tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60130372862117877572024-03-13T07:47:34.776-07:00Thoughts on ...The wit and wisdom of Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-62476609237710037972016-01-09T19:43:00.001-08:002016-01-11T15:53:57.463-08:00<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">The 2016 Presidential Election</span></h2>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: small;">A little bit of context</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"> My father lived to see the Red Sox win the World Series in 2004 but not in 2007. My mother, my mother-in-law and my father-in-law, did not. They were fans of varying degrees. For completion, the Sox also won in 2013. <br />When my husband and I were planning our wedding forty-five years ago, we wanted to have a rabbi and a priest conduct a joint service. It didn't happen. Turns out the Catholics had eased up but the Jews had clamped down. I do understand this but that's not my topic. One rabbi wrote in his response to my letter (45 yrs ago, email not so much, long distance calls expensive) that I should reconsider the marriage because a house divided against itself cannot long stand. Well, yeah but here we are and we've only had one semi-major disagreement in all those years. This topic is not one of them although some other family members will not be pleased with my bottom line.</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: small;">My Historical Perspective</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"> I was pleased when we had our first non-Protestant president. For those too young and not memorizing for Jeopardy, that was John F Kennedy, a Catholic. I was pleased when we had our first non-white president. I was excited when we had a Jewish candidate and I'll be excited when we have a Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim candidate. But, to give you an idea where I'm heading, consider who makes up fifty per cent of the population of the country and of the planet!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> The first presidential election of which I was aware of was either 1952 or 1956 - Eisenhower vs Stevenson. I may have had an "I like Ike!" button although I have no idea where I got it. Sometime after college, I learned more about Adlai and have come to realize that I am a Stevenson Democrat. I shocked one of my sisters when I finally could register [ah the sagas of not changing my name upon marriage], that I registered not as the traditional Heller Independent in Massachusetts nor it's pseudo-equivalent declines-to-state in California, but rather as a Democrat. I expect anyone who pays attention to my writing had figured that out long ago!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: small;">The Candidates in my Lifetime</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"> In 1972, Shirley Chisholm ran for the Democratic candidacy. She didn't get anywhere near the support she ought to have received. But she was the first woman and the first African American to run in a major political party. In her several terms in Congress, she accomplished much. Look her up on Wikipedia. Here, I'm making it easy for you <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Chisholm" target="_blank">Shirley Chisholm</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> The 1972 election had other significance. I remember the Watergate story. I know that it had "gate" at the end because that was the name of the building where the break-in occurred. I know the song Arlo Guthrie considered writing and the one he actually did write. I know that to a degree we did see Richard Nixon again. And to be thorough, our first cats, Galileo and Archimedes cheered from the window sill when Nick and I went and danced in the parking lot when he resigned</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> And more importantly, I know who was the hero (or as I'm fond of saying shero) of the hearings. Barbara Jordan was an amazing congresswoman from Texas who sounded like she came from Boston. She went to college there. Here's her link on Wikipedia, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Jordan" target="_blank">Barbara Jordan</a> - a lot of firsts. She was elected to Congress in 1972. She had a deep commanding voice and she cut through all the nonsense. I heard her speak at a Brandeis graduation in 1976. And I thought, oh wow, she could and should be president. Alas, it was not to be. She left politics, as I recall in part for health. I was heartbroken.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> In 1984 - oops, minor tangent. George Orwell named the book <i>1984</i> because he wrote it in 1948 and that sounded far enough away. I think we all might take another or a first look because in some ways, he was right! </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> In 1984, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_Ferraro" target="_blank">Geraldine Ferraro</a>, ran for vice-president when Walter Mondale ran for president. Typical of the sexism that still exists in this country, the other presidential candidates wife (!) felt obligated to make public comments referring to Ferraro as a word "which rhymes with witch." Again, read the bio, she was totally qualified, firsts, all that. I was happy.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: small;">The Twenty-First Century </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"> By 2007 (it was a good year in many ways), I was well into my rather well-known obsession with the 1000plus mile dog race, the Iditarod. When Lance Mackey won, they handed him the phone and said the governor wants to congratulate you. Lance said something like, oh I can talk to him. I was aware of the error but not the actual woman. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin" target="_blank">Sarah Palin</a> was the youngest person and first woman to be elected governor of Alaska. I've been there enough and know enough of the politics to realize how big that was. A combination of factors, including sexism, got into her vice-presidential candidacy and I was disappointed. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"> So we come to eight years ago. I was thrilled when <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton" target="_blank">Hilary Clinton</a> entered the race. I was torn when Barack Obama also entered. It hasn't been fun waiting to see which would be stronger sexism or racism. I am not surprised but do remain distressed about the amount of sexism surrounding Hilary and the amount of racism surrounding the First Family. While President Obama wasn't my first choice, he was my second.</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: small;">Today</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"> There are several reasons why I'm supporting Hillary Clinton. She and I are both front edge Baby Boomers. We graduated from small liberal arts colleges less than ten miles apart in the same year, probably the same month. I know what challenges women like us faced growing up, I know what changes we've lived through and I know what we can accomplish. POTUS needs to know how to get things done and she's learned that, often the hard way. <br /> The President of the United States can get our country into war. I want someone who will think long and carefully before doing that. Someone who knows how the world works. Secretary of State is a great qualifier for that. I want someone who will calmly weigh the options, speak calmly, not get excited easily. And a gentle sense of humor helps too!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony" target="_blank">Susan B Anthony</a>, another of my sheroes, tried unsuccessfully to vote in the 1872 presidential election, 100 years before I've started this saga. She died before the nineteenth amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution. A few days before she died, she said, </span>"There have been others also just as true and devoted to the cause — I
wish I could name every one — but with such women consecrating their
lives, failure is impossible!" <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> I've heard that younger women do want a woman president
and expect to see it in their lifetimes and are waiting for someone
else. Like Susan, I know that it will happen. But, I don't know exactly how much time I have left and I've
been waiting long enough. I want a woman president now! </span><span style="font-size: small;"> And that woman should be Hillary R. Clinton. </span><br />
© 2016 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-43694918298944056282013-11-02T14:34:00.000-07:002013-11-02T14:34:59.371-07:00WE13 - The Society of Women Engineers Annual conferenceI'm still worn out from attending the SWE annual conference in Baltimore.<br />
As I looked at my bill, checking out of the hotel, I found myself thinking - yikes! <br />
Like a good Girl Scout, I feel I need to do an evaluation. Sure, the organizers send out an electronic overview eval to fill out (and I have.) But they don't ask the questions that DeLuc taught us to ask and that Nick and I used for twenty-five years with the legendary Girl Scout Troop 757. <br />
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<h4>
The Evaluation Questions </h4>
1. What was the purpose?<br />
2. Was it satisfied?<br />
3. What did you like best?<br />
4. What did you like least?<br />
5. What would you do differently?<br />
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This wasn't my planned concept as I was driving along (best thinking in car and shower!) but it works and it's structured making all the engineers happy!<br />
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<h3>
The Purpose</h3>
Whoa, good question! I was asked something about what I was looking to get out of the conference. I'd love to get the SWE Board (aka BoD), conference planning board and staff to answer what they think it was. It is so easy to get immersed in the logistics and numbers. At conference, there are business sessions, educational workshops, outreach activities for students K-12 and celebratory banquets. Whew! For reasons of schedule and/or budget, I've missed the last two conferences. Thus, my primary purpose was to connect with friends whom I only see at these conferences.<br />
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My purposes were satisfied, read on for details.<br />
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<h3>
Liked Best</h3>
1. Given my purpose, I liked best making all the connections. They fall into a couple of categories.<br />
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a) Collegians. I love our collegiate members. They're full of energy and enthusiasm. On my first day, I gave a short presentation at the Members-at-Large leadership summit on Succession Planning. Hanging around for other topics and discussions, I bonded with Lydia over a snarky Minions reference. That lead to other discussions and that's how I accidentally picked up another mentee!<br />
I also reconnected with Hannah, whom I get to see later this week and met Isabelle who followed up on diversity questions. <br />
<br />
b) Professionals. My husband Nick always laughs at how I go off for some event and come back with more BFFs. The joy of these conferences is I get to see and talk face-to-face with a lot of good women and the occasional good man whom I've met at previous conferences and/or with whom I serve on SWE committees or who are facebook friends with the not-quite-full conversations.<br />
I actually went to a technical session because Ashley and Alya were presenting. I was pleasantly surprised that I followed their discussion on nanotechnology and still remember much of it. <br />
<br />
c) Spending lots of time with a few people who live too far away. I shared a room with Jacey and really appreciated her coping with a bit of Red Sox nation bounding about three nights. I had a long deep visit with my chosen niece Trish over lunch one day. It really does feel like we're related, and not just because of baseball. For the first time, I had a long breakfast with Colette whom I see at SWE and NAP. I'll say no more since as she put it, we were in executive session.<br />
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2. When I'm at a conference, I always take off to do something local, not SWE related, often with a Girl Scout friend. In Milwaukee years ago, Cheryl took me on a tour of the synagogues and cheese tasting, in Kansas City, Sherry took me on a tour of historical places and to have barbeque with her troop. After SWE Detroit, Betty and I went to the Motown museum. But sometimes, I just go off by myself. In Birmingham, I went to the Civil Rights center. <br />
This year, I went on the tour of Camden yards. Camden yards is where the Baltimore Orioles play baseball. The tour was given by a man who had retired from the CIA, exact job title not given. I may have called him out, quietly because whenever we had to be in two subgroups to go on the elevator, he put one of the three men in charge. Did I mention this was a SWE organized walking tour and we had an official, tall, SWE person in charge with us and there were about 15, maybe more, women? I asked "why do you keep picking a man" and he said "habit" and I said "you better break it!"<br />
High spots of the tour - sitting in the press box (at the score keepers seat) and the dugout; visiting the electronics control center. Cool stuff, the stadium was designed by a woman who was a major fan and knew what's what. When she wasn't sure where to put the bullpens, she asked other fans! The head groundsperson is also a woman! She has access to detailed weather reports and info and can turn on the sprinklers from home. The way the sod was laid down, soil over sand over something, shale maybe, once it stops raining the field is playable in twenty minutes!<br />
Since I couldn't be in Boston or home for the first four games of the World Series, this was a nice way to connect because it really is a lovely ballpark. Must go back someday, with Nick, for a game.<br />
And you know, we now have three trophies too! Just sayin'<br />
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<h3>
Liked Least</h3>
1. Personally, I hated the cost. Even using senior discounts and sharing a hotel room, the transportation, accommodations and registration fees really added up. For women who get the salaries they should, it's not bad but for those heading into fixed incomes, it's hard.<br />
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2. It was awful being away from home for the World Series. I ended up watching the Red Sox in our hotel room, on an over-crowded cramped flight to Denver, in a bar at the Denver airport and using GameDay on my phone, again crowded cramped plane, and finally a call from Nick that Koji had picked off the runner at first. I need to be with Nick to hug and cheer or cry together.<br />
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3. What I really liked the least was needing to make hard choices - do I go to the Bylaws Committee meeting or the Multi-Cultural Committee meeting? Do I go to the full MAL meeting or the Flash Talks? Do I go on my tour of Camden Yards or the Senate meeting? <br />
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All of this is my mini-version of something I observed globally. There was an overarching sense of everybody trying to do too much in too little time. My presentation was based on a 90-120 min workshop and I was given 20min. Yes, I streamlined the content to fit and talked really, really fast but there was no time for the discussions which are so vital to the learning experience. I decided that this too much to do/too little time is a bad model for people and especially for women. I believe in quality over quantity. Do less and do it better. It's been a feminist issue for a long time - having it all - all at once or maybe some now, some later. You know where I stand on it!<br />
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<h3>
Do differently</h3>
1. Spend the money and take American not United!<br />
2. Wait to see how the Red Sox are doing before registering and really, this year was so exciting, I might not have gone. <br />
3. Find a way to convince others that we can't long endure at this pace. Life is full of tough choices, let's not let a conference meant to support us become part of the problem, not the solution!<br />
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<h3>
<b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Final Thoughts</b></span></b></h3>
So, you know, I actually am glad that I went to SWE13 in spite of not wanting to look at my credit card statements and being exhausted. I did make it back for the last two games of the World Series and we're still celebrating. WE14 is going to be in Los Angeles. The timing is about the same. I'm leaning towards going.<br />
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© 2013 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-44862016410815903832012-12-21T19:05:00.001-08:002012-12-21T19:06:43.650-08:00Les Misérables<h2>
</h2>
<i>Note: Did not realize it had been so long since I last posted. Too much facebook and too many hours recorded on the DVR and it's so much quicker to tweet. They've made changes to blogger and I'm trying to sort it out. This topic has been floating in my head for a while now.</i><br />
<br />
My husband Nick and I first saw the theater production of <i>Les Miserables</i> in San Francisco about two decades ago. I immediately went out and bought the book and about a year later I finally finished wading my way through it. I think that's the beginning of my being behind in everything....hmm. I may have skipped the two appendices. I know one had to do with nuns, I've totally forgotten what the other was. I'm considering turning it up and rereading parts. <br />
<i> </i><br />
We both loved the theater version. We both cried through it. Being people who share, a few years later we took our adolescent Girl Scouts to see it. We both cried through it, enough for all of us, which was good because we were the only ones who cried, so the troop average wasn't too bad.<br />
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Recently, we went to see it again. Yes, we both cried through it. This production wasn't quite as good as either of us remembered. While I'm not one to fuss over sets, I found the barricade sad! I think it's a sign of the financial times that they didn't use the rotating stage. That barricade is a critical part of the second half.<br />
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Eagerly but anxiously waiting for the movie version to come out in four days, I've been driving in the car listening to the Broadway cast CD. I admit, I have to be careful, the words "Tell Cosette I'll see her when I wake" still reduces me to tears.<br />
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Partial spoiler alert: Here's what has prompted me to write - Javert's solo near the end. OK, if you've seen it, you know the subject matter. Again, better presented (wonderful swirling stage light effects) in the first production than in the recent one. His actions are the results of having his beliefs shaken to the core.<br />
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The book is long and dense. Those who write summaries of the play say it's about Jean Valjean a "criminal who breaks parole" and Inspector Javert who keeps trying to catch him and the "prostitute" Fantine (pronounced Fohn-teen) who has a daughter Cosette. The later part is set amidst the student rebellions in Europe in the 1830s, which I actually learned of back in college. There are a lot of subplots which come together. If you blink in the first number, you miss that Valjean was sentenced to 5 years in prison and had 14 more years added on due to escape attempts. Javert is there when he is paroled. Condition of the parole is that Valjean always carry his papers and show them.<br />
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Here's the subtlety, the nuance. Due to the incident in the second musical number, Valjean starts down a road of redemption. Let's say that's what it is because the years in prison hardened him and made him cynical. But really, he started as a good man. He stole the bread for his sister and her children. One wants to cast Javert in the role of villain. But really, he's doing his job, playing by the rules which he respects. When I hear that final Javert solo, I keep thinking: they are both good, honorable men. One had bad, bad breaks and the other never learned my favorite trait, flexibility. <br />
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My biggest rant comes around the Thenardiers in the play. I have the same complaint about Fagin in <i>Oliver!</i><br />
Yes, I read that too, probably a couple of times. I devoured Dickens back in high school and college. Hey, he gave us a heroine named Esther in <i>Bleak House.</i> Imagine my joy on discovering her - up 'till then I just had the biblical Queen who saved her people. But, as is my personality, I digress. <br />
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I completely understand why writers of musicals have to add comic relief to such heavy stories. But isn't it fascinating that in both instances, they did it using the most reprehensible characters in the novel and made them into charming miscreants and giving them show stopping numbers? In Les Miz, in <i>Master of the House</i>, one does get a sense of how dreadful the Thenardiers are, if you pay attention to the acting as well as the singing. Again, it's done comedicly. Here's something from the novel - they had five children, Eponine, another daughter, existing while Cosette was living with them, Gavroche (the random street urchin in the play) and two little boys whom they abandoned. Not so charming by today's standards. Both treatments have never set well with my core values.<br />
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Yup, I have to revisit the novel. Meanwhile, I do plan to see the movie soon. The barricade in the trailer looks awesome!<br />
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© 2012 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-54744248356918825062011-10-10T11:48:00.000-07:002011-10-10T11:48:14.123-07:00My 5772 Kol Nidre Appeal: Reflect!<i>Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish Year. As I'm posting this, I realize I only blogged through half of our East Coast trip. I started an entry last month about our fortieth wedding anniversary. As I've said before, when I am doing interesting things, I run out of time. When I have time, I don't have interesting things to blog about. This piece was written, so I simply have to cut, paste and fine tune. In the spirit of the High Holy Days, I hope my fans will forgive me. I'd promise to do better but as I heard a speaker say last week, it is better to under-promise and over-deliver. Here for your reading is what I presented just before the Amidah. My friend Elaine leads the inspirational Kol Nidre service and did a lovely introduction, including that we're friends. Picture me in my long white, embroidered dress, with my Tallit draped around my shoulders and a Kippah on my head, standing on stage with about 300 people seated in front of me. </i><br />
<i> </i><br />
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Thank you Elaine!. That is the sweetest introduction I have ever received. <i>Shana Tovah</i>! As Elaine said, I am Esther Heller and I am the Immediate Past President of Keddem Congregation, among other, mostly relevant roles. <br />
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Many of you are here with us at Keddem Congregation for the first time, many have been with us before at High Holy Days and there are many regulars. You are all welcome joining with us tonight to form the extended <i>Kehillat</i> Keddem, Keddem community. Judaism as a religion is all about community. We see that most strongly tonight, as <i>Kol Nidre</i>, with it’s beautiful melody and profound meaning, begins our annual communal confession, repentance and atonement. These prayers allow us to move forward as individual people and as a community of people.<br />
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The nature of our communal confession causes us to become reflective as individuals and as a community. In order for us to be together next year at this time, as a large community, Keddem Congregation must continue to function as a community throughout the year. So while we treasure those of you who come only for tonight, there is an extra burden on those of us who are active beyond tonight. I invite you to reflect upon how you might share that burden to keep this community strong. <br />
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First, reflect on becoming a more connected, official member of Keddem Congregation. There are practical reasons for doing so such as access to our mailing lists or being able to memorialize your deceased family and friends in the <i>Yizkor</i> book from which we worship our service tomorrow. It’s the intangible reasons that I reflect upon. I know that I can reach out to my many Keddem friends who will listen and advise (and actually take my calls or return my emails) or just hug as needed and I readily do the same for them. Community is made up of personal relationships and they matter so much to me. I know that not everyone gathers people as I do (my husband calls me a people gatherer0 but when you’re ready to reach out, we can be here for you too. The first step is to become a member!<br />
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Secondly, reflect on all that we at Keddem Congregation offer through the High Holy Days and beyond. We have our wonderful but part-time rabbi Elisheva and our wonderful but part-time administrative assistant, Myra, who do so much for us all year and I thank them. But the bulk of effort to keep Keddem vibrant falls to our active participants and volunteers. When President Hayley does her thank yous later on, reflect on the list and variety of tasks. They too continue throughout the year. <br />
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Quite frankly at the end of <i>Tishrei</i>, some of us are quite worn out. I thank Hayley and Elaine specifically. I know how much of each of you has put into our being here tonight. As you are reflecting upon the <i>Alcheit</i>, which literally is about missing the mark, or in my mind, intent versus effect, consider forming an intent to do more with Keddem in this new year - as a participant and as a volunteer. We would love to have you and you can start building those community relationships!<br />
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Finally, you are probably ahead of me here, reflect upon the financial costs of maintaining a <i>shul</i> throughout the year. We have been fortunate enough to have a professional consultant provided to us by the Jewish Federation. He’s guided us through setting goals, learning how to make phone calls asking for funds and our approach to these appeals. According to our consultant and other Fund Development professionals with whom I’ve worked, the larger Jewish community is quite generous. You’ve seen the names on the wall at the other end of this Jewish Community Center courtyard. You’ve seen names you know or recognize as Jewish in museums and on public television. If you know where to look, you’ll even see my name! But as a group, we’re not always as generous is within our own congregations and <i>shuls</i>. <br />
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At Keddem Congregation, we’ve always believed in being accessible to all without regard to financial situation. That continues to be a strong value for us as a community. The challenges of being in leadership include supporting the values while staying sound. We set our High Holy Days campaign goal at forty thousand dollars with a recommended donation of five hundred dollars per household. Through donations and pledges received thus far, we are forty-seven per cent of the way there. I thank all of you who have gotten us to this point. <br />
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On this night of confessions, I confess I had hoped we’d be further along. It is a stretch goal for us. As we resume our communal confession, repentance and atonement, perhaps each of can consider stretching our intent to a higher level of giving than we have done or planned. I know that I have and plan to give more than my initial pledge using this very envelope. <br />
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I wish you a gentle fast. <i>L’shanah tovah tichatemu! </i> May you and yours be sealed for a good year. <br />
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© 2011 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-6065838722126030382011-06-08T12:39:00.000-07:002011-06-10T10:29:05.951-07:00ECRT - Day 7: New Jersy and more Manhattan<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Menlo Park, New Jersey</b></span><br />
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I love the Rain Forest Cafe restaurants. The first one I ever visited was in Chicago - then I found out they are a chain. In the older ones (like San Francisco) , apparently before people complained that they're too scarey, there are roaring leopards as well as the charging elephants and the chest-beating gorillas. Personally, the gorillas freak me out. Of course, that's where we were seated in the one at the Menlo Park Mall. Yes, folks, a mall in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Some of you must know that is where Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. This trip we never did drive by the tower with the giant light bulb atop but the mall is off of infamous Route 1 of the Princeton back-and-forth adventure on day 5.<br />
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I collect T-shirts if they have the RFC location on them. The ones here only said New Jersey and weren't that exciting and as I might have mentioned, the suitcases started out full. I totally must recommend the Bourbon Chicken! This mall also had a great sock store, called The Sock Drawer, that had many color choices of my favorite type of socks. I just went on about this in my interlude space, so I'll spare you. We did bop in and out of several stores trying to find a rain hat to go with my new rain jacket but no luck.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Jersey City/Liberty State Park</b></span><br />
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Today was the day that I suggested to Nick that he pick a place to go in our free time. He seemed to think that I <i>tasked</i> him with doing this. I thought we were doing too much "esther" stuff and not enough "nick" stuff. The weather continues to be, well yucky, but as mentioned, we're done with museums. After some time with our handy-dandy AAA book (a factor in the large suitcase weighing 49.5 lbs back at SFO), Nick started telling me about Liberty State Park, close to Jersey City. I think it's a National Park (and I totally forgot to look for a passport stamp.) It includes a dock and an old, very cool, train station. There are ferries to Ellis and Liberty Islands, where the Statue of Liberty is. Walking around the Park, you can see parts of both islands, although it is a side view of the Statue, blocked somewhat by Ellis Island.<br />
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We bopped around a while then headed to the Liberty Science Center for their last movie of the day. They have the <a href="http://www.lsc.org/ourexperiences/theaters/imax">worlds largest IMAX theater.</a> The show starts with an explanation of it; it's the same type of setup as planetariums. They did whatever with the lights so you could see all the projectors and sound-systems behind the screen. Very, very cool! Total tangent - anybody remember Cinerama? I guess IMAX is the next generation.<br />
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OK, back. We were there to see <i>Hubble</i>. The movie had a lot of footage of visuals from the telescope and info about galaxies and light years and mostly it's out of my head. But I'm sure Nick, the almost-astronomy major remembered a lot. But over half of the movie was about the astronaut mission to do one last set of repairs on the Hubble telescope. What I did pick up on was there wasn't going to be one and one of my favorite US Senators, Barbara Mikulski from Maryland helped make it happen! I've actually supported her reelection a couple of times and am now doubly glad.<br />
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The movie included showing the astronauts training to do the repairs and then their travel and then the actual repairs. At one point, something like 39 tiny screws had to be removed, gently, carefully. Two thumbs up! Of course, there were maybe 10 of us watching late on a Thursday afternoon, as compared to the several hundred kids who'd come out before us from <i>Tornado Alley. </i><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Dinner and a Show</b></span><br />
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The museum was closing and we were due to meet my sisters in Manhattan. Nick had planned to drive to the Secaucus train station and from there take the subway and walk, the usual. But the nice guy at the Liberty Park train station suggested we just go to the Path (more NJ transit) station in near-by Jersey City and assured us there was parking. We thought less driving, good idea. Well, yes, but. We found one garage that was only for the attached building, no street parking and lots which closed at 8pm. Eventually we found our way to Secaucus. Another quick tangent - the whole time, I kept trying to remember who were the Secaucus seven and never did. If I go google it now, I'll never get done.<br />
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There were some issues with the train and we waited and called Carol and waited. We only had to go one stop and eventually did and met the twins right on time. Caren had found a somewhat tony place called Brassier 8 and one half. As always, we had a great meal and great conversation. In a fun moment, the four of us shared one dessert. But, we'd let it go a tad too long and had to hustle to the theater where we just made last call.<br />
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The musical we saw was <a href="http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/broadway/thepeopleinthepicture/"><i>The People in the Picture</i></a> at Studio 54. It was written by Iris Rainer Dart who's written many novels including <i>Beaches</i> (as in the Bette Midler movie.) It takes place, somewhat simultaneously, in 1939-46 Warsaw and 1977 USA, New York maybe, likely? The lead actress Donna Murphy is the link back and forth, playing Raisa in the past and Bubbie (grandma) in the more present. We were told, by Caren who has series tickets to the theater, that it was about three generation of Jewish women. And it was but not what I was expecting. As Carol said at intermission - I didn't know there would be Nazis. I think we all expected the timeline to be later.<br />
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It definitely has it's own audience - I was the closest and Nick the furthest from that. If you're into how history affects next generations and get passing references to Molly Picon, you'll probably enjoy this. Since we had to all take off fast afterwards, I didn't get to discuss with my sisters. Nick felt the middle character was slighted. We thought, until we looked up Iris Dart, that it was written by the "granddaughter" but actually Dart's age is that of daughter caught in the middle of several things. <br />
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After hugging Caren, Carol, Nick & I headed towards the subway, she to go uptown, us to go downtown. Back to Penn Station, back to Secaucus, back to Route 1 and it's bumps and no U-turns and finally, back to the Comfort Suites.<br />
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Coming up: Five states in one day, heading for The Cape.<br />
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</i></div><b><i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Esther</i></b><br />
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© 2011 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-82755986022505323712011-05-27T17:52:00.000-07:002011-05-27T17:52:29.187-07:00ECRT - Interlude: Road Trip RamblingsSpoiler: I'm sitting at the cutest little powerbar in the Manchester, NH airport. (There are photos, not to worry.) It took me four tries to find the right network and get on it. Sometime before the sun sets over the Pacific, I will be back in my own house, with my own bathroom, my own bed, my ergonomic (if messy) computer setup and most importantly, my loving cats aka the large evil monsters.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Shopping (contains some spoilers.)</span></b><br />
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This has been a tricky trip for shopping and therefore gift giving. I think Megan's boys have scored the best, then maybe Shirley & Gary, the catsitters. The trickiness has been a factor of several things - first and foremost luggage space. When we checked in with the new large, lightweight red suitcase, it weighed 49.5 pounds. Just now it weighed 8 pounds less, whew! But the smaller suitcase maybe be up and so are our carryons. Thankfully, Nick's sister Joanne was pleased to get the AAA tour books for everything south of New England and we left the pound of Ghiradelli chocolate squares with Paula.<br />
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But, I did manage to get myself a whole outfit plus. Bought the Nationals shirt in MD - where we also did get the price adjustment of $178 (yay!) on the new suitcase. Got myself a foldup-able backpack, half price with any purchase at the Gettysburg Visitor Center shop. It can also be a totebag and it was great on the soon-to-be told slosh around Jordan Pond. In Media, PA, I got a nice pair of Gloria Vanderbilt black jeans currently on my body. In somewhere in Delaware, I got the fashionable rain jacket.<br />
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At the Metropolitan Museum of Art I acquired my favorite purchase, a black T-shirt with a Golden Dragon embroidered down one side and my most useful, a set of three Guitar Hero passport size notebooks. In Menlo Park, NJ, coming up soon, I scored 5 pairs of roll over crew socks to match various T-shirts. You have to go far and wide now to find these and I<b> am</b> known for this matching, esp in shorts weather. Then there's the bears of the fifty states - still no luck in Rhode Island but Ms New Hampshire and Ms Maine will be joining the others on the shelf. <br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>oops - so somehow the netbook turned itself off as I was midsentence. But it was somehow on in Cleveland but no display.. I'm going to sleep and sort it all out in the morning and then finish this post. eah </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> </i><span style="font-size: small;">Sleep has happened. So where was I - rambling about purchases - now have two new hats as well. More on that later. I now speculate that every state has a Route 1 and at least in the northeast it is a bad ride. I have become spoiled by CalTrans maintaining roads out here in California. Either that or the Kia has dreadful shocks. But seriously bumpy here and there. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Real Randomness </b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">I am convinced that I should get a column for SWE out of traveling, including road trips and airport issues and packing and accommodations. Ah yes, I had a rant building up the whole trip about placement and style of toilet paper rolls. I'm sure many of you are aware of the TP orientation debates. I believe in the roll coming down the back for two reasons - first, it's way harder for a cat to unroll one that way (think about the paws on top of the roll that flows off the front). If you don't get that, you've never had to deal with a roll post cat playing! I have been known to reverse them in rooms where I am staying. And, I find it easier to pull off some one-handed which is a value while you are wearing a backpack/purse and have a camera slung over your neck and long sleeves. And/or when you're on crutches (been there, done that three years ago) I also know why we pay the extra money for two ply TP. I think I end up taking more volume (ie greater than twice as many sheets) just trying to get some off and it twists up annoyingly. Hey, if you have the digestive issues that I have, you'd be noticing all this too.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">On that cheery note, I shall post this and try working on Day 7. Good thing it's a three-day weekend and I have a bad cold [we both got sick and forged on!] If I can figure out what's going on with the netbook, I'll throw photos up quick. Otherwise, I have to figure out what's going on with the Laptop. I'm on the PC which is my primary computer but the monitor and the CPU don't agree so my aspect ratio is off which is bad for photographs.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">a road weary, Esther</span></i></span>Esther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-56928968001351100322011-05-25T20:55:00.000-07:002011-05-27T17:32:48.405-07:00ECRT - Days 6: Mostly Manhattan<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Metropolitan Museum of Art</b></span><br />
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When I called my sister Carol, she suggested that we meet at her favorite place, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There's an exhibit of work by the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen which she wanted to see. I said, there were two things I had to do in NYC - have a slice of pizza and have a real deli pastrami sandwich. We agreed to meet at the Met around noon - inside or out depended on weather and how Nick & I did with the train and the subway.<br />
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I probably haven't mentioned our cute little red Kia Forte that's gotten us up the East Coast. It's worked out well for us, holds both red suitcases and various stuff. I should put up a picture, of course I took them. Also, haven't mentioned traveling with an Orienteer and a computer means that I only have to read the directions and navigate. Nick does all the research, hands me the maps and off we go. Today, he figured out how to get to and from the Rahway train station without making any dreaded U-turns on Route 1. It actually all went quite well. We're seniors on New Jersey transit - between us we figured out how to purchase four one-way tickets to/from Penn Station in Manhattan. It did involve two short street hikes to/from the subway. But even that worked out because we came out next to a pizza place selling plain slices for $1 each. The guy was annoyed when i asked him to split the slice in two (Nick didn't think we needed one each, he later agreed we should have) but was happier when we left a tip.<br />
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We found the subway, got our passes, got to the upper east side, found Carol (who is looking good!) and headed to the exhibit. For those who don't know, two things about McQueen: He committed suicide last year and it was his second-in-charge person who designed Kate Middleton's wedding gown. Seeing McQueen's work - often stark, very edgy, I understand why fashion types were expecting something less conservative for the royal wedding. The exhibit is fascinating, My favorite parts were the video chess game played by models in his work and the dress that was finished live with the model/actress standing on a rotating stage while two robot arms sprayed paint at her. She was wearing a sleeveless, very wide dress, which was belted above the chest with a 2" buckle belt. OK, so I was fascinated more by the video and the engineering.<br />
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The three of us, Carol, Nick and Esther, entered the exhibit together with a zillion other people. Nick waved to me as he went around the first corner and we didn't see each other for about 30 min. He waited at the inevitable exit-mini-shop. He says I was about 10 min behind him. Carol and I stuck together much longer - but eventually I emerged before she did. From there, we went down to the cafe to have lunch and just visit.<br />
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We agreed that everyone got to pick and exhibit. The Guitar Heroes was right by the cafe and of course, I wanted to see it. This was about the makers! Somehow we did it backwards so didn't see the Stradivarius violin and mandolins until the end. There was a well-done video of one of the masters making a guitar. I watched it twice, once with Nick and once with Carol. Nick's choice was to see the armor. That was quite cool as well - diferent times and cultures represented, including for all us Highlander TV fans, Katanas (Japanese Swords.)<br />
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And then there was my favorite odd moment. Carol had to make a business call. So we found a quiet place where she could sit. Nick decided this was a good time to check in with his sister Karen (our next destination). So there I was just strolling around checking out various exhibits to my heart's content.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>A New York Experience</b></span><br />
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Jonathan, Carol's son and our youngest nephew, is in New York for 10 days between sessions at college. When he heard we were considering having dinner at one of his favorite places, Arti's Deli, he agreed to meet us. Then Carol reached Francesco, Roberto's brother (both are Caren's sons) and he decided to meet us as well.<br />
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But we had to take the cross-town bus to get there. I've only ever taken the bus to the Bronx zoo. We walked two blocks from the museum, with our umbrellas and rain coats and got in line with everyone else. We worked our way on and whoa was it a bouncy ride. I figured out why when I got to sit down - we were in one of the two-part accordian busses. I was actually sitting in the first seat behind the moving part. It's a circular bit of floor that somehow rotates around corners. I couldn't quite figure it all out but was fascinated.<br />
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We got off at the corner by Arties just as Jonathan walked up and Francesco hopped out of a cab. The five of us had a great time together - F&J get really funny around each other, and I got my lean pastrami on rye. And then, the time came to go. Hugs all around and Nick and I were off again back to Avenel via Rahway.<br />
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A side note: about this point, we were both carrying multiple extra swipe cards - our train tickets, the Metro Passes, our room keys and the parking garage ticket. There's a not positive message in all this - but we won't go there now.<br />
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Coming up: Liberty Island, the Hubble telescope and Broadway theater!<br />
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<i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Esther</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Addendum</span></b></span><br />
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<div style="font-family: inherit;">At some point when I didn't have computer access, I realized remembered something I wanted to share. For the sake of those who might have already read this post, I'm just adding it on here.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Back at the Museum, it was always understood that before leaving, we would go to the shop. They have an amazing, large shop, full of books and cards and prints and items with the logo or various artwork. The cat items alone could further overflow our overflowing house. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></i><br />
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It took Carol and I all of ten seconds to agree to go up to the sales section on the second floor. I had already decided that the only thing that would save this blogging effort was to get a small pad or something on which I could keep jotting down notes. I had also told Carol that when the $60 Guitar Hero messenger bag, $60 was seriously marked down, I might like it. Well, upstairs we found one for $30 but I decided against it. I did find a set of three passport sized notebooks and did get them. It was weird because these items were still full-price elsewhere in the museum (it's large with many shopping opportunities) I also found a fabulous black T-shirt with a dragon embroidered down one-side marked down. Very classy! With Carol's discount, even better.<br />
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When I opened the notebooks - it turns out one is lined, one is blank and one is music staved. I'm happily making notes in the lined one. Angela, my soprano and music teacher gets the music. The sketch is up for grabs. Did I mention they all have a photo of a hand-made guitar on them?<br />
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Nick and I had one final thought on this day - we are totally museumed out!<br />
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© 2011 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-67560803733558897002011-05-24T20:19:00.000-07:002011-05-24T20:19:39.362-07:00ECRT - Day 5: Travel Day, New Jersey<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Note: In real time, it is day 12. First Nick and then I have come down with colds. We're at our final destination and start heading home tomorrow. I hope to do some writing at an airport and finish up at home. If anybody is really interested, bug me on Saturday. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">On the Move Again</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></b><i><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">We didn't have far to go today, so we visited longer with Paula. Again the weather is drippy and iffy but we all braved it to take a walk around Fox Hollow Farm. There's a lovely trail along the outer border and Paula told us all about the various volunteer work done to maintain it. She's about the only woman to do this work, so she knows lots of the men. She's also on the welcome committee and it seems like she knows everyone. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> It was election day in Pennsylvania, and the community building hosted the local precinct. As we first went in, people wanted us to vote. When Paula said she was giving us a tour, people got all excited and wanted us to move there! </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Eventually, we had to hit the road. Don't think I've mentioned the ubiquitous Canada geese. We saw a big flock with fuzzy goslings somewhere in Delaware County. Couldn't stop for photographs, bummer. But for the next several days, we're seeing small groups of them here and there! We've got huge flocks in Menlo Park at Bayfront Park (aka Liz's park because she made an orienteering map for her Silver Award project.) I'm wondering if it's climate change that's making them all be around (per Paula in Penna, and us in Calif) year round.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Our drive took us into and out of Delaware (the state, not the county.) I spotted my favorite store - yes Target. So we pulled in to restock on Milano's and a couple of other things before heading out. Not expecting much, after Kohl's, we went and looked at jackets. I actually found a nice light weight rain jacket. Couldn't get my size (sigh) in the slenderizing black or navy, so got the fashionable off-white, not quite tan. Picture a short, belted trench coat - yes, I know a contradiction. Cross check the photographs - the concept is good, I'm simply too round. another sigh. Apparently, I'm building a full outfit, suitable for nice dinner.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>A Treasure in New Jersey</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Back to Paula for a minute - she is amazingly organized. As we discussed our route for the day, she whipped out a folder with places to go. She raved abou<strong>t </strong></span></span><strong><a href="http://www.groundsforsculpture.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Grounds for Sculpture</a></strong><strong></strong><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> and she was right! It is in Hamilton, NJ about half way between Philly and Manhattan. It has 250 sculptures, looking randomly placed, but not so, over 35 acres. We were hungry by the time we got there and started with lunch in their cafe. We were far from seeing everything when we left. We wanted to check in at our hotel before our next stop for dinner. In retrospect, we should have spent the back-and-forth time there. Before I explain that, more on the sculptures. They have life size people here and there in the style of one of the French Painters (I want to say Monet or Serrat). They have lot of modern works. There's one area with five tiger sculptures. We spent a lot of time by one that is really a giant percussion instrument with sticks that one can use to play it. I could have used my musician friend Carol who has perfect pitch. But we had fun. Pictures to follow, I hope.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Catching up the the Hellers </b></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><br />
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Some months ago, I promised my sister Carol that I'd come to New York and we could play. Since we have a rental car and cars in Manhattan problematic, Nick suggested that we stay in New Jersey and take the train in. More about that on Day 6. Our nephew Roberto and his girlfriend Cara live in Princeton. It's around now that Nick & I start hating Route 1 in New Jersey. The Comfort Suites are in Avenel which is near Rahway which has a train station.<br />
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So, we go to Avenel and check in. It takes forever because Nick's credit card company has decided that there's been too much activity on the card. Nice to know they're alert but really. Then we go back down to Princeton. The deal with Route 1 is you can't make left turns. You have to make rights to do U's to do lefts. It's a good concept not as well executed as it might - at least not near the Comfort Suites. It also has lots of lights. We got stuck in traffic going back down to Princeton.<br />
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Eventually, we found our way to Roberto and Cara. He is our eldest nephew; it's our first time meeting her but she's dealing well with the small but mighty clan. We all had a wonderful time catching up, getting to know each other, eating, taking silly photographs. Much too soon, we had to be back on Hwy 1 well fed and well-loved.<br />
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Coming up: Manhattan and more of the Heller family<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Esther</span></i><br />
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© 2011 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-84437294824240313182011-05-22T20:04:00.000-07:002011-05-22T20:04:01.556-07:00ECRT - Day 4: Delaware County and Philadelphia<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Old Stomping Grounds - Sort Of</b></span><br />
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Last night (in blog time), we determined that we would meet Lynn (college friend/roommate) and her niece Erica at the Gallery at 8th an Market in Philadelphia. The original plan was to drive from Glen Mills to Media and take the train to Penn Station and walk from there. Nick did a lot of online research and he and Paula figured out there was unlikely to be any parking for either the train or the trolley (different stations). So we drove through Upper Darby to Terminal Square. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Personal History Tangent</b></span><br />
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While I was at Temple and Nick was working for ConRail, we lived at Barclay Square - in Upper Darby, along the trolley line. Nick took the train from the Lansdowne station to work and I walked to Terminal Square to take the subway/elevated known as Septa (south east pennsylvania transit authority.) You'll have to google that one for yourselves! Technically septa also runs the trolley. And I think that's enough of this nonsense. One of the coolest things about Upper Darby was Issac Asimov once came and spoke at a school within walking distance. That's when I realized just how much his writing must have influenced my thinking cause it all made total sense. He said, among other things, that as we all live longer and more functionally, we will have multiple careers in our lives. And here I am, switching again, in my early sixties.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Back on Track (pun intended)</b></span><br />
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When we got to the station, the main parking lot was full - which was too bad because it had a nice machine that takes credit cards. We parked in the overflow metered lot which took only quarters. A short walk and tokens from Paula and we were on our way into Philly. It was interesting to see how much they've renovated the stations and actually the cars themselves. No where near as old, dark and rattly as I remember - although the worst part was on the Broad St line which we didn't take.<br />
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When we got out at 8th and Market, there was no sign of the Gallery. As is my custom, I bought one of the street newspapers for a dollar. They have them in San Francisco. It's a way for street people to make some money without actually just panhandling. I find them mildly interesting to read. So as he was thanking me, I asked where the Gallery was. We walked to 9th and found Lynn and Erica.<br />
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They live in South Jersey and also drove to parking and took public transit. Lynn comes in enough to know her way around. The plan was to have lunch and "do something" but we'd never really nailed down either lunch place or what something was. We checked out a couple of places that were too noisy and busy to have a good conversation. Eventually, Nick spotted a bakery/cafe of the sort that we love. Since the last time we saw Erica she was something like two, it was more like making a new friend. She's another of our many young acquaintances who is involved in performing arts - she as a costumer and back-stage worker. Didn't get to talk with Lynn as much -I think we three old folks wanted to spare Erica the whole "remember when" thing. <br />
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We did go to Liberty Place where I found a Fire & Ice store. The one in Baltimore is where I bought the matching necklace and earrings that I wore at Liz & James' wedding. OK, so I bought another pair of elegant earrings there. But this time, I resisted the BoGo! Liberty Place is an office complex with shops on the first two floors. In the downstairs rotunda, they had this great exhibit of structures made out of canned goods. It was a very clever food drive. Each entry was from a different business or company. There was a kitchen with sink, a variation on Rodin's Thinker (I think he may have been in canned peas) and, of course The Liberty Bell. I've got lots of pictures, but just put up on Facebook the bell with my three companions.<br />
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Somewhere in all my slides and prints and now files, there are pictures of Nick & Lynn in various places - like in front of a wooden Indian in Texas and possibly including some of the replica liberty bells around the country. I have located and photographed bells in Boston (the first I found), Honolulu, Raleigh, NC, Denver and Juneau. We skipped the original one this trip but did tell Erica about the time they moved it on New year's eve of 1976, in the rain, and her father was there to see it. The rest of us watched on TV. I'm very fond of Liberty Bells.<br />
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After some more wandering around - it's just cool being back in Philly, if only for an afternoon, we all hugged and parted ways.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>A Small Shopping Spree </b></span><br />
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Nick had promised me that if we had time, we could stop at the Kohl's near Granite Run Mall (either in or near Media - the county seat.) We've been carrying an umbrella a lot on this trip, with the prime directive of "keep the camera dry." We have our winter parkas in our suitcases for the end of this trip [where we're heading tomorrow in real, not blogging, time - more later.] I have a gap in my wardrobe, even at home - I don't have anything resembling a warmer weather, nice looking rain coat. So, I wanted to find something for the warmer climes. Bizarrely, there was absolutely no outer wear at this Kohl's. But they did have my favorite jeans on sale [and I could use a nice newer pair for last destination] and I was still carrying my special 30% off coupon. We finally got through the checkout line and back to Paula's with about a 30min rest period.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Opera, Italian Food and Friends</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">While I wasn't at Temple U's math department long, I did grow close to a few people. Every time we're back this way, my friend Bob tries to get them together. This time several were out of town but Paula came with us to see Bob, his wife Pat and our other friend Gary. This time Bob had made a reservation at </span></span> <strong><span></span></strong><strong><a href="http://www.felliniscafe.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fellini's Cafe Trattoria.</a></strong><strong></strong><br />
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Monday is Opera night. Our waitress, Jessica and a waiter took turns singing about every 25 minutes. I know she did something from La Boheme and he sang "O Sole Mio" and they did a duet at the end. We all chatted a lot inbetween and the food was great! Paula took all of our leftovers and had pastas for three more meals!<br />
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And again, amidst the rain, we all hugged and parted company. This is the hard part of this trip. We're seeing people for the first time in a while and then having to leave again so soon!<br />
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<i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Esther </i><br />
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Coming up: Family!<br />
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© 2011 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-82177047528442169312011-05-21T16:01:00.000-07:002011-05-22T19:19:23.355-07:00ECRT - Day 3: Travel Day, MD to Penna<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Road Trip Begins - Full of History</span> </b></span><br />
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Since we only had to go from one state to another and the Hilton has a late checkout time, we actually slept in. Eventually, we packed up the two red suitcases and the two tote bags and Nick's backpack and headed on up the highway for Pennsylvania. Prophetically, we did note when we crossed the Mason-Dixon Line.<br />
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Back when I was on the Girl Scout Council Board of Directors, I became friends with Rosalie. Nick was on the Diversity Committee when she chaired it and they became friends as well. Some years ago, she and her husband Roger left the Bay Area and moved first to Baltimore and then to Gettysburg. I had been to the battlefield a zillion years ago with my family and wanted to see it again. So, that was our next stop!<br />
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We went first to see Rosalie and Roger who served us a lovely lunch on the patio of their big ole farmhouse. They graciously let me use their wireless internet to dig up friend Paula's phone number whih wasn't in my phone. More later on Paula. Rosalie also pointed out the mother robin nesting and feeding babies in one roof corner. Attempts at photographs were made. We stayed there about two hours and then headed for the Gettysburg Visitor's Center.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Battle of Gettysburg</b></span><br />
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Roger said we "had" to see the<a href="http://www.nps.gov/gett/historyculture/gettysburg-cyclorama.htm"> Cyclorama</a> and he was right! For those who aren't going to follow the link, when you get to the Visitor's Center, you have two options. You can wander around and look at the exhibits or you can do that and for a small fee see the movie narrated by Morgan Freeman and then go up to the Cyclorama. Don't worry, I'll get there. But first a word about Morgan Freeman - I love him, ever since the Electric Company (which dates back to PBS and Sesame Street days). The movie was very good discussing the Civil War, slavery, economics, the South, setting the context for the battle (and the speech!) It made it clear why doing the right thing was so challenging for so many. It was very thoughtful and sad at the same time. Certain sixty-somethings teared up.<br />
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After the movie ends, one goes up the stairs. While Roger had explained it was a large circular painted mural which covers the whole battle, I wasn't really prepared for it. You really should follow my link for more! There's a recording which is played detailing the battle and various lighting changes highlighting spots on the mural. Very dramatic.<br />
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After this, we took our map and started heading for Cemetery Ridge, the point of view of the painting. Alas, the threatening rain decided to become a deluge just as we got there. It was also getting late and we had more travel to do, now in the deluge. I hope we can go back another time but who knows.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Familiar Turf</b></span><br />
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Next destination, Glen Mills, in Delaware County, PA. Long ago, and currently not so far away, I ended up spending almost four years in graduate school at Temple University. The flunking out there-of is a story for another time. But in that time, we made some good friends. It was when and where Nick became a Girl Scout Leader (I'd already done so in Palo Alto, Ca.) We learned the basics of Senior Girl Scout program from a pair of trainers known as Nellie and Deluc. Deluc is really Paula and we have stayed in touch and when any of us are near each other we hang out.<br />
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Paula now lives with her cat Misty in an "active adult community" called Fox Hollow Farm. We were to have dinner there so we pressed on through the rain. As we were going, we kept reading names of cities and towns that we'd known about and forgotten. Eventually, the rain eased up and we arrived at an almost reasonable hour. We had a great dinner, talking about old times, new times, what we're all up to, etc.<br />
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The only downside was she doesn't have wireless and we don't have cables to plug in the netbook. I'd hoped to do some catching up for you loyal readers in that window and didn't. And so it goes!<br />
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Coming next - Philly!!<br />
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© 2011 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-89691432211847199212011-05-20T22:05:00.000-07:002011-05-22T07:27:51.599-07:00East Coast Road Trip - Day 2: Washington, DC area <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Lion Cubs, Sumatran Tigers and Giant Pandas, oh my!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">The day started with driving to the Smithsonian National Zoo which Nick now says was a tactical mistake. We didn't know how timing would work with the drive vs taking the Metro and getting back in time to change for the wedding. We did find parking and it did start us at the right end of the zoo, namely by the big cats. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">The National Zoo is built on a hill - the main entrance is at the top on Conneticut Ave and the parking is at the bottom. I actually prefer starting by going uphill and then finishing by going down. So we started hiking up and came pretty fast to the big cats. They're in a nice round area that is subdivided into three habitats. Each habitat is laid out in tiers resulting in lots of ways for the cats to leap and bound and sun and not-sun. We came first to one of the Sumatran Tigers and then the other. We have Sumatrans at the San Franciscan zoo - they are the smallest of the tigers. Ever since we had our tabby cat Leela, I've realized that sumatran females remind me of her. I've gotten quite good at identifiying the females vs males of most tigers this way - from the face and then confirming when they walk away, tails held high. [I will spare you my rant about the typical zoo visitor referring to each and every animal as "he."] I did learn from a long chat with a volunteer - the female here is the mother of the male.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Finally we got to the third enclosure. I had thought there was one lion and one lioness and they had five cubs. I was wrong! One lion and two lionesses AND seven wonderful, adorable - one litter was born in Sept and the other in October - cubs! Did I mention, adorable? Still had spots on the legs, the males just barely starting to get their manes. I took many pictures. I was having odd exposure issues in manual - which I sorted out several days later [I'll get to that.] Eventually, I agreed to see other animals.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">We learned during the baseball game that Ken and James lived within walking distance of the zoo. So, we made a plan to meet for lunch. Nick & i worked our way uphill to one eating area near the pandas. First Ken and then James showed up - after confusion about which spot we were at - there's a Panda Terrace and a Panda Cafe and by now I've forgotten (I'm still a week behind here, sorry) which was which AND they came in the main entrance. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">We had a good conversation at lunch. Ken works for CQ reports covering the Supreme Court. Turns out he also worked on Al Gore's presidential campaign (both from Tennessee and at Harvard together.) I want to recommend Ken's blog. He is very articulate and insightful and honestly, it's the only one I semi-regularly read. You can find him at <a href="http://jostonjustice.blogspot.com/">Jost on Justice.</a> I learned more about James' work - which in a different market, is similar to Nick's.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">After eating, we all slogged up the hill (in their case back) to see the two pandas. Walking with James, who is from Taiwan, I learned that Chinese government charges a zoo one million dollars a year to have a resident panda. He pointed out the peonies in the panda's enclosures,and said it was appropriate. Peonies are considered the royalty of flowers by the Chinese and that's why they appear in so much artwork.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">By then, it was time to head back to Silver Spring to change, so we all said goodbye. I convinced Nick that I had to check in on my cubs on the way back down and we did. Then we hustled to the parking lot, remember, downhill at the end is better. Unfortunately, we got misplaced when Nick thought he'd found a shortcut. We sorted it out but really had to hustle at the hotel but made our next destination with a tiny bit of room to spare. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b> </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Here come the Brides!</b></span><br />
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The prime reason for this crazy trip was to attend the wedding of another troop 757 alumna, Christina, to her soul mate Meigh. It was held at the Woodlawn Manor in Sandy Spring, Md. We had not yet met Meigh but had seen their save-the-date video and knew they shared a silly sense of humor and a lot of creativity.<br />
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Because they're both women, they had to have a civil ceremony earlier in D.C to be legal. What they had at Woodlawn was a beautiful handfasting ceremony presided over by a pagan minister. Christina's brothers were her bridesmen. We knew them and her parents from the troop days. Meigh had three bridesmaids. The color scheme was a deep shade of burgundy. We've been dealing with rain the entire trip but like good Girl Scouts, they were prepared with a lovely white tent which had windows.<br />
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Each had written her own vows. There was some loveliness and some silliness and one bride cried a lot during the vows. This was followed by a ring exchange. C & M had made a series of cords in different colors. As the minister draped each one around their arms (hands held) she asked questions starting with "do you promise to ..." And of course, the response was "we do." At least once, we all were asked to support them and heartily said "we do" After draping all cords in a complex manner, which Christine later told me they forgot to practice, the minister did an overhand knot joining first one set of ends and then the other. When the young women let go hands and pulled their arms out - the entire middle was also joined! It was quite cool.<br />
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The reception was great fun. First we went from the tent to the historical house for drinks and appetizers. When we went back down to the tent, the tables had been set up. Christina is from California, of course, and Meigh is from North Carolina. They had two sets of entrees, salads and vegetables - one set was califorinia cuisine and the other north carlolina. There were also mini-ramekins of mac and cheese that fit the occassion and the weather! Each table was served family style and that led to good conversation. Even the rain didn't spoil a thing!<br />
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Coming next: the road trip begins as we go to Pennsylvania!<br />
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© 2011 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-22888290941133742342011-05-20T07:01:00.000-07:002011-05-20T07:01:46.783-07:00East Coast Road Trip - photos Can be found<a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150192957521094.313424.585316093&l=7331e4cd95"> here</a>.<br />
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© 2011 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-4703019137692177072011-05-18T21:42:00.000-07:002011-05-21T16:04:06.232-07:00East Coast RoadTrip - Days 0 and 1: SFO-BWI<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Prologue to Esther & Nick's East Coast Road Trip</b></span><br />
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This has been an bumper year for us being invited to weddings of the legandary Girl Scout Troop 757 alumnae. First Jessica married Timi in February in Foster City. Then I officiated at Liz and James' Wedding in April in San Gregorio. That's the ceremony in my previous entry. Now Christina is marrying Meigh in Silver Spring, Maryland. Since the opportunity was there, Nick and I decided to make a vacation of it, see some family and friends and some sites. I'm actually typing on day 6. In decades gone by, I used to say if I had time to do cool things, I didn't have money. If I had money, I didn't have time. Now it seems, if I have something cool to write about here, I have the time. But if I have the time, I don't seem to have anything fun to write about. I'm hoping my faithful followers will hang in while I catch up.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Day 0 - Leaving on a Jet Plane</span></b><br />
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On Thursday, we said good bye to Denali and Borealis and promised to return and headed on up 101 to SFO. At the United Terminal, there was an art exhibit which seems to be turning into a recurring theme: items made out of recycled materials. Even then I laughed at how many Girl Scout Badge or Interest Projects have the requirement - make an object out of old whatever. In this case, there were baskets made from used telephone wires, duck decoys out of milk cartoons and lawn chairs from plastic bags. Someday, I have to do something with all the photographs.<br />
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Our flight to Baltimore-Washington was pretty uneventful - watched two movies, <i>Reds</i> (with Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren stealing scenes) and something dumbish title out of my head by now. We arrived about 11:45 a few minutes late. Got our luggage and took the shuttle to the Thrifty rental booth at 12:20and made friends with a guy just in from Perth. Seriously, we were almost BFFs by the time the rental agent got to him. Let's just say, Thrifty isn's Swifty. We left the airport at 1:20 am. We were in our room at the Silver Spring Hilton at 2:15am, a little late to connect with anyone. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Day 1 </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b> The Smithsonian is Huge!</b></span><br />
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Not so bright nor early on Friday, we took care of a few necessities at the nearest Target. Some of you may know about that I always carry a package of Pepperidge Farm Milanos for emergencies. Somehow I didn't have any and... I needed a special wardrobe item. Found it at the nearby Champs store. Back to the hotel to change and off we hiked 3.5 blockes down Coldsville Rd to the Metro Station. This was the first of drizzly (or worse) days. We tootled on into DC to meet Val, someone I know through the Reconstructionist movement, for lunch at the National Gallery. These building also houses the Smithsonian American Art Museum and used the be the Patent Offices. The cafeteria seating is inside/outside. It's a covered courtyard which still has the facades of the old building. It was quite nice. We chatted and got to know each other better.<br />
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Val guided us around the museum through several areas - including, that theme - art from recycled materials. Most notable to me was the driftwood horse. A favorite work, not recycled, was a neon map of the United States. Each state contained TV sets showing video relevant to the state. Alaska had whales and moose. South Dakota had George McGovern. I had way more fun in the portrait galleries than expected, cause I recognized so many subjects. We parted ways with Val in the shop and amazingly, I bought nothing.<br />
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We had some spare time before our next reunion/adventure, so we took Val's advice and headed down towards the National Mall and found the Hirshorn Sculpture Garden. I was having a great time photographing things like the giant typewriter eraser and a variation on Shelob (Lord of the Rings reference) and the Caulder horse (oh forgot to mention the Caulder exhibit - sketches and wire artworks of people) and the dancing waters fountain when the fountain turned off and the ducks settled in. Then a guard hustled us all out cause it was closing time.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Take Me Out to the Ballgame</b></span><br />
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We hiked on down again to the Metro heading towards our next destination - Nationals Baseball Stadium where I was totally appropriately dressed in my new Nationals T-shirt (see above Target bit). A bit of back story. At Nick's 40th Harvard reunion on the first day's luncheon, we sat down at an empty table and waited to see who joined us. Short version - a classmate named Ken, whom Nick didn't know before came over with his partner, James. James and I started laughing about being the non-classmates - it's like a title at Harvard reunions. On the next night's dinner, we all caught up with each other again and James and Ken and I had a great diversity discussion and are just all crazy about each other. Ken and I have kept touch via facebook. He's as big a baseball fan as we are. He's from Tennessee but his first team is the St Louis Cardinals - whom we hate because of a few World Series issues, mostly, 1967.<br />
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As American Leaguers (Red Sox, Athletics), we could easily cheer for the Nationals. So we let Ken know we were coming and he got us all great tickets. We got there first and OMG, I love that ballpark. You walk in and have this great view looking out over the park from left field. The concessions are on a spacious promenade and everyone working there is friendly - like really nice and helpful and friendly. Americorps was even giving away rally flags which are proving quite useful on this trip.<br />
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James doen's like baseball so came later, mostly to see us and became our iPhone guy. See, we were following the Cards playing the Cincy Reds and the Red Sox playing the Yankees as well as the game in front of us, the visiting Marlins. It was a great game - with the lead changing and being tied up a few times. I think James was startled to have not one but three maniacs jumping up and screaming at good plays. Ken loved the company and Nick & I love baseball. The game ran 11 innings, long enough to start following Oakland vs the White Sox. Sadly the Nationals lost 6-5 but the Red Sox began the first of the three game sweep!<br />
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And now I must head for sleep. I'd tell you about tomorrow but that would be spoilers. Instead,<br />
<i>Preview for Day 2,</i> Saturday, May 14 (my half-birthday) - starts with Lions, Tigers, Bears and ends with two gorgeous brides.<br />
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<i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Esther</i><br />
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© 2011 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-87965094597678426392011-05-04T16:36:00.000-07:002011-05-04T16:36:56.252-07:00Celebration of Marriage of Elizabeth Butterfield and James Walters<i>On April 30, 2011, it was my honor and privilege to perform the wedding of two of my friends. California has this concept where an individual can be deputized to perform marriages on one specific day. Some counties say only one day; San Mateo allows many. There were no other takers. This is the script from which we worked. Some of it was a group effort, my comments were my own. </i><br />
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<b>Opening Remarks </b><br />
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Welcome dear family and friends of Elizabeth and James. <br />
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Perhaps like me, you have stood in a similar spot and are now thinking about that moment in time. At that moment, as at this one for James and Elizabeth, everything was possible. The challenges that arose before now are set aside, and those coming don’t matter yet. If you’ve not had this moment in time, perhaps you’ve had another where everything was possible. In either case, please hold that thought for this couple now.<br />
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Elizabeth and James - turn and look at these friends and family. They’re here to share this special moment of yours. It is filled with joy and everything is possible. Take a mental photograph as their remembered joy merges with their joy for you. This is what community is about and that is why you have brought us all here together today.<br />
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We must acknowledge Elizabeth’s parents John and Maryanne and James’ parents Linda and Edward. They have brought their children together at this moment in honor of the love and support that both families have for them as a couple.<br />
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<b>About Liz and James </b><br />
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<i> Face each other (and me) again.</i><br />
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I first met Liz when in the seventh grade, she joined our Girl Scout Troop. She was already a young woman who knew her mind and could speak it. We early on realized she and I are kindred souls. <br />
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Several years later, James’ name started going by. I met him when he interviewed me for a history term paper. What’s not to like about a young man who considers you of historical significance? Then he came to one of our troop alumnae gatherings, the first of the significant others to do so, and he fit right in. <br />
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I’ve spent time with them together and with each separately. It is so obvious to me that these two were made for each other and are very good for each other. And now ... here we are making it all official<b>.</b><br />
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<b>About Marriage</b><br />
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When the two you asked me to be here with you for this ceremony, I started thinking about what wisdom I could share with you, based in part on my forty years with my husband Nick (who helped with this part). <br />
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Here it is: Marriage is a partnership. Today, you two are saying before witnesses “this is the person that I plan to spend the rest of my life with, to be my best self with and to give my best to.” Remember always, you are partners, you are are confidants, you are lovers, you are best friends. Be as honest with each other as you can and continue trusting and relying on each other. <br />
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Some cliches are true - never go to sleep angry with each other. Don’t be afraid to say “I love you” often - with feeling. Always show each other respect, especially in front of others. But you don’t have to lose your identities in the marriage either. There will be uneven times, when one of you needs more than the other. That’s part of the deal too! Life will throw challenges and difficulties at you. You’ll get through them by facing them together. <br />
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A marriage is so much more than the two people in it. As each of you grows, so the marriage will grow; as the marriage grows, each of you will. This partnership, this joining, of James and Elizabeth will allow you to do things in life that you haven’t yet imagined. It will take you places you haven’t yet dreamed. It is a wonderful thing you’re doing today and I am honored and blessed to be part of it. <br />
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<b> Song</b><br />
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It is my pleasure to introduce Angela Harrington, a friend of Elizabeth and James, who offers a gift of song. <i> </i><br />
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<i> Angela sings "<i>I Cross My Heart</i>" by George Strait</i><br />
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</i>Thank you, Angela!<br />
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<b>Vows</b><br />
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Elizabeth and James have written their own vows. <br />
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<i><b>Elizabeth: </b></i><br />
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I, Elizabeth, take you James, to be my husband, I promise to live with you, to trust you and to cherish you. I will love you when we are apart as well as when we are together. I will love you in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad. I will work with you toward our common goals and share our leisure joyfully. <br />
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I love you because you believe in me and your belief helps me achieve more than I ever could otherwise. <br />
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Love demands respect but not obedience. Love requires loyalty without subservience. I promise to respect you as my equal and be loyal to you in every way.<br />
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Today is the beginning of the rest of my life. I choose to spend it, and all of my tomorrows, with you.<br />
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<i><b>James: </b></i> <br />
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I, James, take you Elizabeth to be my wife. I promise to love, cherish and respect you. I promise to work with you in partnership in building our life together. I promise to love you when times are good and when times are hard. I promise to do all I can to make our life together a happy one.<br />
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I love you because no matter how dark the day has been, knowing you will be there when I get home makes the day brighter.<br />
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Today is the beginning of the rest of my life. I choose to spend it, and all of my tomorrows, with you.<br />
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<b>Ring Ceremony </b><br />
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<i>Esther:</i> James, place and hold the ring on Elizabeth’s finger and repeat after me.<br />
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James: </i> With this ring... I wed you..., for today, ... tomorrow ... and for all the years to come. ... Please wear it ... as a sign of my love ... and a notice to all the world ... that you have chosen me ... to be your husband.<br />
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<i>Esther:</i> Elizabeth, place and hold the ring on Jame’s finger and repeat after me.<br />
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<i>Elizabeth: </i> With this ring,... I wed you ... for today, ... tomorrow ... and for all the years to come. ... Please wear it ... as a sign of my love ... and a notice to all the world ... that you have chosen me ... to be your wife.<br />
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Pronouncement</b><br />
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You have taken your vows, made your promises to each other and exchanged your rings. Because it is clear that you will have a strong and loving marriage, I say the following with love and joy:<br />
By virtue of the authority vested in me ... as (deputy) commissioner of marriages of the County of San Mateo, ... State of California, ... I now pronounce you husband and wife. <br />
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After the recessional, there will be a pause in the festivities for certain formalities. We invite you to go to the hall and enjoy some refreshments while you wait.<br />
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I now present James and Elizabeth Walters, a legally married couple.<br />
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© 2011 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-1337470682456363322011-03-14T16:59:00.000-07:002011-03-14T16:59:48.785-07:00Thoughts on ... Image<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I</span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>'m trying to write a column this week. I write best from what I know and lately I'm feeling burnt out on a lot of things so that's likely the topic. The column below was actually written in November of 2009 but wasn't published until a year later. As the only column from 2010, it became, by default, the back side of our annual mailing </i>The Gilbert Gazette<i>. Since we finally, last week, got all of them mailed, I'm posting it here. I would promise to be more diligent about blogging but I'm dealing with the burnout. If/when that column gets published, I will repost here. EAH</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Last year, I gave myself a birthday present by attending Nikon Photography School. I learned or relearned about a variety of topics including lighting, angles and how to fix or improve the images I shoot without losing their authenticity. After two days of viewing and discussing beautiful images, I went into overload and my mind moved toward the more abstract idea of images.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
The fact is, I like being behind the camera much better than being in front of it. For one thing, I have artistic tendencies but no drawing or painting skills. Photography engages both sides of my brain and I’m pretty good at it. The other reason is I hate most photographs taken of me. What I look like in them is not consistent with how I believe I look. It may be an illusion on my part, but I don’t want it broken.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
We all have self-images, based on a variety of influences. I’m always saying that we are products of our experiences and so are self-images. I don’t have experience with computer and on-line games, but I suspect that for some an avatar reflects either a self-image, reflecting believed strengths, or the opposite, an opportunity to make up for perceived weaknesses or failings.<br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Moving back to reality, there’s the physical image that one has in one’s mind’s eye which can be confirmed or denied by the image in the mirror. My mental image is actually a remembered photograph taken when I was in graduate school. I am walking along in the rain, in the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, my purse is slung back, my hands shoved in my raincoat pockets, a confident smile on my face and yes, a twinkle in my eye. I’m older now, but sometimes that optimistic, energetic young woman smiles back at me in the mirror and it’s a good day!<br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cameras don’t always capture how others see us. And others don’t always see us the way we think they do or more importantly, the way we want them to. What clothes we wear, how we shake hands, how we walk and the way we talk, all of these are part of the images that we project to others. I often tell people that self-introductions, including those going-around-the room in a big group, are very important first impressions. Standing up, speaking clearly and saying your full name, projects confidence and capability. Speaking softly can be interpreted as shyness or insecurity. Say too little and you make little impression, or worse are considered boring. Talk for too long and you give a bad impression, such as being considered rude for not respecting everyone else’s time.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
Word choices affect your image as well. They can impact people’s judgement of your intelligence and honesty. I heard a woman researcher speak about her findings on the use of cursing. It was a well-done study using actors reading scripts, some with, some without “bad” language. The listeners thought less of those who cursed, especially the women. Speaking of women, I never use “girl” for anyone over 18 and certainly not for myself. I think and speak of myself as a “woman” not a “lady.” Unlike “girl” or “lady”, “woman” conveys strength, experience, and an ability to deal with tough situations. That’s part of my self- image and one that I want to people to have of me. </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
This brings me to purple hair. I’ve been sporting it for three years and plan on keeping it. Purple represents many things. It’s a symbol of royalty. It’s a symbol of diversity. Having it in my hair is a risk. Some people have disapproved but I’ve noticed, more than ever, strangers are comfortable talking with me. People remember me, even when I’m quiet. My shade is deliberately deep and rich. It goes with the confident smile and the twinkle in the eye.<br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Well, what about you? What’s your image? How do people see you? How do you see yourself? Do you want to change your image? My advice is simple - be real and be realistic. It’s too easy to lose ourselves in others’ ideals. So, whatever you do, maintain your authenticity! <br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">© 2010 Esther A. Heller</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span>All rights reserved.<br />
Contact the author prior to reproduction.</span><br />
<span>First published in<span style="font-style: italic;"> Connections,</span> Dec 2010<br />
newsletter of the Santa Clara Valley Section of the Society of Women Engineers.</span></span> </div>Esther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-27154597197529888022010-10-14T00:00:00.000-07:002010-10-14T00:00:21.110-07:00ES - Day 6: Bodie, Mono Lake<span style="font-size: large;"><b>"Goodby God, I'm Going to Bodie"</b></span><br />
<br />
Well, we got up relatively early, ate our Cheerios and walked up the street to the Mono Lake Committee's headquarters, store. So far so good. Did a bit of shopping (map, gifts, stuff) which entitled me to free membership in the committee and a travel mug. We sat and watched their slide show to get a sense of the Lake and the history and headed back down to our motel.<br />
<br />
Things went a bit wrong. This was the day to switch lenses. The feared left one turned out fine but the right one was off. Turns out it was inside out - happens a lot with the soft ones and I thought that was the case. Then we discovered my cool black and gold hat was missing. After semi-frantically searching luggage and car, we concluded that it stayed in Bishop - probably during the fast room move (see Day 3, part 2). Phone calls will happen soon. Then I misplaced my lens cap - that happens a lot, it was in the car. Then we discovered my sunglasses were missing. I hiked up to where I'd taken pictures and as I was coming down, Nick found it under the stairs at the motel. Must have popped out of my pack. sigh.<br />
<br />
Eventually, we started driving to Bodie. Bodie is an old mining community of the late 1800s which was abandoned and is now kept in a state of "arrested decay" for historical reasons. It grew because they found gold there. It was apparently full of terrible people - they should probably make a TV show about it - deaths, usually violent every day. Deadwood comes to mind. The quote above was from the diary of a girl whose family was moving there.<br />
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Now it's just a quite place in the middle of sage brush between the mountains. There's 9 miles of paved road followed by 3 of unpaved. Dusty, not quite as bad as the road to the Patriarch's Grove in Bristle Cone. On the way up, we passed a couple of herds of sheep complete with shepherds and sheep dogs. We passed them on the way back down and one herd also had a donkey. Beats me!<br />
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We wandered around taking pictures of this building and that. I find that my photography, like my blogging, goes back and forth between creativity (artsy shots, cute commentary) and attempts at journalism. After a couple of hours, I told Nick that I was at the point of "if you've seen five of these buildings, you've seen them all." There were really dilapidated houses and not so bad houses; there were businesses - in the heyday 65 saloons; there were public buildings - post office moved from someone's house to a hotel; there were outhouses. Near the top of the hill were the mining structures but we weren't allowed into all that. As a former engineer, I found that more interesting and nowhere near enough info in the brochure.<br />
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Off we headed, back down towards Mono Lake.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Birds of a Feather</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Mono Lake has a northern approach and a southern one. The really nice visitor center is at the northern one. We got there about 20 before it closed so had time to look around. Asked the ranger about sunset. She showed us something that said 5:22 which was a surprise to us - I had thought 6ish. She suggested going to the Southern Tufas for sunset. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Here's the story - once again LA and their water is the villian. In the forties, water was deflected from the tributaries to Mono (by the way pronounce Moe-Noe, not Mohn-noe). The lake was nearly drained over the next several decades. Then, about the time we came to California, people started campaigning to save and restore it. As the water level dropped, these cool calcium formations, called tufas emerged. Also a land bridge, which allowed coyotes to get to the island nests of the California gulls. We could argue that gulls are problematic, but not here and now. There's some neat info about shrimp and alkaline water and alkaline flies. Now that I'm a member, I can point you at the <a href="http://www.monolake.org/">Mono Lake Committee website</a> for more details.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">We got down to the lake by 5:15 and started hiking around and taking pictures. As the sun slowly set in the west, we photographers all started convening in similar places. I found one guy who'd been there a lot and kind of followed him around. As the sun was fully set, around 6:15, there were a bunch of us at a tip, looking out at the color on the eastern hills. Mostly there was chitchatting, but I was underexposing 2 full stops and got some nice color behind big tufas in the lake. And then, my battery died. Argh. I charged it before we left and a couple of days ago. I may need to get a new one. sigh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>A Pleasant Surprise</b></span><br />
<br />
Well we packed up and headed to where everyone kept telling us we should eat, theWhoa Nellie Deli. Basically the Mobile Station on the opposite end of Lee Vining has a big convenience store. In the store, is a deli style restaurant. Having been raised on the east coast and jewish, I only have one thing to say - if there's no corned beef or pastrami, it's not a deli! But they had a nice bison meatloaf which Nick had and a nice bison braised ribs which I got. So much food again, that we have part of tomorrow's lunch.<br />
<br />
The best part was when we walked in, there was my old photography teacher (the only one I've had, actually), Charlie. We had known that he was somewhere in the area teaching a class with John Sexton. Turns out John is the analogy guy and Charlie is the digital guy. Charlie's going to be giving a digital printing class and guess who's going to find a way to take it!<br />
<br />
Go to <a href="http://www.charlescramer.com/">Charles Cramer</a> to see his work. If you've seen the photo of trees in my living room, that's a Cramer.<br />
<br />
Goodnight, all! Love<br />
<i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Esther</i><br />
© 2010 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-63960229741746317392010-10-13T22:55:00.000-07:002010-10-13T23:06:23.556-07:00ES - Day 5: Bishop to Lee Vining<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Devil Made Me Do It!</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">I am now a day behind in blogging. This has come about for a couple of reasons - I tend to fall behind in things and I convinced Nick to upload some of his pictures to Facebook. Two people sharing a computer on vacation can get a tad tricky. Good thing we like each other.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yesterday, which might have been Tuesday, we packed up and checked out of the Comfort Inn in Bishop. We had an odd conversation with Dave, the manager who promised to get Nick some extra points for the double lockout incidents. Eventually we took off up 395.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">This was our take it easier day. We went to the Devil's Postpile National Monument. Just before paying our fee, we stopped at Minaret Vista and had a fun lunch looking out over the valley at the cliffs. Lunch was shipwreck - left overs from the past three dinners. We've had fridges in each of our rooms and things held up well. After taking a bunch of photos - I love my graduated neutral density filter. I'm learning how to position it so the sky and mountains get less exposure while the foliage gets more. A lot easier than burning and dodging in software. I used to know how to do this in the lab but not yet digitally. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">We packed up from lunch and headed on down the road, paved, yay!! From the parking lot, there's a relatively easy half mile walk down to the monument. When you get there, you look up over all these rocks to see something that looks like a giant made a fence using huge rock posts. The formation evolved by a combination first of volcanic lava and second glaciers coming in eons later. I'm bugging Nick to get this much. If you're curious, there's a ton of info at the </span></span><a href="http://www.nps.gov/depo/"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Devil's Postpile website.</span></span></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> In a rare occurrence, Nick said we didn't have to hike up to the top but I decided we should. The initial steps were tough but once we got the top, you could see that each post really was hexagonally shaped. Nick went and explored up the trail a bit more while I was photographing. I had one moment of watching my footing and realizing if I went over the edge, Nick wouldn't know where to look for me. But I was fine and we decided to finish the loop. Easier walking and we saw smaller formations. Nick named one the Reaper's Postpile. We also walked through an area where the wildfires had hit a few years back and saw new trees growing.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">From there, we pretty much just drove on to Lee Vining and checked into our current hotel which is at the edge of town. Being at the edge of town is easy, it's a short town. Population is only three digits - I haven't been able to read the sign. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Coming up Bodie! </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_28951290"><b> </b></a></span><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_28951290"><br />
</a><br />
<a href="http://www.nps.gov/depo/">© 2010 Esther A. Heller</a>Esther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-81338282346839275472010-10-12T23:21:00.000-07:002010-10-13T23:05:35.224-07:00ES - Day 4: Bishop, Bristle Cone Pines; Marcia<span style="font-size: large;"><b>In Search of Ancient Gnarly</b></span><br />
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Turns out my good friend Marcia isn't a morning person either. So we picked her up at 10ish for our big adventure today.<br />
<br />
We started out by going to the Mountain Light Gallery. It celebrates the work and lives of Galen and Barbara Rowell. Galen was this amazing photographer who specialized in light and mountains and everything. We spent a hour looking at photographs and books and calendars and more. After some purchases and feeling overwhelmed by the beauty of the photographs and trying to learn lessons, we headed across the street to pick up lunches at the deli.<br />
<br />
And then, off we went to start the long, uphill drive into the White Mountains. That's where one finds the Ancient Bristle Cone Pine Forest. While the giant sequoias at Yosemite are large and quite old, the bristle cone pines are smaller but really, really old.<br />
<br />
Here's my lesson of the day - If you're going to go hiking with an orienteer and a person who built a hiking trail on your own property, be sure a) they love you and b) they want to take a lot of pictures too! Otherwise, they might just have left me behind especially on the ups in high altitude. Oh, and they don't get into imaginary answers to questions like "what's that shiny area down there" - two votes for something scientific, one for baseball diamond. OK, so maybe they were right.<br />
<br />
We did three hikes. First was the half mile, Pinyan Nature Trail. Pinyan is a type of pine - we saw many different pines. On this hike we learned that Marcia really could live off of the land if she had to! She had us trying pine nuts fresh from a pine cone (not the bristle pines). A few words about Marcia. I met her the one year I was in the Women in Engineering program at UC Davis. She had a bachelor's in math (as did I) but her masters is in zoology. Often, when I'm hiking with Nick, I say "I wonder what this plant is. I'll take a picture and try to remember to show it to Marcia. She'll know." Well, when she's there - she knows. She's also a bit nuts! In a different way from my nuts - she had a signal and GPS on her phone and some ap to tell us how long since we started hiking, how much time we'd been moving and how much not.<br />
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This little hike took us about an hour, yeah, I'm slow. We drove more to an overview and tromped out to the point. Nick was great and went back for my new filter. As I was shooting with it (to get the foreground more exposed) a young couple came along and the guy was intrigued. Eventually, I took a great picture of them with their little point & shoot camera.<br />
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Back in the car, going up and up. Get to the Ranger center (a trailer but with books, patches and the passport stamp. I use my little all-purpose notebook to get the stamps.) We had lunch there. Marcia lured in a golden mantled ground squirrel with one of the nasturtiums from her salad. I had the telephoto out already. See facebook pics.<br />
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Our hiking choices, did I mention we were at 10,000 ft, were the one mile Discovery Trail or the 4.5 mile Methuselah trail. Survival won over seeing the oldest living things on the planet. We did see their slightly younger cousins. We saw the remains of a 3600 or something like that tree that died in the sixteen hundreds.<br />
Because of the conditions, wind, weather, snow, high altitude, the trees lose branches and bark and grow very twisted. The word for the day was gnarly. Marcia and I went crazy taking pictures. Actually, Nick got into it too. Not just to rest but because the trees are just amazing - the area where bark is gone is an almost bright yellow. The little trail took us about two hours. Almost forgot, something, maybe a red tail hawk, flew over us at one point but too fast to photograph.<br />
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Back down to the car and off for the Patriarchs grove. This is where the largest bristle cone pine is. It's 12 miles away and the road is dirt, sometimes tight (not as bad as the other day's North Lake, but close.) Less traveled. Oh, and snow in a couple of patches. But it was open and off we were going. and going and going. I was beginning to think this was totally not worth it when I caught a glimpse of motion up ahead at the side of the road. Then Nick saw it and stopped. Then the coyote crossed the road in front of us, marked some territory (as I'm scrambling to switch lenses. She then crossed in front of us and trotted parallel to us and waited. Wildlife photographer's dream come true.<br />
<br />
Eventually, we got to the Patriarch - took the 1/4 mile nature hike - misplaced the trail in the snow a few times - the duo convinced me that the canine tracks were domestic, what with going exactly where we were. And we started feeling a few drops of water. Back in the car and back the 12 miles to the main road (really off to the side of a side road, but you know.) Had a stopped truck driver point out a herd of deer on a hillside. Oh, and it did rain on us coming down but twas ok. Watched a bit of sunset and got back down to Bishop to find that, once again, our room keys didn't work. This time, the card magic worked and we got in. Met Marcia shortly thereafter for a lovely Japanese dinner, very tired. <br />
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Once again, Nick is our hero for driving in these conditions.<br />
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Going to bed now. Really need to catch up with sleep. Short amount about Devil's Postpile tomorrow, I hope, before we head for Bodie.<br />
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<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Love, </i></div><i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Esther</span></i><br />
<br />
ps, this<a href="http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=234881&id=585316093&l=37fc7ab538"> link</a> should get you to photos:<br />
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=234881&id=585316093&l=37fc7ab538<br />
<br />
© 2010 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-71676681265157441232010-10-11T10:01:00.000-07:002010-10-13T23:03:42.700-07:00ES - Day 3, Part 1 of 2: North Lake, Manzanar, Alabama Hills<span style="font-size: large;"><b>In Search of Fall Color</b></span><br />
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Nick says, let's go find some fall color and after asking a few people where to look, we turned right at the traffic light and went up and up and up. I wouldn't say our marriage was in jeopardy, but I was mighty skeptical after we cleared the town limits and the only plants anywhere in sight was sagebrush.<br />
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Eventually, we start seeing some trees and Nick starts feeling vindicated. The road has, of course, gotten more narrow and more twisty. There begin to be lots of cars by the road. Hikers, you may think. Well, not really - it's photographers season. At one bend in the road, there's a zillion cars and a bridge over a bubbling stream. The bridge is packed with photographers. So we keep driving. At one overview, I noticed a sign that said "North Lake." We were heading for lake Sabrina. We stopped further along and did take some pictures over the river of the aspen. We went along the main road a while and decided to turn around and head back. I suggested we check out the North Lake road. Now, silly me, I was thinking, lake, amenities, something. Guess I've driven around Tahoe too much. Yes, I know, much bigger, more developed and thus less dense with photographers. Here, you had to compose pictures carefully to not have one or more tripods in them. <i> My </i>tripod was back in the room.<br />
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Off we headed up and up and up and around and around and oh yes, it's now a dirt, one lane road. Nick has a thing about heights, he doesn't like them. He gets the hero award for that drive - the outside of the road is up direction. He was actually better off since I'm ok looking out over the edge. But, eventually, after passing too many cars and largish pickup trucks, we came to a clearing with a latrine and parking. We drove past it to catch the lay of the land and sure enough a small lake. Went back and parked. The lake was beautiful - the fall color, especially the aspens, the clear reflections, the background of mountains. Photos were taken, by us, by people with tripods, by people with small children.<br />
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I forgot to mention - this was our "shorts" day. Weather was 72 per the car when we headed up the hill. According to the car it was 48 while we out taking pictures. It probably was, but oddly, it felt good. Eventually, we headed back down, agreeing that the twisty, turny, narrow, North Lake road was worth it.<br />
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We headed down 395 and had a nice lunch in Big Pine Passed through Independence, formerly like 150 years ago, as Little Pine and on down to Manzanar.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Manzanar</b></span><br />
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Nick and I have both heard a lot about Manzanar. It's hard to live in the Bay Area and not know about how dreadfully our military leaders decided they could treat US citizens. As the exhibit implies, some people think the Constitution is great except when they want something.<br />
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The first thing that struck me was how stark the surroundings are. Beautiful but stark. The Eastern Sierras on one side, the White Mountains on the other, with sagebrush of Owens Valley in the middle. The original auditorium building is now the visitors center. We were both somber driving in and walking in. Teared up reading the exhibits and while watching the well-produced 22 min video.<br />
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A few words about Ronald Reagan. I vaguely remember him hosting the 20 Mule Team Borax TV western show [name escapes me.] I never voted for him, I actively disliked all that I saw or read about his wife. Two good things from my point of view. He was allegedly the only Type B POTUS in our time. And on the Manzanar video, he was my hero for the way he signed the bill officially apologizing and giving survivors some reparations. Too late for most, but needed closure.<br />
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As I walked around, I continued to be tearing up (as was Nick). I nearly broke down reading the roster of internees, posted as a giant scroll. I looked for and saw last names that I personally knew (including one Murai). The experience was similar to my reactions at the Birmingham Civil Rights Center and the Washington, DC Viet Nam memorial. And there were exhibits about other acts of prejudice and hate. And I thought about the debate over the proposed Muslim Community Center in Lower Manhattan. I'm tired of hate and fear and how it brings out the dark side of our populace. I found myself quoting Pete Seeger "when will we ever learn."<br />
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We drove the self-guided tour of the whole site. Stopped and walked the bases at the playing field. I put a rock that i picked up outside at the cemetery memorial, among the other rocks and pennies and cranes. Thought about all my cats at the pet cemetery. Wrung out emotionally, we headed to the next stop on Nick's tour of Pines.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Alabama Hills</b></span><br />
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Apparently, our latest thing is to go where they made movies and TV shows. First Vasquez Rocks, now Movie Row. You get there by turning right off of 395 in Lone Pine, crossing the Aqueduct, going up the hill, past the replacement Lone Pine. Turn right again, following a guide book we got from a park ranger station. The rock formations are amazing. We saw where Roy Rogers made his first movie and (not sure exactly of the spot but we saw it) where John Wayne made his last video, a commercial. Took lots of pictures; followed the slight detour to Murphy Ranch Road. 12 miles or so and eventually came back.<br />
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Two last comments. In the last Alaska trip, we had to go to the zoo to find moose. Well, we watched and watched back up 395 - for elk, it was the right time of day, but no luck. Actually we've seen very little non-human life forms. There's still time.<br />
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When Nick was a child, they lived down Cape Cod during the summer. There was a highway running nearby to Provincetown, Highway 6. Well, guess where the other end is. Yes, here in Bishop. And that's why the last photos I took yesterday are of him and a highway sign. Posted on my facebook page.<br />
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It's now Columbus Day and we're off in search, with Marcia, of ancient bristle cone pines. A single destination day.<br />
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Love<br />
<i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Esther</i><br />
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© 2010 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-52772820274432442482010-10-10T22:42:00.000-07:002010-10-13T23:01:49.617-07:00ES - Day 3, Part 2 of 2: Evening in Bishop<span style="font-size: large;"><b>How things go Amuck!</b></span><br />
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You're wondering why part 2 is first. Cause it's so stupid that I want to get it out of the way and if you come in late, you'll read part one first.<br />
<br />
We had a lovely day - read all about it in part one. We came back to Bishop to meet up with my dear friend Marcia so we can all go to Ancient Bristle Cone Pine Forrest (who named it that? I have to keep asking Nick what the name is) in the morning. The plan was she'd call us about an hour out to work out dinner timing.<br />
<br />
We get back to our room at the Comfort Inn and the keys don't work. Now we've had that problem before, only when we had two (or more) sequential reservations because that's the only way they can book a room free on points. Nick goes back down [we're on the second floor almost the furthest room from the lobby, we're both too tired to haul stuff up and down any more.] Roger does the desk clerk magic on the keys. Nick returns. They don't work. Nick goes back to lobby, comes back with Roger and housekeeping and master keys.<br />
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Meanwhile, I hear the phone in the room ringing. This is mysterious as only a few people have the number. I'm also checking my cell for calls from Marcia - concerned about her long drive from Applegate.<br />
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Roger tries all keys - nothing works. He shares that this room had a problem last week. I observe that there really is a spot for a metal, old fashioned key. Roger leaves. I call Marcia. Well turns out, she was the one calling. She left her hotel and walked to ours.<br />
<br />
Roger comes back with key ring and pass keys for a new room for us, cause by now we all know it's bad. His master key (apparently expired) doesn't work in the new room but the keys for us do. We plop down, he goes back to old room. None of the metal keys work. Marcia comes, we sit in new room. Our stuff is still in old room, including Nick's cell phone which he'd forgotten in the am. Marcia has a new phone. NOT in it is my phone number but she had Nick's on a message I'd sent. So, you get it right? I'm waiting for her to call but she only has the hotel and Nick's phone numbers - both inside the still locked room. sigh<br />
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Roger returns with the now awakened manager Dave. I go down the hall to parlay. Dave has this whizzy electronic calculator looking like widget with a big metal passkey probe on it. He kits the calculator number keys - lights flicker. Roger tries some key - doesn't work. Discussion of phoning Jesus ensues - he lives two blocks away. I mention we'd like to eat dinner. Roger offers to move our stuff when the room is finally opened. Nick & I decline (we'd unpacked, had stuff in drawers, shelves, closet, fridge). Go back to new room. Phone rings! Dave has the room open.<br />
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Oh, he did, by breaking in through and cracking the window! And apparently the metal key broke off in the mechanical lock. Not a good evening for Dave. No sign of Jesus. Nick, Marcia and I move stuff in record time leading Dave to ask if we're in the hotel business.<br />
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An hour after we should have, the three of us went off for quite yummy pizza at The Upper Crust!<br />
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Will now let Nick use the mini for a while before I tackle part 1 and/or photos.<br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">eah</span></i><br />
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© 2010 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-5954457317887135192010-10-09T23:55:00.000-07:002010-10-13T23:00:57.559-07:00Eastern Sierra - Day 2: Yosemite to Bishop <b><span style="font-size: large;">Yosemite!</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">My friends know that I'm just not a morning person. </span><span style="font-size: small;">We keep saying that we'll go to bed early and get up early and go off early and somehow it never works.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">We got off earlier today than yesterday, that's saying something but at this moment, I'm so tired (and Nick is napping and it's 11pm, go figure) that I don't remember when. Ah, but the camera knows, wait a sec...........</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Took a picture of Nick loading the car at 10:38am. Took a picture of officially entering Yosemite (while there was a long line of cars to get in at 11:16am. I apparently took another 200 pictures before getting to Bishop (where we are right now!). Oh hey, Nick's awake. This will be short since he wants to check email too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Why are we both so tired? We took two hikes in high altitude. The first was down to see the Giant Sequoias in Tuolomne Grove. It's just a mile - downhill the whole way. We also did the 1/2 mile nature loop at the grove. And then, the long slog backup hill. We took a short granola bar break and several photo breaks and smiled and chatted more pleasantly with the people coming down than those coming up had when we were coming down. One woman (she up, we down) actually said "it wasn't worth it!") I disagree, trees which are thousands of years old - you know? Gives you a sense of your real place in the universe. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">We found a pace at which I could keep moving without losing my breath. Slow and steady. My best bit of detective work - there were no markers or landmarks for a sense of distance - was when a young woman came by eating a Popsicle. I said to Nick - it's 75% eaten, she had to have pulled it out of a freezer in the parking lot - she was moving at a decent clip - how far did she come? We decided we had 10-15 more minutes. Then we passed the berries that I'd photographed early on and voila - the parking lot!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Our plan was to eat lunch at Tenaya Lake. We had the leftovers from last night's dinner. We hadn't been sure we had decent plastic knives so cut everything up before putting in the to-go boxes. A good idea! But, while we've mastered leaving before noon, we still haven't gotten to lunch before 3pm. Maybe tomorrow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Part of the challenge is the slow hiking, part is the need to stop and take photos. One reason I take so many is I bracket my shots [what the camera thinks, one step more than camera thinks, one step less] In general, the best shots are the ones one stop underexposed. Back in film days, the rule was overexpose print film and underexpose slide to get greater detail and richer colors. Digital appears to be like slides. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Of course we had to stop at the outlook at Olmsted Point to see (among other things) Halfdome. then we found the picnic area by Tenaya Lake. I nearly froze from the wind coming down off. </span><span style="font-size: small;">After lunch, We got to Tuolomne Meadows. How to describe it - one long, vast wide meadow surrounded by gorgeous mountains, some with snow. The amazing part is it is all at 8000 ft elevation! We walked to Soda Springs - only one half mile but, did I mention 8000 ft and that we're both senior citizens in many places? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Eventually back at the car, we worked our way out of the park by about 5pm. Showed our receipt and said goodbye to the nice rangers at the gate. Since that was at Tioga Pass, Nick announced "now we're in the Eastern Sierras" Then we made the drive down - the steep, curvy, drive down. Stopped a couple of times, esp when we could get out and make snowballs. Gorgeous, just gorgeous all the way down. We stopped for a couple of minutes to check out the famous Mobil Station in Lee Vining - home of the Whoa Nellie Deli. We expect to eat there later on. On the way down to Bishop, saw beautiful color on the mountains. We hadn't considered that sunset would be earlier on this side of the mountains (you know, the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">east, so mountains are blocking it, etc.). </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">I have semifigured out how to do pictures here. I have to upload to Picassa which has limited storage. I don't want to deal with that, so you're going to have to look on Facebook. I'm still sorting out how I review them here on the Netbook. I don't like that the editing actually changes the original on my disk. like messing with a negative. so cropping, lighting improvements, etc isn't happening. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">I've tried following a tip I found in the Blog help area, so comments might work - who knows. I managed to post one, so maybe it's not my blog specifically. sigh</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Tomorrow Independence and Manzanar - I plan to pack tissues.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Esther</i></span><br />
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© 2010 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-51145381810940157882010-10-08T23:36:00.000-07:002010-10-13T22:56:55.941-07:00Eastern Sierra - Day 1: Menlo Park to Buck MeadowsNick & I got up, packed, said goodbye to Borealis and Denali and were out the door by 11am. Zipped across the Bay, no problemo, had a leisure lunch in Livermore and made it up to Murphys in time to taste at three different wineries.<br />
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Oh wait! That<b> was </b>the plan. Reality is much more challenging. There were emails to send off, a conference call to attend - a new chair, it was only fair that I be on for a while and most importantly, a run to my optometrist for replacement left lens. It's partially a photo expedition, I really need to be able to see.<br />
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A short tangential rant - I've been wearing extended wear soft contact lenses for 40, yes kids 40, years. I'd get a pair and they'd be good for an entire YEAR! A year ago, my eye doc talks me into disposables, better for the aging eyes. First batch, no problem. Second batch - first left lens uncomfortable whenever I look up,<br />
like driving. Try another from the batch - comfy enough but tolerance on prescription off. Month passes, try the third one; same as the first. Not optimistic about the remaining three. Hence today's last minute trip to Dr Chin. Well he didn't have any spares and says "how about the daily ones?" DAILY - like a new lens every day. He claims I can wear them for a week. I went home and packed three right- and nine left-eye contact lenses so I can see when I go to Bodie. Conspicuous consumerism is winning.<br />
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Eventually, we left around 1ish, as in after, not before noon. Made it across the Bay ok. Before going to bed (don't ask! but it did involve remembering that I had a column due at 10pm) I had discovered that my new 4Mb camera disk wasn't working. Apparently my camera chokes on SDHC cards - got an obscure message [flashing CHR or something]. So, the plan was to pick one up at the Target in Union City. Target doesn't carry SanDisk! At this point, we're pushing 3 hours late, I'm hungry/cranky and worried about e-film. Like I wanted Kodak and they were offering me unknown.<br />
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Next, we get stuck in traffic - on 238 as expected (but not bad) and then a lot on 580. Eventually, I spotted a Staples off the highway in Tracy. Turns out there's a Golden Corral in the same parking lot! Turns out we were so late for lunch we got the early bird dinner special. Things are starting to look up - at least our blood sugar was. Talked to a nice guy in Staples about SD vs SDHC (for High Capacity). It's bad enough that James, Liz's fiance who is our go-to computer guy, tells me my 2000 computer is old. [c'mon where does that put me? oh never mind!] Now I have a nice but random stranger telling me that my 2006 camera is old. Let us consider that both really work well - it's the creeping elegance and consumerism that are doing us in!<br />
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The nice man convinced me that he uses PNY and it's just as good as SanDisk and I have 14 days to return it (yes in Menlo Park if need be) if I'm unhappy. So far so good.<br />
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Well fed and having camera issue resolved, we worked our way up the road. Made it to the only winery that is open till 5:30 at 5pm. Twisted Oak has a twisted sense of humor - the road up is twisted and there are signs, ala Wall Drug, at each turn, including rubber chicken crossing. They have a fricken out in front - ah, did I forgot to mention this is Calavaras county as in Mark Twain short stories? If I could figure out how to post pictures in this blog, I would up load it here - from the PNY disk.<br />
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Twisted Oak also has some fine wines. Amanda served us and after others left chatted with us for about 45 min. We then worked our way back towards Groveland (I remember it as Grover the muppet) and Buck Meadow where I now sit. Nice dinner at the Buck Meadow's restaurant with leftovers for lunch tomorrow. More, I hope, after we visit Yosemite, the northern part.<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Esther</span></i><br />
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ps, at some point on the drive, Nick shared with me a lot of highway numbers - more when the appropriate photo is taken.<br />
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© 2010 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-7429292176093356102010-09-19T15:14:00.000-07:002010-09-19T15:14:07.942-07:00My 5771 Kol Nidre Appeal<i>Yom Kippur is when we look back at our sins and deal with guilt. Actually, it's quite cool. But as a blogger, I've been feeling guilty. When I'm doing interesting things, I don't have time to blog. When I have time, I don't have much to say that I think you'll think is interesting. This year, I gave the appeal at the Keddem Congregation Kol Nidre services. Picture me in my long white, embroidered dress on stage with about 400 people seated in front of me. </i><br />
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Thank you Elaine. <i>Shana Tovah.</i> As Elaine said, I am the Immediate Past President of Keddem Congregation.<br />
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In my other role, as High Holy Days chair, I’ve been reading the reservation forms as they’ve come in and know many of you are new to Keddem Congregation, to you I say welcome. I know many of you have been with us, some many times before, at HHD: welcome back. And to the active regulars, I’ve probably hugged you on the way in, or will do so on the way out. I’m big on hugs.* <br />
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Since it’s Kol Nidre and this is a Jewish congregation, I know I can be honest. My goal is always diplomatic not blunt honesty, but let’s face it, I know that most of you know why I’m standing here. I know that appeals make some of you uncomfortable and that some of you understand why it is necessary.<br />
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When I was a child, our family’s synagogue handled this very differently. My father as “head of household” (I'm sure my mother had something to say about that!) was handed a card with his name and tabs with numbers on them. He was to indicate his commitment to the synagogue by folding down the appropriate tab. Far less disruptive to the service, but I remember how embarrassed he was about how little he could pledge. So, hold that thought while I give you some context for why I am talking to you now.<br />
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Seven years ago, at Kol Nidre, I talked about how I had, now ten years ago, decided to finally join a congregation and how I was drawn to Keddem by the values listed on the website. It is www.keddem.org, for those who have not seen it. Thanks to the work of our Long Range Planning committee and the participants at our May congregational meeting, we have revised our Vision, Mission and Values, in what I consider to be a very Reconstructionist manner - study, discussion, considering what is right for us as Jews here and now and deciding via a democratic process.<br />
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The Vision, Mission and Values define what we want to be as a community. Many of us have Hebrew names. Ours is <i>Kehillat Keddem</i>, Keddem Community. Community is only as strong as its members. It is built up by members trusting, and respecting one another as individuals and recognizing each other’s contributions. As a member of this community, I’ve seen us celebrate with each other and mourn with each other and very much care for each other. Because Keddem is <b>Inclusive</b> and <b>Egalitarian</b>, any one of you in this room is more than welcome to become a member. We are also <b>Inquiring</b> at Keddem and one of the benefits of membership is being able to ask questions about Jews, Judaism and the Jewish experience and find answers in discussions with other members. It’s what our Torah Study and Learners’ Minyan are all about.<br />
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Communities thrive when the work is shared cooperatively through teamwork. They need a diverse range of skills and yes, even opinions. We are <b>Participatory</b> at Keddem - we do it all for ourselves. Do you realize that our services at these High Holy Days are led by three technology professionals, a professional artist and a professional rabbi? Our song-leaders are an accountant, a program manager, and a high school student. And in case you’re curious, our chair is an engineer turned diversity consultant now studying to be a Parliamentarian (I'm a little crazy.) Our colorful wordle logo, which you can see on the screen in the lobby, was designed by one member, colorized by a second member and had the Hebrew added by a third. You get the picture. We function best when many people volunteer to help by bringing food to events, setting up or taking down, writing publicity, even editing our newsletter. <br />
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Just as importantly, we would love to see you more often than once a year! If you find yourself drawn to the liturgy or the music or the ideas, you should come to Shabbat services or festival celebrations. We’ll welcome you equally warmly and more personally. And if you have a new idea and are willing to take the lead, we’ll support you. Because we are <b>Innovative</b>. <br />
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Now, think back to my father awkwardly having to make a financial commitment before being able to leave services. You’ll notice that you’ve all been given generic envelopes to take home and decide later. None have names, some have numbers, we're recycling to save trees and the budget.<br />
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At Keddem Congregation, we believe strongly that money should not be a factor in being part of our community, either when joining or when attending these or other services or activities. But, the reality is we have expenses, for tonight and for the rest of the year. I love this community and I want us to be able to keep offering these services. Last year, in the spirit of <b>Innovation</b>, several of us challenged others to pledge one thousand dollars each, with the understanding that if we reached ten yeses, we would all make the donation. I’m pleased to say that in the end, Keddem received seventeen such donations. <i>(smattering of applause occurred.</i>) Hopefully, most of us can recommit at that level and that others will join us. Meanwhile, we are asking those attending for a contribution of 500 dollars per household. Since we are <b>Compassionate,</b> we know that many of you, like my father all those years ago, cannot stretch to that level. If your budget does not allow that much, we will gratefully and graciously accept what you are able to give. <br />
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Thank you all for what you have done in the past for Keddem and for what you will do in the future for Keddem. You are most welcome to continue to worship and build community with us here at Keddem Congregation. <br />
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I wish you a gentle fast. <i>L’shanah tovah tichatemu</i>. May you and yours be sealed for a good year.<br />
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<i>* a lot of people actually did stop by for hugs on the way out, including some strangers!</i><br />
The words in <b>bold </b>are the Keddem defining values.<br />
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© 2010 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-38984210376468575302010-07-17T17:47:00.000-07:002010-07-17T17:47:41.412-07:00Women Engineers: Change in the World<i>On June 19, I was the keynote speaker for the Society of Women Engineers - Santa Clara Valley (SWE-SCV) Member Appreciation and Scholarship Banquet. It is the fourth time in 15 years that I've had that honor. Below are my (slightly editied) prepared remarks; what I actually said is (as always) quite close but more humorous. eah</i><br />
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Thank you Kathryn for that wonderful introduction. And thank you also for all of the work you have done organizing the scholarship process and today’s event. <br />
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Congratulations to Erin and Joy (<i>the scholarship recipients present</i>). You have your future ahead of you and we at SWE are thrilled to be playing a part in it. I know there are SWE sections at both Santa Clara university and MIT.<br />
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US Dept of Labor tells us that a nontraditional occupation for women is one in which women are 25 percent or less of total employment; these occupations span all major occupational areas. They tend to be well paying. Examples: architects, computer programmers, computer software and hardware engineers, detectives, chefs, barbers, clergy, engineers, computer and office machine repairers, construction occupations including inspectors, railroad conductors, truck drivers, fire fighters, aircraft pilots. <br />
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What does it all mean? Some are occupations perceived as needing more physical strength or like engineering have roots in the military; some girls don’t think of then as possibilities, most likely because they don’t see role models. On the good news front, jobs that were nontraditional for women in 1988 which were no longer nontraditional for women in 2008 include chemists; physicians; lawyers; athletes; postal service mail carriers; bailiffs, correctional officers, and jailers; and butchers. That last one fascinated me. <br />
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What slightly surprised me, I rather expected (or hoped for) higher numbers, are Computer Programmers, Network & computer system administrators and computer engineers - all in 21-22% range. Industrial engineers 15%. I’ve heard is said that critical mass in an occupation is around one quarter to one third for any group. That’s where the impact of that “new” group is felt. Notice we’re not quite there yet.<br />
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What the Dept of Labor doesn’t tell us, but people like Betty Reynolds and Jill Tietjen in their book <i>Setting the Record Straight </i>and Sue Heinemann in her book <i>Timelines of American Women’s History</i> do tell us is that women really have been engineers all along. It’s just harder to find the documentation. According to Betty and Jill (a friend of mine and a former SWE president), a woman named Tapput-Belatekallim was a chemical engineer and perfume maker in Babalon around 1200 BCE, so probably the first one. There’s more but I’m going to jump forward many centuries to save time and get to my point. <br />
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Sue documents the following women as having US Patents:<br />
<ul><li>Mary Carpenter in 1870 for a sewing machine with an easy-to-thread needle</li>
<li>Jane Wells, 1872 a baby jumper to allow an infante “to dance, swing and turn itself in any direction”</li>
<li>Amanda Theodosia Jones, poet and spiritualist, 1873 (with co-patenter) a vacuum process to can food without first cooking it</li>
<li>Helen August Blanchard, also 1873, sewing machine improvements which were the forerunners of the zigzag machine</li>
<li>Mary Nolan, 1877 interlocking bricks made of pulverized glass and clay, called Nolanum. I googled this one - impressed that she had named it after herself. It turns out it was, among other things non-absorbant, fire-proof and “vermin free”. It finished with a surface that didn’t require paint or wall paper. I thought that was cool.</li>
</ul>So, what do you see these inventions have in common? [<i>some discussion here</i>]<br />
Post Industrial women applying their creativity, their engineering problem solving skills to change the world around the for the better. <br />
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Sixty years ago, on May 27 to be precise, sixty women (and a few men allies) did the same by founding the Society of Women Engineers. They saw the need for an organization that would be a community fostering success in a male-dominated industry. They wanted a world where they could be contributing to their fullest, beyond the bounds set on those women of the 1870s. Today, the Society of Women Engineers has over twenty thousand members from around the country and the world in a constantly increasing range of fields and in the business, academic and public sectors. Those of you who were members should consider coming back. Together we in SWE - ONE stimulate women to achieve full potential in careers as engineers and leaders, TWO expand the image of the engineering profession as a positive force in improving the quality of life, and THREE demonstrate the value of diversity. I tend to simplify this mission statement to 1. Opportunity, 2. Outreach and 3. People. <br />
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Today, we’re here for outreach and to celebrate people. In my years at SWE, I’ve met some wonderful women and yes, a few wonderful men. Santa Clara Valley, uniquely wonderful in some ways is also very typical of most SWE sections. We do Outreach with a passion. Through thick and thin, we put on events for girls and young women like <i>Wow! That’s Engineering </i>and our award winning, model program, <i>GetSET</i>. And no matter what, we find the funds to present scholarships as we are today. Through all of this, we are encouraging more women to make positive change in the world.<br />
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About ten years ago, my close friend, Lisa Duncan called me up one day, totally excited. "Esther, I think I’ve solved World Hunger!" I was impressed and asked how. She, like I, knew that women tend to be compassionate and as we’ve seen historically look to improve things around them. Engineers have the technical savvy to solve big systems problems. So, Lisa believed that with enough women engineers, a solution to world hunger could be found. Not then, sadly not yet today but I keep hearing about ideas of better crops, better technology.<br />
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I want you all to take a moment. Think about the challenges that you care about - what would you like to see a force of passionate, compassionate engineers put their creativity to? I’ll let you think. Anybody want to share? <i>[Discussion included capping the BP oil leak, fresh water through desalinization and general cleaning up of the oceans.]</i><br />
See just by doing this exercise, we can work stronger together. And that’s another value that women bring to a team - in general, we work by sharing, our solutions are solid when we do it cross-functionally and by consensus.<br />
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OK, so we’re going to solve world hunger and fossil fuel shortages and oceanic pollution.<br />
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To do this, I want to encourage all of you to keep in front of you what you really care about. We can so easily get side-tracked by interesting things or immediate needs like paying bills or caring for family. It’s ok, we’re good multi-taskers. But remember to hold tight to your true self - the one that got you here today. That’s the one that will keep us moving forward.! I hope you students have a fabulous summer, you SWE members can recharge yourselves, you lapsed members rejoin. Come this fall, we will be making more change in the world!<br />
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© 2010 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013037286211787757.post-51392670269311740102010-04-07T14:39:00.000-07:002010-04-07T14:39:29.185-07:00Thougths on .... Baseball<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Note to followers - I'm noticing a pattern emerging of something odd happens in my life, I mull it over and then decide to write here. Guess things were fairly manageable the last two months. eah) </i></span><br />
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My life really does seem to be on some kind of cycle. I won't go into all that now, just to mention the first two weeks of March are preoccupied with the Iditarod. It runs 24-7 and I can follow it via a website that includes videos and gps tracking on the sleds. Then there's a lull and now, it's Baseball!<br />
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Nick and I are big baseball fans. We met in the summer of 1967 - the Red Sox Impossible Dream season. We can separately and together tell you more than you want to know about the World Series that year. The first time we watched Ken Burn's 9 part program (rumor has it he's going into extra innings - yay!), at Inning 8, John Chancellor asked, so why didn't they win? Without hesitating, we both yelled at the TV, Bob Gibson. <br />
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In 1969, we moved to northern california, four years here, four in Philly area and then back here. Still Red Sox fans. But the Sox only come out twice a year to play the A's. Somewhere along the line, I went from hating the A's to loving them. Periodically, I get bugged for liking two American League teams. I used to have two grey cats. I understand that black and white in photography can be beautiful; I know that the world exists in infinite tones of colors. The same holds for politics, food, religion and sports. We have team ranking in our household. We don't quite agree on 2 and 3, so this is my flavor:<br />
1. Red Sox 2. Athletics 3. whoever is playing the Yankees 4. whoever is playing the Angels.<br />
I also like the Mariners and the Phillies (Ichiro is amazing and as I said, we lived in Philly for a while.) <br />
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Borealis and Denali almost were named Scutaro (Marco) and Swisher (Nick). Both were traded from the A's before the kittens were born. Black day when Nick S ended up with the Yankees. But love the sight of Scutaro in a Red Sox.uniform. <br />
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Hopefully, people who keep harassing me (yeah, happened yesterday) about this dual allegiance will read this and stop. Yeah, I know, you never reach the people you want to reach with such messages. so it goes. <br />
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Meanwhile why baseball? Why cats? What, you say?? Seriously, in both, there are long periods of calm followed by brief moments of absolute excitement! Never know when the snoozing cats will decide to play steeplechase over you and around the house. Nothing like that crack of ball on bat and a home run. <br />
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The last year or so, I've become a fan of the TNT show <i>Leverage. </i>It's kind of a <i>Mission Impossible</i> or <i>A-Team</i> meets <i>Robin Hood.</i> The fact that it's based in Boston is a side-plus. In this past season's finale, the crew needs a baseball team as part of the con. Elliot (Christian Kane, previously Lindsey on <i>Angel</i>, a completely different role) is the extraction expert, ie "hitter" ( the others are hacker, grifter, thief, mastermind) has to become a catcher with a AA team. He's protesting that he doesn't like any sport where you can't score on defense. And then he's in a game, and then he gets a walk-off hit. (That means, he gets a runner in to score and win the game, in the bottom of the ninth inning.) The leader Nate (Tim Hutton) says to the rest of the crew - good news/bad news: the con is working; we've lost Elliot until the playoffs.<br />
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See, that's the allure of baseball. It happened in the season opener Red Sox/Yankees on Sunday; it happened last night A's/Mariners. Someday, I'd love to have a baseball film festival - <i>The Natural,</i> <i>A League of Their Own</i>, <i>Bull Durham</i> (hmm, just got Thelma and Louise!), <i>Field of Dreams</i>. Might have to throw in <i>Remember the Titans</i> (different sport, same heart and Denzel.)<br />
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And now I look at the time and think, if I try, I can prepare for tonight's meeting and watch the first hour of the last Red Sox - Yankees game before leaving! Go Red Sox!<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Esther</span></i> <br />
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© 2010 Esther A. HellerEsther A. Heller, PRPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03231168640627660558noreply@blogger.com0