Today’s post is brought to you with inspiration from Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop.  Every week she posts a couple prompts and you choose one or more to write about.  It is a fun way to find something to write about and maybe get a few more hits on your blog.  I obviously don’t participate every week, but when there are prompts that spark my interest I have been know to write about them.

That being said, the prompt that I chose for this week is: “5.) That one time you met your online friend in real life (was it everything you thought it would be?)”  The story that I have is not a glamorous, romantic online dating story nor is it a horror show of meeting someone who it totally different than how they seemed online.  It is more of a story of school kids doing what they do.

I was in middle school when the internet was new (yeah, I know I am not THAT old).  I remember the first computer that we had, a black and white Macintosh SE/30.  I also remember the day that my dad took me to CompUSA to look at new computers and I never thought we would actually come home with one, but we did.  It was a Macintosh Quadra 605.  We set it up in the den and my dad proceeded to string telephone cable through the halls of the house to the modem that he got with the computer.

I wasn’t really sure what we were going to do with a computer that could make phone calls, but my mother told me about thins thing that you could dial in to, NEBBS, The Newton Educational Bulletin Board System.  You dialed in and then were greeted by a text-based interface that was very similar to say IRC today.  In fact, NEBBS was basically an early chat and messaging system.  So, you could go on and have real-time chats with people or just send messages back and forth like email.  I would imagine that it was also used for more pertinent information for people like parents and teachers, but us kids just used it for fun.

So, while cruising the NEBBS I “met” a girl who went by the name Zoopy.  This was her handle at the time.  We chatted all the time.  She lived in a different part of town so she was at a different school than me, so I had never met her.  I think that my mother was friends with her mother as my mother was (and still is) very active in the Newton Schools System.  I can’t really remember what we chatted about, probably trivial pre-teen things and school and homework and such.  I sure it would all seem very interesting now!

So, this internet communication went on for a while until the D.A.R.E. program scheduled a city-wide roller-skating party at the former Wal-Lex roller rink and arcade.  So, Zoopy and I decided that this would be an ideal time to finally meet eachother in person.  It was, I can say this now looking back, very cute.  We told eachother what we would be wearing to the event and when we got there we sought eachother out.  Thankfully, we actually got along in person like we did online.  I don’t really remember much about the night, I went to so many events at Wal-Lex, they all kind of bled together now.  I do remember that I wore a Peace Frogs t-shirt.

I believe this might actually be the same shirt that I wore that night.

It turned out that Zoopy and I would be going to the same high school, so we remained friends through our high school careers.  One of the funniest memories I have of that was in our senior year.  We both had switched down to different math class, but since we had been in a higher level before, we knew a lot of the material.  So for much of the class we would sit in the back row and crochet as she was working on a blanket.  The teacher didn’t mind because we still paid attention and did very well on homework and tests.

We were two kids who, in all likely hood would have crossed paths in school at some point.  Would we have been as good friends had we not “met” online?  I have no idea.  It was interesting though, because no one thought about the risks and such of meeting people online at that point n time.  I am sure that it had something to do with the new-ness of the technology and the fact that there were probably fewer people out there trying to take advantage of others.

Meeting people online today can be very interesting, depending on your motivation for meeting people.  Sure, there are online communities where you might go to interact with like minded people or people who work in the same profession, or other bloggers your age.  However now there is also an entire industry in online dating that is just so mind boggling.  Can you ever really “meet” someone online and know what to expect if you ever actually meet them?

Inspired by prompt number five over at Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop: “What summer means to your family.”  I do have to say, I consider myself very lucy because I have a job where I get the summers off, so I can actually do things in the summer.

If you actually follow my blog you probably can see that I spend a lot of time (especially lately) talking about summer camp.  Camp is what I do for the summer and what I have done for the summer since 1994 (overnight camp that is).  I missed three summers at camp due to college and work, but other than that I have been a camper or staff regularly.  I also did day-camp pre ’94, but I seem to not usually count that in my camp experience, though it was a fun time and I do remember bits and pieces of it.

When I talk about camp, I really do think of the camp community as family.  In fact, there were a couple times when I almost used the words “camp family” in the first paragraph of this post.  Thankfully, my real family saw the wonderful things that camp had to offer and decided to send me to camp.  I suppose I should also be thankful that I also enjoyed being at camp.  There are very few things that I would rather be doing during the summer than being at camp.

I have been to three different overnight camps, one as a camper from 1994-2001 and two as staff.  The camp that I currently work for is actually two camps, a boys and a girls camp called Indian and Forest Acres (respectively).  Since the first day that I set foot on the campus at IA and FA I have felt welcome and at home.  The people here really are like my extended family or my summer family.  It is so amazing how that happens, to walk in to a new place and to feel accepted and welcomed in like family is just unbelievable, and that is one of the most special things about these camps.  There are people here who I know that I could call on when I need something at any time of the year.  These are people who I see for only two months out of the year but they mean a great deal to me.

So, when I think about what summer means to my family, it is really a twofold question.  To my biological family it is usually a time to relax, take some time off from work, watch the dogs play, and spend time together.  We spend time at our home in New Hampshire and go hiking and such and we also often spend time at my uncle’s home on Martha’s Vineyard.  It is a time to go to baseball games with my grandparents who have been taking us grandkids since we were old enough to walk.  Going to the Red Sox games is always an experience with my grandparents and it is a lot of fun.  It is something I look forward to every summer.

To my camp family, summer is life.  We like to say that we spend ten months of the year looking forward to the two that we live together.  As soon as you step foot back on camp you feel like you never left, and even the campers who are new get welcomed with hugs and open arms.  The summer for this family is a time of learning, growing, bonding, and fun.  Amazing lifetime friendships are kindled and every summer, without fail, every camper and staff member discovers something new about himself/herself and his/her friends.  In some ways I feel like camp is really the time and place that you can really be who you are and who you want to be.  Staff and campers here do things that they would never do in front of or with their friends at home.

Summer is a time to be free, to run around and play.  It is a great time of year to explore both the world around us and ourselves, and I hope that it will always be something that I can really take advantage of!

Once again I come to you with a post inspired by Mama Kat’s Writer’s Worksop.  This week, the prompt that struck me was number 5: “Describe a home cooked meal that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.”  I like to cook and even more than cooking, I love to eat.  Home cooked meals are definitely the best and I have to say, I don’t eat enough of them.  It would be much better for me in terms of my health and my wallet if I ate more home cooked meals.  I think that I really need to figure out how to make my schedule next year such that I can!

I come from a family that sat down every night to a family dinner all through my high school career, yet when I read this prompt, my mind immediately went to my grandmother’s house.  She is always ready with a meal no matter when you come over, planned or unannounced.  I suppose it is kinda the “Jewish Grandmother” thing to do, but it certainly was great.  I was lucky enough to grow up only minutes away from all of my grandparents, so we spent a lot of time with them and celebrated many holidays with them.

This post pertains to my maternal grandmother.  I have posted before on the subject of corned beef, mostly just giving my grandmother’s recipe and talking about making it.  This dish though, is one of my all time favorite.  I don’t remember what holiday I really associate corned beef with, I think it is Hanukkah.  In any event, it used to be an annual treat to head over to Nana’s house and know that we were going to be having corned beef for dinner.  usually served with mashed potatoes or Latkes.  Can’t go wrong when it is with latkes!

This home made corned beef is unlike any that you get at the deli counter in the supermarket.  I think it has a lot to do with the glaze that we make for it.  Ham glaze, mustard, brown sugar… It makes such a sweet glaze.  I think there is probably something also in the cooking the meat in ginger ale as well, but I am not a food scientist (might be a fun job).  All I know is that, when made right, this corned beef is so sweet and tender that it might even convert some vegetarians. (Well, that may be a little extreme)

I can’t think of any other food that really makes me feel as warm and fuzzy as my Nana’s home made corned beef.  It reminds me of my family and being together and it is quite yummy-in-the-tummy.  It isn’t terribly hard to make and it is lots of fun to eat!

This post is inspired by the number one prompt this week from Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop: “Write about an experience you have had with a celebrity.”

My father works in broadcast television.  Something like 17 years ago, he and one of his friends founded a company called VideoLink.  VideoLink provides satellite and fiber-optic transmission services for live TV production (that is a gross over-simplification, but it is not important to the post).  They started with one little, hole-in-the-wall studio in Watertown, MA (just outside of Boston) and have now grown to having facilities in Boston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia along with four satellite trucks.  In the early days, I used to work for my father almost every weekend, then as the company grew I got replaced more and more.  Then I got old enough that I was useful again every now and then.  In any event, working for my father allowed me to meet some pretty interesting people.

This story is from 2001.  If my memory and wikipedia are correct, it was March 6 to be exact.  Well, it all really started the day before.  It was a relatively normal day except that my father was staying a little late at the office.  He called me and asked me to find him a nice photo of a beach.  So I hopped on the computer (I don’t remember if we were still on dial-up or not at that point) and started searching for beach photos.  At the same time it was snowing like crazy outside.  I had no idea what the photo was for, but when I found one I emailed it off to him and that was that.

When my father finally got home that night I think we had already known that there was not going to be any school the next day.  My father got in and asked if I would come to work with him the next day to take some still photos of the shoot that they would be doing.  He also told me what was going on, Aerosmith was going to be in the studio doing promotion for the release of their album: Just Push Play.  They were scheduled to be live on TRL on MTV with Carson Daily, but the snow storm closed the airports and they couldn’t fly out of Boston.

Since the band was stuck in Boston they would still go live on TRL but  from boston.  The beach photo was going to be green screened in behind the band and they lounged around and then Carson would ask them about the release of the album.  At this point they ran outside and got on a dogsled and sledded to a record store to deliver the albums.

Well, for starters, Boston is under quite a bit of snow now so everything is closed.  They had to call all over the city to find a record store that was willing to open to do the shoot.  Then we had to call as many people as we could so that there would be a crowd of fans at the record store and at the studio for when they left on the dogsled.  Of course they also needed to find a dogsled as well.  It is quite amazing what you can do on short notice.  It was all organized by the morning!

So, I spent the day following Aerosmith around and dogsledding with them.  The photos I took do exist somewhere, probably in the archives at VideoLink.  At the time I was shooting on film, so I don’t have access to files right now.  While we were shooting one of the dogsled scenes I actually got to talk to Steven Tyler.  I don’t really remember what he said to me.  after that though, they almost ran over my dad with the dogsled and he ended up with a pretty good gash in his leg.

In all, it was probably one of the best snow days that I have ever had.  I mean, I got to meet Aerosmith.  I know that I have an autographed CD back at my parent’s house.  Pretty cool.

So, I have seen on a few of the blogs that I read that people are participating in Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop.  Basically, the idea is that she posts a set of prompts and people pick one or more to write about and then post their links on her site.  It has been something that I have thought about trying, and just have not got around to it.  So, now I am getting around to it and I think it will be fun, plus it will also give anyone reading my blog a little more insight into me.  So, from this weeks prompts, I chose number two: “What book captured your heart? Write about why the first book you loved is the first book you loved.”

I think the book that captured my heart was The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.  It is the first part of the His Dark Materials trilogy, which is also my favorite series of books ever.  I first picked up the original hard cover edition of The Golden Compass after reading a review that had been cut out of the newspaper and was posted on the end of a shelf at the Borders in the Atrium Mall in Newton, MA.  I think that it is amazing that I remember that much detail, but i can’t remember who I was at the bookstore with, though I think that it was my grandmother.  Needless to say, I picked up the book very close to when it was released in 1995.

I remember the first time that I opened up the book to start reading it.  I felt like I was a little over my head and only a few pages in I was lost and couldn’t figure out what was going on.  I mean, I was only 11 at the time.  So, I put the book down for a while.  however, when I came back to it later on I was completely sucked into the story.  I have always been a fan of sci-fi/fantasy books and this story was no exception.

I am not even really sure what it is about the book that really sucked me in.  This is one of those stories that I really let take over my world.  This was a story that I could see all of the events unfolding in my head like they were real or a movie in my mind.  I would read into the night, lying in bed and then I would fall asleep thinking of all the things going on in the world of the story.  Sometimes I would even fall asleep making up my own stories that included me in the story.

Then, while I was in college, there was a fire at my parent’s house.  The biggest loss (aside from the back of the house) was books.  I think I lost the entire series.  So, my girlfriend at the time bought me a new set of the entire series as a birthday gift the year after the fire.  So of course I had to re-read the entire series.  I also picked up the audio books of the series to listen to.  Every time I re-read or listen to these books I get more out of the story or I uncover something that I haven’t noticed before.

These stories touch on so many different themes and ideas.  Pullman creates such an amazing world and characters that I think both children and adults can relate to.  Whenever people ask me for a book to read, The Golden Compass is the first one that I suggest.  Most of the time I don’t even really tell people what the book is about.  Some of the themes in the books may be a little edgy for some people, but I hope that people can can get over that and really enjoy the adventure.

This is a book that I go back to whenever I can’t find something new to read.  It sits in a prominent place on my shelf, and probably will always be my favorite book and one of the only books that I can really say that I love.