It's been a while but exciting things happen to me less often right now. But a few unique events have occured in the past few days.
1)As of last Saturday, I became certified in adult CPR and administering aid to a choking victim. My friend Jen, who lives in Oakland, invited me out there to an East Bay Red Cross gathering of free CPR classes. We had to sit through lame instructional videos where choking victims just happened to know the universal sign for choking (which is wrapping your hands around your throat and coughing if possible). Ideally, you have to get consent from the victim before assisting them. But I'd feel like a freak going up to someone as calmly as the woman in the video did and saying "Excuse me sir. Are you choking? I can help you." The class instructor said if the person falls unconscious, then the consent is implied. Anyway, after the film, we adjourned to another room where we got to practice on a mannequin. Nothing is quite as fun as blowing air into a piece of plastic--as any man who's dated Cher can testify to. Since so many people showed up for the free classes, they just sort of did everthing at a drive-through pace. But I retained enough info to ace the written exam. I'm only licensed for a year. So anyone who goes unconscious after March 12, 2006 in my presence--sorry, you're out of luck.
BTW, after the training, Jen and I went to Jack London Square and found ourselves at House of Chicken and Waffles. With all my fond memories of chomping down fried fowl goodness at Roscoe's in LA, I couldn't not go in. I highly recommend that place if you feel like simple, home cooked eats. I had a crisp, not too oily chix breast, macaroni and cheese, greens and a biscuit...be right back...must go wipe the drool from my face. Those were pretty much the highlights of my weekend.
2)I got an e-mail from a woman in the syndicated permissions department for Conde Nast in Spain (!) An article I helped write and research with my fellow ex-Wired intern, David Goldenberg, (it was a take off of Coolest College Campuses called Coolest Corporate Campuses--we looked into employee perks of seven companies i.e. Pixar, Google, Microsoft)will be reprinted as is in the May 2005 issue of GQ Spain!! And I should get a bit of monetary compensation too. I don't really care about that. I wouldn't be half as ecstatic if it was any country other than Spain. As most people know, Espana has a special place in my heart. So, the notion that my name will most likely appear in a Spanish edition of a magazine makes me feel warm and gooey inside.
So, those are the cool things going on with me as of late. Oh, and here's a link to the first article I've written for the Palo Alto Weekly in a while:
http://www.paweekly.com/weekly/morgue/2005/2005_03_11.drue11.shtml
I interviewed a certified master of Sumi-e (Japanese brush painting) who was commissioned by the PA Pacific Art League to paint an original work. She's a very smart and talented lady but I've never met anyone who enjoys talking in metaphors. But it's personalities like that that make life not run-of-the-mill.
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