The Jennifer Blogs

This fuzzy little creature is a luwak, also known as the Asian Palm Civet. It's an animal found in Indonesia. Actually, they have them here in Singapore too, but for the purpose of this blog I'm telling you they are found in Indonesia. Civets like to eat the red coffee cherries. These cat-looking creatures pick the sweetest and ripest cherries to eat. When civets eat these beans, they aren't able to digest the inner part. However, a unique combination of enzymes combine in the stomach of the animal to break down the proteins that give coffee a bitter taste. The civet then poops out the beans, still covered in some inner layers of the berry. Some poor sap has the job of picking out the beans and washing them off. The beans are then lightly roasted. And how much do we pay to drink this poop coffee? Between $100 and $600 dollars per pound. Kopi Luwak, as its called, is the most expensive coffee in the world.

I'm trying to hunt some of this kopi luwak down since I live so close to Indonesia. I'd like to take some back to the US with me. First I have to make sure I can get it past US Customs without any problems. As long as they're good with me bringing it in, I hope to bring back some poop coffee for my friends and family I love the most.

You're welcome.

I'm horrible at being sick. I'm the worst sick person I know. It's kind of like that "Man Flu." (Look in YouTube if you're not sure what that is.) I know I'm a bad patient and I feel sorry for anyone who has to put up with me while I'm not feeling well.

I went to the doctor this morning. I wish I could have taken a picture of how big his eyes were when he looked at my throat. So yeah, strep throat and I'm highly contagious. Forced rest. I guess that's not so bad.

One of the nice things about going to the doctor in Singapore is that they don't charge you an arm and a leg for your visits. The doctor dispenses all the medicine, too, so it saves you from having to go to a pharmacy. For the visit itself and seven prescriptions (yes, count 'em, SEVEN), it was only $90 Singapore dollars. That's just $65 US dollars. That's incredible!

If I had to choose when to get sick, now would probably be the ideal time. We leave for the US in less than three weeks, so by then I should be back to my healthy self and no worries for sickness on the airplane. The only one of us that hasn't been sick yet is the girl. The boy had strep throat about two or three weeks ago. I caught my strep from Marso, who is too stubborn to go to the doctor when he's sick and would much rather pass his nasty germs on to his innocent wife. Nice.

Do us all a favor if you're not feeling well. Go to the doctor. Stay home from work. Quit passing it on to us innocent bystanders.

This is my farm. I take a lot of heat for being a virtual farmer, but it's a great way to relax and I love how I get to organize my farm exactly the way I want it. I'm not the only one addicted to virtual farming either. There are plenty of other farmers working their fields on Farm Town. In fact, I met a virtual farmer who has become what I would call a pretty good friend. (I know it sounds strange, but we have had some really great conversations while harvesting and plowing each other's fields.)

Like I said, I take a lot of heat for my farming addiction. My husband will come home and see that I haven't done a whole lot and mock that I must have been working in the fields all day. Or I just reach for my computer and he wants to know if I'm going to be harvesting. I could be checking email and he thinks I'm planting crops.

I love how you can send flowers, trees and gifts to your friends on Farm Town. It's nice to log into Facebook and see that my fellow virtual farmers have sent me a rose or a dogwood tree or even a horse for my farm. I love the pigs the most. I like how if you click on them you have the option of making them sleep. They look so cute when they plop down and sleep.

You may notice in the picture that my farm is named Schrute Farm. Right now I'm growing beats, like Dwight on The Office. But when I get bored, I change the name of my farm, change the name of my avatar, rearrange the surroundings a little or delete everything and start fresh if I want to.

Laugh all you want, but once you start planting crops and harvesting them, then going to the market to sell them, you'll become addicted too. The first time someone sends you a pink hammock or a giraffe topiary shrub, you'll set it on your farm, move it a little to the left, move it a little to the right, and play with the placement over and over until it's just so. So yeah, go ahead and laugh, but I know the truth.

If I were to capture myself in a photo right now, it might look something like this. Distant. Hollow. Sad.

I feel so far from everything I love this morning. I don't want that to take anything from the three other people who live in this condo or from the other amazing people I've met on this tropical island. But waking up on Thanksgiving morning realizing that everyone back home is scurrying about buying their potatoes and bread crumbs and cranberries while, in Singapore, I go about my business like it is any other day makes me a bit sad. It's already Thursday here. There was no Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. There is no smell of turkey roasting in the oven. The kids are doing school work. My husband is at work. It really is just any other day.

Thanks to my amazing friends on Facebook, I do have a few options for watching the parade. Two people posted links where I can catch the parade live. Of course, that's 9pm for me tonight. I'd rather watch it in the morning just like I did when I was growing up, but at least I get to watch it. Beggars can't be choosers.

It's funny how Thanksgiving feels more like a holiday as you get older. When I was a kid, Thanksgiving didn't feel much like a holiday except that I didn't have to go to school. It really seemed like an excuse to eat a lot of food, for my dad to watch football on TV, and for everyone to go to bed early. As an adult, it definitely feels like a holiday. The food isn't a big deal to me. I love turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy. Don't get me wrong. But I can eat those things any time of the year, really. I may not make lists and go around thanking everyone, but I do take the time to reflect on the things for which I am thankful.

Okay, so I kind of do make lists. I used to have the kids list 100 things they were thankful for on Thanksgiving. They struggle to come up with ten most of the time, so 100 is a real punishment. I really just want them to see how much they take for granted. We all do, really. It feels silly to list things like trees and birds and cereal. But the truth is, those are things we would miss if we didn't have them. (Trust me on the cereal thing!)

Living overseas really changes your perspective on a lot of things to. You learn to do without things you are used to having. You find that you miss the craziest things that you once took for granted (cereal). So go ahead and make that list. Even if it's a mental list, there are a lot of things to be thankful for. Right at the top of that list should be, "spending time with family and friends." They may drive you crazy. They may be kooky. But when you are away from the people you love during the holidays, you realize just how much you need those crazy, kooky people.

My List:
1. The Internet. Maybe I appear to be immature and spoiled for putting this first, but if it weren't for the Internet I would not be able to keep in touch with friends and family back in the US.
2. Being able to live overseas. I know I complain that I miss everyone (especially this time of year), but I do feel truly blessed to be living in a foreign country learning about other nations and cultures. Not everyone gets to experience this and I am thankful that I do have this opportunity.
3. iTunes. I love to be able to download TV shows and movies at the click of a button.
4. Growing up in a small town. I do love the city life, but there was something so special about growing up in Smalltown, USA (Medina, NY) that really paved the way for who I was to be.
5. Poodles. I love all dogs, but poodles have a special place in my heart.
6. Babies. I have never had one of my own, but babies are so precious and their smile and laughs do a soul so good!
7. Music. Growing up, I played violin. I also took piano lessons. I never fell in love with a musical instrument and don't really have a great singing voice, but I love listening to it and I love that everyone else in my family is so musically-inclined.
8. Being connected. I love how no matter what my question is, there's someone I can call. Working in radio allowed me to meet a lot of different types of people. Traveling abroad has also put some interesting people in my path. What are the chances it will snow in Louisiana this Christmas? I can call my friend James-Paul who is a meteorologist and ask him. My son can't figure out the function of x in this equation. I can call my friend Steve who is really good at math and ask him how to figure the answer. How do you make crepes? My friend Brooke is a foodie with an answer to every food-related question. How do I get rid of a scratch on my hardwood floor? That one's easy. I'll call my brother Charlie, who runs his own flooring company in SoCal. You get the idea.
9. Walt Disney World. I've been tons of times, but I'll never get sick of it. It truly is the Happiest Place on Earth.
10. My parents. They're the best mom and dad in the whole world. They made so many sacrifices for my brothers and me and I am forever grateful.
11. My kids. As I said at number six, I did not have "my own" children. But Jean-Luc & D'Ette are definitely MINE. They may not have my smile or my fair skin, but Jean-Luc definitely has my sense of humor and D'Ette has my propensity to overachieve. I get so frustrated at them, but homeschooling two teenagers and living within the confines of a small condo for two years can do that to a person. Regardless, I love them with my whole heart.
12. Air conditioning. It was definitely a necessity in Florida. I'd die without it in Singapore.
13. Meat. I could never be a vegetarian. I love the heck outta meat.
14. My flat iron. My stylist here in Singapore told me about GHD products. I love the new flat iron I ordered from them!
15. Pillows. I love a lot of pillows. I only sleep on one, but I love having them on my bed during the day to lean on or cuddle with.
16. My camera. I have a killer camera that my husband bought me for Mother's Day this year. It's my first ever digital SL-R and I have used it to take some pretty amazing shots. Traveling with a camera like this definitely makes life more fun.
17. My education. Growing up I wasn't sure what I wanted to be, but I always knew I'd go to college. I'm so thankful I have a college education.
18. COTH. Church of the Highlands no longer exists in Lakeland, FL, but I'll be forever grateful for the opportunity to help build and serve at that church with those people at that time.
19. Apples. It sounds silly to be grateful for apples, but I love everything about this fruit. The smell especially. When I was a kid, my mom used to go to an apple orchard in New York and pick apples every apple season. It was one of her favorite things to do. I loved when she'd come home with a huge basket full of apples almost every week. We never ran short on apples and the house always smelled like them. As a kid I could tell you the difference between Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Empire and all the others.
20. I type over 100wpm. I love that I can type so fast. It makes getting work done so much easier.
21. My voice coaches. There are two I've worked with and I'm thankful to both of them for the tips they've given me and the time they've given to help make me better at what I do.
22. My home studio. Not everyone can afford a home studio, but I've got a fairly top-of-the-line studio in the corner of my bedroom.
23. My husband. I don't know why I waited until number 23 to list him, but I think it has to do with the fact that there is so much to say about him. I'm thankful for the way he loves me. I'm thankful for his work ethic and willingness to deal with the crap he deals with so the kids and I can have the life we have. I'm thankful he can play guitar and gives so freely of himself to share music with others. I'm thankful for his skill set. He knows a lot about so many things and is really handy to have around here! And I love him.
24. Vacations. I sometimes forget I'm not on vacation every day. I do love to travel, but that's not the same thing as a vacation. To me, travel evokes the feeling of adventure and non-stop fun. Vacation sounds more relaxed and slow-n-easy. I love vacations.
25. Birthdays. I don't really love getting older, but I do love having birthdays.
26. Donuts. I can't eat them all the time or I'll be huge, but I do love a good donut. When we go back to Louisiana for Christmas, I'll be stopping at Meche's Donut King at least one morning for a glazed donut. In Florida, I'll go to Dunkin Donuts and get the same thing. I just love glazed donuts.
27. Public transportation. I am so thankful to live in a country where we have a subway, buses and taxis at our disposal.
28. I'm thankful I was born in America. I could have been born in any country in the world, but God saw to it that I was born in the United States of America. I don't think Americans realize how huge a blessing that truly is!
29. I'm thankful for my outgoing personality. If I didn't make friends easily, my life overseas would suck. Of course, if I didn't make friends easily, I'd probably never have told my husband to take this job. But I am grateful that I'm outgoing and make friends fairly easily.
30. LASIK. I had to get glasses when I was in elementary school. By middle school I had contacts, but I couldn't wear them and ended up having to go back to glasses. When I lived in Huntsville, AL, the radio station did a trade deal with a local eye doctor who gave me LASIK surgery for free in exchange for commercial testimonials.
31. Trees. Specifically the cool tree from the Philippines that sits near the tennis courts at my condo. It has the most beautiful flowers growing on it and I love to walk by and see the blossoms.
32. Facebook. I have reconnected with so many people thanks to social networking. It is so nice to catch up with my old friends and classmates. Some of these people I've been looking for for the past 20 years. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to live in a time when technology makes this possible.
33. My iPhone. It's the best phone I've ever owned. I love that I can take my email, facebook and twitter with me everywhere I go.
34. Mirrors. I don't like to look in them very often, but I am grateful we have them so I can see how crazy my hair looks in the morning and can fix it before leaving the house.
35. Acrylic nails. I haven't worn them in ages, but I chewed all my nails off recently (I have no idea why) and think another set of acrylic nails is in order, at least for a month or so til mine grow back.
36. Spas. I cannot tell you how thankful I am for massages, facials and pedicures.
37. Sunglasses. It's awfully bright out there! If I didn't have sunglasses it would be really difficult to go outside.
38. Colors. Imagine how boring our world would be if everything were grey.
39. Memories. It is so nice to have such great memories. I'm thankful God made us in such a way that our brains could retain information from days gone by. I smile when I look at old pictures or remember things from the past.
40. The Grove, or more specifically The Apple Grove in Medina, NY. I know it's not there anymore, but I am so thankful I had a place to go hang out with my friends when I was growing up in Medina. I loved dancing there and meeting up with my friends on the weekends. Every teenager in every town should have his own Apple Grove.
41. Publix. Yes, shopping there really is a pleasure.
42. Laurel Springs School. It's where my children take classes for their distance learning. It allows us to homeschool without having to do traditional homeschool.
43. Hair dye. Need I say more?
44. I'm thankful for delivery services. I've come to rely on delivery in Singapore. Without a personal vehicle there really is no other way to get some things home.
45. Expanding on the previous item, McDelivery, Starbucks Delivery, Subway Delivery, KFC Delivery, etc. How cool is it to live in a country where Starbucks and McDonalds deliver?!
46. Remote controls. Am I lazy or what? But seriously, it is a pain to have to get up and turn the TV volume down every time a commercial comes on that is SO MUCH LOUDER than the TV show you were watching. The remote makes that much easier.
47. Freezers. Can you imagine living during a time where you couldn't freeze your meat or ice cream?
48. Cereal. Yep, it's true. We have cereal over here, but I miss the good American cereal like Boo Berry.
49. Vonage. It allows me to have a US telephone number in Singapore.
50. Sling Box. Ours isn't working right now, but when it is working, it's fantastic! It allows us to watch American television.

Okay, there are 50. I could do more, but would you really read them anyway?

The nice thing about listing the fifty things I did list is that it helps me feel less sad than I did when I started this blog. I'm still homesick and miss so many people from back home. I miss the experiences that all my friends and family in the US are getting to live right now, but I am less sad than I was. You can make that number fifty-one.

It was about this time last year that my mom was on an extended cruise touring Europe. Before she left, she wanted to know what I wanted her to bring back for me. She planned on doing her Christmas shopping overseas and wondered what might appeal to me. She asked me, "What is the name of that designer purse you want? Lewis Vinton? I could get you one of those in Italy." Yes. My mom is the coolest fashionista on the block!

So my mom did come back with a Louis Vuitton bag for me. It's a beautiful blue leather bag she picked up in Italy, and it's not authentic. I actually like that it's not authentic because I can get away with calling it my Lewis Vinton bag. If it were authentic, I'd *have* to call it my "Looey." Something about Lewis Vinton makes me smile every time I carry my favorite faux fashion piece.

I love Christmas cards. I love shopping for them. I love writing inside them. I love addressing the envelopes and putting on the festive Christmas stamps. I also love getting them in the mail and putting them on display.

This fascination with Christmas cards came back in 1999. I was a single girl and working on a morning show in Huntsville, Alabama. Our listeners sent us Christmas cards. They were always addressed to Dan, Jennifer & Jerral. The guys really didn't care that anyone sent us cards, so I took them home and put them in my apartment. Dan & his wife got cards from their friends delivered to their house. So did Jerral and his wife. I didn't get any, so the cards I got were the ones I had to share with my morning show partners.

I kept every card that was sent to me in 1999. In January, I packed them all up and put them in my Christmas box. Then before Christmas, 2000, I pulled them back out and I already had a great start for the 2000 holiday. I again kept every card that was sent to the morning show team so that I had twice as many by the time Christmas, 2000 was over.

The nice thing about working for a radio station during the holidays is that artists and record labels also send you really cool Christmas cards. I got cards from Toby Keith, Sawyer Brown, Kenny Rogers, etc. And Warner Brothers Records, Curb Records, etc also sent me cards. Those companies don't get stingy by any means, and they always sent the best cards.

A couple of years ago I sent out Christmas cards to all my friends and family that were caricature drawings of our family, including the dogs. Many friends told us that was the best card they received that year. I never had the prettiest garden in the neighborhood or the nicest yard, but I did send out the best Christmas card one year and that's good enough for me.

Finding Christmas cards in Asia has been a challenge. They don't really celebrate Christmas here. For most Asians, the holidays are celebrated by giving a red envelope filled with money. I don't think I can afford to do that to everyone on my Christmas card list. So this year I just found some cards that looked somewhat Asian-inspired and grabbed those. They aren't cheap here either. I brought home 40 Christmas cards this afternoon and paid S$76.00 for them. This afternoon I will handwrite a message inside each one of them, address them & mail them off to the US.

Truthfully, I'll probably get about ten done before I get bored or stiff from sitting in the same position and I'll have to give it up until tomorrow. But it'll be nice to get started.

I know. It's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I mailed them out the day after Thanksgiving last year and there were some people who still didn't get them until after Christmas. Mail from Asia is slow.

With Thanksgiving a week away, I thought it would be a good time to talk about thankfulness. I could write way more than a blog on thankfulness. I have enough blessings in my life to fill volumes. But for now I will focus on one thing for which I am thankful.

Tonight a friend of mine on Facebook posted a status update that really got me thinking. She said, "Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." Granted, they're not her words (I've read this before somewhere else), it's still great to be reminded. And I'm really thankful for the fact that the statement is true.

I'm not proud of all the things I've done nor am I happy with every decision I've ever made. But I'm grateful that doesn't have to be the end for me. There's still time to rectify the situation. I do have the power to change my own life if that's what I choose to do. I'm kind of in the process of doing that now. I'm ready to make a brand new ending.

In just one month I'll be sitting in seat 43A on Singapore Flight 62. I can't tell you how incredibly excited I am about this trip home!

I'm looking forward to the reunion in Louisiana, cooler temperatures and some amazing Cajun food!

Florida will also offer cooler temperatures (when you've lived on the equator, even Florida can feel chilly), great friends and cherished time with the family.

Singapore is a fairly western nation, so mostly everything we want is available -- for a price. There are still a lot of things that are not available here, though, and I'm looking forward particularly to the summer salad from Crispers, the chicken noodle soup from Panera Bread, fajitas from Tapatias, Diet Cherry Coke, a traditional American breakfast, Florida French toast from First Watch, anything from Cracker Barrel and a Strawberry Lime Aid from Sonic.

We may make a trip to Disney. If there's a shuttle launch while we're home, we may try to catch that. But it's not going to be about "doing things" while we're home as much as it is going to be about seeing people and spending time with those we miss. Probably over a meal.

This trip may also include a trip to New York. That's still up in the air, but if I go, it'll be great to see friends I haven't seen in 20 years or longer. I'd also love to make it up to see a new friend, Brig, who celebrates her birthday right around the same time I celebrate mine. New York used to seem so far away from Florida. Now that I'm living something like 10,000 miles from home, New York and Florida seem like neighbors and it would be a shame not to make the trip while I'm in the country.

We'll try to see everyone while we're home, but it always seems to be that we can't squeeze everything in. It's amazing how a month seems like SO. MUCH. TIME. until you have to try to squeeze everything you want to do into those 30 days and all of a sudden you're wondering why you only planned for one month!

I'm hoping this next month flies by, but that the month after that drags on. That would be ideal. But in reality, I'm sure these next four weeks will seem like eight and the following four will feel more like two.

Time to start making lists! Things to do, places to go, people to see! I can't wait!

38 Days, 15 Hours, 28 Minutes til Christmas. But who's counting?

Christmas is, without a doubt, my most favorite time of year! I have such great childhood memories of Christmas. Growing up in upstate New York meant snow on Christmas most years. I didn't appreciate it then, but it's hard to celebrate Christmas now without the flaky, white cold stuff.

Leading up to Christmas, there were always Christmas cookies. My grandma Nettnin always made sugar cookies for the grandkids to decorate. I remember circling around the kitchen table with my brother and cousins, each of us with all the necessary tools. Gram made sure we were outfitted with plenty of bowls of colored icing, sprinkles, cinnamon dots and anything else you might put on a cookie. My brother was always about throwing as much crap on a cookie as he could fit (better to later eat). I wanted mine to be works of art. My star cookies had perfectly symmetrical designs. Santa always had a red hat with a white stripe and a white pom pom. After we were done, Grandma would put the cookies in a tin lined with wax paper. That night we'd get to eat one with some hot chocolate. The next morning for breakfast? Cookies! Seriously. Christmas cookies for breakfast. Yum.

I loved Christmas caroling too. We never did that where I grew up, but the years we would go visit Gram in Florida, we'd go with our cousins to a specific neighborhood and ring the doorbells, sing a song, and be invited in for cookies and cocoa. I remember one year ringing a doorbell and singing, "Here Comes Santa Claus" the minute the door opened. The lady proclaimed, "We don't celebrate Christmas," and shut the door in our faces. I was stunned. Not celebrate Christmas? Surely there was some kind of mistake. I wanted to call DCF and report them for child abuse. What family withholds the joy of Christmas from a child? Later that night my mom explained that Jews don't celebrate Christmas.

Trimming the tree was never a huge deal at our house when I was a kid. Or, if it was, I don't remember it. But I've made a big deal of it since moving out of my parents' house. My first Christmas on my own I took great care to pick out the perfect Christmas tree. I bought coordinating ornaments and bows and other decorations. It went up the day after Thanksgiving and stayed up until around the 5th of January. I photographed it from every angle. I watered it every day. I was the perfect Christmas tree owner.

When I was a kid, my favorite Christmas present was a doll house Santa Claus brought me when I was about nine years old. I played with Barbies, but the Barbies were too tall to fit in this house, but luckily Santa had the foresight to buy me some smaller dolls to live in this mansion. The dolls were made of cornhusk, so they weren't as realistic as Barbie, Ken & Skipper, nor did they have cool wardrobes. But they fit in the house and that's what mattered.

One year my little brother Charlie was opening a gift from Santa and was shocked to find pajamas inside that beautifully wrapped package. Boy, was he shocked! He even proclaimed, "I didn't order these! Santa must have made a mistake!"

Looking back now I realize how odd it was that Santa brought us all kinds of gifts when we were kids. My parents gave us nothing. I have friends who say Santa brought them just one gift and all the rest were from their parents. Other friends had one gift from their parents and all the rest from Santa. Nearly every friend I've talked to about Santa Claus has a different story to tell about who supplied the gifts at their house.

My kids will likely never get to experience one of the best joys of Christmas I had as a child -- the Sears Wish Book. I would go through that thing from front cover to back cover every day, jotting down things I couldn't live without. Every day I would go through that catalog. I kind of claimed ownership of it. Mom would be looking for it and would have to ask me where to find it. I'd make her go in the kitchen while I'd go dig it out of the hiding place I had found for it. There was no way I was going to let anyone else actually have that precious book. It was M I N E. And I checked it every day in case while I wasn't looking, Mr. Sears added something to it and put it back in our hiding spot. I guess the closest thing my kids will ever get to experience to that almost religious experience is filling out an Amazon Wish List. (So not the same thing!)

So just a little over a month til the big day and this year I haven't even made out a list. Well, on paper anyway. I've got one in my head. (Santa: in case you've made your list, checked it twice and found out I'm nice), I'd love a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II camera lens, the Blue Dragonfly microphone, Romeo is Bleeding on DVD, some cool bookends or some Harajuku Lovers Perfume (Love, Angel or Baby since I already have Music). There is one thing I want more than all the rest, dear Santa, and that's to spend unlimited time with my very best friend in NY. Give me that and you can forget the rest.

This blog is for my dear friend, Yumi. Some encouraging words:
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. ~ Henry David Thoreau
Fall seven times; stand up eight. ~ Japanese Proverb
When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe
The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning. ~ Ivy Baker Priest
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

And possibly my favorite one for you, Yumi, is this:
Remember, when the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful. ~ Barbara Bloom

Feel better, Yumi.

I spend a lot of time on the treadmill, about two hours three times a week. I've got a great mix of music on my iPod, though, so it really makes the time fly. Sometimes I enjoy listening to podcasts. Other times I want the music to push me along. The podcasts are great because you get so involved in what you're listening to that you don't even realize you're walking. Next thing you know, 30 minutes or more has passed and you've logged quite a bit of distance on the treadmill.

Last night I was listening to the Kidd Kraddick Warm-Up Show while I was walking on the treadmill. The gym was filled with people. In fact, it was so full that I had to wait 20 minutes on the couch for a treadmill to open up. I finally got my treadmill, turned on the KKITM Warm-Up Show and got into my groove.

I am still listening to shows from back in February, Black History Month. Big Al hosted a contest between two listeners called, "Know Your Blacks." (If you're not familiar with the show, Big Al is black.) Al would give clues to a famous black person and the first listener to guess who was talking about would win that round. The first person he described was Halle Barry. The second was 50-cent. Then he started giving clues to the third black person: this woman was an L-A Lakers cheerleader, was once married to Emilio Estevez and is currently a judge. While he was finishing giving clues, Kidd interrupted, "Al!?! Paula Abdul is NOT BLACK!" Al, a black man, was stunned that Paula Abdul is not black. I was laughing so hard I nearly peed myself. Keep in mind the gym is full and I'm walking on the treadmill, earphones in, laughing hysterically to myself. Then Kidd said, "And coming up a bonus clue about Simon Cowell in Know Your Chinese." I think I snorted when I laughed that time.

The time flew by on the treadmill last night. I love to laugh and when I get great stuff like this to listen to while I'm walking it really makes the time fly by!

But not everyone wants to laugh while they're walking. I get that. A few podcasts I enjoy for walking:

Kidd Kraddick in the Morning Warm-Up Show
The Shareen and Joe Show
Thinking With Someone Else's Head
TBA Church Lakeland

The music I listen to on the treadmill isn't necessarily the stuff I would listen to if I were in the car or if I were cleaning our flat with the stereo playing. But it's great for the treadmill because it forces you to keep tempo. Here's what I've got in my Treadmill Mix on my iPod:
Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend (Clean Version)
BarlowGirl - No One Like You
Beyonce - Irreplaceable
Beyonce - Halo
Beyonce - Get Me Bodied (remix featuring Fabolous)
Black Eyed Peas - My Humps
Bow Wow featuring Chris Brown & Johnta Austin - Shortie Like Me
Britney Spears - Gimme More
Britney Spears - 3
Brooke Hogan featuring E-40 - About Us
Chris Brown - With You
Club Nouveau - Rumors
DJ EZ Rock & Rob Base - It Takes Two (This says "Explicit" next to it, but either I don't understand the words correctly or it's mismarked)
Fergie - Clumsy
Fergie - Labels or Love
Fergie - Fergalicious
Fergie featuring Ludacris - Glamorous
Fergie, Salt N Pepa, JJ Fad - Push It Fergasonic (DJ Axel Mashup)
Flo Rida - In the Ayer
Flo Rida - Right Round
Francesca Battistelli - Free to Be Me
Fun Factory - Love of My Life
Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel & the Furious Five - White Lines (Long Version)
Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl
Gwen Stefani - Rich Girl
Gwen Stefani - The Sweet Escape
Hilary Duff - Reach Out
Hilary Duff - With Love
Hootie & the Blowfish - Only Wanna Be With You
INXS - New Sensation (12" Mix)
Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
Jesse McCartney - Leavin'
Jesse McCartney - How Do You Sleep
Joan Jett - I Love Rock N Roll
Jordin Sparks - One Step At A Time
Katy Perry - Waking Up in Vegas
Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl
Katy Perry - Hot N Cold
Kimberley Locke - Coulda Been
Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire
KSM - Read Between the Lines
KT Tunstall - Hold On
L'Trimm - Cars That Go Boom (Again, this says "Explicit," but I hear nothing explicit in it)
L'Trimm - Grab It (Remix)
La Bouche - Be My Lover
La Bouche - Sweet Dreams
La Bouche - I Love to Love
La Bouche - Tonight is the Night
Lady Gaga - Love Game
Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
McFly - That Girl
Mickey Avalon - Jane Fonda (this is NOT marked Explicit and probably should be)
Miley Cyrus - 7 Things
Miley Cyrus - Fly On the Wall
Miley Cyrus - The Climb
Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA
Nelly Furtado - Turn Off the Light
Nelly Furtado featuring Timbaland - Promiscuous
New Kids on the Block - Summertime
Newcleus - Jam On It
Nickelback - Rockstar
Omar Chandler featuring Rob Base - Joy & Pain
Peaches - Downtown
The Pussycat Dolls - Don't Cha
Real McCoy - Come And Get Your Love
Real McCoy - Ooh Boy
Reality - Yolanda (Club Mix)
Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe (Madcow Mix)
Relient K - College Kids
Rihanna - Shut Up and Drive
Rihanna - Umbrella vs Cupid's Chokehold Mash-Up
Rihanna - Shut Up Got Back Mash-Up
Robert Plant - Tall Cool One
Roula - Lick It (20 Fingers Club Mix)
SMC - Don't Cry for Me Argentina
Salt N Pepa - Push It (Shuv'd UK Remix)
Sandi Thom - I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)
Santana featuring Jennifer Lopez - This Boy's Fire
Sara Bareilles - Love Song
Saving Jane - Supergirl
Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls
Sean Paul - So Fine
Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean - Hips Don't Lie
SheDAISY - I Will...But
Shwayze - Get U Home
Sister Hazel - We'll Find It
Spice Girls - Wannabe
Sugarland - All I Want To Do
Superchick - So Bright
Tata Golosa - Micromania
Ten Shekel Shirt - Sweet Embrace
TobyMac - Irene
Tone Loc - Wild Thing
UTFO - Roxanne, Roxanne
Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby (Edit)
Various Artists - Grease Megamix - 12" version
Various Artists - The Song of the Heart (from Happy Feet)
Various Artists - Hit Me Up (from Happy Feet)
Various Artists - Max Mix USA 2 (9 minute version)
The Veronicas - Goodbye To You
We the Kings - Check Yes Juliet
Whigfield - Saturday Night
Zac Brown Band - Chicken Fried
2 In A Room - Carnival
20 Fingers - Sex Machine
50 Cent - Just a Lil Bit (Explicit)

I'd love to know what songs get you motivated to hit the treadmill or what podcasts keep you interested. Audio Books might be another good option if you enjoy reading but don't have the time.

I just finished reading the book, "The Alchemist," by Paulo Coelho. This will definitely go down as one of my favorite books ever. First I want to share some of my favorite quotes with you:

When you know that language, it's easy to believe that someone in the world awaits you, whether it's in the middle of the desert or in some great city… without such love, one's dreams would have no meaning.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity.

The world's greatest lie: At a certain point in our lives we lose control of what's happening to us and our lives become controlled by fate.

Every blessing ignored becomes a curse. I don't want anything else in life. But you are forcing me to look at wealth and at horizons I have never known. Now that I have seen them, and now that I see how immense my possibilities are, I'm going to feel worse than I did before you arrived. Because I know the things I should be able to accomplish, and I don't want to do so.

Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives.

Because I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man... Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now.

I think of this book as a love story, among other things. But the way Coelho talks about the love the boy has for Fatima is simply beautiful. I actually cried when I read the unfolding of their love story.

The story is all about the boy going after his dreams. There is definitely a theme in there of chasing your dreams, and being the romantic that I am, I also equate that with love. All that most people in this world want is to find their one true soul mate and to spend the rest of their lives with him/her. Sometimes we meet that person when we are children. Other times it’s not until later in life. No matter when it is, it’s scary. It’s a huge step not to be taken lightly. Sometimes fear stops us from being with the person we love, though. That’s what I like about the second quote above.

I really love how the story ends. To me, it could mean a few things, but going back to my theme of love, I think the author could be saying that the person you are looking for has been there all along. You dream of bigger things. You leave home. You experience the world. But the treasure you have been seeking was always right there where you started.

I really felt like blogging last week. I really felt like I had something to say. Only I didn’t know where to put it. It’s kind of ridiculous, but I’ve got blogs all over the place.

Recently I cancelled my MySpace page. Before I shut it down, though, I snagged some of my old blogs and posted them here on Blogger. I also grabbed a few from my other blogs and put them here. I’m still sort of in the process of consolidating so I can keep them all in one place. It’s a lot more work than it sounded like at first. I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the end though, right?

Meanwhile, there’s a list of topics I really want to blog about piling up in my e-mail inbox. As soon as I think of something new I want to talk about, I shoot myself an email. I really hope to get to that list and give you something worthwhile to read.

We've been trying to get together for ages, and finally Joe Augustin and I got together to talk radio!

We hooked up at Starbucks near my chiropractor's office. It was nice that he brought his wife Adele with him, too. I had never met either one before, but follow them both on Twitter and have been their friend on Facebook for a while as well. I felt like I was having coffee with two people I had known for ages!

It's been a long time since I've actually been in radio. I've been doing voice-overs for a long time, now, and radio from home, but actually working in a radio station doing what radio station people do? Yeah, that's been a long time. So it was awesome to share war stories with someone else who is out of radio, but misses it.

Joe is sort of a legend in Singapore radio. He's worked for every radio station on the island and is currently hosting a podcast with a former morning show partner, Shareen. It's actually quite funny, but definitely not kid-friendly and some of the stuff will go over your head if you don't understand Singapore culture. Look for it on iTunes if you're curious, though. It's called The Shareen & Joe Show.

One of the things we talked about was training locals in voice-over. Keep in mind, Singapore is a tiny island nation. It's possibly as big as Rhode Island in the US. Possibly. You can go around the entire island/country in about three hours if you felt so inclined. So, when Joe told me that I probably have more experience in voice coaching than anyone in Singapore, I only felt proud for a moment. Then I realized that this is a pretty small country, and that's like saying I have the most experience of anyone in this room.

Think about it, the entire island of Singapore doesn't have radio/voice over experience. Just like the entire U-S doesn't have experience. So if you take all the people in Singapore who have ever worked in radio and then put them in one room, you could fill a high school cafeteria, possibly. That's probably being VERY generous. Then you say that I have the most experience. Yeah. Not so hard to do. Not as big a compliment anymore. But it's still easy to capitalize off of and we are talking about doing just that.

We talked about a few other things, too, but nothing I'm really comfortable sharing at this moment. Just know that bigger things could soon be coming and I'm very excited about my cup of joe with Joe! Hopefully Round 2 is coming soon.

Marso and I went to see Elvis Costello last night. What a great show! We had really good seats in the second row behind the sound guy.

When I bought the tickets, I paid a lot of money for the best seats we could get. I remember picking them up. D'Ette went with me to the ticket outlet and she said, "Mom, you do know Elvis is dead, right?" That girl is so thick sometimes.

The concert was part of the Singapore Sun Festival. They have all kinds of entertainment all month long to celebrate the arts and culture in Singapore. It was a great turn-out for the show and he did an amazing set list with two encores.

I don't think Marso enjoyed the show nearly as much as I did, but I was so happy to be there and really loved the whole thing! There were a lot of songs I didn't know. I haven't kept up with his music much in the past few years, but Elvis Costello doesn't put out crap. On top of that, his live show is amazing. It was just him and his guitars. And the bantering he did with the audience between songs was really great too. The man's an entertainer, for sure, with a lively sense of humor! I was kind of amazed at how none of what he said was lost on the locals in the crowd. A lot of times Americans use phrases that other cultures just don't get, but the Singaporeans either understood or played along very well.

I had one of the best sessions ever with a voice coach today. His name is Kevin Delaney and he lives in LA. It was the first time I've ever worked with a dude, and the first time I've ever worked with someone not working for The Great Voice Company. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was so glad I didn't listen to his demo prior to our session.

I'm not really sure why I didn't listen to the demo. Looking back, it was kinda stupid really. But I liked the testimonials on his website and I liked his marketing approach, so I went for it. If I had listened to his friggin' awesome demo first, I probably would have been far too intimidated to actually book a session with him. And boy am I glad I booked that session!

Kevin is an incredible director. He gave me some tricks that I could use right away to instantly make my reads sound so much better. He is also very inspiring. I loved his feedback (and not only because it was so positive), and loved his sincerity. I didn't feel like he was just blowing smoke when he gave me good comments. And the fact that he told me he'd happily introduce me to his agent if I were living in LA??? Okay, that was a bit of an ego boost, for sure!! (Maybe I should consider moving to LA?)

So yeah. Don't get me wrong. I really like the voice coach I've been working with, but Kevin will definitely be my go-to guy!

It's been a really rough couple of weeks for our baby girl as we have separated her from a boy she calls her, "BFF." I was glad to cheer her up today - on her 14th birthday - with a gift she's been wanting hella bad. Her dad and I bought her an iPod Touch. Crazy because Apple just released updates of a bunch of iPods (including the Touch), but they aren't released in Singapore yet, so I don't feel like I've been duped.

The iPod Touch is really a lot like an iPhone, only no phone. Her Touch doesn't have a camera in it either, which is fine since she has a really nice compact Canon anyway.

Now that Apple has allowed for Home Sharing, I've got tons of apps she can already use immediately on her iPod. I think her brother is a little bit jealous, but if anyone deserves this gift, it's our little girl! She is amazing in every way and I wish we could give her even more!

I don't know how my mother did it. I was interested in boys as a teenager, and at 15 had my first "real" boyfriend. (Although as it later turned out, it was his best friend that I was really interested in!) But I was definitely more mature when I was 13, 14 and 15 years old than my daughter is. Still, that doesn't stop the boys from looking at her, which is the current case.

A boy my little girl has been hanging out with as a friend has a mad crush on her. It's all over his Facebook page. He's been trading nonstop emails with her asking her what I consider to be inappropriate personal questions (although not sexual).

We've had to pull the plug on this friendship before it went too far. He has since ran the gamut of emotions. He was obviously very angry judging by posts on his Facebook page. He acted confused. And now he has admitted to our son that he is in love with our daughter.

He's pretty mad that we won't let him have contact with our daughter, but he has already distracted her from her school work enough. Some of the suggestions the two of them have made about how they were going to find time to spend together is also a bit worrisome. So, rather than have to deal with that stress right now with a 14-year-old girl who needs to focus on her school work, we have put an end to the friendship.

Some parents might think we're being a bit overprotective. Maybe. But I honestly think too many parents give their children too much freedom, then wonder why their 16-year-old sweetheart is carrying around a baby bump. It's not going to happen on my watch.

Hard to believe my little girl is turning 14 in a few days! Earlier this evening we had a birthday party for her and invited a group of her friends whose parents we hadn't yet met. It was a bit stressful for me since I hadn't met these people, but I'm glad to have gotten that over with.

D'Ette was really happy to get to hang out with her friends and it was neat to watch her interact with these girls and boys. (Yes, boys, ugh!) I remember a few years ago we had a party for her birthday and she had a difficult time getting along with so many different girls in one room. Kids grow up so fast. Teenagers even more quickly! She's more mature now and she's able to handle all the different personalities of both genders.

She got some really thoughtful gifts from her friends, and we gave her a new bathing suit and some other stuff she wanted. Her official birthday isn't until the 28th, and we have something else for her, but she doesn't know what that is yet and I'm not going to spill the beans here for all the trouble I've gone through to keep it a secret!

Singaporeans don't eat cake like we do in the US, so there was no birthday cake. One of the kids' mothers did bring an apple raisin cake, but there's nothing like a good Publix birthday cake. I don't know who will be celebrating a birthday while I'm back in the US next, but I'll be buying a birthday cake and eating it in celebration. Or just in plain pigginess. Chocolate Publix birthday cake with white icing. Here I come!

It's really cool to see history. I've never been much of a museum-goer, but when one of the museums in Singapore hosted the Dead Sea Scrolls, I was excited to take the kids to see it. My friend Kara and her daughter Cami went with us.

I took over 200 pictures of the Bibles and artifacts contained in this exhibit. I'm seriously in so much awe still that I'm having a hard time putting into words the beauty of this exhibit. I had this same feeling when I visited Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam last year. Something about being around so much history that just makes you realize the incredible awesomeness of all that has been preserved.

Another day, another chiropractor appointment.

I've been going to the chiropractor for some problems with my neck for several weeks now. It started out as a 6-week therapy. Then, because there was really not very much improvement, another 6 weeks were added on. Three days a week for 12 weeks. Let's hope at the end of this we see some improvement.

I initially went to the chiropractor because my neck had been hurting and I'd been having headaches. This has been going on for some time. So the chiro took some x-rays and showed me where my neck is pretty screwed up. A healthy neck is curved about 15 degrees. My neck is curved about 5 degrees -- in the wrong direction! So that's a 20-degree adjustment he has to make on my poor little head-holder-upper.

This is no ordinary treatment, either! We're talking about crazy vibrating beds, neck weights, head weights, vibrating platforms, jock straps on the chin and forehead. Yeah, sexy! (That vibrating bed thing isn't as appealing as it sounds - this is no massage, I assure you!)

How did my neck get so screwed up? Probably from looking down at my computer so much. I have been using a laptop for a long time and I guess it's taken its toll on me. So anyway, posture is important; ergonomics are important; therapy is important. So we're doing all we can to get this thing fixed.

We don’t have cable TV here because we’re worried the kids will spend their lives in front of the idiot box rather than out exploring the country. So when we want to relax on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, this is what we’re stuck with -- Bollywood. The sad thing is? My husband actually watches it and complains when I get between him and the bad acting.

I really love what I do for a living. I can't imagine doing anything but voice-overs.

There's something about using my voice to bring life to some words on a page that really excites me! I love how just using some different inflection or slowing things down or speeding things up or pausing somewhere unexpected can make someone really listen to what I'm saying. I love to voice commercials and audio books and radio imaging. I love all kinds of projects and I love that people actually pay me to listen to me talk! Seriously, what could be better?

This morning I had another session with my voice coach, Moneen. I love how she stretches and me makes me try things I never would have ordinarily tried. I like how I'm a little bit nervous to talk to her sometimes because I know she's going to be honest with me. I need to know what stinks just as badly as I need to know what's good. I'll never get better if I only hear the good stuff, so I appreciate that she's honest with me.

There are a lot of opportunities in Singapore that I haven't even delved into yet! I've been talking with this guy who is pretty much a legend in Singapore radio. He's been doing it here as long as I've been doing it in the US. We've talked about teaming up for some stuff and at some point we'll actually get together and discuss these ideas. So far our schedules haven't exactly matched up though.

In the meantime, I am enjoying my voice coaching sessions and I'm practicing every day. I've started reading out loud more, auditioning for everything I can audition for, and have been practicing my character voices more frequently.

Just think, when the roof blows off this thing, you can say you knew me when I wrote some stupid blog.

As the sign explains, they pretty much do it all here. My favorite is the surgical procedures. If you want it removed -- no matter what it is -- looks like they can do it!

Be honest. Would you have known this was a McDonald’s ad if it weren’t for the Golden Arches in the bottom right corner?

First of all, it’s served in a non-McDonalds-like container. Secondly, there’s a GLASS of green tea. Not a paper cup. I thought it was an interesting local ad for McDonalds in Singapore.

I'm in a great mood today. Strike that. Fantastic mood! Unless great is better than fantastic, in which case I'm definitely in a great mood. Seriously? Nothing can bring me down today!

Ever just wake up knowing it was going to be a great day? That's how I felt from the moment I woke up this morning. Nothing specific. No mail from Ed McMahon. No winning lottery numbers. No brushes with greatness. Just a genuine amazing day that will keep a smile on my face from now until the time I go to bed tonight.

Really? What better feeling is there than the feeling of loving life? None! Absolutely NONE!

Okay, I ate it. I hated it. I will never eat it again. But at least I tried it, right?

This is why choosing a name is so important for your business. The above is a screenshot I took from an ad on my Facebook page. Would you want to buy clothes from a place called Leshita De Closet? Me neither. On top of that, they misspelled “owner.”

My kids don't really remember life before Facebook. They're fortunate to grow up in a time when the Internet is something you can take for granted. It wasn't like that for me.

It was just a few months before my sixteenth birthday when we moved from New York to Florida. That was pretty traumatic for me. I was in tenth grade and had been going to school with the same people since first grade. I remember how angry I was with my parents for making me pick up and move.

Keeping in touch back then was hard. Sure, it’s not like we had the Pony Express or anything. We could write letters, but nobody did. Long distance telephone calls were very expensive. There were no cell phones and no unlimited long distance calling plans.

My friend Chris came to Florida to visit me a few months after we moved. She was such a great friend, but we had a hard time keeping in touch and eventually grew apart.

I graduated from high school, went off to college and the Internet was introduced. At first it was dial-up modems and very slow connections. Of course, we were just amazed that this virtual world existed. Speed (or lack of it) meant nothing. You dial in, go make yourself a pot of coffee or some lunch, come back and spend the next hour trying to log on to a bulletin board. It didn’t take long for the Internet to expand. The speed increased and more information became available at your fingertips.

Then Facebook came around, and with it the opportunity to have virtual class reunions. It’s been so nice catching up with some of my old classmates online. Having gone to two high schools, I’ve got a lot of people to catch up with.

Very cool that last week an old friend I’ve been looking for for about 20 years found me on Facebook. It was incredibly cool to catch up and learn some of the things I learned.

Maybe with Facebook we’ll never have to worry about buying the perfect dress or losing 20 pounds before attending a class reunion. We can just do it all online and post our best photos. All the fun with none of the stress!

I saw a guy at the MRT Sunday who was wearing this t-shirt. It kind of cracked me up. I mean, who goes around advertising they “heart” pies?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely a lover of pies! Apple pie, cherry pie, blackberry pie, raspberry pie ... all fruit pies, really! But I don’t go around advertising it. Quite frankly, I think the size of my butt does a good enough job advertising that I love pies.

Seeing this shirt got me thinking ... what would I go around advertising my love for on a t-shirt?

I ♥ Jesus
I ♥ my husband
I ♥ my mom
I ♥ my dad
I ♥ my kids
I ♥ USA

I actually really love a few other things, but would not wear them on a shirt. I will, however, share them with you here:

I ♥ Poodles
I ♥ Chuck
I ♥ Charlie Epps
I ♥ Twitter
I ♥ to talk ... a lot!
I ♥ iWeb
I ♥ embarrassing my children
I ♥ radio
I ♥ Tristan Prettyman (Okay, I might actually put that one on a t-shirt)

What do you love enough to put on a t-shirt? What do you love that you’d be too embarrassed to put on a t-shirt?

I wish the locals could see what I see when they look at themselves in their ridiculous tiny bathing suits. Doesn’t it look like the man on the left is wearing boxer briefs and the man on the right is wearing his little tight bikini underwear? That’s how it looks to me!

I blogged quite a while ago about an incident where my son got kicked out of the pool because he wasn’t wearing one of these little tiny suits. He was wearing board shorts, a style more popular in America. I was told that there were complaints about the style of bathing suit my son chose to wear when swimming. Really? They were complaining that they couldn’t see enough? He’s just 16, for crying out loud! I told the office people that if I knew it was okay to complain, I’d have complained long ago that my daughter has to look at men wearing nothing but tiny little tight undies every time she goes to the pool. Good thing we already had “the talk” or we might well have been forced into it after hanging out at our swimming pool!

This is the note that came along with my custom earphones. “Very small ears,” they say. Well no duh! That’s why I had impressions made to get some earphones that would actually fit in my ears!

You have no idea what it’s like to have ears so small that even the small earphones on the market won’t go inside my ears. I’m loving my LiveWires, though! These puppies not only produce great sound, but they fit in my ears & when I”m on the treadmill, they don’t fall out!

By the way, my endodontist also says I have a “very small mouth.” If you like, I can get him to write me a note for proof.

This is a picture waiting to be taken.

This guy is hanging out of the wall at Jurong Point above a store that sells comic books. I can only guess he’s some comic book hero. He is not actually doing what you think he is. There are more fingers in the air than just that controversial middle one, but from this angle you can’t tell. I wonder how long The Singapore Morality Council will allow this to stay put.

I’m definitely a glass half-full kind of person, so it’s hard for me to understand how people can be so pessimistic sometimes. My son, for instance. He’s got one of the worst outlooks on life of anyone I’ve ever met! I’m not sure where he gets its from, but it’s difficult to try to give encouragement to someone who really doesn’t want it. Ever try to cheer up a pessimist?

My daughter, on the other hand, is an incredible optimist. She always looks on the bright side of things. Suzy Sunshine. How she and her brother were made by the same two people is beyond me. Something somewhere went berserk. They are as opposite as two people can possibly be.

Last night at dinner I asked my son, daughter and husband to name one thing that had happened to each of us this week. The goal is to make sure we are all paying attention to one another’s lives. I did this exercise once last week. I made my son go first. When he had to name something that happened to each of us, he was stumped and struggled through. I then asked my daughter to do the same thing. When my son realized this was the same thing I did last week, he said, “Oh, I get it. This is to make sure we’re paying attention to each other, or to make sure that I’m paying attention.” (He thought I was targeting him because he really doesn’t pay very close attention to what we’re all doing from day to day.) That gives you an idea of his attitude. My daughter struggled a little, but she said, “That’s okay, Jean-Luc, we’ll get better at it!”

Reminds me of an old joke about a pessimist and an optimist who were each placed in rooms full of horse manure. The pessimist cried and cried, depressed that he was surrounded by the smell, the sight, the icky feeling of manure. The optimist, on the other hand, was gratefully digging through the manure, excited and giggling. The psychiatrist asked the optimist what he/she was so happy about. The optimist said, “With all this crap, there’s got to be a horse under here somewhere!”

Just as people ask now, “Where were you when you learned Kennedy had been shot?” and “Where were you when you heard the news about the Twin Towers coming down?” one day people will ask, “Where were you when you got the news that Michael Jackson died?”

I was on the toilet.

I realize it happened at like 3 in the afternoon, but living in Singapore, that’s the middle of the night for me. So I got up Friday morning (It was still Thursday night for you people in America) and did my usual routine. I had my iPhone with me in the bathroom because I had just woken up and wanted to read email or do something - you know, multitask. My friend Alicia interrupted my game of Spider Solitaire with the breaking news that Michael Jackson died.

At age 50, Michael Jackson suffered sudden cardiac arrest. I wrote a story about this for the Ross Brittain Report:

The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association says the untimely death of pop star MICHAEL JACKSON underscores the tragedy of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and the importance of knowing CPR.
What is it sudden cardiac arrest? SCA is the result of an electrical disruption of the heart. It’s not the same thing as a heart attack. It comes on without warning and can strike people who seem to be healthy and have no history of heart disease. Every two minutes someone in America dies from sudden cardiac arrest.
Reports suggest Jackson wasn’t alone and lived just two minutes from the hospital. Even that wasn’t sufficient to keep him alive. Health officials say someone who suffers SCA needs CPR and the shock of an automated external defibrillator (AED) immediately if they are going to have any chance of survival. Doctors say this only drives home the reminder that CPR is a basic life-saving skill everyone should know.

It’s a shame, really. I used to love Michael Jackson. I don’t know if anyone will ever know what caused him to go from fabulous to freaky. It’ll be interesting to watch his kids grow up and see how the media treats them. Actually, it’s not the media I’m worried about. It’s the playground. Two brothers both named Prince Michael (the only difference in their names is that one is Prince Michael 1 and the other is Prince Michael 2) is definitely cause for teasing on most playgrounds.

Ya know, what we do on this earth while we are here has everything to do with how we will be remembered when we’re gone. I love the Nicole Nordeman song “Legacy” because it tells this very story. I want to leave a legacy. How will they remember me?

Do you ever think about that? How will you be remembered when you’re gone? Michael Jackson could have been remembered for selling gazillions of records, for being an amazing pop star, for his philanthropy. But something in this man wasn’t quite right and what could have been an amazing legacy will probably be more about child molestation charges, tons of plastic surgery and dangling his baby over a balcony.

You don’t have to be a pop star known globally to make a difference in the world. You have it in you to do excellent things right where you are, and it’s really never too late to start.

They say celebrity deaths come in threes. I’m starting to believe them (whoever “they” are).

Ed McMahon died June 23rd, just two days before Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.

I used to love watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Ed McMahon was the best sidekick ever. I remember watching that and thinking that one day I wanted to have a sidekick of my own. (Why be Ed McMahon when you can be Johnny Carson and have your very own Ed McMahon?)

Having worked in the media I can say I agree wholeheartedly with David Brenner (who often filled in as a guest host for Johnny Carson). Brenner said, “Ed McMahon was the best sidekick TV has ever known.” It’s not easy being a sidekick and letting someone else get all the glory when you are the one ‘setting up the funny.’ I’ve been in that seat many times. It’s much easier to be the funny guy than the sidekick. He played that role as if he were born for it.

Ed McMahon lived a long life and his family should be proud of all he did in his 86 years on Earth. He will be greatly missed.

The news of Farrah Fawcett’s death will be greatly overshadowed by the news of Michael Jackson’s, but two entertainment icons dead in one day. That’s pretty tragic.

I remember wanting to be Farrah Fawcett when I was a little girl. She could kick some serious butt! Charlie’s Angles was one of my favorite TV shows. One of the things I liked about it so much was that it was a show that my dad and I both liked to watch. There wasn’t a whole lot of stuff on TV like that when I was a kid -- stuff that would entertain both me and my dad.

She was beautiful and had the perfect hair in the late 70s, early 80s. I remember standing in front of the mirror trying to get the perfect feathered look -- just like Farrah Fawcett -- then grabbing the can of Aqua Net to keep it all in place.

Farrah learned three years ago that she had anal cancer. She went through chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and was declared cancer-free in 2007. That didn’t last long, though. She found out a few months later the cancer was back. She sought out alternative cancer therapies at the end of 2007. Farrah Fawcett died on June 25, 2009 at the age of 62.

Do I have to post a quote every day in order to have a “quote of the day?” I hope not.

Regardless, I read this today and it touched me so I thought I’d share it with you:

“The growth of one blesses all. I am committed to grow in love. All that I touch, I leave in love. I move through this world consciously and creatively.” ~ Julia Cameron

I have no idea who Julia Cameron is, but I like what she had to say. Yes, I realize I could google her, but who’s got time for that?

One of the great things about traveling is trying new foods. I’m a big lover of fruit, so I was anxious to try some of the interesting fruits available in Singapore. Nothing unusual about the pineapple, blueberries and raspberries pictured above, but those little things that look like stars are called starfruit. (Clever name, don’t ya think?)

I cut one open this afternoon for the first time so the kids could taste it. The fruit comes from Thailand and is quite unusual in appearance. Without the help of the Internet, I would never have had any idea how to even cut or eat this thing. (TGFG - Thank God For Google!)

After cleaning the fruit and cutting off the edges, I sliced the fruit as I would a banana and removed the seeds. It’s very easy to prepare.

Then came the best part -- tasting it. I was less than impressed. I don’t hate it, but it tastes very much like raw peas. Not very sweet at all. I prefer my fruit to be sweet. I won’t write starfruit off -- after all, it makes a beautiful decoration!

This sign was hanging up at a flea market in Ocala, FL, USA. I had to snap a picture of it so I had proof. There are so many things wrong with this sign. Where, or where to begin?

Okay, how about with the obvious. Loose Barbies? Does Ken know this?

And what’s with the apostrophe? Obviously Flea Market Barbie Salesman didn’t pay attention during 6th grade Grammar class (or quite possibly never made it that far). Here’s your free lesson:

Barbies
Barbie’s

What’s the difference? One of the two shows ownership. The other of the two is plural, meaning there is more than one Barbie. The one with the apostrophe shows ownership. In other words, something that belongs to Barbie. So either Flea Market Barbie Salesman is selling something that belongs to Loose Barbie or he is selling a bunch of Loose Barbies. (My word! There are more than one of them?!)

But we’re not done. He tells us on his sign these Loose Barbies are $3.00, boxed as marked. They were all in boxes and they were all marked $3.00. Why go to the trouble of writing on each box if you’re going to have a sign telling me they are $3.00 each? Then on top of that, he somehow felt the need to tell me that they were $3.00 each AND that they were all boxed and marked. You know, in case I missed that part.

No wonder Barbie’s loose. She’s probably drunk too.

Do-do-do-do-do I’m lovin’ it!

Marso and I ordered McDelivery for the first time today. That’s right, McDonald’s delivers! You can place your order online, get an e-mail confirmation, and in about 30 minutes the little McDonald’s dude pulls up on his McMoped with your McOrder.

Life is good.