Or, When's That Phone Going To Ring, and How Many Books Can I Read At One Time?

I thought a 3-month severance/vacation would be fun.  And, for the most part, it has been.  Beach trip, hanging out with Budd and the cat, reading the paper from cover to cover every day.  But now, I'm getting antsy to get back to work.  Lots of resumes sent, several interviews, and now I find myself sitting by the phone every weekday, especially since our shared answering machine has a really bad version of "Hello, I Love You" on it sung by Budd's father.  He refuses to change it because Budd's maternal grandmother just loved it everytime she heard it, even though she is now in the Great Beyond and is highly unlikely to call.  I'm sure I'm not alone in this endeavor.  By the way, if you are reading this and need a top-notch administrative assistant/graphic designer/marketing assistant, I'm available for hire.  Email me and I'll send my resume right along.  I'm also available through Creative Scamper, my freelance endeavor. 

In the meantime, I'm trying to increase my reading.  I've read those great books that I reviewed earlier, White Noise and The Colorful Apocalypse.  Now I'm working on Cosmopolis, another DeLillo novel, and in my stack (I'm trying to keep up with Budd who reads at least 5 books at a time) are The Reader by Bernhard Schlink; Plainsong by Kent Haruf; Straight Man by Richard Russo; and What is the What by Dave Eggers.

I chose these because, 1) I like DeLillo; 2) Russo's book got great reviews and he won a Pulitzer; 3) Schlink's book was a NY Times Notable Book of the Year and LA Times Book of the Year; 4) Haruf's book was a National Book Award finalist; and 5) Eggers' book also got great reviews and the first couple of chapters are mesmerizing.

I seem to gravitate toward books that are award-winners.  I'm particularly interested in reading National Book Award winners and finalists, and I've found some good ones that were NY Times Notables, in particular, Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. 

If you've read any that are in my pile of five mentioned above, let me know what you think.  And if you have any employment leads, I'd love to hear from you as well. 

The Wearable Planet

Friday was my last day at R.J. Reynolds, as I was part of a downsizing.  Really, it's ok.  I got a nice severance, I don't have to drive to Winston on a daily basis, and my former boss gave me a lovely gift from The Wearable Planet, a little shop in Kernersville that I had heard of, but hadn't visited.  He gave me a beautiful green jasper necklace, and a bag full of "Chakra Stones", knowing how much I love (and collect) rocks and minerals.  He also gave me a card that is plantable - it is made of seeds and you can plant it in soil and it will grow wildflowers.  I really liked that and found his gifts to be very thoughtful.

So, yesterday, Budd and I visited The Wearable Planet and found lots of other neat and interesting items.  A good selection of rocks and minerals, with little slips of paper identifying them and their properties; a silver Ganesh incense tray, which we used to put in our Prosperity corner with citrine, as per the Feng Shui book I'm reading; a beautiful green fluorite candle holder, and two mineral key chains - tiger's eye for Budd, and unakite for me. 

First discovered in the US in the Unakas Mountains of our own state, unakite is an altered granite composed of pink orthoclase, feldspar, green epidote, and generally clear quartz. It exists in various shades of green and pink and is usually mottled in appearance.  I've mined quite a bit of it at Emerald Hollow Mine in Hiddenite, not knowing what it was until I found a polished piece at a bead shop in Pittsboro with identification. 

Anyway, back to The Wearable Planet.  They have organic clothing, organic pet products, organic baby items, jewelry, cards, soy candles, bath and body products, music, books and more.  They specialize in fair trade, sweatshop-free and envorinmentally friendly products.  Their staff is real friendly too.  They remind me of a smaller version of one of my favorite Greensboro shops of days gone by, Global Perspectives.  I remember spending hours in Global Perspectives marvelling at their wares.  I miss that shop a lot.

The Wearable Planet, while small, is a nice substitute.  Budd and I were very impressed with the reusable cloth bag they gave us in lieu of a plastic shopping bag.  Even my little rock specimens were put in a cloth bag with the shop's logo imprinted on it.  I like that a lot.   I'd like to see more raw mineral specimens offered at The Wearable Planet, but hopefully, they will grow, and maybe occupy a larger space at some point.  The shopkeeper said they had been in business since last April.  I know I'll be back.  The Wearable Planet is located in the Southside Square Shopping Center on South Main Street in Kernersville, in the same shopping center as Target.  Their website is www.thewearableplanet.com.  I wish them much success, and will be a repeat customer. I meant to buy a walking stick, only $8.00, so I'll definitely be going back for that. 

Birthing an Event - Like Birthing A Kid?

I am so excited about Blogsboro.com's first event, "Joetry - An Open Mic Event of Poetry, Prose, Song and Coffee" that's going to be held at The Coffee Break, 1820 Spring Garden Street on Jan. 27 at 4:00 p.m.  The Coffee Break is just a terrific space perfect for this kind of event, and the good folks who own and run the place have graciously allowed us to hold the event in their great venue. 

I know my good friend and partner, Billy "The Blogging Poet" Jones will be reading from one of his books...I hope he does "Carrot on a Stick" again.  I just love that poem.  And my darling Budd will also be reading an excerpt from one of his stories.  We're hoping to attract many more performers and make it a wonderful and fun event.  Jerry from The Coffee Break tells me that Patrick Murphy will also be doing a musical performance.

This promises to be the start of something really wonderful; a place for artists to gather, perform, and enjoy each other, as well as a place for the public to come and hear, and enjoy yummy beverages and desserts from The Coffee Break.  I'm so impressed with this new business, and want to do all I can to help keep it around.  Once you've been there, you'll see how cozy and inviting it is, and how great the offerings are.  I saw my friend Elizabeth Castelda from Coldwell Banker Triad Realtors there last night, and she remarked how much she liked The Coffee Break.  It's a great place to network and close a business deal.  Elizabeth's got something exciting and "green" in the works in Greensboro which we will be profiling here on Blogsboro soon.

Since this is the first event I've put together for Blogsboro, I'm just flush with pride.  I do hope you will join Team Blogsboro as we work together to keep art, poetry and music (and a great new business) alive and well in Greensboro.

We've Said It Before, We'll Say It Again

If you haven't had the pleasure of visiting The Coffee Break, 1820 Spring Garden Street in Greensboro, then put it high on your list of places to go.

Besides making the best sugar free vanilla latte in the Piedmont Triad, the staff is friendly, fun and engaging.  Jerry was our barista, entertainer and comic for the evening, and we delighted in his company.  I can't think of a friendlier, more inviting atmosphere for business or pleasure than The Coffee Break.  The Blogsboro Network is also planning to host some poetry readings-open mic nights (not that you need a microphone - the acoustics are wonderful) in the near future, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, please help keep a new jewel in the Greensboro crown in business, and visit The Coffee Break.  Tell them Blogsboro sent you. 

Save The Environment By Buying Your Motorized Bicycle Locally!

At the top of Thursday's N&R "The Pulse" section, I was shocked to see them hawking a $3,000 (well, ok, $2,999) IZip Express electric bicycle.  Wouldn't it be great if you could get such a vehicle without the nearly $3K pricetag, and one that was made here locally?  N&R, are you listening?  There's a real story here.

My friend and blogging partner, Billy Jones, has a dream.  A dream of making motorized bicycles, much like the one he has made for himself.  A few facts about his motorized bicycle (which you can have for about half the cost....if you have your own bicycle that you want motorized, it would be even LESS than half)...

• Motorized bicycles from StreetPlanes.com has 25-50cc 4 Cycle engines that get up to 200 miles per gallon of regular gasoline with no mixing of gas and oil.  For an electric bicycle such as the IZip Express, you run it 30 miles, it dies and you have to recharge it for several hours.  For a motorized bicycle from StreetPlanes, you run it until you need gasoline again.
• Engine meets Federal EPA and California emissions and low noise requirements.
• Has compression release easy-pull starting.
• StreetPlane engines last as long as 30-50 thousand miles and have cast iron cylinder liners so they are rebuildable.
• StreetPlane motorized bicycles are the only moped that fits in standard bicycles racks.
• Also, the lightest moped on the market today. Easy for urban dwellers to carry up stairs and into apartments.
• Steel frames made in Greensboro and will last a lifetime with care.
• Plastic parts are made in Greensboro primarily from vegetable based plastics.
• Billy's dream is to manufacture these motorized bicycles IN GREENSBORO providing employment for LOCAL PEOPLE.

So before you take the N&R's advice and run right out to get an IZip Express, think global, act local, and contact my friend Billy Jones at www.streetplanes.com or idleblogs (at) yahoo.com. 

One of the most interesting and inspiring people I've ever met is Robert "Dusty" Staub, chairman of Staub Leadership here in Greensboro.  I met him around 1995, when I took a 5-day High Impact Leadership Seminar.  I doubt he has any recollection of me, but that's okay.

Dusty writes a column for Triad Business Journal that I'm quite fond of, and this week's entry is exceptionally good.  I can't provide a link to it because it's for paid subscribers only, but I will excerpt just a bit here. 

Dusty says, "If you want more love in your life, you will need to give more love away.  Granting greatness, seeing the very best that there is in another person, is a gift that also gives back.  When you are willing and able to help another human being, whether at home or at work, realize their own deeper capacities, they shower you with the same."

In our current world of "Gimme More" and me, me, me, Dusty continues to courageously shine a beacon of light.  He ends his article this way: "You, too, have the power to transform every moment of your life through acts of affirmation and positive expectation of the capacity of others -- granting them the possibility of stepping into their own greatness.  Doing so, you step into your own capacity to both bless and be a blessing in this world."  Then he issues his challenge:  "Are you truly ready, now, to grant greatness to those around you and thus to yourself?"

Thanks, Dusty.  I love your column and I think that you've got a lot of things figured out that most people (especially in business) cannot and will not ever realize.