Unrelated Subjects

1) Acabo de terminar mis lecciones de espanol - Novente media-horas, y ahora, creo que puedo hablar Espanol con un poquito de excito. Pero, a decir verdad, porque los lecciones son para hablar solamente, se que no puedo escrivar muy bien. Creo que puedo leer, y entonces, podria escrivar mejor...

Yes, I finished my 90 Pimsleur lessons! I will say that I think I "got" Spanish a bit better than German - I'm way more comfortable - and am something of a terror with it now, dropping into spanish with anyone who will listen.

Now I've gone back to Japanese (finished lesson 3 today). It's all part of a grand plan to avoid work at the big client: Now I have Anna and Sue who I can speak Spanish with, Mark who I can speak German with, and soon I'll be able to speak Japanese with Jode and Catherine. My status meetings should get pretty interesting!

2) You ever get to know a person, and you have an initial perception, and over time, they just keep surprising you? At my workout place, there's a bodybuilder-type who leads a lot of the classes. At first, I thought of him as jocky rah rah guy - and on one level he is... he's a relentless cheerleader and really pushes people - never uncomfortably, but believe me, when you're in his class, he keeps an eye on you. More than once I've zoned out or tried to take an easy bit, and he's ON it. Not bad for a guy who's managing 20 people in the class.

One day we're talking about a trip he's going to take to Vegas, and I made a typical "gonna have some fun there, eh?" comment. He really wanted me to know why he was going (for a conference), and that "he gambles enough in life every day - why mess with the odds?" I got thinking there's more there. So I started paying closer attention to how he conducts himself...

Every day, he's open and friendly with everyone, and always calls out everyone's names. And at the end of every workout, he lays on the compliements, and somehow it doesn't sound corny. And while some people get frustrated with how he pushes, he's always working harder than any of us up on the stage... he really believes in what he's doing.

So on Wednesday at 6am he was leading a class. And on the sidelines were two 3 year olds and an old man. His girlfriend was also in the class, and was attending to the kids... so I had to ask. Turns out, he's a foster parent too, and these are his current kids. And the old man? A senior who he's known for 15 years, who has come down with Alzheimers, and he now takes care of him nights.

I don't think I've run into a person who is working harder to create positive energy in the world in quite a while. It's been quite an experience to find out more about this stranger... and it helps me look at the world a little differently.