Crashes & Crushes

Had a crash of my own on Monday night of a much less cataclysmic but still worrisome nature----yes, we’ve all had them.  Whirr whirr click click whirr pfffft !  Blue screen.  Sound familiar?  Hardware. Software. Netware, Slimware.  Let’s call the whole thing off…..

I am still susceptible to crushes, even at my advanced middle age.  The question I have is whether it is OK or totally unseemly to have a crush on one’s own niece?  Not the kind of crush that makes you leave silly post-it notes for your beloved on the bathroom mirror, but a deeper kind of admiration and delight at seeing someone you love grow up and come into his or her own.  I don’t have kids of my own, so these aspirations and satisfactions have come from nieces, nephews, and godchildren.  My brother’s daughter arrived in NY last night for a networking event sponsored by the Advertising Women of New York.  As an invited ‘notable’ and network-ee, I had an ‘in’ and offered J a trip to NY and an evening turbocharging her career.  I had some networking of my own to do that evening, so after introducing her around to a few publishers in the room, I got out of the way and let her fly solo.  What a wonder!  Occasionally checking in from the sidelines to see how she was coping, I witnessed her delivering some of the finest ‘elevator pitches’ I had ever heard.  I scurried off to the cheese table, big smiles…..

K arrives from Shanghai tonight, and it will be great to hang out with him again.  A new friend made during my first trip to China this past May, K and I have stayed in touch and he’ll be crashing (or crushing???) here on the first leg of his business trip to the US.  So grateful that my travels have resulted in a network of friends and correspondents around the globe.  Computers (and markets) may crash from time to time, but there are more durable people and values we can hang our hats on.