Acquaintance Building Blocks

I have just returned from a very pleasant hour with one of my local classmates, Julie, who met me at McGlinn's. She works for the Salmon Recovery Board (in fact, she had to return to work while I returned home), an entity charged with re-establishing viable salmon habitat. For more on this mission, which affects much of the Pacific Northwest, visit http://www.ucsrb.com/.

Julie is a perfectly amiable, charming young woman, fond of theatre, reading, hiking, biking and travel—in fact, she is leaving soon for a backpacking vacation through central Europe with the wife of one of my husband's classmates (networking layer upon layer!) and I am quite envious, for I haven't been back to Europe since 1994.

I am so pleased that we had the chance to get together in a relaxed setting, for I have the sense that our monthly seminars will be fairly intense. I really enjoy the chance to reflect on experiences. Good conversation with one to three people is a most satisfying way of sythesizing intense experiences, and I hope there will be more such meetings.

At Rotary Randy tantalized me with where our international trip might be—and where it likely won't. Class XXIX is going to Russia next January,and while I told Randy there are very few places I wouldn't care to travel, Russia in January, well, that might just be one of 'em. He tempted me with India, which certainly would be more attractive. Its economy is emerging, as anybody who's attempted to call customer service can vouch for. True, it's halfway around the world, a long haul indeed, but I survived the flight to Japan with a few books, and getting there wouldn't scare me off. What a wonderful opportunity that would be, but there's no way of knowing at this early stage.

All in good time, as they say.