Random Thoughts

As an interpreter, I think about language a lot – about WORDS.   And the phrase I have been pondering for about a week is this:   ONCE IN A LIFETIME. People often use it to describe big, grand, amazing things.   ·          “Visiting the Grand Canyon – oh, that is a once in a lifetime experience!” ·          “Skydiving?   A total once in a lifetime experience!”   ·          “Front row tickets to a Lady Gaga concert?   Once in a lifetime, man!” ·          “A trip to Iceland to see the Northern Lights – wow, a once in a lifetime experience!!” The use of that phrase relating to positive events like those rubs me the wrong way.   Because here is the thing – if you invest your money and time in an experience or event, and it is fabulous and you love it – THEN DO IT AGAIN !!!!   Jumping ...

Days 5 and 6 The heat continues - it is around 116 degrees Farenheit each day.  We have never in our lives experienced this kind of heat, but the locals consider it normal for this time of year.  It is breaking 100 year records, but they are still outside hauling bricks on their heads, pullings weeds, and doing mason work.  In fact, they still serve you HOT CHAI, which of course, you drink, because it is offered!  (Also, because even if they offered you "iced chai" (is there such a thing??) you couldn't accept it because weak immuned Westerners need to avoid all tap water, including ice, lest they come down with a case of "Delhi Belly"...  We took a train from Agra to the train to Sawai Madhopur.  This was not a super fast brand new train like the one we took before, but a "normal" train.  Well, normal except that our car had some semblance of cooling (not what we would really call "air conditioning" in the USA but it did the trick and t...

Bed a Day is a project I worked on every single day of 2014.  It was the first big project of this type that I tackled – I set myself the goal of taking a photo of the bed I woke up in every day .  You can see the Bed a Day video at:   Bed a Day video I was not sure I could do it really.  Would I forget?  Would I be upset with myself if I failed??  Was it a ridiculous task? Here are the statistics of “Bed a Day” 2014: ·              Total number of beds I slept in - 22           Pets that got on a bed I slept in – 1            How many stranger’s beds I slept in - 4           How many hotel beds I slept in - 11           Total number of nights I slept in hotel beds - 23           Number of states I slept in - 12         ...