After doing a bunch of errands with my daughter on Monday. We got home and discovered a turtle in our backyard. Apparently, my husband had found him wondering in the middle of the street. He brought it home, offered it some food and water. As you can see he wasn’t happy in this crate.
After dinner we took him to to The Lost Pond, a conservation area near our home.
I’m sure he will be happy there!
This to me truly illustrates the word ESCAPE!
We went to New York City and stayed in the Battery Park area…here is the view from my perspective 
You may remember I submitted 8 of my photographs to a Minted.com contest in conjunction with the West Elm stores.
I received and email on Monday from Minted.com, they would be having a conference to announce the winners.
If I wanted to participate, all I need to do was fill out a form. I was surprised they were going to do this as there were over 1400 entires. I thought, maybe I had a chance, they hadn’t sent that email to everyone. Yesterday I received another email, from Minted.com, too many people had rsvp’d to do the original call and now if we wanted to participate we would have to call in.
So, today at 4:30pm,(1:30 pacific time), I called the number, punched in my code and waited to hear the names of the winners announced.
The first group of winners were the poplar vote…not me. The second group of winners were the West Elm group (their designs would be sold in the retail outlets), not me either.
The third group of winners were the Editors choice, again my name was not selected. They did say that they were still in the process of choosing Editor choices and would be following up with an email.
I hung up the phone, a little dejected that I hadn’t won. Who was I kidding I really didn’t have a chance.
I lounged around for a bit and then went to to see a school production of Merrily we Roll Along. A friend of mines daughter was one of the leads, very good too!
Guess what happened when I got home. There was an email telling me that 2 of my pictures had been selected in the Editors Choice group. I was shocked!!
Thank YOU ALL! You all have been so generous with your comments. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all your support and effort to VOTE!
These are the 2 pictures that Minted.com selected.
THANKS!!!!!
rodie
Last night I went to a Rihanna concert in Boston. This was rescheduled because Rihanna had cancelled her last one, due to laryngitis.
I was part of a group who had purchased this as a charity auction item. How fun to be with a bunch of women kicking back in a suite….
She was 3 hours late, the sound was horrible and I think she lip-synced. I knew maybe 4 or 5 songs, which were barely recognizable to me.
She strutted and gyrated across the stage. She changed her outfit 4 or 5 times, and even did a walk around of the front section. Somehow she always managed to end up on the same corner of the stage.
I wonder if she chose this spot because, she needed to know what city she was in, and what songs she was going to perform?
She didn’t apologize for her lateness or really engage with the crowd at all.
I’m not really of fan of her morals either…
NOW is the time to really VOTE.
Evidently just liking my picture doesn’t get you votes.
I have entered 8 fine art pictures….
1. Click on this picture to take you to the voting link.
2. Sort by designer and scroll down to the bottom of the page, select all.
3. Scroll until you see my name.
4. Click on the first picture of mine you see and rate it 5.
5. You should be taken to my next picture and so on…
6. Forward this to all your friends
With your help we can WIN this!!!
Thanks for all your support. Much APPRECIATED!
I have been home for 2 days, I am sitting in the Apple Store at the Chesnut Hill mall, which is located about 20 minutes west of Boston. I’m amazed that we all just all stood for a minute of silence to commemorate the week anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombing. I was in Israel celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut: Israel Independence Day, at the time of the bombing. How ironic, we were safer in Israel. Everyone we met were incredibly kind, and sympathetic to what we were all feeling!
I’m at the Apple store because my computer has crashed every time I try and play my movie…. 
Fast forward 7 hours later and I am still having problems. But, my movie is completed, not to my expectations, but its done.
I know I said I would be posting everyday, but I didn’t have any extra time.
Click on the picture to view the movie of some of the highlights.
I have well over 1500 pictures to go through…the good, the bad and the ugly!
Later in the week I will be posting more pictures to http://www.grs614.zenfolio.com if you’d like to look at them.
This was a wonderful trip with 40+ smart, compassionate, funny, thoughtful woman. We visited Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. We participated in a beautiful Havdalah service. Hiked up Masada, floated/dipped in the Dead Sea, went for a bike ride. Visited 2 schools, help paint a mural and heard the stories from a few Ethiopian Jewish woman’s journey to Israel, that would make us cry. We had dynamic speakers who taught us poetry, history and the revival of the Hebrew language. We visited a The Strauss company, which has a women CEO, the Carmel Winery who got their start from the Rothchild family. We commemorated Yom Hazikaron: Israel Memorial Day, probably one of the most heart wrenching nights we had. Toured the Western Wall tunnel, left notes at the Western Wall, and visited the old city in Jerusalem. Our final night was spent sharing our experience with each other. Many tears were shed that night and new connections made. All that was done in in 7 days….I was one of the lucky ones who flight home was cancelled and got to spend an extra day in Tel Aviv to rest and shop.
What an adventure, journey, experience…it was SABABA (hebrew for AWESOME)…I would have to see that I discovered a part of me that I didn’t know existed!
I would like to give a special shout out to Caryn and Stacey, thanks for being our “shepards”, this certainly was a trip I will not forget.
I am adding this last note….I woke up this morning thinking of the quote that Caryn shared with us by Maya Angelou. I’m sure she won’t mind if I share it…
I’ve learned that people FORGET what you said, people will FORGET what you did, but people will NEVER FORGET how you made them FEEL!
This time tomorrow, I’ll be on a plane to Israel. Last may I was at party, talking with a friend, who suggested I join her on a trip she was organizing for April 2013.
She invited me to come to an informal meeting at her home, to hear about the upcoming trip. So, my friend and I went to the meeting and agreed we would consider going.
This trip is a women’s philanthropy mission through an organization called Combined Jewish Philanthropies .
Here is their mission statement:
About CJP’s Women’s Philanthropy
Women’s Philanthropy provides an opportunity for all women to strengthen and shape their connection to the Jewish community and to each other. Together, we further CJP’s mission through educational, volunteer and philanthropic programming – developing and supporting programs that enhance the community and well-being of others.
This trip will take us to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and our sister city Haifa. We will travel for 8 days. There are 40 of us, all woman! We will See, Learn and be exposed to situations we wouldn’t ordinarily do on a visit to Israel.
I’m looking forward to leaving tomorrow. My backpack is stuffed with 2 camera’s, 4 lenses, 20 cf cards 10 sd cards, a media reader, notebook, flash drive, external hard drive for extra space and tons of powers cords. And, of course, the all important power adapter/converter. My laptop will be the last thing to be added. Now I have to start packing the clothes!
I plan on posting daily. It may be pictures, a description of our day, or a piece written by me, or a fellow traveller. So…check in to find out what’s happening on our journey!
