What's The Big Idea?

The Big Idea: Donny Deutsch - CNBC.com

I love this show. I watched it rarely when it started because it was just a celebrity/newsmaker interview show. The format has changed lately though and is now all about small business, people living their dream, running their own show, and making a bunch of money.

Listening to these people and their success stories gives me hope and gets me thinking about my big ideas. The prevailing theme with all of the stories seems to be, "I had an idea for a business. I didn't know ANYTHING about it. I just jumped in." And as a former business owner, that is true. You don't know a thing, and it's scary, but you learn along the way.

And the bigger the jump, the bigger the payoff if you succeed. And the people he interviews have faced all of this, and sometimes, worse, but still made it.

I can do it, too. I have before, I know I can again...now, what's my big idea?

Mammoth Cave

Mammoth Cave National Park - National Park Service

We went to Mammoth Cave National Park yesterday. It was the perfect Sunday afternoon. We took a hike, went down by the Green River and had a picnic lunch and splashed, then we went into The Cave.

The Cave wasn't as neato as I remembered it being in 1996; however, we did do a different cave tour this time, and it has been eleven years and LOADS of amazing wild west scenery since that day in May of '96.

Once again, I am at a crossroads in my life, and Mammoth Cave is part of this moment, the "ground zero" of "moving on." I was hoping something life-changing, amazing, astonishing, whatever, would happen today, as my last visit to Mammoth Cave augured meeting my husband.

But nothing happened today of any import. I got up and went to work. I know that I shouldn't have thought ANYTHING would happen...maybe something will happen yet, but I think that the real change agent in my life has been ME! Fortune favors the brave, and I have been fortunate that my bravery has served me well. You can't win if you don't play, ya know?

But I did decide yesterday, lunching lazily by the river, that I was going back and going canoing. It's only an hour and a half away, and totally gorgeous. Forget the cave.

'Cavemen' Faces Most Attractive...really?

FOXNews.com - Study: Men With 'Cavemen' Faces Most Attractive to Women

I saw this article all over the internet on Thursday. Today, I couldn't find it ANYWHERE, not even on the site that originally posted it, LiveScience.com (which is a favorite of mine). I think that's weird.

Anyway...

This story could explain why the Geico Cavemen are so popular. Their new web site is a total waste of time. But check out the cookbook in the kitchen--duck with mango salsa is featured!

Thanks Geico.

This song is stuck in my head.

Long Time No Post.

SO...

A lot has happened in the last few weeks. I've taken a temporary job downtown--unbelievable! I work in a big office building on floor 27 doing fixes on a huge web site. There are some issues with it and getting it to work for the folks that hired me, and I seem to be helping out.

Crazy. I never would have guessed that after 12 years I could just walk into an office, sit down, get on a computer, and be the hero.

I have four more weeks, after which I may or may not be hired permanently. I had to buy office clothes.

God help me.

Now, I haven't been shopping for this kind of stuff in a long time and I'm not real sure if I did very well. And I don't really understand "Casual Friday" because I still can't wear whatever I want. Khakis and a nice shirt, yes. Clam diggers and a tunic? No. And no sandals. Bummer.

I enjoy the work. It's challenging, and a great culmination of what I learned on my own since 1998 building web sites. The people I work with couldn't be nicer. Just nice nice. And very complimentary.

I still can't believe somebody hired me without having anyone to call for a reference. No matter what happens with this job, I know I'll come away with a glowing recommendation, which is great, because it is a very prestigious firm.

Not much else to say, except that it's going much better than I could have ever guessed.

To miss New Orleans.

Before my dog died some weeks ago, I was missing New Orleans terribly. Not that here isn't good, it just isn't New Orleans.

God I love that town, warts and all.

On the last night we walked on Bourbon Street, I programmed the phone number to a pay phone right outside 730 Bourbon into my cell. I decided it might be fun to call the phone at some point in the future when I wasn't there. I got the idea because as I was walking by, the phone was ringing. So I picked it up. It was some radio show calling and they asked me some dumb quiz questions.

About a month ago, one night as I was missing the Big Easy, I decided to dial the pay phone number. It rang. A black guy picked it up and we had a nice conversation. I asked him how Bourbon Street was; he said same as always. He was in town for the Essence Festival and his truck had gotten towed and he was trying to find out where it had been taken. He had relocated to St. Louis after Katrina and was visiting, but had to get back to work in Missouri on Monday and was stressed about getting his truck back. So he decided to go down to Bourbon Street and party.

I love that Big Easy attitude. Manana, baby. Talking with him made me miss the town even more, although I knew that if I were there, we probably wouldn't have spoken to one another passing on the street. No way.

But it made me realize that we're all humans. We all have needs, issues, problems, parking tickets, bad days. Whatever. And I was having a great time talking to this guy, and he wasn't exactly hanging up the phone on me, either. We talked for about 15 minutes. It was a good connection.

After the call ended, I called my cousin Dorothy in New Orleans and we talked a long time. We miss each other, terribly. I told her about the pay phone and she just laughed..."Of course you'd do something like that!"

I want to go back soon. Maybe Labor Day. Maybe sooner.

"All life is a manifestation of the spirit, the manifestation of love."

--Morihei Ueshiba

Dog Epilogue.

The day after my dog died, the vet clinic called and said that they had her ashes ready. At this point, I had been crying off and on for 24 hours, and felt generally horrible.

Strange thing, though...picking up her ashes actually helped calm me down. They came in a plastic bag sealed with a twist-tie, inside an understated black plastic box. The vet clinic had attached an organic paper cut-out of a dog to the exterior of the box that had flower seeds embedded in the paper. It could be planted as a memorial. I thought that all of that was so nicely done.

Going through old pictures helped, too. She was a really pretty dog in her day, and seeing her in her prime reminded me that her sickly last year wasn't a happy time for her.

She died on Wednesday; now it's Sunday, and tomorrow I begin a new job downtown. As the new week begins, so does a new volume in the epic saga that is my life.

After finally getting motivated to cook, husband and I made dinner for the first time in days; we had a nice meal. We decided to get coffee after dinner, so we drove to a little shop about five minutes away. On the way there, I had the thought that, for most of her life, my dog's life coincided with what I call the "Theodore Roosevelt" years of my life. I went west, I had an amazing eleven years mostly outside, all with my dog, in the most incredible landscapes in the lower 48. She loved the mountains and forests and the canyons just as much, if not more, than I did. Now, I can only hope that that part of my life serves to enhance my future as much as it did T.R.'s. Ha. High hopes. Anyway...

As I was waiting on my cup at the coffee shop, I sat down at one of the sofas, which had a coffee table full of books. There on the table sat a Theodore Roosevelt biography, on top of a coffee table book of the paintings of Monet. All I could say was "Oh my god."

My dog's name is Monet.