At breakfast, after watching sunrise on Ipanema beach, about to hit the sack
Enjoying a caiprihinia in Buzios
Christ the Redeemer, high about Rio de Janeiro, picture taken on Ash Wednesday 2009
Long time, no see
Wow. I just realized that I haven’t posted here in quite some time. How’s that for a New Year’s resolution…?
Oh well, I have been busy, productive and been having a killer time, I can’t complain.
During the last week of January I traveled across the US with one of Microsoft’s Corporate Vice Presidents to promote BizSpark. It was an interesting experience and I was surprised at the pace at which we were in and out of places. Though I guess that’s what big corp execs are for, right? The surgical strike to make a lasting impact and then onto the next place.
We hit New York, Boston, (I skipped Chicago), and Austin within a 5 day period, first meeting at 7:30am, ending with a dinner or reception in the evening - that’s one lonnnng day. Thank god for coffee. Mmm
To cap that week off, I met up with a bunch of old college buddies to celebrate our bright college years - part MAN. 9 of us converged upon Sin City, shacking up at the Stratosphere (thanks to Goldman Sachs who owns it, and one of their employees who got us dirt cheap rooms), and hitting the town hard. Highlights were golf at Wildhorse, bottles at Body English and Tryst, and losing a couple hundred dollars while watching the Superbowl at the Harrah’s outdoor bar.
Now it’s back to the grind for 14 days, resting, recuperating and otherwise getting mentally prepared for the trip we are calling Operation Come Home Alive - Rio de Janeiro for Carnivale. T-minus 8 days.
Touchpoint
Do you ever have an occurrence in your life, perhaps a chance encounter, a meeting with an old friend, or a familiar smell that shakes your life to the core? It causes instant introspection and evaluation of where you are, how you got here, and makes you think of all the things that have happened since your last touchpoint. We get so caught up in our daily lives and progressing from spot E to spot F that many times we forget how we got from spot A to spot E, and all the lessons that came in between, even though it’s because of those lessons that we are at spot E. You may think you have it all figured out, but in one fell swoop this old touchpoint can wipe you clean and refocus you on where you actually should be. Thank goodness for these moments, for these incremental epiphanies which re-give us relevant context to life and makes realize, just really how little we all know – and how much more we have to learn.
