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2009 May ramblings
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May 15, 2009 8:39 am
1085 Views
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May must be the traveling month.
I start out with a business/pleasure trip to Washington, D.C. and New Jersey in early May, and then only a week after I get back, I am off to Chicago with my mom, eldest daughter and my wife for my second daughter's college graduation.
I was so happy that she made some very wonderful friends in Chicago. The weather was okay. Chicago is a wonderful city, an architecturally robust place some of the world's greatest buildings are here - Sears tower, John Hancock building and so forth. Millenium park is handsome. And my eldest daughter is now bickering with her mother, and her grandmom is talking to her to calm her down. Now, the eldest daughter is giving the cold eye to her sister. She is at the center of all sorts of squabbles. My wife is ready to butt heads. And believe me, you don't want to be the object of my wife's wrath.
One day, I called my eldest daughter an "a. . .hole", and she did not say anything. The next day, she told me, "You know dad, remember when you called me an 'a . . hole' the other day?" "Yes. I apologize for that. . . I just couldn't control myself becaue the tension you were creating was so difficult for everyone." "No. No. No. When you called me that, . . . I kinda liked it." "What! You liked being called an 'a . . . hole'?" "Yes." - Who, what am I dealing with here?
While in Chicago, we visited my long lost cousin living in Waukegen, about 30 minutes north of Chicago. His life story would be the suject of a separate blog entry, but it was sooo good to see him and his wife - very gentle, salt-of-the-earth people. I would have gone to see him, had I known that he lived that close to Chicago. He is 63 years old, but my mom kept telling me he lived in Wisconsin somewhere and I automatically assumed that he lived in northern Wisconsin (why do we make such baseless assumptions?) - and Wisconsin seemed far away anyway - and so I hever made an effort to contact him whenever we were visiting Chicago. In fact, Waukegen is located close to the border of Wisconsin and Illlinois on the Illinois side. Such sad loss of opportunity to build our relationship. My mother had not seen her nephew in 15 years. They talked on the phone and they are very close, so there was simply no excuse, no excuse at all. Well. . . caring for my brother . . .
Just a few days after I got back from Chicago, I am now in San Diego/Coronado attending a lawyers conference at the Hotel Del Coronado. This place is soooo relaxing. I step out of the stuffy meetings into the cool sea breeze. How refreshing. I should just move here and forsake all of my responsibilities of life. I often wondered where I would most like to live if I were ever homeless. Places such as Santa Monica (not bad), San Francisco (too cold), Palos Verdes (too cold), Santa Barbara (not bad – but maybe too cold), San Diego (may be best), Tijuana (never been there, but I think it is probably pretty good), Orlando (near Disney World – Epcot center and travel the world) – come to mind. I just don’t understand these homeless people in Chicago or New York. They must be crazy. They should just pack up their belongings and walk over to one of these parasidical enclaves of human existence. The meetings here are good because I got to network with other solo lawyers to share our concerns and to support each other. In my life, I have been so blessed with meeting so many wonderful people. I wonder just what is it that I have ever done to deserve all of this good will and thoughtfulness. Whom do I repay? How do I repay?
On Sunday, I go to Atlanta for the annual BIO meeting there. It should be interesting with all of the stem cell controversy, drug affordability controversy, patenting genes controversy, swine flu worry. And then, a week after I get back, I was going to go to Korea, but I canceled. It was ridiculous. I would be a “pah kim chi” if I did that.
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