diary : march 2003

I met John Edwards, potential future president of the US!  Okay, maybe it's not all that exciting, but it will be if he's actually elected!  Friends Ted & Jamie hosted a fund-raiser at their house and it was very cool just to be hanging with the dude in a small crowd of folks.

And though I didn't meet her, I did see Chrissie Hynde & the Pretenders perform a kick-ass show. SHE is a babe with attitude.

The UK connection was strong:  Howard & I flew to London & spent a long weekend driving around Bath and the Cotswolds while old family friend Anne, who lives outside of London, and her sister flew to SF for a week.  We did manage to connect long enough for a delicious steak dinner and hours of conversation.

Saw a very cool play: The Dazzle is a fictional story based on the lives of two very eccentric brothers who lived in NYC just after the turn of the century.  Homer and Langley Collyer were recluses who boarded themselves in their home with 136 tons of useless junk and ended up buried in their own collections.  Creepy but fascinating and a good start for a play!

Howard, who's eyesight is about as bad as you can get without being legally blind and who's worn glasses since he was four, took a chance on Lasik eye correction surgery, and within hours was seeing better than he could previously with corrective lenses.  There's still some tuning to be done, but it's pretty amazing that he can see like me now.  

Finally, I cranked up my rusty public speaking gears and made a presentation to a conference of my new peers, those who work in non-profit technology.  It was fun and weird - I used to do SO much public speaking in the field of environmental consulting and literally haven't said a word since 1998.  Luckily, it's kinda like riding a bicycle...