Once upon a time in pr land. . .

I had lunch with two of my favorite people today.  Nikki Konefsky and Adriana Sol are hardworking, successful partners in what we used to call a public relations company.  I asked them to describe Vine Communications, their six year old firm, in "25 words or less" and they both dissolved in laughter.

"We're working on that," grinned Adriana. 

I understood their dilemna.  The business has changed so much since my company was in its heyday, that I hardly recognize it.  The challenges that Nikki and Adriana meet and address for their clients on a daily basis bear little resemblance to the free wheeling pr world that I thrived in.  But the basics still apply. . creativity, attention to detail, understanding your client's needs.

Branding is the new watchword, and social networking a must.  We had a lively discussion over lunch as to the state of fees and retainers these days.  I'm not as far removed on those subjects due to my current free lance writing jobs, but I know all too well how important it is to be paid properly for your work. 

Nikki and Adriana are both married now with Nikki the mother of two adorable little ones.  When I met them six years ago, they were just starting out.and very young.  They still look like teen-agers but believe me, they have matured businesswise.  When I sit and talk with them I can't help but think back to my early days as the owner of a growing company as well as a working Mom.  Those challenges haven't changed.

I'm proud of them both.  How ever they finally decide to officially describe their business, they are handling it well. You go, girls!

Photo Caption:  Lunch at Jaguar in The Grove.  Nikki, Adriana and me.
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Different strokes for different folks. . .

Some people believe the "ultimate show" is found on Broadway.

The significant other's drean production is a little closer to home. It's the Annual Americas Food & Beverage Show at the Miami Beach Convention Center and I'm in a state of exhaustion having just returned from a two hour eating and walking marathon.

There is nothing Benard loves more than a good freebie and this show is absolute Nirvana in that department. With about 200 booths from all over the world offering samples to eat and samples to take, he is in total heaven. I do the eating.  He does the taking, this year filling up to the brim two tote bags with goodies.  The Show even provides the bags. . .what more can you ask. Check out the photo below taken when we returned home.

As a (former) very successful Sea Food Distributer, Benard still receives an invitation to the Trade Only Show. A few years back, he registered me as "Secretary", so I also receive a name badge. I think my job is to be sure we take home at least one of everything that is being given away. My personal favorite is a square package of something called "Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cake" by the Southern Sweet  Potato Company of Mississippi.   Don't ask the calorie count of that one.

In between endless bites of all kinds of seafood and lots of fried sausagey stuff, I managed to put away a cup of Key Lime Gelato, a cup of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream and a handful of yummy white Brazilian chocolate. I washed them all down with cups of Coconut Water, something from Brazil that tasted like coffee soda, a few sips of some new energy drink, some fresh pineapple juice and a glass of red wine. And oh yes, a cup of freshly brewed espresso.

Don't wait up for me for dinner, Benard.  I think I need to spend a few hours in the gym.

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This way to the Convention. . .

I always knew my kid had all the answers.

That's daughter Andrea, at the DNC Convention in Charlotte. Can't wait to hear the questions she was asked and the answers she gave. My experience working the info booth at Fairchild Garden for various events taught me that the most popular question is always "Which way to the Ladies Room". Hopefully, hers will be more broad-based and that's not a pun.

Charlotte, according to Andrea, is in total convention mode for the next few days, so she is taking the time to volunteer. Should be an interesting experience. While I doubt they will have their "Clint Eastwood moment", you never can tell. According to humor columnist Dave Barry in this morning's Miami Herald, he's putting his money on Joe Biden's speech to do the trick. (I did like Obama's comment that "this chair is taken".)

Conventions, for the most part, are scripted and boring events these days. Unless, I guess, that you're there and invited to all the fancy parties. The results of this election are not so scripted and far more important for my future, Andrea's future and the future of my grandson,and his family. I'm both a woman and a senior, so it's not hard to know which way I lean.

Whichever way you lean, please be sure to vote. That's my message for today. It's an important one.
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The fury of Andrew revisited. . .

Twenty years ago come Thursday, a Category 5 chainsaw called Hurricane Andrew cut a swath of ruin like no storm before it.
The Miami Herald, Sunday, August 19th.

You had to be there to truly understand it.

August 23rd, 1982 was a Sunday. When word came that Andrew was coming our way, the island on Biscayne Bay where I live was evacuated. At mid-day,I packed a few things into a duffle, stuffed my two cats, Pasha & Sasha, into one carry cage, and drove inland, south, to my daughter Andrea's home in Kendall. A really bad move. Who knew.

I'd been living in Miami since 1957 and the arrival of "hurricanes" was considered a good reason to party. So fear didn't enter into our consciousness as reports about Andrew started to flood the TV and radio news.

At Andrea's house we were two women, mother and daughter, and a 14 year old boy, my grandson Adam, plus 5. . I said 5. . .cats, my two and Andrea's three. As night fell and the wind and rain were definitely getting worse by the minute, we were faced with the fact that the entire back of Andrea's home consisted of floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors and no shutters (In those days I had no shutters on my waterfront condo, nor did any of my neighbors. Today they are mandatory.)

Suddenly aware of our vulnerability, we frantically searched for something to protect us from the possibility of broken glass. The only thing we could come up with was a series of 6' high cardboard posters with lifesize portraits of Adam in various sports outfits. . left over decorations from his recent bar mitzvah celebration. Hastily attached to the glass doors with tape, they would intermittantly be lit by lightning throughout the long night as we huddled together in the darkness on the hall floor.

We turned out to be one of the lucky ones on Andrea's block. She kept her roof on because her front door opened out and didn't blow in like so many others. For nine weeks after Andrew there was no electricity in her area as FPL struggled with downed trees and broken lines. Looting was rampant and Andrea was gratified to find many of her neighbors sitting on their front steps with a shotgun across their laps and signs that read "You loot. We shoot." And they weren't kidding.

My island survived Andrew with lots of damage but in better shape than Andrea's area. Our electricity came back in a little more than a week and my apartment welcomed a steady stream of friends who were still without and were dying for a hot shower. Hurricanes can really make you shift your priorities.

I don't find hurricanes funny any more. No one who lived through Andrew does. It may have happened 20 years ago, but in some ways it seems like yesterday. Reading about it on the front page of the Herald today brought it all back.
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Photo caption: Andrew approaches South Florida in full intensity.

A look back. . .

The Huffington Post reported the other day that Helen Gurley Brown, the longtime editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, who invited millions of women to join the sexual revolution, has died. She was 90 years old.

Long before "Sex And The City" hit TV, there was Brown's "Sex and the Single Girl," her grab-bag book of advice, opinion, and anecdote on why being single shouldn't mean being sexless. It made a celebrity of the 40-year-old advertising copywriter in 1962.

Wow! That was 50 years ago and I bet today's generation of young single women have never even heard her name. What a difference a mere half a century can make.

While I was no longer a single girl in 1962. .I remarried in 1957 after several years of fun and games. . . attitudes about working women were already changing. The Feminist Movement was in full swing and Women's Lib was the watchword of the day with Betty Friedan's book, "The Feminine Mystique", a must read and Gloria Steinem the woman we looked up to.. Sounds antiquated today but I clearly remember my brother-in-law asking my then husband "why he allowed Joan to work". To his credit, my husband's response was that "allowing" had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Helen Gurley Brown's book was considered shocking in its day by many, but this was a time when AIDS and HIV were still unheard of, and to paraphrase FDR, the only thing a single girl had to fear was the fear of getting pregnant. And contraception generally took care of that problem. The times they were a-changing, that's for sure.

Today's generation of young women doesn't feel it necessary to marry and have children right out of school like mine did. They also don't feel compelled to "do it all". . be Super Mom, Successful Businesswoman, Wonderful Wife, like we did. (Not always so successfully in the last category.) When they do marry, they have husbands who share the load, helping with the house and the kids. Unheard of in the 50's and 60's. I can attest to that.

Reading about Helen Gurley Brown's passing made me reflect a little. Just as my Mother's generation paved the way for women to have the right to vote, my generation paved the way for a more equal workplace for women. And oh yes. . the radical idea that sex was lots of fun!
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Photo caption: HGB & Cosmo

Watching the Olympics and reminiscing. . .

I'm loving the Olympics, especially my favorite, Track & Field. Once upon a time I was a long distance runner. So I was amused to hear on TV last night that Ryan Lochte admits to "peeing in the pool" before his races and insists that most swimmers do the same. Which leads me to today's blog topic: "Bathroom Stories of Long Distance Runners".

I assure you, every runner has one, whether they are training for the Olympics or just out for a multi-mile early morning run. Finding a pit stop is a major part of long distance running.

We had one friend who ran in the New York Marathon on an unusually cold morning and while racing through the streets of Harlem was forced to make a detour into a restaurant's Men's Room, only to find he was suffering from Jerry Seinfeld's friend George's "deadly shrinkage" problem. Not good when you are in a hurry.

My own favorite story took place during a Half Marathon Race in Key West. The race route circled around the outer edges of the island with very few buildings and no handy portolets to be seen. At about 10 miles into the race, Nature's call was becoming very insistent and I was desperate to find some place to stop and go.

Ahead I spied a dense clump of sea grape trees on the side of the open road. Without breaking stride, I dashed in to take care of business only to find a very startled homeless person lying on the ground next to where I was squatting.

Too late. He smiled. I smiled. Needless to say, I was laughing when I rejoined the race. Memories are made of that.
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Staying on top of the evolving English language. . .

Words fascinate me. When I read that a website called Collins Online Dictionary was getting ready to publish the latest new words emerging from pop culture, science and technology, I got to thinking how many "new" words have crept into my daily conversation as well as my freelance writing work.

Take, for instance, the verb "to google". I use it every day when I'm at my computer. There's always something I need to look up or check on, so I've become a major googler. (Note photo taken on my iphone of slightly dusty Webster's Dictionary. Haven't looked at it in years.) Oh yes, "iphone", another important new word in my vocabulary. . not to mention "apps" for my "iphone". How else can I play Words With Friends, Hangman and Solitaire? Is there anything that can make you more anxious than when you misplace your cell phone? Hard to believe that as little as 15 years ago, you might not have even owned one.

I'm also not above responding to a funny e-mail with a quick LOL. Collins says the use of that well accepted shortcut is called "lollage". Bet you didn't know that.

For the fun of it, I checked on some of the new words that will appear in this year's Online Dictionary. They include "Tebowing". . if you are a football fan you are well aware of former Gator Tim Tebow's infamous prayer stance. . ."Ginormous" when something is really, really, really big. . . .and my favorite, "Mantyhose", tights for men.

I'm curious to hear some of your favorite new words. I may not be your BFF, but I'd love to hear from you out there in Cyberland.
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