Pen and Ink

This and that.

Some random tidbits of the day:

Bring it on

On Friday I spent a couple of hours working with JR, the director of the culinary school at work. As we finished brainstorming the start-up marketing plan, we took in the colorful flip charts on the wall. We reflected about what an insane year it is going to be.  For him, there's an inordinate amount of work, with virtually no staff, that he has to do to open the school.  For me, it's a mile-long list of work-related projects, along with the addition of the tv show, two boards I am being invited onto, and a continuation on my homeowners board (what am I thinking??).

"Bring it on!" John exclaimed.

He stated, "I find that the more I have to do, the more I can accomplish."

Visual thinker that I am, I took a marker and wrote "Bring it on!" on the large white board in my office.  I kinda like his attitude.

It's just so wrong

Last night, Andy and I went to dinner with Cary and Neal to J. Alexander's in Fort Lauderdale.  Andy's put himself on a really controlled diet and Cary, Neal and I...well...let's just say we need to do it too. 

J. Alexander's is right next to a Krispy Kreme, and as we parked, Andy commented that he had never had a Krispy Kreme donut.  Well, darlin', that ain't right.

So we decided that diets or no, we would treat ourselves to a donut after dinner.

After leaving the restaurant, we went next door, drawn by the "Hot Donuts" sign that was illuminated (never a good thing!).  Well, what happened next wasn't too pretty. 

Because we couldn't decide what varieties we each wanted, we ordered a box of the damn things.  Yes, that's right.  A dozen donuts and four of us.  You do the math.

In just an hour

On Saturday, Andy and I painted our living room and part of the entry hall (it's a very open space, so it's really all together.)

We easily settled on the paint color and went off to Benjamin Moore to get the paint.

They have a new line called Aura.  It's wicked expensive (as we say in New England), but it dries in just an hour. An hour!  Well worth the money.  We got the room done (not a huge space in terms of square footage, but the walls go 15 feet up!) in an afternoon.  I felt so good about that.

And I must say that it was really wonderful doing this project with Andy -- we are so compatible and work well together on projects like this.  I'm used to doing all the painting myself (my ex was good at so many things around the house, but I couldn't let him near a paint roller), so having someone to work with was a joy.

Kelly or Ed?

The other day I dropped the news that I will be co-hosting a television show (S commented, "You're all giddy, aren't you?")

Well, details about the format became a little clearer on Friday. It looks like it will be a talk-show type of format, with banter between host and co-host, and all sorts of segments on many topics related to the culinary arts. And it will be done with touches of humor, which is befitting our personalities.  It will be cool; we don't think there's anything else like it.

So I will be the co-host, kinda like Kelly to Regis, or Ed to Johnny.

We're still looking at a launch in May and will be meeting with the producer soon. 

S is right, I have to admit. I'm all giddy.

New projects for a new year.

There's something about the start of a new year that makes me want to change things around the house. Perhaps it's about new beginnings. 

I have two projects on the agenda.  The living room is being completely re-done and we're creating a new study.

We moved our living room furniture into other parts of the house to make room for Cary's stuff when he moved in.  But he never actually moved in, only his stuff.  His stuff is in the process of moving out and into his new bf's house.

So we've decided to do over the living room. I should tell you that the room that houses the living room was actually designed to be the dining room. An extremely small dining room.  After my ex moved out, I switched the living room and dining room.

The former dining room, with its 15 foot ceilings, was painted charcoal gray. It looked great with the dining room furniture that I used to have. Now we're repainting it a dark khaki color, which will look great with the burgundy drapes that are currently hanging and will remain.

New furniture arrives next Friday: two love seats in a lighter beige color. They will face each other with a small coffee table we already have.  And since there is electricity where the dining room chandelier once hung, we've purchased a pendant lamp from West Elm that will hang pretty low over the coffee table.

Cary's former (never quite) bedroom will become a study.  It feels like de ja vu, as it was less than a year ago that I did over the other bedroom to be my study.  But that's now the guest room, so we're making a new study.

The room was painted off white before Cary's stuff arrived, and we hung dark brown, wooden blinds. Very masculine.

My glass L shaped desk, currently in the attic, will stay there. We've bought a dining table from City Furniture, which will serve as a desk. Two burgundy wing chairs, currently in storage, will become our desk chairs.  And two books cases, built by my father when I was a kid, will be refinished into a darker stain.  And I will add a floor-to-ceiling blackboard, something I planned for last year's study, but never got around to buying.

Ancillary projects will ensue, including redoing the closet in the study into storage shelves, instead of typical closet fixtures.

This is gonna be a quicky project though. Furniture is arriving a week from today, so painting of the living room gets done this weekend, and I will begin refinishing the book cases this week.

I'll post pictures when I'm done. Wish me luck.

Lil ole me...on TV.

In yesterday's post I made mention of the new culinary school I am helping to develop.  I will be writing more on this subject in the days and weeks to come, but here's a little bit of news:

I will be co-hosting a television show!

The college has a television station, just a local cable station, but it is also carried on the web.  The director of the school will be developing a culinary-focused show for the station, and has asked me to co-host it with him.  We've been working very creatively and energetically together, so he thinks it would be fun to do this with me.

Even though this actually came up some months ago, we haven't started development of the show. So I don't know exactly what it's going to look like.  But we're planning to take to the airwaves in May.

Details and links to come!

Do something creative every day.

I may be a few days late, but here is my New Year's post.  To start, I want to acknowledge that I totally borrowed my headline from Paper Source. It's their registered trademark, but I'm not making any money off this blog, so I am sure it won't be a problem.

Last year, I wrote within these pages that I was not making resolutions for the new year. So too, this year. Resolutions are things to be forgotten, usually quickly.

As I think about the coming year, I focus on some broad themes around which I will guide my life.

Creativity

The idea of creativity has been on my mind a lot lately. I even wrote on the subject in a posting right before Christmas.

Creativity will be the dominant theme in my life this year. I want to continue exploring my photography, being fueled by positive feedback I have received from a number of people.  While on a day-trip to Provincetown during my Boston visit, Andy and I wandered into a photography gallery. I was drawn to some images by a particular artist and was tempted to buy a couple of pieces.  Andy stopped me saying, "You're as good as this. Make your own."  So that's what I will do.

Despite the erratic nature of my blogging over the last year, I want to recommit to my writing. I need to get back to reading other blogs, drawing inspiration from the various writing styles and interests of my fellow bloggers.  It is they who originally drew me into this world, and as difficult as it can be to make the time for this, I enjoy the process of reading and writing.

I also want to do more cooking. I've been finding joy in creating menus for parties large and small. Andy and I both like  to entertain, so I want to do more of that, creating settings in which to bring together interesting people.

The theme of creativity will keep me motivated at work as well. I don't often write about my job in this blog, believing that there are more interesting things to think about. But I'm doing something really cool at work -- I'm part of a team that has been developing a new culinary school. This work is going well beyond my job description, but I'm having fun with it.  I'll write about this in an upcoming post.

The Future

Last year I wrote that one of my goals for 2009 was to dramatically build up my professional network within South Florida.  I'm happy to report that I've made great strides with that, and the fruits of my labors are making themselves known.  Even as I write, two non-profits have approached me about joining their boards.  My friends, I've arrived in Miami.

I'm going to continue this networking, as it helps me in my life and in my work. I have no idea where my professional life will lead me, but I know one thing: it is the people in my life who will guide my professional future.

There is also a practical step I am taking: saving money. I've decided that if I want to be open to opportunities in the future, I need a cushion.  A number of people have talked to me about starting a consulting practice at some point in the future. That will take money.  I've also had a dream of opening a store someday.  More money.  While I'm not hurting financially, I told Andy that I want to bank a ton of money to give both of us flexibility in the future.

Balance

Life is all about balance. Compared to a lot of other people, I'm a pretty well balanced guy.  I keep work in perspective (most days) and I make time for creative outlets.  I spend time with my partner and with his (our) kids.  Owning a house adds pressure, but thanks to Andy being here, I've got that under control.

My health is a bit out of balance, primarily how I feel.  I want to drop 20-30 pounds, which is a big endeavor and not an easy one at that.  No one tells me I'm heavy and my doctor has not told me to lose weight, but I just don't feel good. I want to go back to my yoga practice, but it's not feeling comfortable right now.

Perhaps 2010 will be the year I get that part of my life in balance.

Whither the personal note?

Recently I read an article about how the practice of handwriting notes has gone out of fashion. I'm not sure where this was -- probably some popular magazine piece about notecards.

Nonetheless, the article had a point. In our electronic world, so few of us take the time to write notes to people.  I will admit that I am guilty of this.  I meet a lot of people in my work, and so often, in my mad rush to do a thousand things at once, I resort to email notes.

In the world of work, that's acceptable I suppose. Lately, though, after meeting someone and having a somewhat meaningful conversation at a work-related social event, I've delighted in taking the time to hand-write a note the next day.  A simple "I enjoyed our conversation and would like to continue over lunch" or "thank you for your gracious hospitality" goes a long way, I think.

Nobody ever comments on it, but I like doing it.

After reading the article, though, I decided that I should take up the practice in my personal life. A phone call the day after having been in someone's home is appropriate, but I think a hand-written thank you is an additional gesture.

I'm not getting caught up in having letter press stationery printed, but I did buy some notecards.

 

While wandering Boston last week, Andy and I came upon Paper Source on Boylston Street. There I found a great selection of blank notes in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes.  They also had a great selection of rubber stamps and a wide range of ink pad colors.

I selected some 4x6 flat cards and envelopes in khaki, and a funky lower-case "g" stamp and a royal blue ink pad.

Tonight, I wrote notes to Chris and Drew with whom we stayed in Boston, plus my friends Mark and Zane who had us to dinner in their home, and Ara, who hosted a lovely New Year's eve party at his house (wow, can that boy make stuffed grape leaves or what!?)

As we get more and more techno and faster and faster with our daily lives, I think it's important not to lose some of the niceties of yesteryear. It keeps us grounded, I think.

Love them evangelicals.

I interrupt my regularly scheduled "first post of the new year/what I want to accomplish in 2010" piece to talk about something different.

Last evening, willing myself not to think about my first day back at work after two weeks, Andy and I settled in (under comfy blankets given the cold snap in South Florida) to watch season three of The Tudors, newly released on DVD.

If you haven't seen it, The Tudors is a lavishly produced historical fiction series on Showtime about the reign of English monarch Henry VIII (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers). It's graphic in its presentation of extremes -- brutal murders and rampant sexual goings on.

Driving to work this morning, still rebelling against the idea of work, I thought about the four episodes I viewed last night. The drama draws the viewer in, even when you may not particularly like the people the actors portray.

My mind focused on the hypocrisy of the time. While the writers and producers do take a little liberty with the timing of the events and even the compositions of some of the characters, what I do think they honestly portray is the brutal nature of the church -- both the Roman Catholic church and the newly-formed Church of England. While purporting to be deeply pious, Henry orders beheadings and hangings by the score. Even the pope, in an early episode, asks, "Why doesn't someone kill the whore?", referring to Henry's mistress and eventual wife, Anne Boleyn.

Even their adherence to sexual mores are questionable. With his wife pregnant with his son (finally!), Henry cheats with one of her attendants.

I would like to think that as a society, we have progressed in our moral values. To be sure, many have. Hopefully, the Roman Catholic Church is not still ordering the death of people who dare to disagree. And I don't think Queen Elizabeth has had anyone beheaded lately.

But silly me.  Perhaps we haven't come that far.

Take a look at the front page of the New York Times today, right below the fold: "After U.S. Evangelicals Visit, Uganda Considers Death for Gays."

It seems as though three of our country's high and mighty holy rollers -- Scott Lively, (a "missionary);" Caleb Lee Brundidge (a self-described gay man who leads "healing seminars), and Don Schmierer (a board member from Exodus International (oh please)) -- traveled to Uganda to give a series of talks on "the gay agenda -- that whole hidden and dark agenda."  Three days they spewed their venom. The visitors, according to the Times, "discussed how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how 'the gay movement is an evil institution' whose goal is 'to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.'"

In the audience were thousands of police officers, teachers, and national politicians.

One month after the conference (one month!) a Ugandan politician, who allegedly has ties to evangelical friends in the American government, introduced a bill that threatens to hang homosexuals.

David Bahati, Ugandan lawmaker

Of course the three are backing away from their involvement in the matter.  I love what Schmierer said: "That's horrible, absolutely horrible. Some of the nicest people I have ever met are gay people."

What these three have done, according to the Rev. Kapya Kaoma, a Zambian who went undercover to chronicle the relationship bewteen the African anti-homosexual movement and American evangelicals, "is set the fire they can't quench."

I guess we haven't come as far as I would like. I wonder if some years hence, Showtime will make a series about the truth behind the evangelical movement.  If so, they should be portrayed as the immoral thugs they are, just like the church leaders in Henry's day.

Snowy day.

New Year's snow in Boston.