Well last week was a whopper when it came to weather. Here on the west coast EVERYONE got rain, even us here in Vegas. In fact we got more rain in three days than we did all of last year combined.
I actually like the rain...as I say in my book "Sensitivity 101 for the Heterosexual Male"
After church we would go back to my grandmother’s house for a big dinner with even more extended family. One person I really connected with was my great-grandmother, I called her Nana. The two of us could sit and talk about anything for hours. She would tell me stories about when she was growing up. At fi rst I didn’t believe her when she told me,“We had no television, no electricity, and no indoor plumbing. Living on a farm, there weren’t that many other kids around either. I spent most of my time reading and doing chores. My favorite pastime was making noodles with my mom.”
There was a feeling I got around Nana that I felt nowhere else in my life. It was calming and relaxing. Part of that came from her distinctive smell. It was a woodsy aroma, not really feminine but not overly masculine either. It reminded me of the faint, almost sweet odor of fertilizer. Nana said, “What your nose detects is years of working on a farm and then spending all summer working my gardens to make them beautiful to look at.” Whatever it was, it worked on me.
I got along so well with her that my mom would let me spend all of my summers with her and my great-grandfather up at the cottage they owned in rural Wisconsin. The smells there were special too. The air was always filled with fresh cut green grass, the charcoal scents of a hamburger cooked on an open campfire, and the brackish seaweed that lay on the beaches in the early morning. It was a great place for me to be alone with my thoughts. I would spend most of the morning fishing on the small lake with him, the afternoons lying on the grassy hillside next to the cottage looking aimlessly into the sky, and then the night talking to Nana as we sat in two rocking chairs on the screened-in porch that overlooked the lake. We would share the night by sharing life.
As we sat together, drinking homemade lemonade and eating special sweets that she’d made during the day, Nana became my first exposure to the occult, ESP, UFO’s, and the afterlife. Anything that others thought of as abnormal was normal to her.
Her lemonade was really the part I enjoyed the most. She always floated a sprig of mint on top. I hated the taste of mint, but loved the smell, so I would take the sprig out of my glass and put it in my pocket so I could enjoy it later.
On the subject of religion, she reinforced my conviction that it does not matter how or where you worship God, as long as you believed in Him. She said, “Treating people with the respect they deserve is the best way to get into heaven.”
We also had another ritual which I still do to this day. Whenever the smell of rain came to the air--you know the smell--we would wait excitedly for the storm to hit. As soon as it did, there were the two of us out dancing in the downpour. Nana told me, “Rain is the cleansing agent God sends to wipe away your sins."
So the rain that fell this past week must have been a sign from above letting us know He forgives all of us at the same time.
Because of this weather mess though some people weren't as nice as they could be. I was stuck in the Albuquerque New Mexico airport on the worst of the days--Thursday. Many, many flights were cancelled all through the west, like Arizona, California and Nevada. One man in particular was just down right mean. He was yelling at anyone who would listen about how dare they cancel his flight. He approached a young girl at the SouthWest gates and preceeded to humilate the poor girl for a good twenty minutes. All I could hear her say was "I'm sorry, I don't control the weather." He stomped away madder than ever.
I was next in line and even though I didn't know the man, apologized to "Melissa" for what she was going through that day. She just smiled and said "Just part of the job...most people understand."
Melissa helped me get onto a flight and even moved my luggage to that one. I asked her name and said I would write a letter to her boss thanking her for her friendliness. I even saw her smile as I left.
But back to "the man." Of course he was waiting in my area of the airport and still complaining about missing his cancelled flight.
As "Dimitri" started to call my flight to line up, this idiot walked straight up to him and started to complain very loudly about "why are they leaving, if I'm not?" Dimitri started to explain, but "the man" got extremely agitated and walked away mumbling "F***ING rude, A**HOLE."
That did for many of us in line. As he returned to get "your name, so I can report you" a few us yelled back at him about him being rude. He looked at us all, threw up his middle finger and cursed us all out. One older man went and got security, and as we were being loaded into our plane, he was handcuffed and loaded to who-knows-where.
I guess my moral here is that God is listening and reacts to everything, even if you don't think he is. We all got what we deserved...me a plane ride home...Melissa and Dimitri justice and a smile...and the mean old man, a place to calm down by hinself--jail.
By the way here is my book trailer--Hope you like it.
Till next week,
Phil
Monday, January 25, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Chapter By Chapter We Go...
Happy Monday!!!
I was trying to decide what to write today and not much was coming to mind. The weekend was a bust with 2 of the 4 football teams I root for losing, it's raining here in Vegas and I'm just not too motivated without the sunshine. So let's start with Chapter One of "Sensitivity 101 for the Heterosexual Male."
"Jenna" was a girl I went to school with. As I say in the book "All through first grade I was in the same class as Jenna. She was a short, roundish shaped girl who had a beautiful personality. She was the most popular girl in our class and the prettiest. She had long blonde hair that her mom put up in pigtails, and always tied with green ribbons. Jenna had freckles on her nose and under her eyes and always seemed to have a radiating glow around her.
Being that we were both smart, Jenna and I were always in the same groups. I often made her laugh with the silly things I did. I had a crush on her but didn’t know what to do about it. I remembered the talk Nana and I had about being different, sincere, and making people feel special.
One spring morning, my mom had the radio on during breakfast and the song Up, Up and Away came on. It was a catchy tune, even to a six year old, so I found myself humming it on the way to school. When I reached the schoolyard, all of my classmates were waiting outside for the bell to go in. Th is was my opportunity to make Jenna feel special and to let her know how I felt about her.
Now I wasn’t a great singer or even a good one, but I put a lot of feeling into everything I did. I started to sing, “Up, up and away with my beautiful, my beautiful Jenna” to the melody in my head. The other kids looked at me like I was crazy, but Jenna had a cute little smile on her face."
Here is a video of the original song--see if you don't feel the same way I did back then.
See now didn't that make you feel better on a rainy day?
Now for the random act of kindness this week. Again it involves me. I woke up on Sunday morning and opened my e-mail box to see an incoming letter for me. It was http://www.authors.com/ an online community I belong to. I was made a featured author by the owners of this site. What a surprise!
Since then I've had many other e-mails from the other members of http://www.authors.com/ congratulating me. Again, I feel special and humbled to be recognized for my efforts.
At least that took away some of the pain of the football losses.
I was trying to decide what to write today and not much was coming to mind. The weekend was a bust with 2 of the 4 football teams I root for losing, it's raining here in Vegas and I'm just not too motivated without the sunshine. So let's start with Chapter One of "Sensitivity 101 for the Heterosexual Male."
"Jenna" was a girl I went to school with. As I say in the book "All through first grade I was in the same class as Jenna. She was a short, roundish shaped girl who had a beautiful personality. She was the most popular girl in our class and the prettiest. She had long blonde hair that her mom put up in pigtails, and always tied with green ribbons. Jenna had freckles on her nose and under her eyes and always seemed to have a radiating glow around her.
Being that we were both smart, Jenna and I were always in the same groups. I often made her laugh with the silly things I did. I had a crush on her but didn’t know what to do about it. I remembered the talk Nana and I had about being different, sincere, and making people feel special.
One spring morning, my mom had the radio on during breakfast and the song Up, Up and Away came on. It was a catchy tune, even to a six year old, so I found myself humming it on the way to school. When I reached the schoolyard, all of my classmates were waiting outside for the bell to go in. Th is was my opportunity to make Jenna feel special and to let her know how I felt about her.
Now I wasn’t a great singer or even a good one, but I put a lot of feeling into everything I did. I started to sing, “Up, up and away with my beautiful, my beautiful Jenna” to the melody in my head. The other kids looked at me like I was crazy, but Jenna had a cute little smile on her face."
Here is a video of the original song--see if you don't feel the same way I did back then.
See now didn't that make you feel better on a rainy day?
Now for the random act of kindness this week. Again it involves me. I woke up on Sunday morning and opened my e-mail box to see an incoming letter for me. It was http://www.authors.com/ an online community I belong to. I was made a featured author by the owners of this site. What a surprise!
Since then I've had many other e-mails from the other members of http://www.authors.com/ congratulating me. Again, I feel special and humbled to be recognized for my efforts.
At least that took away some of the pain of the football losses.
Monday, January 11, 2010
We are on this Journey Together
This journey we call life can be difficult at times. I truly believe that it should be all about learning, sharing and helping others. This came to me from a person I really connected with while growing up. As I say in my book "Sensitivity 101 for the Heterosexual Male, Lessons Learned from the Fairer Sex"
After church we would go back to my grandmother’s house for a big dinner with even more extended family. One person I really connected with was my great-grandmother, I called her Nana. The two of us could sit and talk about anything for hours. She would tell me stories about when she was growing up. At first I didn’t believe her when she told me,“We had no television, no electricity and no indoor plumbing. Living on a farm, there weren’t that many other kids around either. I spent most of my time reading and doing chores. My favorite pastime was making noodles with my mom.”
There was a feeling I got around Nana that I felt nowhere else in my life. It was calming and relaxing. Part of that came from her distinctive smell. It was a woodsy aroma, not really feminine but not overly masculine either. It reminded me of the faint, almost sweet odor of fertilizer. Nana said, “What your nose detects is years of working on a farm and then spending all summer working my gardens to make them beautiful to look at.” Whatever it was, it worked on me.
I got along so well with her that my mom would let me spend all of my summers with her and my great-grandfather up at the cottage they owned in rural Wisconsin. The smells there were special too. The air was always filled with fresh cut green grass, the charcoal scents of a hamburger cooked on an open campfire and the brackish seaweed that lay on the beaches in the early morning. It was a great place for me to be alone with my thoughts. I would spend most of the morning fishing on the small lake with him, the afternoons lying on the grassy hillside next to the cottage looking aimlessly into the sky and then the night talking to Nana as we sat in two rocking chairs on the screened-in porch that overlooked the lake. We would share the night by sharing life.
As we sat together, drinking homemade lemonade and eating special sweets that she’d made during the day, Nana became my fi rst exposure to the occult, ESP, UFO’s and the afterlife. Anything that others thought of as abnormal was normal to her.
Her lemonade was really the part I enjoyed the most. She always floated a sprig of mint on top. I hated the taste of mint, but loved the smell, so I would take the sprig out of my glass and put it in my pocket so I could enjoy it later.
On the subject of religion, she reinforced my conviction that it does not matter how or where you worship God, as long as you believed in Him. She said, “Treating people with the respect they deserve is the best way to get into heaven.”
We also had another ritual which I still do to this day. Whenever the smell of rain came to the air--you know the smell--we would wait excitedly for the storm to hit. As soon as it did, there were the two of us out dancing in the downpour. Nana told me, “Rain is the cleansing agent God sends to wipe away your sins.”
She also taught me the first lesson of my journey: “You are going to meet many people throughout your life and if you want them to remember you, you must always be a little different, you must be sincere, and you must make them feel special, especially the girls.”
She died when I was ten and I was devastated. I thought God was punishing me. First He took my father away from me and now He took the only person who truly understood me. I couldn’t understand why God would do this. I didn’t want to believe in a God who punished people so much. He was supposed to be a good and fair God. Although I desperately wanted to believe in something greater than us, I became confused. This just led me deeper into a life of withdrawal.
What I eventually learned was that we are not on this journey alone. Nana was always right there helping me make the correct decisions, sometimes not as fast as I had hoped, but she continued to watch over me and keep me on the straight and narrow. Through her, or because of her, I was able to not only believe in God but was able to experience the little thiings along the way, like the smells of the world or the hidden meanings behind roses or song lyrics or how to really treat someone special. Even when you don't know it, God is there, you just have to stop and smell the roses, and see the the world in a different light to truly appreciate what actually is there.
With that being said, I wanted to hand out a random act of kindness to someone today. So here goes...
A few weeks before the holidays I sent an e-mail to a fellow author and Facebook friend looking for some help. I was needing someone to review my book and not having a real easy time finding that person. So knowing that we are on this journey together, I reached out to Anna L. Walls. She wrote a book King by Right of Blood and Might that had been reviewed on Amazon about six times.
Not only did Anna send me her whole list of reviewers, it turned out to be over 20 pages long. So by e-mailing some of those listed I did get some very favorable reviews. Anna asked me one favor, for me to send her my list of contacts. But, I didn't have any...so this is my way of saying thank you!
After church we would go back to my grandmother’s house for a big dinner with even more extended family. One person I really connected with was my great-grandmother, I called her Nana. The two of us could sit and talk about anything for hours. She would tell me stories about when she was growing up. At first I didn’t believe her when she told me,“We had no television, no electricity and no indoor plumbing. Living on a farm, there weren’t that many other kids around either. I spent most of my time reading and doing chores. My favorite pastime was making noodles with my mom.”
There was a feeling I got around Nana that I felt nowhere else in my life. It was calming and relaxing. Part of that came from her distinctive smell. It was a woodsy aroma, not really feminine but not overly masculine either. It reminded me of the faint, almost sweet odor of fertilizer. Nana said, “What your nose detects is years of working on a farm and then spending all summer working my gardens to make them beautiful to look at.” Whatever it was, it worked on me.
I got along so well with her that my mom would let me spend all of my summers with her and my great-grandfather up at the cottage they owned in rural Wisconsin. The smells there were special too. The air was always filled with fresh cut green grass, the charcoal scents of a hamburger cooked on an open campfire and the brackish seaweed that lay on the beaches in the early morning. It was a great place for me to be alone with my thoughts. I would spend most of the morning fishing on the small lake with him, the afternoons lying on the grassy hillside next to the cottage looking aimlessly into the sky and then the night talking to Nana as we sat in two rocking chairs on the screened-in porch that overlooked the lake. We would share the night by sharing life.
As we sat together, drinking homemade lemonade and eating special sweets that she’d made during the day, Nana became my fi rst exposure to the occult, ESP, UFO’s and the afterlife. Anything that others thought of as abnormal was normal to her.
Her lemonade was really the part I enjoyed the most. She always floated a sprig of mint on top. I hated the taste of mint, but loved the smell, so I would take the sprig out of my glass and put it in my pocket so I could enjoy it later.
On the subject of religion, she reinforced my conviction that it does not matter how or where you worship God, as long as you believed in Him. She said, “Treating people with the respect they deserve is the best way to get into heaven.”
We also had another ritual which I still do to this day. Whenever the smell of rain came to the air--you know the smell--we would wait excitedly for the storm to hit. As soon as it did, there were the two of us out dancing in the downpour. Nana told me, “Rain is the cleansing agent God sends to wipe away your sins.”
She also taught me the first lesson of my journey: “You are going to meet many people throughout your life and if you want them to remember you, you must always be a little different, you must be sincere, and you must make them feel special, especially the girls.”
She died when I was ten and I was devastated. I thought God was punishing me. First He took my father away from me and now He took the only person who truly understood me. I couldn’t understand why God would do this. I didn’t want to believe in a God who punished people so much. He was supposed to be a good and fair God. Although I desperately wanted to believe in something greater than us, I became confused. This just led me deeper into a life of withdrawal.
What I eventually learned was that we are not on this journey alone. Nana was always right there helping me make the correct decisions, sometimes not as fast as I had hoped, but she continued to watch over me and keep me on the straight and narrow. Through her, or because of her, I was able to not only believe in God but was able to experience the little thiings along the way, like the smells of the world or the hidden meanings behind roses or song lyrics or how to really treat someone special. Even when you don't know it, God is there, you just have to stop and smell the roses, and see the the world in a different light to truly appreciate what actually is there.
With that being said, I wanted to hand out a random act of kindness to someone today. So here goes...
A few weeks before the holidays I sent an e-mail to a fellow author and Facebook friend looking for some help. I was needing someone to review my book and not having a real easy time finding that person. So knowing that we are on this journey together, I reached out to Anna L. Walls. She wrote a book King by Right of Blood and Might that had been reviewed on Amazon about six times.
Not only did Anna send me her whole list of reviewers, it turned out to be over 20 pages long. So by e-mailing some of those listed I did get some very favorable reviews. Anna asked me one favor, for me to send her my list of contacts. But, I didn't have any...so this is my way of saying thank you!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Happy Birthday Roller Skates
Today is January 4 and a very important day in my life. It is the anniversary of the invention of roller skates. I have no idea who I would be without these little wheels attached to the bottom of shoes. Being a child of divorce led me to become an intervert and there weren't many places I could go that made me feel comfortable...but thanks to one girl in my past, the roller skating rink always made me feel at home.
As I say in my book "Sensitivity 101 for the Heterosexual Male" "So Joyce started taking me to The Pink Rink, her lesbian skating rink. At first I was very nervous, but soon I realized these females were just normal women who happened to like other women. This element actually made it easier for me. Since I knew none of them would be interested in me, I could concentrate on being myself, improving my skating, bettering my initial interaction with females and hopefully on getting some confidence back.
These episodes with Joyce and her friends just reaffirmed once again that we are all basically the same. It also became my first interaction with women who were of varying backgrounds, cultures and races; and ones who had different religious beliefs. And soon I began to believe that we really could all get along.”
Yes, a lesbian helped me become the man I am today. She saw through the pain I had at the time and tried to help me, even though she was hurting at the time too. To read more about her, you should buy the book.
So to me that was a random act of kindness in itself. But that was nothing because she also helped me get accepted at a straight rink and that's where I met many of the friends I still have today.
This morning I posted on my facebook page the fact that roller skates were invented today and wondered out loud who I would be without them. One of longtime friends Carla answered with this: I would never have met you. My son would have a different Godfather. Someone else probably would have stood up as his dad's best man, when we married. Your life and who you are have far more impact than just those things in our lives, but I think they give you a bare-bones starting point from my POV on your life. My own life would have been far different, too (both from your absence and that of the skates!)
I view that as a random act of kindness, even though I asked the question.So in this time of economic woe, wars that we shouldn't be in and when most people only think of themselves, it was nice to know that I was still appreciated, at least by one person. And that I owed this all to the person who invented roller skates...
As I say in my book "Sensitivity 101 for the Heterosexual Male" "So Joyce started taking me to The Pink Rink, her lesbian skating rink. At first I was very nervous, but soon I realized these females were just normal women who happened to like other women. This element actually made it easier for me. Since I knew none of them would be interested in me, I could concentrate on being myself, improving my skating, bettering my initial interaction with females and hopefully on getting some confidence back.
These episodes with Joyce and her friends just reaffirmed once again that we are all basically the same. It also became my first interaction with women who were of varying backgrounds, cultures and races; and ones who had different religious beliefs. And soon I began to believe that we really could all get along.”
Yes, a lesbian helped me become the man I am today. She saw through the pain I had at the time and tried to help me, even though she was hurting at the time too. To read more about her, you should buy the book.
So to me that was a random act of kindness in itself. But that was nothing because she also helped me get accepted at a straight rink and that's where I met many of the friends I still have today.
This morning I posted on my facebook page the fact that roller skates were invented today and wondered out loud who I would be without them. One of longtime friends Carla answered with this: I would never have met you. My son would have a different Godfather. Someone else probably would have stood up as his dad's best man, when we married. Your life and who you are have far more impact than just those things in our lives, but I think they give you a bare-bones starting point from my POV on your life. My own life would have been far different, too (both from your absence and that of the skates!)
I view that as a random act of kindness, even though I asked the question.So in this time of economic woe, wars that we shouldn't be in and when most people only think of themselves, it was nice to know that I was still appreciated, at least by one person. And that I owed this all to the person who invented roller skates...
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