banker took me to lunch today at an upscale restaurant in a trendy hotel at an intersection of two massive Dallas freeways.  He ordered the blackened tuna something-or-other so I said, "I finished a book this morning about a woman who was kidnapped in Somalia and held for 15-months.  On release she said she'd never eat tuna again."…
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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Her

Kiss Album Cover - Dynasty (1979)

March 10, 2014 - Grapevine, TX

Tonight I saw the movie 'Her' about a guy who falls in love with his computer's operating system.  I felt the plot improbable until she was able to cleanup his email box by extracting the 64 funny-nostalgic emails and delete the 8,000 others in less than three seconds.  I'd fall in love with that too. …
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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Flint & Forleo



March 3, 2014 - Grapevine, TX

I just signed up for an 8-week online course on entrepreneurship.  One of my favorite Wayfinder friends texted, "cracks me up that you love all the entrepreneur stuff but don't want to be one..."  She's right, I don't know why I'm doing it.…
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Sunday, February 23, 2014

Houston in the Blind

RAQs Media Collective, Photograph shown during a lecture
Glassell School of Art, Houston


February 22, 2014
Houston, TX

One of the three members of RAQs Media Collective, a trio of art curators and polemicists, opened the lecture today mentioning a quote from the movie Gravity, "Houston in the Blind."  It means, "Houston, we can't hear you, but if you can hear us..." …
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Friday, February 14, 2014

Virtual Valentine's Day

Arlington, TX - Photo for Webinar Powerpoint Presentation

February 14, 2014

I pasted the heads of our leadership team into cupid bodies and sprinkled them throughout the Powerpoint slides for our Everyone Update webcast today.  We're forever looking for little ways to keep our virtual company connected.  I'm always never sure I can survive this job because I am what Glen described the other day as touchy feely. …
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Monday, February 10, 2014

Plastic Baby Epiphany

Houston, TX - King cake baby on a Valentine's Day plate at my parents' house.

February 9, 2014

I've been traveling too much for too many weeks while the "next steps" ideas percolate.  I'm on the cusp of either becoming more settled, or blowing everything up again.  I don't talk about it much because...…
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Monday, January 20, 2014

Women & Wine

Grapevine, TX - Eatzi's Bag

January 19, 2014

I was at a little wine & cheese thing with a bunch of women at a house in the suburbs last night.  They were all very beautiful, fit, totally together women.  They know each other from the gym.  Most of them were about a decade older than me, several were recently divorced.…
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Thursday, January 16, 2014

Memorials & Mourning

Dallas, TX - JFK and Jackie

January 15, 2014

Today I took my houseguest to the JFK Memorial in downtown Dallas.  We paged through a book in the museum gift shop, slowly reliving the national tragedy of the assassination.  Afterward, …
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Wednesday, January 15, 2014

These Boots

Ft. Worth, Texas - Boot shop at the Stockyards

January 14, 2014

One of my Wayfinder friends is visiting from NJ so we went to the Stockyards in Ft. Worth to feel like Texas and search for the perfect pair of cowboy boots.  Tonight after eating scrambled eggs with leftover Mexican food, we brainstormed names for her yoga class and reminisced about the retreat where we met for the first time last March.

Just before midnight I filled out a form and wrote a check intended to change my trajectory.

One of these days these boots...  

Friday, January 10, 2014

Incredible Cloud

Office of my morning meeting.

January 9, 2014 - Dallas, TX

This morning I used the Waze app on my iPhone to navigate the traffic laden journey to a meeting at the technology company that provides managed services to my company.  Basically they are our "IT guy" now that we're too big to have just a guy.

The offices were cutting edge cool with lots of comic book memorabilia.  My team sat with their team in bright colored high back chairs at a round table in a glass office.  A couple of their guys had "Cloud Experts" embroidered under the logo on their black polo shirts.  We talked about laptops, virtual environments and what on earth to do about Windows 8.

When the expert told us, "if you bought Windows 8 Pro it comes with a free downgrade," I burst out laughing.  What a great marketing campaign: if you spend extra money for the "Pro" version of Windows 8, it comes with a feature to make it seem like you never bought 8 in the first place.