Crab Boil

Ever been to a crab boil? I have heard stories about Baltimore where you sit down with a bucket of crabs and a mallet and just go to town. I was in Alphabet City last night at a restaurant called Back Forty...an (almost) all you can eat crab fest....I got a little better with each one, squeezing as many ounces of that white crabmeat as possible, learning great tricks along the way.

Another highlight was Alphabet City itself...A neighborhood in Manhatten that I never really explored. Lot's of record (not CD) shops and small parcels turned into working community garden projects. A nice stroll before and after dinner made for a great night. You can read more here - Wikipedia

Enough?

Was talking to one of my doctors and feeling like I could be doing more.....then again I am doing more than I ever have. How do you do enough for your health no matter what your physical condition. If you feel like you are doing EVERYTHING you can for yourself I would love to hear from you....that would be inspiring to me.

Rattler!

I was hiking with the boys and we came across my first Rattlesnake in Harriman St. Park. For years and for hundreds of miles of hiking I had never seen one even though I knew they existed. Look at the rattler on the tail. He was about 5 feet long and wanted nothing to do with us...or us him/her.

I pass it all the time

There are spots all over my local area that I drive by all the time...on my way to work, to get milk, to a friends house....something made me stop today and I jumped out onto the tracks with my tripod. It was a little windy and I wanted a long exposure...maybe it was the sky or the time of day or the vanishing point that I always love so much...

Comfort Zones

I have been growing up in NJ for the better part of the past 42 years so I have Springsteen in my blood...I was raised on classic rock and have also attended my fair share of Grateful Dead shows....I love my acoustic guitar. My travels through the Blue Hills of North Carolina led me to some great bluegrass music...One of the great joys of the new freedom I have is opening myself up to new experiences and putting myself in the most un-natural of places. So last night a friend and I drove into NYC and ended up at the Marquee Night Club....made famous by the likes of Paris Hilton and Justin Timberlake. I passed the test and the velvet rope was unhooked...unleashing a night of hip-hop-wall-to-wall-people-sardine packed-dancing to the latest top 40 hits from Usher, The Black Eyed Peas...etc. I went back to my classic rock today but man I had a GREAT time last night.....I still have a lot of Boom Boom Pow running in between my ears...

I am not going to be jumping out airplanes anytime soon but I am looking forward to the next "I have never done that before"

Never Get Tired of This

I spent a little time this morning re-connecting with some old friends and sharing our updates. I never know the reaction I will get but I always know I can add them to my "family" to my community of folks who love me. I am so blessed to have so many people surrounding me. I'll never be alone.

The Blue Ridge Parkway

Did I need to drive exactly 1,500.3 miles roundtrip to come home with 34 pictures? Yes!

The Blue Ridge Parkway is Americas most visited National Park. It runs through the highest peaks east of the Colorado Rockies through the Appalachian Mountains and runs for 469 miles in North Carolina and Virginia.

All 34 pictures are posted here Blue Ridge Gallery

I started at 7am, excited by the prospects



I quickly started climbing into the mountains



I hit some intense fog early on at the highest elevations. The temperature dropped about 25 degrees in a matter of minutes.



But there was no mistaking that the star of this trip would be the parkway itself. 400+ miles of twisting, turning, climbing, descending single lane track...







I ran into a local selling some homemade honey and selling CD's of his banjo picking Appalachian music trio and there were plenty of waterfalls.





And this was my final picture...seemed appropriate. Even if we don't know what is around the next bend we have to keep climbing.

7 States in 700 Miles in 1 Day

I set my alarm for 3:30am. It is the earliest I have gotten my ass out of bed without fishing in my plans...

Started in NJ....been there done that...train kept a rollin. Pennsylvania....also been there done that....train kept a rollin. Maryland....I can barely count this but I will, I think I was in the state for 20 minutes.....train kept a rollin. West Virginia....stopped at the visitor center on the state line and thought to myself that I should come back someday....train kept a rollin. Virginia....drove through the Shenandoah Valley and was paying too much attention to the mountains on either side...didn't notice the State Trooper...train kept a rollin. Tennessee got really hilly and felt very inviting....train kept a rollin. North Carolina...the final destination....mountains got bigger and I'm ready to explore...train will keep a rollin.

Spotty

What do you do when you find a frog swimming in your pool and you have a 7 & 9 year old? You give him a home! I knew the plastic frogs would only hold them over for so long. Spotty is a good addition to the family. He is quiet, eats very little and is housebroken.

Great Day

Spent the day showing my friend from the big city a little slice of my life out here in NJ....Farmers Market, Jamies Horse Farm, Ramapo Resrevation, a little lunch, a perfect Sunday really....

Fuck Cancer

HA! I can curse on my blog...why do I think that is amusing? I came across a great blog tonight - www.fuckcancer.ca and I thought this would be a great way to get re-started after taking a month off.

There are a lot of voices out there trying in their own way to express themselves. I still think from my month old post below that I will get away from trying to make you understand how I feel. I'd rather make you smile.....

Social Non-Internet-Networking and Goodbye for now

I was driving in this morning, being very in-tune (no pun intended) to my music and the lyrics and one of my all-time favorites came on from Springsteen.

"Mr. I ain't no boy, no I'm a man and I believe in a promised land

I've done my best to live the right way
I get up every morning and go to work each day
but your eyes grow blind and your blood runs cold
sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode
explode and tear this whole town apart
take a knife and cut this pain from my heart
trying to find someone itching for something to start"

So I am driving into work and I say "That is exactly how I feel"!!!!! I can't wait to blog about it! Everybody will know how I feel....this is going to be great!

But the truth is and I have learned this the hard way over the past year...I can't make people understand how I feel through a blog or an email...and I ditched Facebook a while ago. I can't broadcast to the world wide web and feel that I made my connections and everybody is in tune with me.

I was sitting in Little Italy on Sunday afternoon with somebody I had just met...sipping an espresso and we had a great conversation. We got to know each other a little bit. My network of friends has grown considerably over the past year and it isn't because people are fired up by what they read here...people get fired up by talking to me and being with the real me.

I guess the best way to sum this up is that it doesn't matter that you understand how I feel. What matters is that I have relationships that involve spoken words, embraces, and eye contact.

I have had 2,962 visits to my blog since I started and if you know me or how I feel it is probably because we shared an espresso, a hug, or a phone conversation. Those will continue!

If you don't know me yet, drop me a line...I will never ever have more friends than I can handle. That is my purpose...build and continue with these real human connections....

Surviving cancer and laughing about it

What a night...really one of my best of late. I have a friend and we have become closer over the past year. That is something I do not take for granted anymore. I cherish my friends. My friend and I had lunch the other day and when we said goodbye we made a commitment to hang out one night after work. The next day I am flipping through the newspaper and I see there is a panel discussion at NYU called "Surviving Cancer at All Ages". I am being treated at NYU and it is top top notch so I thought I would give it a try. So I remembered the comment the day earlier and I sent an email to my friend asking if he would go with me and then we could grab dinner afterwards. Thankfully he agreed. So I get there a little early and he is running a little late so I go into the lecture hall and wait for him....Needless to say there was not a lot of energy in the room...It was quiet and felt very serious. I contemplated leaving and skipping right to dinner but I stayed in my seat. So my friend walks in, sits next to me and says "dude if this is what you meant by hanging out after work I wouldn't have agreed"...we both started cracking up and it was a perfect way to get into the program.

The program....what can I say. There were 5 people who shared their story. It was very moving but more importantly it was just very real. It wasn't sad, it was real...there is no other way for me to describe it. I could identify with at least one thing each person shared.

The next funny moment was when I leaned over and told m friend that we could leave when they got to the Q&A portion of the evening. He looked at me and said "wait, you are worried about me? I am worried about you....how are you handling this?" Maybe you had to be thee for this one but it was funny...two friends sitting and listening to some hard hitting stuff and being able to laugh at ourselves.

We closed the night having a great dinner in some trendy restaurant where there was a lot of energy in the room....we stretched the night out much longer than I thought we would. Two friends laughing about real stuff....how awesome.

Thank you friend!

Fishing in Florida and the Fosters

The Florida Keys are really nice in April. I went down to meet an old friend and we spent 6 hours on the water catching Grouper, Snapper and even a Shark! On the first of the 2 nights I was down there we hooked up with another friend who was in town for his Moms Birthday. We all got together for dinner and this evening was the highlight of my trip.

Bill and Alice Foster are two remarkable people and more importantly an incredible couple. Bill and Alice have been married for 63 years! They held hands, they made us laugh, they made me cry...Bill (91 years young) stayed up till midnight playing cards with us, and Alice (86 years young) told the cutest stories of how they met after WWII.

I will truly cherish my evening with them and I want to visit them again....if I have some time left over I might go fishing.

A great poem

I just got back from Florida and spent 6 hours on the plane over the past few days. I spent the majority of my flying time with a book and a highlighter and came across this poem by Portia Nelson which talks about change...

Autobiography In 5 Chapters
1) I walk down the street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in
I am lost...I am hopeless
It isn't my fault
It takes forever to find a way out

2) I walk down the same street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I pretend I don't see it
I fall in again
I can't believe I'm in the same place
But it isn't my fault
It still takes a long time to get out

3) I walk down the same street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I see it is there
I still fall in...it's a habit
My eyes are open
I know where I am
It is my fault
I get out Immediately

4) I walk down the same street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I walk around it

5) I walk down another street

I can relate

I found a blog on the NY Times written by a man who I have something in common with. I am not able to share the way he does but thought his last writing was worth posting here. If you read some of his archive you will see it is not all uplifting and positive...then again this whole situation is not always uplifting and positive. Nevertheless, his last post does show that pleasure can be found in every day life...sometimes you just have to look around a little.

Dana Jennings Blog

What to eat when your pants are falling down

I have had the same favorite pizza and sub place in NYC for about 10 years now and today didn't change a thing. If you are ever near 37th and 5th you have to check out Mondello's.

Fortune Cookie(s) again

If you are reading this Dr. Geo.....I had white meat chicken with broccoli.

Two interesting fortunes yesterday...

- Delay is the deadliest form of denial
- Storms make your roots stronger

HELP

What an important word. Today I asked somebody for help and they came through and at the end of the day an opportunity was there for me to help somebody....it doesn't get any better. Being able to ask for help, getting it, then helping somebody else...all in the same day. Hopefully much more of this to come. Now go help somebody!

If I do do it

This is the one

Juices are flowing

I got a call from a friend the other day asking if I would take pictures at their daughters Communion. How cool! With the first taste of good weather I am thinking a whole lot about photography. This is the last really good picture I took (my humble opinion) and you can guess which season it was...It has been a non-productive winter as far as pictures go. If there is something you want a picture of...family, your car, a flower...whatever. Drop me a line.

Belly Laugh

I just had a fantastic evening and you know why? Because I laughed. I laughed hard...really hard. I saw 3 dear friends who I have known collectively for 60 years. We played guitar and recorded some songs. One of my buddies fell asleep around midnight and an hour later, the 3 of us who were still standing, barged into his room with three guitars and played a loud rock n roll song for him. How juvenile, right? It was the hardest I have laughed in a long time...That's it. Simple...laughter...it's a great thing. Thanks guys! Love you.

No agenda

For the first time I am sitting down to write something with no idea what I am going to write....let's see what happens. Lately I feel like there are reminders all around me. I see an 80 year old dad with his 50 year old son, I see a family that seems very happy on the outside, and music...oh my god music. I recently spent 5 hours on a plane and put my ipod on and decided not to fast forward through any songs no matter what they said to me. I was met with lyrics like..

- Long may you run although these changes have come
- I woke up this morning on the other side, hell it was just a long goodbye
- What can I do, what can I say, cause I don't want to fade away

These are just off the top of my head. So there are reminders all around me and piping in my ears through music. What do you do with it? Ignore it, embrace it, own it, deny it, accept it, acknowledge it...turn your head or stare and steady your resolve? Each day brings its own reaction and feelings.

My Birthday Horoscope

You are a dreamer who is creative, insightful and dramatic.
You thrive on the unknown and embrace any challenge.

YUP!

Don't think too much

Sometimes I think too much. Especially about the future....what lies ahead. I heard the funniest story (really a parable) tonight.

An ant walks up to a centipede and says" wow, look at all you. How do you manage to move around so easily with 30 different legs all moving at the same time?" the centipede stops to think about it for a moment and he never moved again"

I am learning to take action over thinking what actions to take.