Packing: the take it, leave it, and toss it piles

Take one room of your current house, apartment, dorm room, or any living space and examine how much stuff you have managed to fit into it. How many of us live with simply a mattress and enough clothes to make it to the next laundry cycle? Not many, I would say.

The funny thing is that taking a cleanser to your space is actually quite rewarding. Getting there is the hard part.

If you don't have the objective of an upcoming move, here's what I suggest. Just give it a try. Take a few empty boxes and put those little gifts that someone gave you and you can't seem to give away into one of them. Put the clothes that you haven't worn in the last year into another one. Finally, add the things you love that you do use/wear all the time (too much of the time) into the last box. Put the boxes in a storage closet or a friend's house.

Give it a few days. Isn't it a wonderful feeling? Those items that ended up in the first couple of boxes were just taking up space. Those items in the third box were so worn out, and now you have a chance to get new, updated, and more modern versions of whatever they were.

Call your friend and tell him or her to bring the boxes to a local charity. Don't forget the receipt. Use the tax write-off to add to your savings and don't buy so much stuff next year!

Cancer (in pets)

It seems to me lately that cancer is pervading the lives of everyone I know and love. Throat cancer, brain cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, luekemia, melanoma, and lymphoma have affected my immediate friends and family. It is almost impossible not to become a bit of a hypochondriac. After all, catching "it" early can be a lifesaver.

I have recently discovered that more and more pets are also getting cancer. Today, a friend told me that she and her husband decided to have chemotherapy administered to their dog. This is a very tough decision to make. Should we do the same or similar things for our pets that we do for our other loved ones?

Rather than answer these tough questions, I would rather we found a cure. Is it possible? Will it ever be? Perhaps we need more scientists and less lawyers.

Pumpkin Stabbing

I very much enjoyed our pumpkin carving activities at Keren's last night. Nelly referred to it as "pumpkin stabbing," and that seems fair in light of the great joy we all took in pulling out the knives to attack these guys.

Of course, the tough part was weilding the knives in close quarters while also trying to watch the Red Sox win Game 2 of the World Series (!!).

I must fess up that mine was the worst looking pumpkin of all of them. Fortunately, my French is so bad that if anyone said anything too mean about my little pumpkin head, neither he nor I understood it.

Portugal

Some highlights from my emails to my friends last week:

Oct 16th:

Our reservation for the cheapest compact car panned out to be a manual deisel-fed BMW. So, we are zooming along everywhere we go. It is a ton of fun. Although I had not slept much on the plane, I was in good spirits at 9a.m., and we headed straight for Sintra, just northwest of Lisbon.

It is a vibrant town. After finding a small cafe where I discovered the secret, special pastries that were hidden behind the counter (not sure if this discovery had anything to do with my batting my eyelashes at the garcon), we headed to the Moorish Castle. Well, at least, that is where we thought we were headed. We were soon plucked off the side of the road by Antonio the bus driver (who was driving an empty tour bus). That was quite fortunate because it turned out that the castle is miles up a steep winding road with nosidewalks, where the buses and cars cross paths with little more thanan inch between them.

We enjoyed walking around the castle and Pena Palace before heading back into town. Shortly thereafter, though, we realized that we had no idea where we had left the car (the streets all looked the same!). We found it, eventually, and had a bite to eat before heading down to the Algarve. That is where you find me now. After a wonderful breakfast overlooking the ocean in Salema, I am ready to walk to Sagres -- at the end of the world, as it is known.

Oct 17th:

I write to you now from a place far more wonderful than even the end of the world -- the island off the coast of Tavira.

After visiting Sagres on the far southwestern tip of Portugal, Amy and I travelled along the coast of the Algarve to a number of small towns and beaches. We spent Monday night in Lagos (unfortunately remembered as the firstport where the African slave trade was initiated). After a 3-course meal that included a shared bottle of red wine for <9 Euro.

On our way east, we stopped off at Praia de Rocha (just south of Portimao) and sat out in front of the rocky coast on the white sandy portion of the beach, sipping sangria. It turned out to be a beautiful beach day, but we decided to continue on after relaxing a bit, walking the boardwalk, and dipping our toes in the ocean. I have to point out here that coming to the Algarve after the tourist season ends (in mid-September) is a really good move. The weather is great,and the areas that must normally be packed -- at least based on the number of tables out in front of all of the restaurants -- are only mildly populated. We took our mini-beemer along to Albufeira and had a short adventurethere before winding up back on the highway to Tavira. We have now settled here for a couple of days. This morning was so lovely that we decided to hit the island nearby. It has the longest stretch of undeveloped white sandy beaches that I have ever seen. The sky is the same color as the ocean and stretches high and wide in every direction. I went for a long run to see if I could find the end (I did not) and came across very few folks. The ones that I did see were quite naked. I cannot say that I turned a blind eye, but rather let a smile creep onto my face as I tried to keep pace.

Oct 19th:

Lisbon is a lot like SF -- hilly and fabulous. We earned our keep hiking the narrow switchbacks and enjoyed wonderful local food at Velho Macedo on Rua de Madelina (sp?) for dinner lastnight. We followed that with excellent jazz on Rua de Rosa atCaracass (sp?), and a stop at the hottest night club, Lux. In between, we discovered that Rua de Italia is THE spot to enjoy a fewbeers on the street. There were people and music shutting out thetraffic, but it appeared to be a regular and natural occurrance (rather than a street festival).

Words of Wisdom

The power of friendship is enormous, but the words of wisdom that come from others that you know and trust can be even grander. I very much enjoyed a wonderful weekend of friendship and the sharing of each other's wisdom. I also made and was treated to some homemade local food, which was just plain old good for the soul.

While I realize that this is out of context, I was reminded of my long lost blog in part because I wanted to share these words of wisdom:

I need to think about peacemaking mostly
I already feel empowered
just impatient
with the problems we face, the divisions between us
no reason to be impatient
life is made up of a series of problems
we prove ourselves as human beings by how we calmly address them.

This Valentine is Entering a New Decade

Well, it's a snowy Valentine's day. No hearts or flowers, but I did get an early birthday present in the mail at my office. What a treat!

I had a blast at my annual shindig. Lots of drinkin' and dancin' and a good time had by all.

I look forward to a large group ski trip this weekend with folks coming from NYC to SF, I really appreciate the love. The best part is the chefs who have come out of the woodworks. We are having macadamia encrusted chicken one night and seafood gumbo the next, not to mention pancakes and snazzy desserts.

Ohhh -- I can't wait to hit the slopes after this big storm is over!