Destination Unknown

  I use Social Media (Facebook, Instagram and Youtube) quite often and have seen The Good the Bad and the Ugly sides of these platforms. The Good I have used Facebook to reconnect with so many old high school and college friends, past work colleagues and others from around the country and it has been fantastic.  From Massachusetts to Florida and Texas to California and so many places in between, it’s been great to re-establish these old friendships.  Being invited to spend my first Thanksgiving on the road with one of my longest childhood friends, Diane and her husband Joe and family! (what a wonderful treat) Trying to paddle board in Florida with my HS pal Tom O’Brien (he’s a great teacher, I’m a horrible student) Going to church in California with my Westminster friend Lo-i Pan (an awesome experience) Going on a hike with my old work colleague Mitch Ferro in Texas Seeing my fraternity father Paul Bijkersma in Massachusetts  Hanging out a couple of ...

Growing up in the southern part of New Jersey, ‘howyadoin’ is more of a greeting than a question. If someone says…hey, howyadoin…they aren’t typically looking for a response. Its just a greeting and if you do try to answer they will look at you with a cocked head and will probably be thinking ‘I really don’t care how he’s doing, I was just saying hi! Now, ‘whatchadoin’ IS a question and an answer is expected, but I digress. The other morning my buddy Greg asked me, ‘how are you doing this morning’ and I answered him…’not great, I’m in a bit of a funk since waking up’. So we talked about it and it helped a lot.  If he hadn’t asked me that question, I probably wouldn’t have said anything and would have sat in my funk for the day. It reminds be of the time I was in the hospital after major back surgery. I needed help with just about everything, so one evening I buzzed the nurses station and asked for assistance getting into the bathroom. My nurse, a very muscular Nigeria...

I’ve really been struggling to write this blog entry. There are so many things I want to write about but I keep getting stuck. I write for a while then sit back and think about what I wrote and I keep getting wrapped around the axle, so I am just going to go for it and let my thoughts flow. It’s really sad to see our beautiful country so divided over so many things. ‘Can’t we all get along’ ~ Rodney King Rodney King said this during the Los Angeles Riots. I was living in LA at the time and I remember sitting in front of the television watching people being beaten and buildings being burned to the ground. I sat there in my living room crying wondering how this can be happening. The last time I remember our entire country pulling together and working together was after September 11th.  So why can’t we all just get along and live together peacefully? Why does it take a national crisis/tragedy to get us all working together. While living north of Los Angeles in 1994, we ...