Back to it...

Hope you had a good Easter. I know he did.

So much happens in life.

Everyday is made up of so many little stories. And you feel as if you really need to find a way to get them all down or they disappear. I like to work them into things I'm writing - or tell them again and again - cause they help connect the dots.

I'm not sleeping.

I want to - but I don't want to. I know I'm just here for a week and then I'm back to China for two. If I commit to getting back on schedule here - I'll be off there. And one week is hard to commit to when I have so much I need to do there. So I live in two worlds and can't really be a part of either.

Heartbreaking.

Yesterday - at my parent's house for Easter Dinner - we had a gathering. We usually have everyone who doesn't have someplace to go over. I think there was about 35 people there.

Someone brought orange jello. Which reminds me of a story.

In the early 90's - I got a job doing a big sales piece for a new wire service. They were going to try to be the new AP or something like that. They even secured a spot as one of 5 radio services that could handle the presidents weekly radio address.

I flew to DC and spent a week with the various reporters at the different buildings they covered. The White House. Congress. Whatever. I went and did a big press event with Clinton and lined up with the reporters on the front lawn - covering a big event. Shook hands with Jesse Jackson.

Kinda fun.

And then we went to New York.

The service had bought a huge lit up billboard in Times Square and ran their news feed on the bottom of it.

There was a guy who worked for the company and he had a small single engine plane.

You know the type.
The kind that so many people have died in.

Three people fit in it. The pilot, the cameraman and me.

We flew up to NY in the morning - shot the board in the day - and then had to wait till night to shoot it again. We didn't have anything to do while we waited.

The company that owned the sign were japanese. The guy that managed the sign was Estonian. He asked if we wanted to go to the Estonian lodge with him while we waited.

Sure. Not often one gets invited to the Estonian lodge.

It was a tiny tiny place somewhere in the city I have never found again.

We went in - and it was almost pitch black. Full of drunk old men in their 70's. And I had one of the best times of my life.

It was afternoon - but these guys came here everyday.

There was a young blond waitress in her 20's in a short skirt - and all the old guys teased her.

They proceeded to break out a bottle of vodka and sing. And tell stories. And sing some more.

My cameraman could barely walk when we left.

I don't drink. Or didn't when this happened. So I had a Coke and listened.

Our host told me how he had his first drink in this place as a boy - stealing from an abandoned glass.

How he saw a man actually drink till he passed out and fell off his barstool here - and he pointed to the very stool.

How he remembers his dad sitting him down on Christmas Eve - at this very table - and giving him an orange for Christmas - cause it was all he could afford.

And how whenever he smells oranges - he thinks of Christmas.

We all sang songs in languages I could never understand - and even danced a little in the most non-gay all male dance I have been involved in in my life.

And we learned how the Russians are all heartless bastards.

Then we shot the sign and went home.

Not before the cameraman decided - in his drunken stupor - that we should get a shot of the city as we left from the tiny plane. And proceeded to pop the canopy on the plane while we were in the air - sending my script flying out all over the city of Manhatten.

When he asked if he could fly - I decided to take a nap - cause I heard if you're relaxed when you crash - you have a better chance of surviving.

Needless to say - I made it back.

And now everytime I smell oranges - I think of the Estonian lodge.... and a guy falling off his barstool....and singing and dancing - and almost dying in a small plane above NYC.

So I'm gonna lay off the jello for a while...