Memorial Day Parade

Nothing beats a small town parade. This year we took the kids to the Cranbury, NJ Memorial Day Parade. Bagpipes, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, vintage cars, tots on bikes, a band, horses, service men and women, and lots and lots of fire trucks! What more could little kids ask for? How about 7,000 lbs. of candy. Everyone threw candy. The firemen threw candy, the girl scouts threw candy, the horses threw candy. My daughter still has a mouthful of tootsie roll (children under 4 need to have a thorough dental exam after eating tootsie rolls because they can't figure out how to get it out from between their cheek and gum!). Everyone had a different favorite part of the parade. 4 year old daughter - when they threw the candy. 2 1/2 year old son - the horses. Wife - returning from a failed attempt at obtaining milk to see son and daughter clapping and cheering for the bagpipes. Me - well, I didn't really have a favorite moment within the parade. At this point, things happen so fast and the kids grow so quickly and life is so hectic, for me, taking my family to a parade is the moment. A moment I will cherish and wish for 10,000 more.

Looking for a new job blues

I think I'm job averse. I've had plenty. Actually enjoyed some of the things I've done, but....basically the business world sucks. Most of the reason behind my lack of enthusiasm is due to the profession that I chose. Accounting. Don't go into accounting. Everything you have ever heard about accountants is because they get beaten down by accounting. It is boring. It is repetetive. It is not a social profession. It is you and a bunch of numbers and rules. Sometimes you get to discuss what rule to use for certain numbers and some times you even get to talk about how to interpret the rule and make a decision, but mostly it's just following the rules and plugging in the numbers. I wish someone would have told me that when I was in college. I was naive in college. I was young in college. Most 18 year olds don't have the capacity to understand that what they study will have such an effect on their entire lives. You think you do, but you don't. I think it is a bit different today than it was 20 years ago, at least I hope it is. The internet and the dot com era had something to do with that, but for someone who is 42 and is just realizing that what they have been doing for 20 years is not as fulfilling as they would like, it is hard to find a new profession. There are responsibilities to the people you support to think of. You can't just go back to school for 4 more years to learn something new and going out on your own to run something that might be of interest is very risky and takes capital. Are you willing to jeopardize all you have for a new start? It is not a fun position to be in. Most small businesses do not work on a long term basis. Success usually comes after at least one failure. For all the people that have taken the chance and succeeded, many more have failed. Do you have the confidence that you will be able to make things work no matter what? Can you subject the rest of your family to that for the sake of being happier in your daily work environment? Unfortunately I am very analytical and I tend to over-analyze and I need to quantify the positives and negatives and there is no way to do that. It is a matter of the heart and what you want out of life and how can you make the best compromise to have the best quality of life possible.

Eat, Drink and Watch a Basketball Game

My friend Ira invited me to the Nets-Heat game 3 on Friday night at the Continental Airlines Arena. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=260512017 His wife received two tickets from a client and she was happy not to go. So off we went. Getting to the Meadowlands from central New Jersey is no easy feat, but it was a playoff game - Shaq, Wade, Kidd, and Carter - and the tickets were for a suite. For those of you who have never been to a game in a suite - well, it's kind of like having a party in your basement to watch a game on tv but you also have a full size basketball arena right there with 15,000 other people yelling and screaming and wishing they were in your basement because you have free food and free drinks and a tv to watch replays and another tv to watch the Yankees-Red Sox and your own private bathroom. They are called suites, but they should be called "Sweets"!!! There were hotdogs, beer, wine, soft drinks, chips, subs, and philly cheese steaks. And brownies and chocolate chip cookies for desert. Apparently there are other items - the suite owner gets to order whatever they would like. They said they ordered sushi, but they didn't get it. Nobody seemed to care. I'm 42 years old and I've been to two sporting events where I got to go to a suite - I can't seem to wonder what the kids that get to go to every game - and there were several - get as a special treat. If you already have what most people consider a once in a lifetime kind of thing on an every day basis, what do you consider a once in a lifetime thing? What do you get excited for? Do you have to be 50 yard line for the Super Bowl? In the dugout for the World Series? Oh well, I'll never know. I'm more than thrilled to be thrilled by getting some free food and drink and enjoying a great game with a great friend.

New York Style Bar Mitzvah

My wife and I went to a relative's Bar Mitzvah yesterday in NYC. I'm still not sure how we spent 6 hours at a Bar Mitzvah, but I'll try to fill you in on some of the details. Stop me when you've had enough. Let's start with the Temple. http://www.emanuelnyc.org/ We were in the smallest of 4 sanctuaries and this one held 257 people. The largest was being restored. It holds 2,500. After the service, we climbed onto double decker buses to take us to the Rainbow Room for the reception. http://www.rainbowroom.com/index.htm The kids were immediately wisked off to a casino where they honed their skills on craps and blackjack and roullette. The parents ate and drank. Sushi, tenderloin, passed appetizers, cold salads, pasta, vegetables, and a full bar. For over an hour. I was full, I was buzzed and I would have been very pleased with the event if it would have ended there. It didn't. We were summoned by a cross between a dinner bell and the Bells of Notre Dame to go to another room. Table number 5 - right next to the speakers. Speakers for the entertainment troupe - an emcee, DJ, and 5 Dancers! Yes, 5 dancers to help grandma boogie and to get the kids out on the dance floor - that didn't happen - not the 13 year olds anyway. I don't think it is socially acceptable to dance if you are a 13 year old boy. But you can play "Crazy musical chairs". We didn't get to stay around for the 3 foot chocolate fountain - our babysitter bill was building into 3 digits - but by that time we were full, both physically, mentally and emotionally. It was quite a spectacle and as over the top as it seemed, it never once felt that way. We had a great time and were honored to be invited to such a great event. We wish the Bar Mitzvah boy much success.