Getting To Know You

I have some great new friends -- precisely my cup of tea.

Midnight in Paris, Crazy Stupid Love ... and all the other kinds too

"Le cœur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point ... " -- Blaise Pascal

Had a movie binge the other day and saw both Midnight in Paris and Crazy Stupid Love in one afternoon. (Loved them!) Both speak with great humor and bittersweet affection for the uncomfortable fact that we often fall in love with the wrong person. It's something we humans can't help. Hell, in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, the hero is falling in love with a girl from the wrong era. Talk about tricky.

As for why we run around like idiots falling in love in the first place, don't miss a TED talk by Helen Fisher about why we all LOVE to fall in love. The short answer is ... same reason people love cocaine. You romantic types didn't know you were just the same as hopeless drug addicts? Well, you are. See her great analysis of the 3 types of love here, called "Why We Love and Cheat."

Crazy Stupid Love does a very good job of reminding us of how often we are in the love with the most inappropriate person. It has great twists and turns where everyone is completely OFF about who they swear is their soul mate. The French mathematician and philospopher Pascal had a perfect saying on this subject, "le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connais pas." That is, The heart has its logic which logic knows nothing about. (My translation.) And of course, leave it to the French to have TWO verbs for expressing "to know" -- savoir (the scientific "knowing") and connaitre (the emotional, sensual "sensing/knowing", where we get the word "connaisseur" -- a lover of things, suggesting that, to LOVE something or someone, is to KNOW them.)

I've been wanting to see another author who happens to be excellent on this subject -- Shakespeare -- and a number of his plays are being presented in the great outdoors this summer. Shakespeare loved to get his characters "looking for love in all the wrong places, ... in too many faces", as the old song goes, even playing around with the tradition in theater at that time that the women characters were played by little boys. In other words, you knew that the actual actor playing the hero was head over heels for a female lead character who was a male, not a female.

So check out both films and catch some Shakespeare in a park near you this summer. Remember they don't call it FALLING in love for nothing. If you decide to try it, don't be alarmed if you fall for Mr. or Ms. Wrong and fall on your face in the process.

+Photo Credit: Corey Stoll as Hemingway in Midnight in Paris, LA Times

White Mountains, Highland Lodge, Best New England Camping Experience

No, no, they don't pay me a fee to promote them. No, I'm not a "consultant" with some murky connection to their organization. I'm simply the BIGGEST FAN of Highland Lodge, near Mount Washington up in the White Mountains of NH.

Check them out here: Highland Lodge, White Mountains

My son is wild for camping, while I prefer shoe shopping to the great outdoors, but I love Highland Lodge! It gives parents a real break and is quiet and gorgeous with the chance to enjoy as much or as little of Mother Nature as you want.

And the best-kept secret of all is their L.L.Bean equipment room in the basement. Believe it or not, it's like a free "lending library" of the best L.L.Bean equipment including anything you need -- fleece jackets, daypacks, boots, rain gear, snowshoes, you name it. AND PARENTS, they outfit your children, you hang out in the woods, hiking, going on guide-led adventures, bring your dirty kids back to the Lodge and THEY WASH ALL THE CLOTHES -- That's my idea of a vacation! The food is great. The dinners are terrific and healthy. It's BYOB or buy a bottle of any of their good choices of wine. It's an amazing place.

We went in April with friends visiting from Finland. They didn't have any hiking equipment and the L.L.Bean room took care of everything FREE. And I'm talking snow gear, snowshoes et al., as we waltzed from Boston spring tulips blooming to full-on blizzard up there that particular time.

August is a great time to visit because it's starting to get cool and crisp up at Mt. Washington. Don't miss this New England treasure.

Back from Europe

Unpacking here at the crack of dawn. This jetlag thing gets you thinking deep philosophical thoughts like -- where the hell is that blue hairbrush? I'm sure I packed it. And other trivial stuff like, why are we born? Why do we die? Why is a Coke in Europe only 4 ounces and costs nearly $4.00?

For the most part we had a glorious trip, but on the last day my son and I hit a snag, with one airline royally messing us up, (causing us to miss a connection) and another called Virgin Atlantic saving the day. I like to pretend to be a role model for my 16-year-old, a pretense that melts often enough in the light of day. I completely blew it at the airport. I let him see me screaming and ranting like a harridan. I went off and lost it big time, yelling at a certain airline's customer service rep, "Thanks Gordon for reciting the airline regulations, now try to stop being a ROBOT and start being a HUMAN BEING."

He had that infuriating Customer Service Asshat tradition of a name plate with NO LAST NAME. That practice is guaranteed to raise by blood pressure instantly by 25 points. It's disrespectful to Gordon, or Suzy, or Rachid -- like they don't merit a last name -- and insanely unhelpful to the customer who might want to mention to their management what a useless idiot a member of their staff has been. It's slippery and sleazy and has 28-year-old MBA written all over it. It's inHUMANE and results in customer service reps who don't act like humans. It's what they did to slaves in pre-Civil War days. Thought we got over that, last I checked.

Making a scene in this manner was completely pointless and embarrassed my son no end, but then again, when does a parent of a teenager NOT embarrass their cool kid?! We left one terminal and went off to the other terminal to see if Virgin could help us.

On the bus between terminals, I actually calmed down and thought about a more winning game plan. My son noticed my frown turning to a smile and got worried. He asked me if I was going to TWEET about the bad airline. I shocked him. I resisted the urge. I had gone from raving lunatic to Yoda Mom. I said, "I'd much rather NOT TWEET about the bad airline and hope Virgin can be our hero today and TWEET about that."

While waiting in that very long line earlier, at the offending airline's "customer service" counter, I had called Virgin Atlantic's 800 number and they had warned me that I'd missed the last flight to Boston for Monday and the next available was ... Thursday! I nearly dropped the phone on that one. For many reasons we could NOT say in London for an extra 3 days. They suggested going to the airport counter for Virgin and inquiring about it in person, perhaps they could help me get home sooner.

When we got to Terminal 3, that's exactly what happened. I met the most amazing person -- Ricardo Munez -- who was one of those miracle workers of customer service who helped us in every way. He was polite, fast and booked us on the next plane the next day. Still, we had one little issue, we were in London for the night with no hotel.

And, per usual, Twitter performed above and beyond the call of duty. Knowing I might be stuck in London and much preferring the company of my Twitter buddies, I sent out a quick tweet and got three responses in about 20 minutes. Euan Semple and his totally awesome family put us up for the night and showed us wonderful stuff like a pub and a pony and a pot of tea and finally an evening in front of the telly watching Sirens by good old @reynolds -- all good things spawned by social media, doncha know. We slept well and then they graciously got us back to London Heathrow and on our way the next morning. Semples take a bow! Twitter take a bow! Virgin Atlantic take a bow! And I just found that hairbrush.

Photo Credit: Shaggy Pony by las on Flickr