Route 53 - Life is A Highway, Travels: The Route 53

Food for Life

April 27, 2009 erikhom@aol.com Leave a comment

“My wife and I tried to breakfast together, but we had to stop or our marriage would have been wrecked.”
Winston Churchill

I’ve been trying to live passionately the last few weeks, but it has been tiring. So tiring that I’m sitting here sick in bed as I write this. But that is okay because I’ve rediscovered that passion for life that had escaped my everyday routine for a couple weeks. Its that same passion that has driven me to drive a VW Beetle made up to look like Herbie the Love Bug. Its that impulse that drives people to do things that make them happy and allows you to enjoy life. And for me that helps translate into others being happy. I’ve always been passionate about travel, hotels, food and discovering new experiences and most of all sharing them with those I love.

I’m not sure what Winston Churchill was referring to in his quote about eating breakfast with his wife. For me it is totally the opposite. My latest passion are the breakfast beignets at Brenda’s. Oh MY! This isn’t about the swankiest or trendiest places, but little points in our lives where we could just close our eyes and still taste the food, remember the wonderful time we hand and long to relive a great time when we were happy.

For my wife and I breakfast has always been a highlight. Sitting down and having breakfast together means we are taking time to be with each other and usually that meants we aren’t rushing off. It started when we were penniless college students in Pittsburgh and would go to the now defunct Bagel Nosh in Squirrel Hill for a $2 breakfast that included an egg, bagel, and coffee. Oh did we have lots of refills just to hear this one waitress with a fake British accent (we still laugh about it to this day). Over our life together there have been numerous places where we have held hands under the table over a hot cup of coffee. In New York it was The Cupping Room located in SoHo where they served the best Challah Bread French Toast along huge bowls of coffee (yes, you brabbed the mugs with two hands). That has since been replaced by our new favorite breakfast place in New York, the Clinton St. Baking Company where you will find the most incredible pancakes and muffins.

Clinton St. Blueberry PancakesInside the Clinton St. Baking Company

The food is so good that Martha Stewart has written it up several times. Beware that seating is limited and when going there we have waited outside in the cold until they opened. When we go to New York, we won’t miss getting a breakfast there. Part of the secret is the fresh Maple syrup which is sickeningly sweet.

Breakfasts in Hawaii also hold a special place for us. Our honeymoon breakfasts on the Bay Terrace Cafe at the Mauna Lani Resort on the Big Island has beautiful views, a fresh outdoor experience, omelettes made to order, fresh fruit, malasadas, and the friendliest service with that Aloha spirit. Just tell them and they will freeze some grapes beforehand and you can take them out to your cabana chair on the beach. It is the beautiful way to start a day on the Kohala Coast.

There have been so many others along the way: Fresh Fields Market in Durham, NC where you could order your breakfast any way you want it, bringing ingredients from the market to the counter and reading the newspapers and magazines for free and returning them to the rack, the now defunct Cheers in San Francisco where we held so many Sundays in their garden courtyard, Ann Sather’s Swedish Pancakes with Lingonberry sauce in Chicago, and the list goes on….. the food always taught us to enjoy life and reminded us about embracing the moment. We never had a meal at any of these places where we came away without a good plan for the day as well as a desire to return. I’ll have to come back and edit this entry if I remember any others.

Our new recent find is Brenda’s. Their beignets are so unique and the location is very tiny and in a very sketchy neighborhood. The restaurant is only open from 8am -3pm and the flight of beignets (chocolate, plain, Apple and crawfish) and lines form beginning 15 minutes before opening on the weekends. As we packed up Herbie on a recent morning, my wife smiled seeing my excitement at showing her my latest find. The kids were skeptical (crawfish was not as exciting to them as the chocolate) but they definitely enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the cramped little restaurant. The sweet potato pancakes were wonderful as well as the andouille sausage omelette. Even if the Crawfish beignet sounded a bit odd, we all agreed it was the marquis menu item and well worth trying even if you didn’t like it. Everything on the menu is under $10 and affordable.

For me though, the best part was seeing the smile on my wife’s face as she drank her coffee and we smirked as we saw our children with full bellies and chocolate smeared faces. She was also happy to see me enjoying myself with our brand new “breakfast haunt”. I’m not sure how long we will continue to frequent this venue (our waistlines will suffer), but I do know we have plans to come back.

Route 53 - Life is A Highway

Happiness and Longevity

April 25, 2009 erikhom@aol.com 2 Comments

Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life.
– Burton Hills

: Longevity & Happiness

Dressing for work these days is not the same as it was 20 years ago. Back in my days on Wall St. it was about the power tie and the pinstripe blue suit. Now in the world of techology it is about the right jeans, the coat, the shirt that goes untucked, no tie. Yup, that’s how you dress to impress. I remember that first day on the job in NYC when my mentor looked at my suit and told me we were going to leave early and he was going to take me to Barney’s down in the garment district. He had the tailor fit me with two suits, some shirts and some ties, 4 pair of socks and a pair of brown shoes as well as black shoes. He paid for it all. I was shocked, but years later I figured he expensed it. I appreciated the effort but dressing up was never my thing. I always wanted to dress appropriately, but not to impress.

Yesterday morning I threw on my cool jeans and found one of my fitted dress shirts I had worn once before for a party. I forgot the shirt needed cuff links and scuffled around for something to insert into the cotton holes. I found an old box of my dad’s cuffs and picked out two old fashioned ones with Chinese characters that I could not read. When I got to work I forgot about the cuffs. I scuffled through a few phone calls and a slew of emails until one of our foreign engineers spotted me getting some water and smiled saying , “Long Life and Happiness”. I looked at him inquisitively. He pointed at my left wrist and said “Long Life” and then my right, “Happiness”. I smiled. That was appropriate. I now was dressing for success. And I had my dad, the man who gave me all of my life’s rules right there to guide me. Such simple words and yet so powerful. On my left wrist I also wore my yellow Livestrong wristband. Live Strong and Long Life on one hand and Happiness on the other. It felt like those days as a kid when my dad gave me those notes of wisdom. I stared at my wrists as I ate lunch.

Quite frankly I haven’t been happy about many things lately even as I try to maintain a positive attitude. I feel overworked, overburdened and have very little time to contemplate, smell the roses and share some quality time with my family. Staying up late is one of the few times I can empty my mind and take care of the things I need to for my family. What I really need is a good primal scream. Can you do that in a blog? I”ll try and do it quickly. I need to realease the tension in my life.

Please skip the rest of this entry if you don’t want to read my negativity! I’ll be better in my next entry, but I need to do this in order to honor my dad’s wishes of Longevity and Happiness! Okay, plug your ears and close your eyes!

1. My son’s music teacher is a complete nerd who needs to get a life! He’s worse than an abusive sports nut coach!

2. Comcast is so incompetent! Why can’t they just come to my house and fix the problem!

3. What the heck are the city planners doing by narrowing the boulevard I’m living on yet adding traffic?! Someone’s going to get killed!

4. Someone want to give me a raise or help me win the Lottery? …Please 😉

5. Will my mother-in-law please enjoy life and not torment her daughter?

6. Dear protesters, stop blocking my streets! I respect your voice but hate your methods of communication.

7. Dear politicians, stop wasting our money and time!

8. (Quietly looking skyward) Do not put my wife through cancer again.

9.Someone out there…I need 30 hours in a day! (2 more hours of sleep, 2 more hours of work, 2 more hours to spend with my family!)

10. Vacation Gods…where are you?

Okay. Feel better now. Time to go to bed. Longevity and Happiness to all!

Route 53 - Life is A Highway

Just Another Day in Baghdad by the Bay

April 20, 2009 erikhom@aol.com Leave a comment

“One day if I do go to heaven, I’ll look around and say, ‘It ain’t bad, but it ain’t San Francisco.’” –Herb Caen, former columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.

I was going to write about something else, but today was “that day” each year that everyone gets. It is that day where the weather suddenly changes overnight and the air is so warm and Winter seems so long ago. Nobody is ever prepared for it, but it sure was nice to have on a Monday. People were walking around in a daze with their noses pointed in the air and their eyes closed and a little smile on their face as they took in the suns rays.

It wasn’t just a hot day. It was 93 degrees downtown breaking the record which was previously 84. By 9 degrees, that wasn’t just breaking, but shattering the record. Pipes burst, trains stopped, tracks buckled and power grids burnt out ,shutting down about 25% of the city without power.

Today just happened to be the day when I was finally taking care of myself and heading to the doctor for my annual checkup. Would this be the year when the doctor said I needed to be put on Lipator or some other cholesterol reducing drug? I’d say the one good thing about the hot weather was that as I fasted all day, the last thing I wanted to do was eat. I had to laugh as the receptionists were walking around in the dark and using flashlights to guide pregnant women around the halls. This happened to be Earth Day week so I guess we were conserving energy whether we wanted to or not. It kind of broke up the nervousness for me as having been to the hospital several times over the last year for my wife was a lot simpler than a normal checkup for me.

The results? Well I lost 12 pounds over the previous year and now I have to wait to find out if my cholesterol counts are low enough to avoid the drugs. Ironic that the son of a physician hates needles, but I just can’t watch them go into me, At least the lady today got my vein right on the first try and didn’t jab me three times like last year. Finally as I left, the blackout lifted. It lifted for me too. There was a relief for me as I have been working all year to make sure I stayed healthy and going to see the doctor was somethin I didn’t want to do until I was ready. More than anything though was the relief that I think I finally felt I could look after my health after monitoring my wife. It was a deep sigh. I found myself closing my eyes and soaking in the sun. It felt good, real good. I know my wife was pleased to see me doing something for myself as well.

The next several days will be busy at conferences and for our Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day.

It felt good to put a Herb Caen quote at the top of this entry. He was always my favorite columnist gwoing up as he captured the essence of San Francisco. I don’t think he would have enjoyed today’s sweltering heat, but I think he would have found a way to enjoy his Baghdad by the Bay.

News blip- I just heard that there are over 36,000 people over the age of 100 in Japan! Holy cow!

Well this is my short entry for the day. It is too hot to do anything! Even too hot to go for a run! I earned a day off!

Route 53 - Life is A Highway

Rhythm and Passion

April 17, 2009 erikhom@aol.com Leave a comment

If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you. ~ T-Alan Armstrong, Author

I started writing this in my small free time the other day as I flew between San Francisco and Los Angeles. As usual for me I got myself engaged and absorbed in a conversation with a young couple telling me about the wonderful 5 days they had just spent in Mexico visiting some fascinating places so I am finishing this blog entry at home . It sure beat sitting there in my cramped seat with my computer open for an hour. Sometimes no matter how hard we try we get caught forgetting to look around, observe, learn, listen, absorb and act in a way that shows we respect and enjoy the life we have.

This young couple had a passion in their voice as they talked about their vacation. It hit home with the topic of this post that I had been thinking about. Lately as I have been running at night I’ve come across a greater understanding of what motivates me and keeps me motivated. I’ve always been passionate about wanting certain things in my life, but at the same time I can get myself into a rhythm in life that can get me into a bit of a daze. Rhythms can be good, but they can also lull us to sleep. I suddenly woke up this week and realized it got away from me. I hadn’t been collecting my thoughts, I had been ignoring what was important to me, and I wasn’t enjoying myself. Stress can do that and when you are just rolling along you sometimes need to hit a bump in the road to wake you from your slumber before you drive off the road. Albeit, paying property taxes, filing income taxes, preparing for a presentation this past week and for next week can be distracting and took me away from my ability to focus on life’s pleasures and little things.

I’ve been getting asked recently about my running and odd hours. It is true I don’t sleep much. I find that the it isn’t about how much I sleep, but the consistency of my hours. Sleeping more will throw me into as much of a funk as sleeping less. If 5 hours is all I need, then if I train my body that way, I can function very easily on 5 hours. Even the other morning I had the oddest exerience as I woke up on my own at 3:30am without the help of an alarm. I opened my eyes and heard nothing. I sat there for 5 minutes staring at the ceiling and didn’t even hear a car go by or even the hum of a refrigerator, heater, etc. For a second I almost thought I was dead. More like dead tired as I somehow made my way to the airport for a 6am flight. But that is how life goes these days. My body is on automatic. I can make my body run 5 miles and it monitors its own pace 9 minute mile followed by 8:30 minute mile, followed by 8 min. followed by another 8 and then a 7:30 pace. At first I used to look at my iPod to monitor and now I can just run and my body goes on autopilot. Some people might look at my time and wonder why I always start slow and speed up. I think it has always been my running style to start early at a moderate pace and develop a rhythm and build endurance or power. I was always the way I ran when younger and I find that is what I do in my everyday life with work, problem solving, playing with my kids, etc. Its about getting into a state of mind that you can be happy with and not have to think about. Establish a pace and then power through my tasks with endurance.When I ran in school I used to start off near the back and then slowly pass the runners as the race wore on.

For me when I develop a pattern or rhythm with your life, the rest can come easier. That is where the passion comes in. For me my running is now no longer something I have to think about. When I run all I think about is what I want to do and what I need out of life. Yes, what are my passions. What am I running to and what am I running from on my nightly jaunts are my passions in life: my wife, my family, and yes, sometimes even my work thoughts and ideas can come freely. I run from my work politics and crazy commute drivers and I run to my wife and children as well as the freedom to observe things, gather lifes lessons and share in many of life’s pleasures

My wife has needed some cheering lately and I’ve been knocking myself out trying to keep her happy, keep the kids distracted and staying in rhythm. Part of that lulling rhythm I had fallen into was that is okay. I think physically she is okay. She is not necessarily pleased with the outcome from a cosmetic view. I don’t think many people look at their bodies after surgery and can ever be totally pleased. It will never be exactly the same. Of course, she’s happy that the cancer is gone. We all are.

Tomorrow is a new day, the weekend, a chance to keep the rhythm and pursue our passions.

And with that I am off to another run tonight. I will run to my passions and run away from the distractions of life that keep me away from those passions. The song at the top of this entry is part of my mantra right now and one of the songs I listen to when running with my iPod.

Breast Cancer - A Loving Fight, Business - Affiliate Marketing, Route 53 - Life is A Highway

It’s About Nothing!

April 11, 2009 erikhom@aol.com Leave a comment

“Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.” – Jerry Seinfeld

You might have noticed I slightly altered the tagline about this blog. I’ve been debating it since I had a conversation with a good friend a couple of weeks ago. He was interested to learn I had a blog and wanted to know what it was about. We’ve shared many of life’s details that we haven’t shared with our own wives so he wanted to know more about the phenomena of blogs. After I told him, he laughed. We both love the comic, Seinfeld. He didn’t have to say it. He knew what my blog was about….

Below is a work of semi-fiction. The names have been changed (or not). If you followed the show, Seinfeld, this blog entry might sound familiar.

(At a Keith Urban Concert)

BUD: So you write these entries about your life in a blog and people read them? I think that is pretty ballsy. I think that is interesting. Maybe I should write a blog too.

ROUTE53: Really? Well I can help you.

BUD: So, if you have any idea for a blog for me, well, let me know.

ROUTE53: I’m not sure if you can write about your legal clients, but I’d be very interested in something like that.

BUD: Well, that is attorney-client privilege so I don’t think I can. Maybe something else.

[They listen to Keith play “Sweet Thing”]

ROUTE53: Well let me know if you come up with something. Just tweet me.

BUD: Tweet you? Is that like, give you a ring?

ROUTE53: Um …never mind.

BUD: I’ll read your blog and see if it inspires me.

[Two days later BUD and Route53 meet at the local Peets]

BUD: I’ve been reading your blog. Why do you do it? It’s kind of public.

ROUTE53: I thought I’d write down my thoughts. It keeps me honest with myself.

BUD: For what? I mean, it’s kind of boring reading that you ate oatmeal again.

ROUTE53: It’s for me first, but if you find my life interesting, go ahead and read it. You don’t have to.

BUD: So it’s a blog about your everyday life?

ROUTE53: Yeah, I guess so. I’m getting old and have lots of thoughts. Sometimes I want to step back and remember them.

BUD: Yeah, but eating oatmeal. How could that possibly help you?

ROUTE53: Well, let’s say someday I get accused of a crime and the police ask where I was on this day and time? I can read my blog and tell them I remember because I ate oatmeal with Flax seed and that night I was at a country music concert with you. Well, because nobody would ever believe that story.

BUD: Come on, how hard is it to make it all up? It’s all fiction. Look at all the junk that’s on TV.
You want an idea? Here’s an idea. You’re a butcher. And you’re married. And your son is a vegetarian and you’re pushing him into the business. That would be fun to read.

ROUTE53: Why should I care if my son doesn’t eat meat?

BUD: Because you’re a butcher. It’s only natural.

ROUTE53: But meat is not for everybody.

BUD: I know, but he’s your son.

ROUTE53: So what? Besides you hit the nail on the head. Look at the junk on TV. It’s all reality TV. Well my blog is reality me.

BUD: All right, forget that idea, it’s not for you….Okay, okay, I got another one. You’re bankrupt because of the recession and you auction your life treasures on eBay.

ROUTE53: Yeah and…?

BUD: And people buy your junk and you get involved in their lives wanting to know if your items are getting good homes

ROUTE53: What person who runs an auction on eBay gets involved in people’s lives?

BUD: Why not?

ROUTE53: So someone bids on some my old comic books and all of a sudden I’m
getting them to tell me their life stories? I could see if I was a pharmacist because a
pharmacist knows what’s wrong with everybody that comes in.

BUD: I know, but online auctions are very popular right now.

ROUTE53: No they’re not, they used to be. It’s all about Web 2.0 and social marketing

BUD: Oh yeah, like you know.

ROUTE53: Oh like you do, you’re a lawyer [Route53 Tweets the whole conversation]

[STEINBERG enters Peets]

STEINBERG: …And you’re the manager of Cirque du Soleil.

ROUTE53: [Looks at BUD] You told STEINY about my blog?

[BUD shrugs his shoulders]

STEINY: Come on, this is a great idea. Look at the characters. You’ve
got all these freaks on the show. A naked Asian woman who contorts herself into a pretzel? I mean, who
wouldn’t tune in to see a headless man with an umbrella; a mute clown; underwater acrobats.

ROUTE53: I don’t think so.

STEINY: Look ROUTE53, web blogs aren’t about boring lives. People want to read about the nuts of the world.

ROUTE53: I don’t think people will go for it.

STEINY: Why not?

ROUTE53: Look, I’m not about writing about freaks. I’m writing my everyday thoughts about the people around me.

STEINY: Oh come on ROUTE53, you’re wrong. People they want to watch freaks. Look at Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. This is a “can’t miss.” [Queue laugh tracks and fade to commercial]

[Later that week at The Butcher and The Chef in San Francisco’s South Park]

BUD: So, what’s happening with your blog? You come up with anything new?

ROUTE53: No, nothing.

BUD: Why don’t they have Acai here?

ROUTE53: What do you need Acai for?

BUD: Everyone’s doing Acai in America.

ROUTE53: I know, my wife makes me drink an Acai shake every morning. You know why? Because people like to say “Acai.” “Excuse me, do you have AH-SAH-EE?” “We need more acai.” “Where is the Acai? No Acai??”

BUD: You know its crazy that first it was ginko biloba and now it’s acai.”

ROUTE53: “Don’t you know the difference between ginko biloba and acai?? You can’t order an Acai bagel at Noah’s Bagels.”

BUD: That’s not Acai, that’s Asiago. It’s a Cheese.

ROUTE53: See, that’s a blog entry.

BUD: What?

ROUTE53: This. Just talking.

Bud: (dismissing) Yeah, right.

ROUTE53: I’m really serious. This is what I blog about, my everyday life.

BUD: Just talking? Well what’s great about that?

ROUTE53: Yep, that’s what my blog is about. My life. It’s about nothing.

BUD: No story?

ROUTE53: No forget the story. It’s about the people and it’s about sharing experiences with similar people who find me

BUD: You’ve got to have a story, don’t you?

ROUTE53: Who says you gotta have a story? Remember when we drove to Santa Barbara and Herbie broke down and we spent the night in King’s City in that creepy motel? That could be a blog entry.

BUD: And who is in the blog?

ROUTE53: Me, you, everyone. I spend find minutes with someone and I’ll be writing about them.

BUD: Great, but can you fictionalize me?

ROUTE53: You?

BUD: Yeah. You could base a character on me, but not write about me, per se.

ROUTE53: So, in my real blog, there’s a fictional character named BUD?

BUD: Yeah. You can call me Art Vandelay, the architect. There’s something wrong with that? I’m a character. People are always saying to me, “You know you’re a quite a character.”

ROUTE53: And who else is fictional in my blog?

BUD: STEINY could be a character. STEINY..

ROUTE53: Now he’s a character. (Pause) So everybody I know now has a fictional side to them? I don’t think so. This is about my REAL life.

BUD: Alright, have it your way. Write about nothing.

ROUTE53: Thanks. You really think so? Nothing? I guess I’ll have to re-title my blog again.

BUD: Absolutely nothing.

ROUTE53: So you’re saying, I continue to spend my days and write in my blog about nothing.

BUD: WE write about nothing.

ROUTE53: “We”? Since when are you my ghost-blogger?

BUD: (Scoffs) Blogger. We’re talking about the web. You think Internet Geek Girl writes all her own material?

ROUTE53: You want to go with me to WordPress?

BUD: Yeah. I think we really go something here.

ROUTE53: What do we got?

BUD: An idea.

ROUTE53: What idea?

BUD: An idea for the show.

ROUTE53: I still don’t know what the idea is.

BUD: It’s about nothing.

ROUTE53: Right.

BUD: Everybody’s doing something, we’ll do nothing.

ROUTE53: So, we go into WordPress, we tell them we’ve got an idea for a blog about nothing.

BUD: Exactly.

ROUTE53: They say, “What’s your show about?” I say, “Nothing.”

BUD: There you go.

(A moment passes)

ROUTE53: (Nodding) I think you may have something there.

[ROUTE53’s apartment]

(ROUTE53’s explaining BUD’s idea to STEINY)

ROUTE53: So, the show would be about my real life. And one of the characters would be based on you.

STEINY: (Thinks) No, I don’t think so.

ROUTE53: What do you mean you don’t think so?

STEINY: I don’t like it.

ROUTE53: I don’t understand. What don’t you like about it?

STEINY: I don’t like the idea of a character based on me.

ROUTE53: Why not?

STEINY: Well it just doesn’t sit well.

ROUTE53: You’re my colleague. There’s got to be a character based on you.

STEINY: That’s your problem, buddy.

ROUTE53: I don’t understand what the big deal is.

STEINY: Hey, I’ll tell you what – you can do it on one condition.

ROUTE53: Whatever you want.

STEINY: I get to play STEINY.

ROUTE53: You ARE STEINY.

STEINY: I am STEINY.

ROUTE53: But you can’t act. It has to be the real you. This isn’t fiction.

STEINY: Phew!

[ WordPress reception area)

(ROUTE53 and BUD are waiting)

ROUTE53: (To himself) Acai, Asiago. Hey, excuse me, you got any Acai? No, not Asiago, Acai. (BUD doesn’t react) What’s the matter?

BUD: (Nervous) Nothing.

ROUTE53: You sure? You look a little pale.

BUD: No, I’m fine. I’m good. I’m very good.

ROUTE53: Why are you nervous?

BUD: No, not nervous. I’m good, very good. (A beat, then he snaps) I can’t do this! Can’t do this!

ROUTE53: What?

BUD: I can’t do this! I can’t do it. I have tried. I’m here. It’s impossible.

ROUTE53: This is just a blog. We don’t even have to tell them. You’re supposed to just write it! Besides, this was your idea to be part of my blog.

BUD: What idea? I just said something. I didn’t know you were going to listen to me.

ROUTE53: Don’t worry about it. They’re just an internet social platform.

BUD: They’re men with jobs, ROUTE53! They wear Crocs and drink way too much Acai.

ROUTE53: I told you not to come.

BUD: I need some water. I gotta get some water.

ROUTE53: They’ll give us water in there. In fact, they have free soda and catered lunches.

BUD: Really? That’s pretty good.

[ WordPress‘s Conference Room]

(The WordPress Network staff are all talking with ROUTE53 and BUD)

Staff Member #1: (To ROUTE53, laughing about one of his bits) The bit, the bit I really liked is your hiding in your cruise stateroom hiding from the horny 65 year old ladies. Now that’s funny.

ROUTE53: Yeah, it’s one of my favorite life events.

Staff Member #2: I was touched and felt for your wife’s battle with cancer and all the stories of other survivors.

Staff Member #3: I like hearing about how you make money on the web with affiliate programs

Staff Member #4: I think your life in San Francisco is worth reading about. And the fact you drive a beetle named Herbie with a big “53” on it.

StaffMember #2: What about you, BUD? You have any funny stories?

BUD: (Quickly making it up) Well, possibly. I wrote an off-Broadway show, “Dos Hermanos.” ..Actually, it was off-off-Broadway. It was a comedy about two Mexican entrepreneurs.

ROUTE53: Oh, it was very funny. There was one great scene with the CTO- what was his name?

BUD: Pepe.

ROUTE53: Oh, Pepe. Yeah, Pepe. And, uh, he was making a Facebook Application.

Staff Member #3:Oh, he actually wrote code on the stage?

BUD: No, no, he tweeted it. That’s what was so funny about it.

Staff Member #4: So, what have you two come up with to talk to us about?

ROUTE53: Well, we’d like you to feature our blog. We’ve thought about this in a variety of ways. But the basic idea is I will just write about my life.

BUD: (Interrupting) May I?

ROUTE53: Go ahead.

BUD: I think I can sum up the blog for you with one word: NOTHING.

Staff Member #3: Nothing?

BUD: (Smiling) Nothing.

Staff Member #3: (Unimpressed) What does that mean?

BUD: The blog is about nothing.

ROUTE53: (To BUD) Well, it’s not about nothing.

BUD: (To ROUTE53) No, it’s about nothing.

ROUTE53: Well, maybe in philosophy. But, even nothing is something.

Staff Member #3:What’s the premise?

ROUTE53: Well, as I was saying, I would blog about myself, and, as an internet entrepreneur, living in San Francisco. I have a family, friends, and co-workers, which is all true.

BUD: Yeah, but nothing happens on the blog. You see, it’s just like life. You know, you eat, you go shopping, you read. You eat, you read, You go shopping.

Staff Member #3: You read? You read on the show?

ROUTE53: Well, I don’t know about the reading. Maybe blog about blogging.

Staff Member #3: All right, tell me, tell me about the blog entries. What kind of stories?

BUD: Oh, no. No stories.

Staff Member #2: No stories? So, what is it?

BUD: (Showing an example) What’d you do today?

Staff Member #3: I got up and biked to work.

BUD: There’s an entry. That’s an entry.

Staff Member #3: (Confused) How is that an entry? If you Tweet that, will people read?

ROUTE53: Well, uh, maybe something happens on the way to work. And yes it would be more of a Tweet than an Entry.

BUD: (scratching his head) No, no, no. Nothing happens.

ROUTE53: Well, something happens.

Staff Member #3: Well, why am I reading it?

BUD: Because you’re following me and you’re my “Friend”.

Staff Member #3: (Threatening) Not yet.

BUD: Okay, uh, look, if you want to just keep on doing the same old thing, then maybe this idea is not for you. I, for one, am not going to compromise my artistic integrity. And I’ll tell you
something else, this is the show and we’re not going to change it. We’ll just put this on Blogger (To ROUTE53) Right?

(A moment passes)

ROUTE53: (To Russell) How about this: I manage Cirque du Soleil……?

[Later at Peets]

ROUTE53: I don’t even want to talk about it anymore. What were you thinking? What was going on in your mind? Artistic integrity? Where, where did you come up with that? You’re not artistic and you have no integrity. You know you really need some help. A regular psychiatrist couldn’t even help you. You need to go to like Vienna or something. You know what I mean? You need to get involved at the University level. Like where Freud studied and have all those people looking at you and checking up on you. That’s the kind of help you need. Not the once a week for eighty bucks. No. You need a team. A team of psychiatrists working round the clock thinking about you, having conferences, observing you, like the way they did with the Elephant Man. That’s what I’m talking about because that’s the only way you’re going to get better.

BUD: . . . I thought the woman was kind of cute.

ROUTE53: Hold it. I really want to be clear about this. Are you talking about the woman in the meeting? Is that the woman you’re talking about?

BUD: Yeah, I thought I might give her a call. I, I don’t meet that many women. I meet like three women a year. I mean, we’ve been introduced. She knows my name.

ROUTE53: IT’S COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE!

BUD: Why? Maybe she liked me. I, I mean she was looking right at me. You know, I think she was impressed. You know, we had good eye contact the whole meeting.

ROUTE53: Oh, I forgot to call STEINY.

BUD: Wait a minute let me call her.

ROUTE53: No, no this is more important.

BUD: She might be leaving to work any minute.

[BUD and Susan enter]

BUD: Hello, oh, hello. You remember, … Susan, from WordPress

ROUTE53: Of course. How are you?

SUSAN: Fine, it’s good to see you.

BUD: And this is STEINY.

SUSAN: Hello.

BUD: All right go ahead Susan, tell him.

ROUTE53: Tell me what?

SUSAN: Well, I, [phone rings]

ROUTE53: Uh, sorry, Excuse me one second. Hello.

TEL: Hi, would you be interested in switching over to TMI long distance service.

ROUTE53: Oh, gee, I can’t talk right now. Why don’t you give me your home number and I’ll call you later.

TEL: Uh, I’m sorry we’re not allowed to do that.

ROUTE53: Oh, I guess you don’t want people calling you at home.

TEL: No.

ROUTE53: Well now you know how I feel. [Hangs up]

BUD: Well, go ahead, tell him.

ROUTE53: STEINY, are you drinking that milk?

STEINY: Yeah.

ROUTE53: What’s the expiration date on that?

STEINY: April 1st.

ROUTE53: The 1st?

BUD: and SUSAN: The 1st?

STEINY: Um, Uh, ugh, …

SUSAN: Noooo… [STEINY throws up on Susan]

[Peet’s]

BUD: I never should have brought her up there. Should have known better. Should have seen it coming. I didn’t see it coming.

ROUTE53: I think SHE saw it coming.

BUD: You know she was behind the idea. She was going to champion your blog. That’s what I was bringing her up there to tell you. And she liked me.

ROUTE53: Look just because STEINY vomited on her doesn’t mean the blog is dead. I can still write the blog.

BUD: What, are you crazy? It’s a traumatic thing to be thrown up on.

ROUTE53: Vomiting is not a deal breaker. If Jobs had vomited on Wozniak, Wozniak still would have given him Apple.

BUD: Well, write your blog about nothing.

Breast Cancer - A Loving Fight, Route 53 - Life is A Highway

Opening Day – A Field of Memories

April 8, 2009 erikhom@aol.com Leave a comment

I love Opening Day. …It’s just a special day in our American culture. It’s weaved into the fabric of what we are, and I think it’s a great day. – Padres manager Bud Black

I’m not a poet so maybe I never understood TS Eliot’s poem, The Wasteland, when he says that April is the cruelest month. It has always been one of the liveliest months for me.

Yesterday was Opening Day in San Francisco. San Francisco is not a sports crazy town and I didn’t grow up in a family where baseball and professional sports were considered anything but one of the many choices of entertainment. That said, I cherished those days when I got to go see a baseball game, a football game, etc. Moreso, I really enjoyed sharing the time and history with those I love. I remember the many games I saw at Candlestick Park with my dad (mostly football games during the 49er dynasty). In fact I remember having to look through binoculars to see everything and that is how my dad noticed I needed glasses.

They say Football is America’s Passion and Baseball is America’s Pasttime. I don’t know if my dad knew that those moments he spent with me on those cold windy nights (at the ‘Stick) were making such an impression on me. They were times where I sat there with my dad and talked between pitches and your dad casually passed on his knowledge of baseball and life in general (along with the hot dog, peanuts, popcorn and watered down hot chocolate). I don’t remember what we talked about, but it was about laughing and cheering for a cause and just sitting next to each other shelling peanuts for 3 hours. Going to those games with my dad stopped in my teens as my dad spent more time working to pay for our education and to enjoy his time on the golf course. Maybe he didn’t enjoy it as a dad, or life did get that busy.

When I got older and San Francisco opened what is now called “AT&T Park” (formerly Pac Bell and SBC and more affectionately, “the Phone Booth”) , I bought a couple tickets and was able to share “Opening Day”. I think it was the 2 years I spent in Chicago where the nostalgia really started coming to me and made me not just love the game on the field but everything that surrounds it. As I mentioned in a previous entry, I had the chance to take my dad to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs on a warm Summer day, share in a Giants victory, and help the Cubs fans drown their sorrow at Murphy’s Bleachers in a plastic cup of Old Style before showing my dad some of the better watering holes and blues clubs that Chicago had to offer. Although by this time I was well into my 20s, it was the first time I felt like I was able to relate to my dad on an adult to adult relationship. I was well free of his financial backing, we talked about my pending marriage, my future, our family, and of course baseball. It was the beginning of a new course in our relationship , the adult-adult rather than the parent-child relationship, and from there I knew that baseball was more than just a game for me.

I have to give credit to the minister who did my pre-marital testing with the recommendations for the adult-adult relationship suggestion. He was very adamant that my wife start establishing that relationship with her parents as he could see that it would be a harder struggle for them to “let go”. Truth is, that it is harder to gain that respect of a parent. 15 years later, my wife still goes through that struggle. Ironically, yesterday my wife was handed a book by a family friend who heard about my wife’s illness. It is amazing how the “sisterhood” finds each other. The book is called “The Middle Place”. more appropriately it talks about the sandwich generation we are in where we are now adults looking after our sick parents, our children and ourselves and the author comes to realize she is no longer her dad’s little girl as she deals with her diagnosis of breast cancer. My wife read the cover and said she wasn’t sure if she could read it and I offered to read it for her, but told her it is something she will have to read because she needs this example. Another example of an adult-adult relationship – and defintiely very relevant. I know my wife doesn’t want to listen to me about this subject so I’ll sit tight.

Back to the subject of Opening Day, since the park had opened in 2000 I have been able to share the festivities with some of the more important people in my life on a one-on one basis (My dad, my mom, my brother, my wife, my best friend, my daughter, and my son). There is nothing like it. The pomp and circumstance, the hopes, the memories, the patriotism can be quite overwhelming. So on this Opening Day, it was a little different as I missed it for the first time in 9 years, as I listened in my office. My office though is located only blocks from the ballpark so at lunch I wandered over, grabbed a hot dog and a soda and watched through the “Archways” in right field. A great feature of the park is that for FREE you can watch the game from behind the righfielder. It is the best way to catch a Big League Opening Day in this economy. I stared across the way between innings to where I shared so many memories with my dad and others I’ve attended games with. Its not just the Opening Days but the hundreds of other games and conversations.

The walk back to my office was one of solitude. I had gotten my fill (yes the Giants won), but more importantly I had taken the people I cared for ( not physically) to the game with me and I shared those conversations again. It hadn’t been my intention to reminisce, but it just happened in the moment. Perhaps it was the text I got on the way to the game from my mom about her friend, “Mrs. E”, who had passed. “Mrs. E” had her own connection to me with baseball. Back in high school she picked me, this gawky geeky kid to entertain her granddaughter who was visiting from Kansas. She told me not to do anything “romantic” and that the girl’s dad was the police chief in their small town. Well 9 innings later we were dating and I was scared sh–less about the midwestern Sheriff who was going to kill me for corrupting his daughter. Truth be told I think she corrupted me but I can’t remember. What I do remember though is telling her about the art of hitting a baseball and showing her the smooth swing of Will Clark as she grabbed and held my hand. Amazingly she got what I was saying, or at least she pretended to. From there I knew I had to marry a girl who could hang with me at a baseball game.

Yes baseball and life have a fabric that is woven tightly in the American hearts of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and friends. I grew up on baseball and baseball grew up in me. While a full-blown adult, I can still go to the game like a kid and imagine I’m there with my dad or sit with my son next to me and my daughter on my lap and teach them about how to appreciate the game of baseball (because it is about appreciating life as well).

Breast Cancer - A Loving Fight, Route 53 - Life is A Highway

Always Looking Up

April 5, 2009 erikhom@aol.com 2 Comments

The only thing worse than an opportunity you don’t deserve is blowing an opportunity. Michael J. Fox

Optimism is something that once you catch, you have to learn how to keep catching it everydayand be persistent about it . Friday’s are always a good day to catch it. It seems to be more abundant and people always seem to be looking for it. Once again my Friday ended and my weekend started with my leaving work at 5pm like a normal person (I usually stay late) and raced across the beautifully sun-swept San Francisco skyline to pick up my son at his baseball practice. Seeing him smile as I arrived at the playground just lifted the wear and tear that the week’s toll and coma the week-long business conference had put me in. Putting a smile on someone’s face by just being there, especially your child’s, is one of the most special things in the world and I don’t think I’ll ever want it to stop.

My son looked up to me and I realized how unconditional our relationship is. Not that every father-son relationship should be that way, but I think ours is that way. Sometimes when I talk to him I see him look up with his puppy dog eyes and his gap-toothed smile that will someday cost me a few thousand dollars and I don’t know if he is hearing what I am saying but he continues to look up and nod. When we received our children’s report cards this week, we were not only happy to see that both children had received stellar records. But even more important was to meet with the teachers and have them tell us how easy they are to deal with. No matter what anyone says, parents go into Parent-Teacher conferences to see “their own report card” as a parent. I know our son is easy to work with but the bigger news was to hear how well our daughter is doing. It makes a parent feel good to know that they are doing things right. We work really hard to make sure our second child doesnt suffer the fate of being the second on everything.

Speaking of being optimistic, the title of this entry refers to the new book of that name by Michael J. Fox and talks about his fight with Parkinson’s Disease. Despite the religious connotation of the title, it actually refers to Fox’s short stature. The subtitle though, “Adventures of an Incurable Optimist” talks about how he has kept his hopes up despite his illness. He even says that it saved his life and marriage. This disease which is crippling him has helped his marriage? Where have I heard this before? Yes, these diseases and illnesses bring perspective to one’s life. As we race through our twenties and thirties we often don’t face up to our own mortality and the responsibilities of those who are always looking up at us for guidance. Fox, who has battled long and hard for the cure for Parkinson’s despite even the inability to brush his teeth is so optimistic that a cure will be found that he claims he’ll be able to dance with each of his three daughters at their weddings. The overall title alludes to an emotional, psychological, intellectual, and spiritual outlook that has served Fox throughout his life because of his height and made him tough enough to fight his illness. The book covers his retirement from his acting career and how he was forced to look at himself (he continually does this in the mirror every day so as not to fear what he might see or worry about what others might think of him) and now how to reinvent himself as a speaker and advocate for a cure for Parkinson’ s.

In the book, Fox talks about how seeing his children grow up motivates him more than ever. When his daughter wants him to read to her, she climbs on to his lap and Fox worries when this might end. I can just picture how Fox cherishes every moment he gets with his children because his condition changes from hour to hour. Every morning he wakes and doesn’t know how his body will be on that day.

Today upon coming home from my son’s baseball game I walked in and saw my 7-year old daughter dancing around to some Miley Cyrus (or is it Hannah Montana?). Anyway I came across a couple of her items that just made me smile. First is her inspirational new song called “The Climb”. It’s about being persistent and I think both my children got the message as I saw my son shed a tear as he got up and hugged my wife. It is so touching to see when children get the message. Here is the official video. Just close your eyes and listen. No need to look at the bad video.

I’ll also close this on a more casual and upbeat note. Get your dancing shoes on people! And for my friends out there in the music industry who are going to discredit me for making two mentions of Hannah Montana in the same blog entry, I don’t care. This is marketing! Your kids are going to be doing this in a couple months so just do it. Miley Cyrus is following up in her dad’s footsteps (Remember the Achy Breaky?) Well get ready for the ‘Hoedown Throwdown” Oh yes, line dancing is going to be back and you’ll need to learn the steps for a wedding coming to a reception near you this summer! Check it out:

Thanks for listening everyone. Keep looking up and let’s see those dance moves!

Business - Affiliate Marketing, Route 53 - Life is A Highway

All’s A-Twitter…It’s Always On.

April 4, 2009 erikhom@aol.com Leave a comment

“My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there” – Charles Kettering, inventor

This marks the 5th year of the Web 2.0 Expo (3 years of the Expo and 2 years prior under a different name). I have traditionally found this to be the best palce to meet the best minds in the tech social media industry. It’s evolution is indicative of its name as when it first started people took notes on pad and paper feverishly as speakers spoke. Some brought tape recorders. But over the past few years I’ve seen more and more laptops with people using voice recognition devices to help. Laptops were everywhere and it resembled more of a college conference than a business conference. People often held them like a cup of coffee and dropped them and kept the nearby Apple store busy with servicing requests. This year was a little different as more people are now holding up their iPhones and Blackberrys and taping the speeches and then with a click of a button sending those clips to Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and Myspace instead of posting to their blogs and taking notes.

To be honest, the show was a little lacking this year and as one friend put it, lots of features with little business. The question is what is Web 2.0? Well it has many definitions: It is the movement from static (non-interactive pages) into more interactive pages. For many of you that means instead of looking at news page or a single page, it is more about communities and aggregation of information and content that is shareable.

So what does that mean? It means for example that the newspaper that you used to have delivered to your house is no longer relevant not because it is killing trees but because the news is old by the time you get it. The news on your newspaper’s website is old too. For example, let’s say you wanted to see a show. You used to check the newspapers for a review written by some paid journalist who got free tickets and that review might be old anyway or be written by someone you share little taste with. You could also get that review on the newspapers website with comments from people who have also seen the show and maybe agreed or disagreed with the reviewer. But now web 2.0 is different. You can find a community such as Youtube where people have taped snippets of the show recently with their cell phone and made comment such as “the lead actor was out sick” and receive the latest updates about casting changes, etc. Just like this conference, people have already posted photos and comments and I don’t need to wait until tomorrow morning to read about it from some journalist who was not able to watch concurrent sessions.

Now back to my friend’s comment. One of the wonderful things about Web 2.0 in the past was meeting the innovative companies such as Facebook, Google, MySpace, Twitter, etc. Hearing from all of these companies which were aggregating communities of shareable content. Well, that was seriously lacking. All you found this week were those big named companies which were trying to show you that they had infrastructure and platforms to help you with that content. What is exciting about that? The irony is that the company that was most talked about and most utilized, TWITTER, was only 5 blocks away and nowhere to be seen represented at the conference. Granted, they only have 30 people in their company and their business was overwhelmed by the people at Web2.0 who were sharing videos, photos, and “tweets” in large volumes.

So people of my generation and older always say, “Hey, what’s with the Twitter? Why should I do it?” I’m not here to try and sell anyone on Twitter, but my response is usually that if you are texting, using Facebook, Myspace, an iPhone, a Blackberry (or other smart phone), or have toyed with starting a blog, just get the Twitter account now and “wait for it”. At the very least, protect your name. If your name is Joan Smith, got to Twitter.com and sign up so you can save your vanity domain, www.twitter.com/joansmith. At some point you might start to receive some “tweets” and become interested enough to find out how to make your “content aggregation” easier. In fact, if you find that I don’t update this blog enough, you can follow me on my tweets and you don’t even need to go to my Twitter to see it. You can just look over in the right margin of this blog to see my latest Tweets.So now you don’t have to stay up late waiting for me to update you on my life.

My cousin’s kids follow me all the time. In fact I learn a lot from them. Of course some of these things I shouldn’t even know. Seeing your cousins kids in sometimes compromising situations is some of the “bad” about this new social media. Having to tell your cousin that you think their son or daughter has been doing some underaged drinking and posting it to their website is not my intention but my duty. Anyway, they follow me to hear about the latest concerts and other news. In return I get to hear all the new slang. The latest one was, just 5 minutes ago, “Erik, you are so AO”. AO? Yes, that means “Always On”. Well that is what Web 2.0 is. It is always on and you can find what you are looking for all the time.

Now you are probably asking….but wait. Why are you telling me this? I thought you only wrote about hotel reviews, celebrity sightings and cancer. Well truth be told is that I do have a job. The last 10 years or so I’ve honed my skills as an affiliate marketer with traditional products and platforms. But now Web2.0 and social media have created a new challenge. Many of these social media businesses such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are trying to show they can make money and have been trying to do it through advertising. Today the average user of Facebook spends 2.5 hours on it. Pretty good advertising opportunity, don’t you think? Well, now I’m working on some cool projects that provide completely relevant advertising content that is embedded and unobtrusive to the user. Shopping via social media is like hearing about something cool from a friend. When you talk to your friend, banners aren’t thrown in your face. They usally tell you about something cool they saw or heard or di and then you follow up on it because it sounds interesting to you. To me that is what collaborative filtering in social media communities is all about.

So how does a beginner begin to work with Twitter? Just set up an account first and start playing around with it. It’s pretty addicting. I will follow up with another post on some great applications to make your Twitter experience more enjoyable.

Breast Cancer - A Loving Fight, Route 53 - Life is A Highway

Finding Daily Inspiration: 6 Months Post-Surgery

April 1, 2009 erikhom@aol.com 2 Comments

“If the sun is not shining on you, may it be shining in you.” – Dean Karnazes, Ultra-Marathoner

I’ve been asked by many how my wife is doing physically after her latest procedure and why I don’t discuss it more here. Well fortunately my wife is doing well such that we don’t have to discuss her battle every day. While someone suggested I actually keep a cancer blog and a non-cancer blog, I just don’t have the time. This blog is about my life. Its work. Its family. Its my thoughts all in one place. For anyone who reads this and puts their foot in my shoes, they’ll likely be touched by the same family, work and health issues at some point in their lives. For me it is about finding others like me. Some might be in exactly in the place I am or might have been where I am in the past and help me get through some of life’s issues.

So the answer is: My wife is fine and back at almost normal activity levels although she can’t exercise full on for a few more weeks. She still has some sutures that we don’t want to pop out like they did last time. It is important that the sutures are allowed to heal naturally so that the scars will heal properly.

It has been a little over 6 months since her cancer surgery and it feels like so long ago. It has also been 3 months from the follow up procedure to complete her recovery and those physical scars while fading and healing well do not compare to the mental healing she has done. I have primarily focused on my wife’s mental well-being because I think it is just as important as her physical healing and in many ways I think helps a person to recover.

In fact, her mother always used to say that she knew my wife was feeling better when she started yapping away. Tonight my wife was yapping away about all the plans she had for the next couple of weeks. Of course my telling her to slow down only turned into a mini-discussion in which I told my wife I was so proud of her comeback and the fact that she wanted to relieve me of my worries about her as well as her wanting to show me how she has learned to embrace life more than ever. Holding back a couple weeks should not preclude her from anything that life has left in store for her. It’s like keeping a stallion in the starting gates before a big race!

As I’ve said in the past, my wife is my current inspiration and like everyone I look for different kinds of inspiration physically and mentally all the time. Why is that? I just think that some points of inspiration lose their effectiveness after repetitive use. Sometimes its a song, its a person, its a story, but for me I am constantly in search of a new idea or passion to get me through that next high in life. My wife is learning the same.

She is now in her fourth month of her 36 month trial of monthly shots. I laughed and told her it is like making 36 monthly payments on a car. She gave me a wry smile. Sometimes my analogies make her just cringe. The good news this week is that she got the reports back that she is metabolizing the Tamoxifin very well which means that the drug is taking effect and hopefully the results will be good. The shots are actually for 3 years with the daily drugs taken for 5 years. Her oncologist says her results look good and that she feel comfortable in resuming many of her regular habits and live life. of course my wife’s first question….”Can I have wine?” I laughed, and the doctor, recognizing the humor said, “Moderation is good. Just make sure you make it worth your while.” In other words, don’t waste it on Two Buck Chuck (Charles Shaw, a $2 wine sold at Trader Joes).

Yes my wife is inspired by life in general at the moment and there is nothing more inspiring than to be around someone who really knows how to enjoy life. They shine, they don’t sweat the little things, they somehow don’t get distracted by the bad things, and they are always looking out for others who seem to be stuck. When you surround yourself with people who are living in the moment it can be magical. For the past few weeks I feel as though I’ve been walking around constantly with a light bulb over my head. My own energy is high and my pain is low. My exercise regimen that started just before her diagnosis is now at an all time high and each night my wife inspires me to keep running. The sun is definitely shining on her and within her. I’ll just soak in her rays and feel her warmth.