'Tis Better to Give...

Because it is AWESOME! Here's why...As I mentioned in a past post, I am a Nobel Prize groupie and when Muhammad Yunus won the Peace Prize in 2006 for the economics behind microloans, I was captivated by the concept. The idea is brilliant that small loans to real people can make a real difference in the global economy. So Kiva.org was created a couple of years ago to facilitate microloans around the world directly to the people who need it, whom you choose, through field partners. One does not donate through Kiva, one invests because the loans are repaid and then the investor can reinvest or pull out of the project. I put Kiva on my 43 Things list and last night I registered, not knowing exactly how everything worked. I found I could create a profile, including uploading a photo (I chose my caricature) and a description of what my motivation is for joining Kiva. The portfolio shows where you are invested, % countries, % female owned, and % type of business, etc. Individual businesses show what lenders are invested and then you can click to see their portfolios. Last night Kiva indicated that it was taking 4.2 hours to fund a business. Pretty fast. Right now they are holding individuals to a maximum investment of $25 per business to allow everyone to participate. The field partners show the delinquency rates of their loans so you can decide where to loan. It is amazing that the Tanzania office can have 100% repayment rate while the US has such credit problems and we are sending debt collection letters to library patrons. Last night I helped a group of Peruvian women get the final $25 they needed to get travel money to sell their weavings in the city and some Tanzanians run a restaurant. I wanted to help buy some charcoal in Dar es Salaam, but I didn't click fast enough. Competition is fierce. Maybe next time.

Happy New Year

The New Year has been rung in, all 12 Drummers have drummed, and the Wise Men have arrived. My mother migrates her Kings towards the Holy Family as the Epiphany draws near. If I were to do that in my house, as those of you who know about my collection of Wise Men can imagine, it would look like a scene out of Braveheart. I enjoy my collection of Magi. They make me happy. It also cracks me up that my parents find ways of springing sets of them on me. This year they hid 2 sets during a brief visit.

My holidays were great. I got "Carnival Games" for the Wii and a group of us played that along with board games and "Guitar Hero" on New Year's Eve weekend. We began the gathering at 2:30 p.m. with 75 Jello shots (6 varieties) and wrapped things up around 1:15 a.m. with 21 shots left. Here are some truths: champagne foam does gel and the gold flakes in Goldschlager look awesome in Jello shots, TFM is the king of Guitar Hero, and 10+ hours of playing with friends is much better than working.

I have been working on my list of 43 Things for 2008. I did 51% of last year's list. Erica did not learn to juggle and requested that she be placed back on the list. I have also relisted several others from 2007. New to the list include: use raclette grill by 2/29/08 (or I have to get rid of it), make 4 recipes from my new subscription to Southern Living, read Peaceable Kingdom, dig for shark teeth in Venice, and weed personal bookcase at home. Perhaps I will share more in upcoming posts or in response to reader demand (haha). As always, I invite you to make your own lists and share them with me.

I hope your 2008 is a happy, healthy, and prosperous one.

NPR Homework

On Saturday as I was driving home after work, on my way to "Christmas Break," and I was listening to NPR when the commentator assigned us homework. I was so enthralled by the idea that I called my voicemail at work to remind myself to think about it for the blog. I just went to elibrary for the transcript to give you the exact wording:

"Melody Kramer is a producer at NPR's WAIT WAIT DON'T TELL ME. She lives in Chicago. Melody just told us what she's happy she did this year. How about you? For this week's homework assignment, I want you to send me a story about the best thing you did in 2007. What are you proudest of? What did you accomplish that you never thought you could?"

I really liked the question, especially as I prepare to review last year's 43 Things to make new ones for the coming year. High on my list of best would be the recent Disney vacation. The 4 of us had a great time and it has been a long time since I have been away with my parents. Another highlight was riding the Segway. I had a massage in a palapa on the beach in Mexico this summer. Super awesome! I never thought I would actually read War and Peace. There are a lot of things I'm proud of this year, especially Ann's quilt. Even though I was already a technogeek, I made great a great leap forward with this blog and the Professional Collection one and other technology. Overall, despite the accident, I had a terrific year. Perhaps being happy at work and home is my great accomplishment.

Want to add your bests, proudests, and surprise accomplishments?

End of Year Thoughts

I will be making some posts to close out the year and I thought I would break them into separate posts to make them more coherent and manageable. First of all...Fantasy Football. Although football season is over and some fantasy leagues still have playing time, ours concluded this past week. I came in #2 behind EG who was our "control" subject. After setting up her account and creating a super cute avatar, she never logged in again. In the automatic draft she was dealt a very solid team. She had the #1 kicker and very consistent players at the other positions. EG never shuffled players off the bench to cover bye weeks or players out for other reasons. Nevertheless, due to the consistency of her team in the aggregate, she won. As I mentioned in previous posts, I neither follow nor fully understand football. I worked hard on my team this season. I read expert reports, researched players, analyzed statistics, traded players, and moved people around. My rank was never lower than 4th, I was in 1st for several weeks, and I ended in 2nd. For my first attempt at Fantasy Football, I feel that I made an honorable showing. I will admit that I am much relieved that the season is over. On Saturday night I was out to dinner at Il Primo and on side-by-side televisions Shark Tale and the Cowboys were playing. I was watching football. Not good!

'Tis the Season

Having been on a mini vacation between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I find that I am in overdrive trying to get everything done. I returned from my trip to a package on my my desk -a book to review from LJ. Fortunately it must have only just arrived as the due date is 12/24. I hadn't yet read my book discussion book and that was for this past Wednesday. Sometimes I feel like I'm back in school reading my assignments right before they are due (oh, right...I never read my assignments). At least now I read! I have also been shopping like a fiend. I participate in the adopt-a-family program and feel very strongly that the kids all receive bicycles (and helmets). I am acutely aware of how fortunate I am. I can still hear my grandmom's voice saying, "you're a lucky, lucky girl" and I can't imagine what it must be like for the parents to have to ask for gifts on behalf of their children. When I think about how much I can blow during any given trip to Disney on funnel cake, cotton candy, pins, and whatever strikes my fancy, or my ebay habit, or amazon, I feel compelled to give back. So...I've been a busy, busy girl. Then yesterday we discovered a family fell through the cracks and needed adopting, so off to Toys 'R Us we went 6 days before Christmas (yikes). I learned all about Polly Pockets, though, and found a Barbie in a swanky living room set that didn't seem demeaning, plus assorted board games.

I have been exchanging gifts with friends, receiving awesome toys and books. I received some promises; I have a date for 2 hockey games in the new year and I'm going to be taught to play Mah-Jongg. How thrilling! Disclaimer: If your gift was not mentioned, above, it doesn't mean I'm not pleased by it :)

The other great thing about this time of year is that it is the annual selection of the book thong. Each year Bead Lady makes beaded book thongs (those string book marks) for the branch and we can select the one that most appeals to us. The beads are all different. You would think that you could have too many, but you can't. We all have multiple books going and variety is nice. I chose mine today and I love it. It's in the LJ review book. Tomorrow as I'm reading I'll probably absent-mindedly roll my new book thong through my fingers like rosary beads, appropriate given my genre. Thanks, Bead Lady.

I probably won't post again until next week. I know that I will unwrap more gifts that will make me smile, but I am most grateful for the gifts that can't be unwrapped. Thank you for your time, friendship, counsel, comfort, and encouragement. Merry Christmas.

I'm Back

I have returned from my trip to WDW and all is calm, all is bright. My lament that I would not see the Wishes fireworks was for naught. I saw them 3 times. Once from Main Street, once from one of my favorite restaurants, 'Ohana where they pipe in the audio track (did not know that), and then finally from just off the monorail. The whole trip was awesome. We went on a Segway tour of EPCOT that was amazing (and was on my list of 43 Things). I had never been on a Segway before. The castle was more beautiful than the video I posted could ever convey. I made this trip with my parents and my usual traveling companion. My parents had not been to the Disney parks in a long time and we thought it would be fun to show them what our typical trip is like with the added bonus of Disney Christmas. We brought them to all of our favorite restaurants, etc. I bought my mother Mickey ears. She chose the Year of Million Dreams with silver ears and flashing lights edition and she became a rabid pin collector. The best part was that she loves spinning rides but my father and I can't spin, but AJK can so they went on the carousel, Dumbo, Astro Orbiter, and the tea cups. Watching them on the tea cups was fabulous. We also got rides, separately, in the front car of the monorail. Each moment was perfect (well, my parents did heckle Tigger at lunch...but he was a good sport)...other than that...My cold is gone. My eye infection is cured and my knee is much improved. Best of all, joy has returned and I feel like my old self. Now I can start to enjoy the new car. The miracle of Pixie Dust.

When You Wish Upon a Star

Tomorrow I leave for a mini vacation. Not that I'm placing much pressure on this vacation, but I hope it will fix everything. You know how when you screw on a jar lid and you don't align the threads? It goes on, but not quite right. That's how I have felt since the accident. Things haven't been quite right. I get all my tasks done but I don't really concentrate and I'm not filled with joy. My knee is not entirely healed (my apologies to AC for even voicing a complaint about that) and then I got a cold and then an eye infection. An eye infection! Where did that come from?! Here's the good thing...my vacation is essentially joy rehab - Walt Disney World. I will be spending 3 days getting sprinkled with Pixie Dust, enjoying fireworks, gingerbread, and the magic of Christmas all at the Happiest Place on Earth. I can't wait. The castle has new icicle decorations this year. How can I not get my joy back? Here is a video of the castle lighting.



While we are at WDW, we will be attending Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. That should be a hoot. It is a special ticketed event with parades, cookies and hot chocolate, snow on Main Street, etc. The one thing that I don't think will happen this visit because of the holiday fireworks is the Wishes fireworks. Wishes fireworks are my favorite. They are choreographed and narrated and tell the story of wishes and hearts' desires. Of course they always make me feel very grateful and there is a part towards the end that makes me cry, on cue, every time. I even have the CD of the show and I cried at home at the "right" spot. Also, at the finale I am usually overwhelmed by the fireworks and the tears stream. You probably won't want to watch the whole video, but this is a way for me to have it now. Even in my not quite right state watching this video made me tear up, so maybe I'm on the mend.