The airplane pick-up

“Flying first class, up in the sky; Popping champagne, living the life …” - Fergie, Glamorous

On Friday I’ll be flying business class from Brussels to sweet home Chicago. I’ve flown business class a few times and each time is exciting. Of course I imagine that the people around me wonder who I am, where I come from, how much money is in my pocket, and why I’m travelling in business. I even imagine that I might find myself another business-class flyer with whom I might share some stories or more. Of course, all dreaming is in good fantastical fun.

Or is it?

Today I came across a pretty enjoyable web site called “Man of the House.” I’m not sure how I reached it, but I read more than a handful of articles, and one titled “So You Think You Can Pick Up Women on Airplanes? Part 2” inspired this post.

It’s a rather whimsical article designed to encourage men to look & play the part of a on-flight Romeo. After reading the article, I can say that I’ve recognised these signs before, though I wasn’t necessarily the beneficiary. This all goes to say that yes, if you’re dressed nicely, look clean, are friendly and demonstrate that you’re not frugal, people will take note.

And oh, one more thing: that girl in 14E? She’s sitting in 6A this Friday …

Tags: dating, flying, travelling

Pottery lovers, beware

When I was in Italy a few weeks ago, I tagged along with The Whisky Couple to a quaint little town called Montottone,where they introduced me to a small shop known as Ceramiche Bozzi. Pottery lovers, beware.

This family-owned business is no “small shop” – it has been around for over 150 years and is renowned for its terracotta pieces which are dressed-up in colours derived only from substances found naturally in the environment. 

Trust me, the web site is only the beginning of the experience. First-off, when you step inside, you feel as though you’re in someone’s basement, with unfinished pots sitting next to beautifully glazed masterpieces.  There are nooks here and crannies there, and if you aren’t careful, you might miss the opportunity to find a unique piece of Bozzi pottery that speaks to you.

This is a picture of the beautiful casserole dish that I couldn’t take my eyes off.  It’s currently on display in my dining room.  It might just be too beautiful to cook with!

Your turn: Name a one-of-a-kind place you find too unique to keep to yourself.

Tags: Italy, pottery, travelling

Tears of … everything

Today I want to focus on a natural phenomenon: crying.  Recently I posted about laughing so hard that I cried, so today I decided to Google “why do people cry” and came across this article. It shed a bit of new light on the topic, and is well-written. Something I learned, for example, is that maybe there’s a tear-related reason for my love of elephants!

In the interest of boredom, I decided to evaluate the activities that will accompany the last category of tears the article identifies.  Here’s my guide to my tears’ future!

1. Visiting the USA, seeing my folks and other family & friends: Happy tears! Giggling, clapping, bouncing
2. Seeing Mother Megan & Karl: Uber excitement! Happy tears! Smiles, hugs, giggles
3. Meeting Savannah: Happy tears for Michelle & Mike; Giggling, baby noises (lol)
4. December 26: Sadness mixed with gratefulness: Short bursts of tears, a lot of silence
5. Dealing with something I disagree with: Frustration (note, tears usually well but don’t fall during this phase): Deep voice, scattered eye pattern
6. Returning back “home” to Belgium: Excitement and sadness: Smiles, tears that don’t fall

I’m sure everyone is contemplating how they’ll deal with an event that is coming up within the next few weeks.  What are you excited for and how will you react?

*this post was updated on 5 Dec

Tags: Chicago, Holiday, life, travelling

Energy, kids and ankles

I came up with this title after I wrote the post (I’m one who likes to let my writing direct me, unless of course an awesome heading pops into my head and I muse based on it).  Anyway, I’m making a point about this because I want to set your expectations: No, I did not witness a little kid with too much energy spraining his or her ankle. In fact, the three items have nothing to do with each other today. Please, feel free to collect $200 as you pass GO:

First off, my best friend came out here approximately a week and a half ago (there, that’s why I haven’t posted recently!) for a handful of days.  It was amazing having someone from home who knows me so well here – I didn’t realise how much I’ve missed having someone to call up no matter what time it is and talk about whatever I wanted to, whenever I wanted to. We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to jettison via a regional train to Bruges, Belgium on the Friday, and to Paris, France, via the high-speed train for a Saturday-Sunday trip.  She left behind a really thoughtful gift and then went home to be engaged only one week later!! (Congratulations Mother Megan!) Anyway, I can’t wait to see her again at the Holidays.

Now, the rest of this week is looking bright! I have a few things going on, so I thought I’d share them here:

First, during the day tomorrow (18 Nov) I’m attending an event organised by Friends of Europe.  It’s an Energy Summit and it’ll address how what needs to happen in Europe from an energy infrastructure standpoint so that it’s energy vision for 2020 can be achieved & its future secured. We helped book a speaking opportunity for a client, and so I’m sure that hearing him, the Energy Commissioner, IEA Chief  Economist and others will be insightful, intriguing and exciting.

In the evening I’m attending UNICEF’s Quiz for Children, an annual fundraiser held in Brussels that raises money for needy children across the European Union – with a special emphasis on health and safety.  My office sponsors two tables, and I will be seated at the one with our Managing Partner, most junior Comms team member, and a funny middle-man, my former roommate.  Collectively, we represent a Brit, German, Scot and American (and Brazilian, though I don’t know what good that will do me in this instance!).  Perhaps my contribution can be keeping the drinks coming??

On Friday I am finally seeing my orthopaedic (orthopedic, both spellings are correct ) doctor to -hopefully- finally have my radiographs read and determine what’s wrong with my ankle since it still hurts, gets swollen, has a limited range of motion, etc. And then Friday night a Belgian friend and I were planning to go to the movies (my first since I’ve been here!) and potentially also dinner.

Saturday has some potential fun also on the plate, but  since we all know how plans can change, I’ll let my post at this.  Overall, as you can see, life is living!  Next time perhaps I’ll get back to musing about how “life is like a box of chocolates” … only mine is fully of the Belgian kind

Tags: Belgium, high-speed train, injury, life, radiography, travelling Europe, work

A joke a day … would get me fired right away

I just laughed SO HARD at a joke that a Spanish colleague was trying to tell at work that I started to cry. And then I almost got hysterical laughing and giggling at myself for reacting to the joke and for the reaction my reaction generated among my colleagues.

<Pause. Insert fact that I work in an office with an open floor-plan.>

Yes, there were approximately 9 of us sitting here, bouncing up and down in our chairs with huge grins on our faces, trying not to make a huge outburst out of it, until tears started rolling down my cheeks and the jokester came over to try to calm me down.

That’s the second time it has happened to me since I’ve been here! Chicago never did that to me, what the heck??

Tags: Brussels, jokes, work

Quickie

I’ve been remiss the past few weeks and I hear that you want an update. Here’s a quickie:

I’m walking with a virtually-normal gait, finally. This is not true when I’m on stairs though, so I encourage you to take the escalater with me

Today I’m having a number of MRI/radiology tests. In fact, right this moment there’s some highlighter flowing through my veins, which makes me think it would be really funny if the wind made my eyes burn and my tears came out bright yellow or my bandaid fell off my arm and some hot pink started oozing out, ha ha ha.

Anyway, the tests are to figure out why I have “swelling” which is restricting my range of motion and whether it is actually swelling or a symptom of a circulation problem. No worries friends, I promise you’ll hear the details first!

For now though, back to the hospital for some “regular” radios and to daydream about my hot pink blood before the second round of MRIs.

Tags: blood, injury, life, MRI, radiography

A month in the life of my ankle

Friday marked my sixth session of physiotherapy, which means I have only three sessions left. (Fingers crossed.)  I thought I’d take a quick second to reflect on my rehabilitation journey for those following it.

I injured my ankle on Sat. 18 Sept. and was casted on Sun. 19. A soft cast replaced the plaster cast on Sat. 25 because my leg/foot had “fallen asleep,” which can be a serious issue. That cast was removed Fri. 29, and replaced with my AirCast.  I started physio Tues. 2 Oct. and should end this Friday.

The good news is that I can walk on my ankle without my AirCast when I am at home.  Unfortunately, it is still sore, swollen (although less than previously), and limited in its range of motion. For this reason, my physio believes I may have a circulation issue (given the delayed reabsorption of cells that healed the area) or my tibia (the larger bone in the lower leg) may be a smidge out of place. Both possibilities could be true at the same time, and both are treatable; the first by a doctor’s visit & some tests, and the second with manual manipulation (read more here).

We’ll see how it goes. I still am looking forward to walking (properly!).  Let me close now, however, by saying that ankle injuries are serious for two core reasons: Ankles bear the most weight every day, and they are incredibly complex, with many ligaments, tendons, bones and muscles.  If you injure your ankle and it swells within minutes or can bear little or no weight, get yourself medical attention immediately. This will allow you the best opportunity to heal quickly, more fully, and properly.

Tags: injury, life

God Bless Chilean Miners

God Bless the Chilean miners and their families and all the workers who are doing everything they can to bring them to the surface alive.

Watch it live on cnn.com or read about the journey via the live blog, here: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/13/workers-begin-to-rescue-trapped-chilean-miners/

Tags: life

Whatcha gonna do about it, Belgium?

Last night John Stewart made not one … not two … but THREE Belgium jokes on The Daily Show last night. What do I think about this? Hilarious! (We’ll see if the colleagues I sent it to agree!!)

Watch from :40 to approximately 2:40

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-september-30-2010/mob-swap

Tags: Belgium, jokes

Have a little help with my … aircast!

Brilliant news, friends! My cast was cut off today and I am now using an aircast with my gymshoe to — are you ready??? — walk! That’s right, I was able to stand on the foot in the doc’s office and now I have permission to live like I wanna live. Well, maybe that’s taking it a bit too far …

Current diagnosis: healing nicely; walk only with a gym shoe and air cast;

I'll be wearing one of these until 22 Oct.

 use crutch for at least one more week; 3 weeks of 3x per week with a physiologist followed by 3 additional weeks of being very careful, as the ligament will only be well healed beginning at 6 weeks from this point. If in two months I have pain, I will have an MRI.

I like this road to recovery. Let’s hope for the best!

Tags: injury, life