Awful Stats

I'm back.

Whew! The time flew by, until yesterday, when I traveled for 20 straight hours to get home in one day (well, it actually lapped over into the next day.) That's a story for another post.

As always the other guests were part of the fun.

We first met Nancy and Russ from Chicago on our boat trip down the Sierpe River. They were on the boat for a bird watching trip and then made a detour to pick us up at the small boat dock. The next day, Nancy and Russ spent the day at San Josecito beach with Steve and me. We spent time getting to know each other and we hiked to the next beach (about a twenty minute jaunt and then swam up the Rio Claro River to a special spot that we know about. After a short climb we showed them a very beautiful grotto and waterfall. We don't show this to everyone, just special people!


But what I will remember forever is a conversation that Nancy and I had about her volunteer efforts with her dog in the inner city of Chicago. The dog is a mutt, but a well-trained mutt, because he helps the children in this program to learn to read better by just being a dog. Nancy said that many times a child will jump two grade levels in reading during the eight weeks in the program.

That's great, but here is the part that touched me. She said that those who plan for future prison needs, look at the number of illiterate third graders today (or whenever they are doing the planning) and then interpolate that into the number of prison cells they will need in the future.

Illiterate third graders of today, become prisoners of tomorrow.

Talk about investing in the future and making a long term commitment to our communities.

This conversation with Nancy happened on the very first day of vacation, but I can tell you that it will ring in my heart for many years to come.

Thanks, Nancy, for making a difference.

I have plenty more to share. But tell me, how do you think we can change these statistics?

See Ya in a Few

Since we will be leaving for the aeropuerto at 3:30 AM, I'll probably not post before I leave. Steve gets grumpy when I make him wait!

Tomorrow we'll spend the afternoon in San Jose, capitol of Costa Rica. We'll probably go down to the Central Market, although the workers at the hotel where we stay think we are crazy. Later we'll find a local restaurant and have some wonderful Rican cuisine and then that'll probably be it! My eyes will want to close at about 8:30.

The next day, we'll catch a small plane down almost to Panama on the Pacific coast. After a ride through a banana plantation and a boat ride down the Sieppe River into the ocean, we'll arrive at Aguila de Osa or paradise as I like to think of it.

People ask me what I do down there. I answer with one word, "Nothing!" That's a real vacation!

Oh, we'll go to San Josecito Beach, snorkeling and diving, horseback riding and zip line riding, but the overall theme for me is sitting and reading. I have six books with me, which probably means I'll be paying for overweight luggage on the Costa Rica flight, but there are no stores for me to buy more if I run out. I also watch the white face monkeys jump through the trees, kayak out into the ocean, watch the macaws eat cashews right outside our room and quietly watch the hummingbirds of all shapes and sizes. Ever so often a huge lizard will either fall out of a tree with a thump or will make lots of noise climbing it. Maybe we'll see the crocodile, although I think that last year the locals told me that it had disappeared.

Hopefully, I won't repeat several near misadventures of years past! That of getting a jellyfish sting on the side of my face because it was on my swimming shirt. When I took it off over my head, the j/fish smeared its stinging venom as it bushed against my skin. Not fun. One year I also missed stepping on a ferdelance snake by inches. It is THE most deadly snake in the world.

The very same year I got closer to a sea snake as I was snorkeling than I wanted to. It also has dire consequences. While that's not the way I want to go, Costa Rica and especially the area around Drake Bay where we go, is to die for!

I'm sure I'll have some fun stories for you when I get back and by the way don't forget the start of International Networking Week on Feb 4. Register at our website and compete in the contest. I will be networking with people from all over the world and will be listing those names when I get back.

Till then -- go network!

NetWORKing Zones

As I drove across Ohio and Pennsylvania during vacation, I hit quite a few miles of "orange barrels."

There are two mysteries to me.

The first being: even though I was traveling on a week day (Thursday) on my way out, 90% of the work zones were not being worked on. Why? (Interestingly, on the way home, July 7 and 8, (seemingly an extension of the US national 4th of July holiday) there were lots of active zones. Hm-m-m, no work during the work week, and lots of work on Saturday and Sunday.)

The second part of that mystery is, how come we can't have a two-tiered approach to work zone speed limits -- a slower one for active work zones and a little faster for those that are inactive?

The reason I ask is that if I tried to go the posted speed, I felt like I was having a conversation with the driver behind me because he or she was trying to get into the back seat of my Mini.

Now, where there were people working, I wanted to go the speed posted, but again, I felt like a hazard with the vehicle (and more times than not it was a BIG truck) seeming to be only inches behind my bumper.

As I was pondering this dilemma, I got to thinking about how this parallels networking. You see the cars and trucks behind me were in it for themselves. They wanted to go as fast as they wanted without thought of any other driver on the road. Thoughtless networkers do the same, passing out cards at abandon, interrupting people to do so, talking about themselves only. Ivan Misner, Chairman of BNI, has named that behavior as scorched earth networking.

Getting what you want without concern for others.

So I guess we all need to slow down, both for the construction zones this summer and for the networking events we'll attend all year.

What's your take on all this?

Time for a Break

Well, I am taking a breather from writing each day as tomorrow before dawn, my hubby and I leave for our most favorite place in the whole wide work, Aguila de Osa at the Drake Bay in Costa Rica. It is truly paradise for us, a time to relax and recharge.

It's a rugged trip to get there, two legs from Toledo to Atlanta to San Jose, CR. Then the next day we start with the smaller plane, then a taxi, and finally a small skiff that will take us down the Sieppe River, out into the Pacific Ocean along the coast to our final destination. Those other guests who make their way are usually wonderfully adventuresome people. Dinner conversations are wide ranging and fun. I get to practice my networking skills, seeing how much I can find out about those who are only staying for a day or two.

I have my two subs lined up for each week I will be absent from BNI and have sent my commercials to them. I have books packed that will make my luggage overweight, but since there are no stores where we are going, it is with pleasure that I pay that extra. The house sitter is ready to take over the house and the dogs and the Tuesday night Certified Networker class will be taught by senior trainer Merri Bame. I'm ready and I'll be writing again after we get home in about two weeks.