Sunday, July 26, 2009

Back home.......

Seems as though the news from here in the US has been shaky the last 7-10 days, so I rushed back from Paris, yanked my Superman costume out of storage, and am about to start leaping tall buildings (again) in a single bound.....

Health care reform, racial profiling, CIA, things have really started to come unglued while I've been away. At least the DJIA is up over 9,000, and Wall Street bonuses are flowing..... :)

I ran off to Europe again, after coming back from Luxembourg to be with Dad and the family for his 80th. Jase's group show opened over there on the 18th, so I thought I'd surprise him.....he at least pretended to be pleased that I made it back. Since his flight home was not for another week, and my California trip needed to be rescheduled, we decided to continue playing jet-setters and headed to Paris by TGV (Q: are you still a jet-setter if you travel by train??). What a
life.















Paris is....well.....you know, it's Paris. OK? Nothing compares, and, for years, it was almost a 2nd home as I would often stop there to see friends on my way to/from many biz trips to Milan. I speak just enough French to know how to order veal brains instead of pig's feet at dinner, so it was fun to share 4-5 days there with Jase. We were on fairly high voltage while there, and, as you can see from the photo above, this is what happens to your hair after hanging around with me for too many consecutive days......poor guy.....

We galleried, museumed, shopped (50% off!), ate, strolled, ate, ate, coffeed, ate.

Barack is getting good marks from everyone I spoke with in Europe. He and Hillary are our best PR agents in 8+ years. There's always a lot of head scratching and shoulder hunching when it comes to our differences on issues like guns and healthcare and our super-sized lifestyle, but I detected a significant shift in mood this trip to France vs. the last 18 months ago, and those prior. For one thing, the younger generation is taking over, and their attitudes toward democratic social welfare, free enterprise, regulation, and so forth are changing the shape of policy priorities at the top and attitudes at the street level.


Just one small cultural change that astonished me---the number of people speaking English to Jase and me, openly and in a sincerely friendly manner. Oh mon dieu, this can't be Paris, can it??

Time to hit the ground running and see if we can't drum up a little more business in the next few months. How else to keep traveling in this manner? :)


1 comment:

  1. Welcome home and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BOB!!!!

    Here's to another amazing year ahead for you, and hoping that today's filled with all your favorite things.

    xxo,

    Ru

    ReplyDelete