2008
Once again, it feels like I was just sending holiday cards out a few weeks ago and here it is, one year later. I hope it’s been a good one for you and yours.
This was an exceptional year for reconnecting with family and friends all over, in some cases, with people I hadn’t seen or talked with in decades. I just loved being able to spend time—online, on the phone, and often in person—with people I knew from the start of my teaching career, from college, and even from high school. (Perhaps, an upcoming 40th reunion has made a lot of us even more conscious of time and the importance of taking advantage of opportunities when they arise.)
Although I’m still blocking out time at home in between time on the road, this year has been pretty non-stop as far as work-related projects go. My last holiday letter ended 2007 with a manuscript for a facilitator’s guide for The Win-Win Classroom about to go to my editor. Well, the Facilitator’s Guide is now in print and The Win-Win Classroom achieved “best-seller” status at the publisher’s. Woo hoo!
I’ve been working on another book for them for the past year (this one for beginning teachers) and after spinning my wheels for the past year or so, I believe I finally have a voice and direction for this project. I’m hoping to have it done in the coming months, certainly before the next holiday letter.
About ten years ago, I co-authored a book, Daily Riches, and this past year, I got the rights back and brought out a new edition with what had been the original title, Magic, Miracles and Synchronicity. Add a new cover (hired out to a very talented designer) and a new Web site, and hopefully, the new year will bring some successful marketing efforts to let people know this book exists!
Speaking of Web sites, I hired a person to do something called “search engine optimization,” and discovered that despite my site’s existence for over ten years and whatever legitimacy and visibility I may have achieved in my work over the past 35 years, the site had a very bad page rank and nowhere near the traffic it deserves.
So, I have been working for the past two months or so to completely redesign my site, page by page. New colors, graphics, and a simpler, cleaner navigation structure. I am about 3/4 of the way through the 600+ pages and hope to have the entire site re-done by the end of the year. My page rank and traffic improved almost immediately, so it’s been worth the effort. (If you came to this page through a link on my site, then you’ve seen what the new version of this site looks like. If not, click here to check out my progress.)
My Web site is kind of an anchor for my life, and for anyone who wants to keep in touch with me, see what I’m up to, or check out my schedule to see where I’m headed (or where I’ve been.) Email is always a good way to stay in touch, though I do call home a couple times a day when I’m on the road, and check voice mail often.
I mentioned in my last letter that I was taking Italian language lessons with two friends in anticipation of a cruise that was still a year away. Well, we’re back less than two weeks and I just put the last of the suitcases away yesterday.
We left at the end of October, 36 hours after I got home from my last speaking engagement, so I was pretty fried by the time we landed in Milan. We headed to Lake Como to decompress and get a little grounded. Over the next week, we visited Pisa, Florence, Bologna, San Marino, and a few small towns with stops at a museum for Marco Pantani (bicycle racer), the Formula One track in Imola, and the Ferrari Museum in Maranello.
Driving around Italy in a little 5-speed Fiat Punto was a blast. Those Italian lessons came in handy, too, as we were constantly stopping to ask directions, always from people who didn’t appear to know a word of English.
We met up with friends from Albuquerque in Milan and spent the following day with them. We had a great lunch in a lovely Victorian arcade and then went off to see The Last Supper. (Wow!) The four of us were a great team, coordinating our efforts to get back to the hotel, pick up our luggage, and head off to the train station for our connection to Genoa, where we spent the night before our cruise.
The next 10 days were split, for me, between computer classes when we were at sea and excursions to Pompeii and Sorrento (Italy), Taormina (Sicily), Cairo (Egypt), Limassol (Cyprus), Marmaris (Turkey), and Santorini (Greece). I was the only one taking computer classes on board—Jerry and our friends actually relaxed on the ship when I was in class! We ended the vacation with two days in Nice at a hotel with what may be the most beautiful view I’ve ever seen.
I took over 2000 photos, including some great pix of kids. One of the highlights of the trip was being mobbed by a bunch of middle school girls in Cairo who wanted to practice their English and have their pictures taken with us! My seminar slide show now has photos I’ve taken of young people in 28 countries.
This really was a trip of a lifetime, one day more memorable than the next. It was wonderful for Jerry and me to have a break and such nice time together, too. I’m still processing everything I learned and saw and felt on the trip. Check out my blog for our itinerary and to see “postcards” I sent (via email) from the road. Also, I have slide shows from each of our destinations, if you are so inclined.
So once again, we close in on the end of the year counting our blessings, and thinking of you. We both send our best wishes for a spectacular 2009 in every way possible, and hope that our paths will cross again in the new year.
Love, Janie and Jerry (and Shadow)
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