PERSONAL NEWS #142

[Duchess Note – Greetings to all my loyal readers. Hope the spring weather has been delightful in your neck of the woods. Yes, it’s been awhile since my last personal news update, as I’ve been a busy bee at work and home. So the following is a condensed version for your reading pleasure.]

On Tuesday evening, April 1st, I attended the Knitting & Crochet meetup in Manhattan. My friend Linda G also joined me and we picked up new techniques from the other attendees. Plus admire some of the projects the other gals were working on.

On Saturday, April 5th, I headed up to Yonkers to do volunteer work at the ferret shelter. I hadn’t been up there since September 2007, as both Joanne and I had been so very busy with different projects.

I so miss the wee furballs and it was great socializing/grooming them. Many of their antics crack me up, plus it was good catching up on news with Joanne.

Next day, April 6th, I took MetroNorth up to South Norwalk [CT], where my dear good friend Katherine met me at the station. We hadn’t seen each other since October 2007. Went over to the bead shop in the SoNo section and made some purchases. Then we headed up to Bridgeport to have a delicious lunch at Red Lobster and I treated Katherine as a belated b-day pressie. [She turned 50 seven months before I do and I’ll be having a big b-day bash for mine.] This has been tradition with us since 1990. Afterwards we did some shopping at a few stores and then headed back to her house to meet Shane, her 1 ½ year old grandson. He’s a cute little fella and very much adored by my dear friend and her hubby Maurice. Shane’s mother, Aimee, is hardly ever around. I won’t smear my blog with thoughts on Aimee and her tarnished antics. The train ride back to NYC was uneventful.

On Tuesday, April 8th, after my foot doctor appointment, I traveled back to Brooklyn and made it in time for the monthly Community Board #1 meeting off of Graham Avenue. My first CB#1 meeting and it was packed. SRO! I kid you not! Didn’t stay for the whole meeting, as my foot was bothering me and there was no place to sit down. What I did observe was interesting and definitely a venue for a Dept of Peace campaign presentation. Need to do more research on community boards in general.

Thursday evening, April 10th, I participated in a conference call with two other NYDoP CCR committee members to discuss latest developments.

Sunday, April 13th, I volunteered with NYC MS Society at a “rest stop” in Brooklyn Heights at Cadman Plaza for the annual MS Walk. Weather turned out nice and we had a good turnout of volunteers, plus dozens of walkers. I did my first MS walk back in 1993 and since 1997 I’ve been volunteering my time. It’s for a worthy cause and I was representing two friends of mine who have MS. Pam passed away a few years ago and Gary still lives in Scotland.

Tuesday evening, April 15th, I participated in another conference call with NYDoP CCR committee members. We did prep work for an upcoming meeting with Yassky’s policy director.

Thursday, April 17th, was the monthly NYDoP board/core team meeting, which was held again at a conference room at my office. Unlike the previous month, this time around there was only 3 of us in attendance. That didn’t deter us and we had a productive meeting.

Saturday, April 19th, was “Earth Day” in NYC, and I attended an event geared towards this in McCarren Park near my home. Fortunately for all it was a lovely, warm spring day. Afterwards I purchased some goodies at the local farmers market, also located in McCarren Park. On the way home I stopped by the local florist/nursery for some gardening goodies. Need to take care of my house plants and purchased a few new plants. Around this time I made my first purchase of Isagenix products [ie: Ionix Supreme & Want More Energy] and been utilizing them every day since then. OMG!! This is great stuff, especially the Ionix Supreme, which gives me such energy, helps me sleep and staying more focused. One of these days I’ll do my first Isagenix cleanse, which I hear is so rejuvenating. To learn more about these wonderful products and the system, go to the link in the left hand column of my blog.

Tuesday evening, April 22nd, after my foot doctor appointment, I listened in on the monthly National DoP NVC conference call at 9pm.

On Wednesday, April 23rd, after work I attended the monthly PDA CD14 meeting on upper Eastside of Manhattan. Was invited to attend by former volunteers [ie: Alice & Jim] of NYC Kucinich Team. Some of those in attendance [ie: Bud, Al, Barbara, George] I know from other events, groups, campaigns and rallies. We caught up on news, which is mostly what is happening in the NYC political scene. What intrigued me most on the meeting agenda was a presentation on “Clean Money Clean Election” by Dan Jacoby.

Thursday evening, April 24th, after work I headed down to Brooklyn to attend my first Park Slope Knitters meetup. About 20+ were in attendance at Sweet Melissa’s Café on 7th Avenue. I learned there are two ways of knitting; there are the English and Continental variations. Because I’ve been crocheting for some time I learned I am more suited to the continental way. I spent an enjoyable evening chatting with the other members, admiring their work, eating delicious cheesecake and learning some tips of the trade. At one point I asked about the time and learned it was going on 9:30pm. OMG!! Packed my things, said goodbye to all, paid my bill and rushed out to get car service to head home. The bus and subway would have taken too long. I got home with 5 minutes to spare before a new episode of LOST came on TV. Whew!

On Saturday afternoon, April 26th, I attended the 5th Annual Brooklyn Peace Fair. NYDoP didn’t have a table this time around, so I brought my business cards with me to hand out while I networked all the tables. Handed out many business cards and talked about peace, DoP and the City Council resolution. I mostly hung out with Linda, Cielito and Max at their Share International table. As always Brooklyn Parents for Peace puts on a worthy event and never a dull moment. Overall it was a productive afternoon.

I took a vacation day on Tuesday, April 29th, so as to prep for the meeting with Tim Roberts at City Council member Yassky’s office. Kevin and Joe joined me, as we are part of the NYDoP CCR Committee working on getting DoP Resolution 627 passed. The weather that day was overcast, cool, abit rainy and windy. The half hour meeting went very well and it was quite informative. The three of us were very much jazzed by it all and have much planning work ahead of us.