Another One

::sigh::

Today I found my second gray hair.

Worst Pick Up Line Ever

So I was walking down the street in a cute, brightly colored sundress and high heels. I didn’t think much of it; to be honest, I’m not sure I had any make up on yet.

All of a sudden, I hear someone screaming.

"Hey – you dropped something!"

Shit. I’m always doing that! I’m so clumsy and careless and irresponsible. Thank God there are nice people who let me know I’m about to lose something forever. I began to scour the sidewalk.

Then he said something again.

I couldn’t hear him, so I shot the man in the truck a puzzled look, and began searching the sidewalk even harder.

He shouted again, but the humming of engines drowned out his voice once more. If only I could hear what he was saying! Maybe he saw what I dropped – or where – so I could narrow my search. It did sound like he was describing the soon-to-be-lost object…

This time he was practically hanging out his window: "It was my jaw!"

Oh, please. I didn't think men actually said those horrific things? I rolled my eyes.

As if I didn't hear it the first time, he screamed the punch line again, beaming with pride. I walked away.

Lame.

CARE/SEAD

This is what CARE does that interests me most:

CARE's SEAD programs improve the economic security and income opportunities for impoverished people by promoting sound money-making activities and building strong financial institutions. Currently, CARE has 131 SEAD projects in 39 countries providing approximately 800,000 people, 90 percent of them women, with the assistance they need to increase their incomes and make their futures more secure.

Of the world's 500 million micro- and small-business owners, less than 2 percent have access to financial services and business training vital for the success of their businesses. CARE's micro- and small-enterprise programs work hard to ensure that poor people around the globe have access to the solid financial and business training tools and resources they need to help them rise out of poverty. These include access to financial services, such as savings and credit, and business development services, such as training in marketing and accounting. CARE also provides staff training, loan capitol and other resources to encourage institutional development of local organizations.

Socially Responsible Investing
Small loans help poor families start or expand income-generating businesses. But people in the developing world often lack access to this kind of microfinance. Now, through CARE?s partnership with MircoVest, investors can integrate their financial goals with their personal efforts to help families overcome poverty. (Learn how to bring hope and opportunity through investment.)

Every day, CARE works with communities to achieve lasting victories over poverty. Click here to read one of our solutions stories.
For more on CARE's SEAD programs click here.

CARE has SEAD programs in the following personally interesting places:

Kenya

Rwanda

Tanzania

Uganda

Benin

Ghana

Mali

Madagascar

Mozambique

Namibia

Niger

Togo

Zambia

Zimbabwe

A Warning?

I'm not usually one to read my horoscope, but now that I'm addicted to iGoogle, it's right in front of me every morning.

Today's, in my mind, is a bit ominious...

You might truly think that you have enough stamina to conquer the world. Although this may be a wonderful fantasy, don't try it or you'll quickly find yourself overextended. You can take on new projects with gusto now, but think about where you are going first, instead of just jumping right in. It's much smarter to head off in the right direction than to scatter your unrestrained enthusiasm all over the map.

My kind of quote:

"If you think you're too small to make a difference, you've obviously never been in bed with a mosquito."
--Michelle Walker

Into the Fall...

Somehow, sometime, when none of us were looking, it turned to fall in New England. Dog days replaced by a flurry of activity, humid air ousted by a cool breeze, smoldering temperatures reduced to comfortable.

And I have officially switched back to hot coffee.

ONE/The GROWTH Act

From the ONE campaign:

TAKE ACTION

Find your Members of Congress by Zip Code

Call your Member of Congress: U.S. Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121

Schedule a lobby visit (Targets are the House Foreign Affairs Committee Members)

Write a Letter to the Editor of your local newspapers.

TALKING POINTS
GLOBAL RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN TO THRIVE

Background:

Investing in women is one of the surest routes to ending poverty in the developing world.

Despite the key role women play in developing countries, women tend to work in the lowest paid sectors, work longer hours, have less access to training and education, and have fewer economic opportunities than men.

Decades of research show that when women get more resources, they put their money towards making sure their children have better nutrition, education and health care.

Expanding economic opportunity for women also decreases women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence.

About the Bill:

The GROWTH Act will provide solid, realistic steps to expand options for poor women by securing jobs, accessing credit and starting new businesses.

Promotes women’s ability to start and grow businesses through continued support for women’s enterprises after the initial microcredit loan, so their businesses will grow and employ other women.

Enhances women’s land and property rights so they can use their assets as collateral for loans.

Increases women’s access to better employment and improve wages and working conditions for jobs dominated by women by increasing women’s skills and informing them of their legal rights in the workplace.

Ensures that the benefits of trade agreements reach poor women in developing countries through programs like trade capacity building and training for women entrepreneurs.

HOW? - The GROWTH Act creates an ‘incentive fund’ within USAID to actively encourage economic opportunity projects in poor developing countries to incorporate women’s needs.

FACT SHEET
THE GROWTH ACT GLOBAL RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN TO THRIVE
The Global Resources and Opportunities for Women to Thrive Act (GROWTH Act) is groundbreaking legislation that proposes important changes to U.S. international assistance and trade programs to prioritize economic opportunities for women living in poverty worldwide. Investing in women is one of the surest routes to ending poverty in the developing world. The innovative provisions of the GROWTH Act remove a range of barriers that prevent women from participating actively in their countries’ economies. If passed, it would make U.S. policy a driver of positive change for women around the world.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
Ask your Member of Congress to cosponsor the GROWTH Act (H.R. 2965) - sponsored by Reps. Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Ileana Ros- Lehtinen (R-FL) and soon to be introduced in the Senate by Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (RTX) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) - which proposes changes in U.S. international assistance and trade programs to prioritize the economic opportunities of women living in poverty worldwide, removing barriers that prevent their access to the world economy.

WOMEN ARE THE BACKBONE OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
Women’s share of the labor force is increasing in almost all regions of the world. However, although 60% of farm workers in Africa are women, they receive less than 1 percent of the total credit available to agriculture. Despite the key role women play in developing countries, women tend to work in the lowest paid sectors, have less stable incomes, work longer hours, have less access to training and education, and have fewer economic opportunities than men.

Decades of research and experience have shown that poor women reinvest any extra income they have in their children, creating a positive cycle of growth for the family. Greater economic opportunity for a woman means her daughters are more likely to go to school, her babies are more likely to survive infancy, and her family is more likely to eat nutritious meals. The woman herself is less vulnerable to trafficking and HIV/AIDS, and has more options in the face of violence or abuse.

KEY PROVISIONS OF THE BILL
The GROWTH Act authorizes $40 million for FY 2008 to reshape foreign assistance and trade policy to:

Promote women’s ability to start and grow businesses through continued support for women’s enterprises, and after the initial microcredit loan, so their businesses will grow and employ other women

Enhance women’s land and property rights so they can use their assets as collateral for loans, even prove ownership rights if they need compensation in the event of a disaster

Increase women’s access to better employment and improve wages and working conditions for jobs dominated by women by increasing women’s skills and informing them of their workplace legal rights

Ensure that the benefits of trade agreements reach poor women in developing countries through programs like trade capacity building and training for women entrepreneurs

Read more here.

Causes

I work in a firm dedicated to mission-focused organizations. I'm fascinated by social entrepreneurship. And I always want to do more.

So I’ve decided I’m going to start posting little bits and pieces about the social-profit" things that capture my attention -- like DATA and Kiva -- and I’m going to tag them “cause”.

The Getty Center

Family Vacations

Once, a long time ago, we went to a delicious restaurant in LA. There were fish outside.


Years later, we returned to LA. And based on the information above alone, we found it once more.


While some things had changed... (Is that Mom drinking something other than wine?!)


...others had not. (Gee, Alex is still a jerkface. And I say that with as much fondness as possible.)


It's amazing what our combined memories can accomplish.

There are so many wonders of travel…

B called me as I hurried through another crazy day at work. “Are you excited?” Tonight we leave for California.

“Of course,” I answered, mentally listing all the reasons to be: we’ll see my aunt and cousin, bake in the LA heat, escape from the stressors of Boston for a while. But I responded with the most overwhelming reason for excitement: “I love planes. And airports.”

“Seriously?”

“Absolutely. They take me places.”


Truthfully, I love everything about travel – even the delays! (We spent nearly two hours lingering in the Milwaukee airport, which – by the way – closes remarkably early. Still, I had a beer, joked around with the fam’ hi , watched strangers mill about with great interest, and even bought some playing cards that had cheese on them. Tee hee)

There is just so much wonder, so much to soak in from airport to airport. To list a few…

• Remember when we could wear shoes when going through security? I like to play a game as I march through line these days; depending on my mood I make faces, stare or avoid eye contact, shuffle awkwardly or walk confidently, and see if I get pulled aside for a more thorough search. More often then not, they pick me and rummage through my stuff, which usually leads to an unnecessarily heated exchange that results in tears on my part. (There’s something about travel that piques emotions, dontcha think?)

• Also, why does it smell so funny when you cross the threshold of the boarding ramp onto the plane? It’s truly an indescribable (or nondescript) stench, but guaranteed to be there. Maybe that’s what the outside of planes smell like.

• Have you ever reached into the pocket in front of you, only to discover a torn up and discarded boarding pass from the person who occupied your seat on the last flight? As I finger the scrap of paper, I imagine the many journeys this iron beast made just today… and also how poorly the cleaning people did their job between adventures. (What filth did they fail to clean? Am I sitting in a pool of bacteria? Will I arrive in LA sick with a bug some stranger left behind?) More intently I wonder what his story was – who was this person? Who is John Doe? Was he going home, or visiting? How old was he? Was he handsome? Awkward? Why is the seat marked on the stub not the seat I occupy now? Did he switch to accommodate others, or did someone switch to help him?

• After take off, how the hell do planes fly? All that weight, suspended in mid-air, lightening and rain in the periphery of the horizon shared by nature and man-made beasts.

• And why do some people sleep so well on planes, and others can’t even manage a nap?

• Is there something about an airplane cabin that stimulates certain desires, skills, etc? I always feel the need to write when I’m 30,000 feet high. Do others also succumb to an overpowering surge of creativity?

• There is nothing better than being served warm chocolate chip cookies and milk halfway through your flight. For this reason, please travel Midwest.

• For me, there’s always something special about the descent. Most prominently is the intense excitement of being someplace new… or returning to that warm, special place called home after time elsewhere. But it’s also a remarkably unique perspective of a city. Boston, for example, is manageable, sweet, painted in unobtrusive colors and adorned with a fantastic skyline. Milwaukee is green, spacious. And LA – LA is a city. When you approach, you see clusters of light from far, far away, and wonder: is that all LA? You figure one cluster must be San Diego, and all the others in between must be the many small cities that litter the coast. But as you approach, you realize it’s all LA. The city is a sprawling mass of spectacular lights perfectly arranged in a grid you can see clearly from miles above. Boston doesn’t resemble anything remotely close to a grid; it’s an ad-hoc web of streets and neighborhoods developed throughout the history of this country. By comparison, LA is a baby – settled more than 150 years after Boson. And a place like Paris, for example, shames Boston in urban experience, having been around for more than two millennia.

• Airports themselves are fascinating. Sitting in the plane, waiting for the clearance to disembark, you watch another world full of life. Airports are like stables, corralling giant metal machines instead of horses.

• And then, all the wonders of travel culminate in Arrival. The battle for bags at the baggage claim, the always disorientating search for transportation (even when you’re familiar with the airport, finding a way out seems unnecessarily complicated), the relief when you realize you’re minutes from reaching your destination, and the renewed energy and excitement when you finally arrive. It was exhilarating to see Sarah – even though it was 5am EDT, and we had spent a good twelve hours trying to survive from one place to another.

I think that’s it – that’s why I love the act of traveling so much. It’s the adventure, the fight for survival (however modest), inherent in any airport/plane experience.

It reminds me of Indiana Jones. (Speaking of -- can you wait for #4 to come out next spring?!?! I can’t!)

Growing Old

We were sitting comfortably, talking about many things. It was an ordinary afternoon. But in a moment, my life was going to change.

I was deeply immersed in telling some story of the day. My father was engaged, his eyes listening intently. My mother, who had appeared deeply interested until this point, had let her eyes wander and suddenly scrunched her nose up like she does when she’s about to announce: “Catherine, you need a hair cut.” or “Catherine, you need to pluck your eyebrows.”. Instinctively, I paused. But she didn’t say anything, and suddenly returned her gaze to my eyes, looking sheepish.

That’s when I knew it was something really bad. “What, Ma?”

“Oh, nothing.” If you wait long enough, Mom will reveal something she may not have wanted to originally. So I held my tongue.

“It’s just,” she said, “that looked like a gray hair.”

I laughed. “Ma, I’m 22. I don’t have gray hairs.”

She looked awkwardly at my father, who suddenly was scanning my scalp as well. “No,” he said, and I felt relieved. B always has my back. But then: “That’s definitely a gray hair. I can see it from here.” And B has really, really poor eyesight.

Omg. Of course, I figured, they’re just both getting old and seeing things. “Pull it out then. We’ll see.”

So she did – along with about 10 other perfectly happy strands of golden girls. But she held the one – the obviously gray hair – higher than the rest.

“Shit.”

Simpsons Quote of the Day

From Mr. Montgomery Burns:

I’ll keep it short and sweet — Family. Religion. Friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to be successful in business.

Makes you think twice about business aspirations, huh?

Dec. 21, 2012

This is the scariest show I’ve ever seen.

We only have five more years to live before the world ends!

They all said so… The Mayans, ancient prophecies, even WebBot. I was so scared I IMed my brother — the scientist — about it this morning:

Me: I watched a History Channel special last night about doomsday. It was scary as f*ck.

Alex: Is it Dec. 21st, 2012?

Me: Yea! How’d you know?

Alex: Because I just had a dream last night that the world would end on that date.

Me: Shut up.
(Pause.)
Me: You’re kidding.
(Another pause.)
Me: Right?
(Looong pause.)

Alex: Obviously. I watched it the other day.

Me: It was scary!

Alex: Psht. That crap about the Earth’s mantle shifting overnight was funny.

Funny? I didn’t think so.

Me: Really? Aren’t you worried about the Earth and the Sun and the black hole?!
Me: The History Channel said it’ll be the end of the world!

Alex: Yes, well, http://www.deathclock.com/ tells me that I’m going to die in 2055. July 21st to be exact.
Alex: So I must survive the mantle shift then, I guess.
Alex: Hooray for me.

Whatever. I'm going to spend the next five years living it up. And for the rest of you believers, I encourage you to preorder Survive2012. It’s non-fiction, and will include chapters on unicorns. Yay!

Wanderlust

Hung out with a couple old friends, guys who I absolutely adore but haven't seen for almost a year. We saw each other all the time in high school.

This is what they said:
"We're moving to San Diego."

This was my immediate response — despite all the wonderful things going on in my life here — "I'm unfathomably jealous and should probably go with you."

And to think, just the other day Mom told me I was starting to think like a grown up.

Alcoholoroscope

From my new favorite site...

This is uncannily accurate:

GEMINI (May 21 - Jun 21)
Drinking style: Gemini's can drink without changing their behavior much -- they're so naturally chatty and short-attention-spanned that it's just hard to tell sometimes. They can amaze you by conversing with finesse and allusion, then doing something unbelievable in a n extremely advanced state of intoxication, like puking in your shoe. Gemini's possess the magic ability to flirt successfully (and uninfuriatingly, which is very tricky) with several people at once. They like to order different cocktails every round -- repetition is boring -- and may create a theme (like yellow drinks: beer, sauvignon blanc and limoncello) for their own amusement.


What's your sign?