GloKay’s blog

I receive this as an email, but figured I could spread it faster & to more people this way.  It's a message we all need to read and absorb.

WHEN A SOLDIER COMES HOME
This email is being circulated around the world - please keep it going
 
When a soldier comes home, he finds it hard.... 
 
..to listen to his son whine about being bored. 
 
.....to keep a straight face when people complain about potholes. 
 
to be tolerant of people who complain about the hassle of getting ready for work. 
 
...to be understanding when a co-worker complains about a bad night's sleep.
 
..to be silent when people pray to God for a new car. 
 
...to control his panic when his wife tells him he needs to drive slower. 
 
..to be compassionate when a businessman expresses a fear of flying. 

....to keep from laughing when anxious parents say they're afraid to send their kids off to summer camp.    

....to keep from ridiculing someone who complains about hot weather.  

....to control his frustration when a colleague gripes about his coffee being cold.   

....to remain calm when his daughter complains about having to walk the dog. 


.....to be civil to people who complain about their jobs.   

....to just walk away when someone says they only get two weeks of vacation a year.   

....to be forgiving when someone says how hard it is to have a new baby in the house. 

The only thing harder than being a Soldier..  

Is loving one. 

Hi everyone!  I encourage you to join me at   As seen through my eyes....  A new spot for my ramblings and observations. 

I am proud to be able to call Trish Forant who runs eMail our Military a friend.  She is an amazing woman who gives so much of herself to support all of our troops. I've included a link (below) of an interview with Trish.   I'm sending everyone this email for another purpose though.  eMail Our Military is currently running a fundraiser to send skin and sun care products to our troops in the Middle East.  These are items that are sorely lacking and not only are desperately needed with the Middle Eastern climate, but are some of those little things that help make their tours away from home more bearable.  Another wonderful woman, Nancy Sutherland, a Mary Kay Director is supporting this effort by supplying the products and is matching every care package purchased with another care package.  I am asking all of you to make any donation you can towards this very important cause.   I am including the link to "Honor Courage eMail", the official blog of eMail our Military.  I encourage you to scroll back through the blog entries to learn more about this project, but alot of the other amazing things that this organization is doing.  As you will see, I have also made a contribution to the giveaway for the project.  I am donating some of my original photographs to the prize pool. 

http://emailourmilitary.blogspot.com/2008/08/giving-back-to-those-who-give-so-much.html  

So, please pass up tomorrow morning's coffee stop and send what you would have spent to eMail Our Military and get these urgently needed products to our troops. Send whatever you can, every $1 gets us closer to taking care of our troops.   I will also throw in my own incentive, for everyone of you who donates and lets me know that you did, I will also send you a signed, framed copy of the same photograph I donated to eMail Our Military or any other photograph from my flag collection. 
 http://flickr.com/photos/glokbell/tags/flag/

Thank you for being the warm, wonderful giving people I know all of you are!  Please also help spread the word by sending this on to the people you know who have the same big hearts that you all do!

Glo

Here is the link to the interview with Trish - http://solutionsarepower.com/2008/the-power-of-e-mail-an-interview-with-trish-forant-of-emailourmilitarycom/

It is an individual and curious quest that sends us each on our path to finding inspiration.  Yet once found, it opens a world that few would have imagined previously.  We all know that somewhere inside of us we have unique abilities, talents, skills, whatever you chose to call them.  I've recently come to believe that it is discovering what truly inspires us that leads us to uncovering those hidden abilities.   I know that there are many different things that inspire me on a daily basis sometimes as simple as a sunny day, a smile on my kids faces or a tweet from one of my friends/mentors/educators on Twitter.  The list goes on and on and at the moment that they pass my consciousness they mark themselves as sparks to be remembered.  My problem is that I forget and become complacent, failing to act on the sparks of inspiration that wind themselves through my daily life.  

In exploring the directions I want my life to take, I am realizing that I really need to start paying more attention to the things that inspire me.   That the failure to follow the occasional flights of fancy that make me sit up and take notice is becoming a roadblock on the pathway to my dreams.  I need to learn to put more faith in inspiration to guide me in taking the correct fork in the road that will lead to the center of my passions.  So that now is my mission - follow my instincts, discover my inspiration and follow them both to my passion.  It will not be an easy road, changing old bad habits never is, but it is one that I hope will make my life an inspiration to others.  And isn't that what life should be about, bringing joy, inspiration and light to others?   What inspires you?  And how can you use it to improve the vision and focus on your passion and dreams?

limbo –

The dictionary defines limbo as

an intermediate, transitional, or midway state or place.

Or

a place or state of imprisonment or confinement.

 

The question then becomes how many of us and how often we feel we are in limbo.  That feeling of not knowing where you are going, which direction is the right one.  That place where we have imprisoned ourselves in our heads, unable to move on from this transitional place because we can’t sort out the thoughts racing through our minds or ebbing and tiding with each heartbeat.  

 

I know I am definitely one of those people who sometimes finds it easy to lose her way.   Who finds a temporary home in limbo. In that place where confusion reigns and dissatisfaction is the prevailing emotion.  When work seems to be stuck in a rut – not advancing, no longer caring or being passionate about what you do.  When you unconsciously push away those closest to you because you just don’t have the energy to deal with anyone.  When your romantic relationship seems to be on hold and you can’t tell if it is going backwards or forwards or anywhere at all.  That time when the most satisfying thing is to lie on the couch.   But I am also one of the fortunate ones.  Those wonderful people that I try to shut out because I just don’t want to deal with life.  They stand by me.  They pull me up when I don’t want to get off the couch; they hold me up when I don’t have the energy.  And then there are the loves of my life, my passions, my desires, all of those people and things who, at even the most lackadaisical of my times, are always at the back of mind.  Always there patiently waiting, as they drift through my thoughts, the remembrance of the beauty and light there past the fog. 

 

My limbo is primarily in the winter.  The short days and cold grey skies push me into an even greyer funk.  But as the theory of limbo promises it is just transitional.  Spring does come.  The green does return and with the promise

of all life can be.  Each extra hour of daylight, each new sprouting flower and leaf on the tree, they rouse my soul.  The clean warm air gently blowing and clearing the tangled cobwebs of thought from my head.  And the promise of new tomorrows places me back on a path full of adventure and joy for life.   I can once again embrace the day to day, the amazing people in my life and a fresh vision. 

 

I also know that limbo will return.  It is not a stationary place or condition.  It slides in and out of my perspective.  Occasionally even returning in the middle of my favorite sunny summer days.  I can only rely on the knowledge that this mental detention is just that, a temporary detention.  And like the naughty child held after school for talking in class, my detention will end and I will be out on the playground with the rest of kids soon.   So for all of us, the challenge becomes developing an attitude that allows our personal limbos to only be that transitional state and not a permanent confinement or imprisonment.   How ready am I to face that challenge?  How ready are you?

For anyone that has been following my blog for the last year, you know a major theme has been change and a lot of the focus has been my challenges and attempts in evaluating and trying to find direction in my life.  I had made some decisions to proceed with some pretty major changes in my life, including a move across the country.  Then, as it too often does, fate chose to intervene in my carefully laid plans. 

In the months proceeding my decision to move, I agonized over the decision, weighed all of my options and finally decided to take the leap.  I had explored job opportunities, lifestyle changes and all of the things a major move entails.  (And, having been an Army brat, I am very familiar with major moves!).  I thought I had really evaluated the impact the move would have on my kids, my friends, my general state of mind.   I still believe I did all of the right things in preparing to make the decision. I also don't regret having made the decision and putting the plan into motion.  What I did not anticipate was a major change in the economy which changed my employment prospects significantly.  While I had deeply contemplated it, I apparently also underestimated the intensity of the emotions both of my boys and I would feel at the thought of  such a dramatic separation. There was never a question that my boys would not move with me.  They live with their father, very near their grandmother, in the same neighborhood, going to the same schools with the same kids since they were in kindergarten.  So, at 18 and 16, they were not prepared to leave their lives. 

 

                                                     So now, I am faced with a complete reevaluation of my future plans.  The jobs that were so plentiful are now few and far between.  The tugs on my heart at the difficulty and impact my decision to uproot my life has had on my children are huge.   I had made the decision to change my life because I needed a new perspective, new surroundings, a change.  A friend pointed out recently that maybe what I needed was not so much a physical change but an emotional and mental one.  Maybe it was the actions of evaluating the options, making the decision, putting the plan in action that were what were important, not so much the actual move.  Maybe I needed to discover that I had the strength and courage within me to do those things.  And that maybe, the curve balls that fate/my higher power/karma, whatever is having the impact, are throwing my way are meant to tell me exactly that. 

I think in a large part she might be right.  There is something different about me since I have made those decisions.  It is a welcome positive change that gives me hope for whatever may come my way in the future. Now, I once again have to toil through reviewing my options and the direction my future will take.  I have not yet come to any definitive conclusions.  It is looking like I may stay here, but I may make some other changes in my life to give me the new perspective I was searching for. I may find a new environment in the form of a new house in a new neighborhood, I may start to actively pursue my interest in photography (thanks to some recent glowing compliments from a professional photographer), I may change jobs, I may start a company, I may go back to college, who knows what changes I may make.  What I do know is that whatever decisions or changes I make, I am now making them with a newly found strength, new courage, a new viewpoint.  That's a pretty fabulous feeling. 

  

I will warn everyone at the onset that this is a rant.  A  long rant specifically about AT&T wireless. 
My oldest son graduated from high school this month.  As a graduation gift, his grandmother and aunt gave him $100 in AT&T gift cards to put towards the purchase of a new cell phone.
So off we went yesterday to the local AT&T corporate store.  We were greeted by a very nice young man who was helpful and patient with my rather indecisive son.  Unfortunately my son was not eligible for an upgrade on his phone for another 11 months.  He did not like either of the under $100 phones that he was eligible to purchase.  They were older models, bulky and not "cool".  The two that he did like were both well over $200 regular price.   Now to one of the main reasons that service matters - Mike, our great salesman, was trying to come up with creative ways to find my son the phone that he wanted at the best possible price.  He finally came up with a very creative solution.  I already have a Family Plan with 3 lines.  If I was to add an additional line to my plan for only $9.99 per month (and given what my cell phone bill already is, that's peanuts), then my son could purchase the new phone as if it was for the new line at less than 1/3 of the regular price.  Happy smiles all around!
Mike proceeds to process the order of a new line and the purchase of the phone.  Now the first thing that AT&T has got all wrong.  Their corporate store sales reps have to call the same customer service number that everyone else does.  There is no special direct line for them which results in them being put in the call queue and on hold.  So after 10+ minutes on hold, Mike speaks to a "customer care" rep.  He then proceeds to tell me that he can not add another line to my account because I have a charged off account with AT&T.   Now how it is possible that I have 3 working phone lines with a charged off account? How it is possible that I have only had 1 account in my own name with AT&T ever and that one for approximately a year ?  After a half hour on the phone with customer service, we (the customer care rep and I)  finally determined that when I added my sons 2 lines to my account, they 1) changed my account number without telling me; 2) only transferred some of the charges from the old account number to the new one; 3) left the old account number open with a balance on it.  So there has been a balance on an old account for several months now.  That account was eventually put into collections and charged off (hello negative point on my credit report!)  All of this without my knowledge. I eventually spent almost 2 hours on the phone talking to 2 different customer service people, a customer service supervisor, a receivables/collections manager and a customer service manager.   What was utterly ridiculous is that I was standing in the middle of an AT&T corporate store, full of customers, arguing with these individuals.  They were fully aware that I was in the store and did not seem to have any concerns whatsoever that I was pointing out that not only had they made the original mistake, they could no longer tell me what I owed them for because the bills were no longer available because of how old they were and that their actions, in addition to failing to notify or bill me, caused a negative entry on my credit report.  They failed to acknowledge that this discussion could negatively impact the sales in that store that day, as well as the reputation of the sales people in the store (who, by the way, were absolutely wonderful!) .  What I have failed to point out up to this point is that the balance that I was being harrassed about was $76.22 (less than half of my monthly bill!).  Rather than someone stepping up and saying, "we're sorry, Ms. Bell, we understand that this was a mistake made on our part and we are going to waive this charge and have the collection report reversed"  No, they were rude, stubborn and obnoxious.  They acknowledged that a mistake had been made, but continued to insist that they only was to resolve it was for me to pay the now $89.47 immediately and then it would take up to 2 weeks for them to reverse my account.
This was no longer acceptable. I had to threaten to discontinue my service, which even meant giving up my precious lifeline, my iphone.  I had to threaten to sue them for negatively impacting my credit report (damage to my reputation), harrasement  and mental anguish (mine and my son's).  And I promised a blog post on my experience!  After all of that, we finally reached a compromise.  I had repeatedly told them that if I owed the charges, I was not disputing paying them.  What I did not know was did I owe the charges or were they simply an error also.  The compromise consisted of them closing the old account, transferring only the $76.22 to my current account, removing all indications that the account had ever been in collections, including reporting to the credit bureaus, and locating and sending me copies of all of the bills that include the past due amount.  I will review those bills and if they are charges I legitimately owe, I will pay them.  If I do not think they are, I will be allowed to dispute them.  They would also immediately remove any prohibitions on my account so that we could add the line and purchase my son his phone. Now why did it take 2+ hours, several elevations of my blood pressure and  2 people walking out of the AT&T store without making their purchase to reach this point? 
Because somewhere along the way, AT&T, like too many other companies out there have lost sight of the fact that SERVICE MATTERS!  KINDNESS & COMMON COURTESY MATTER!  FLEXIBILITY MATTERS!  EMPOWERING YOUR STAFF WITH THE ABILITY TO MAKE DECISIONS THAT WILL RESOLVE CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS MATTERS!
Now, I do have to qualify this story with a note that this is the very first time I have had bad service from AT&T, in their stores, online and with their customer service.  Most of my experiences with them have been very good, but this is the one that will stick with me.  This is the one that I will tell people about.  This is the one that will nag at me everytime I pay that monthly bill.  This is the one that again makes me sad and concerned about our society and the apparent slow degradation of our basic humanity, sense of civility, basic manners and respect for the concerns and feelings of others.  I want someone to prove me wrong, is there a company out there that will?

Sometimes things come to us in such a timely manner, that it restores our faith in the patterns of the universe.  After having ignored my ReadBurner & GoogleReader for several days (way too many, don't even ask how long!)  I started to wade through through the massive amount of reading I had in front of me.   As usual, when I have built it up to that lovely 1000+  (you have to love when it is so many that they will intimidate you with 1000+ and not really tell you how many there are!) I'm skimming subjects and titles.  In my haste to clear, I almost skipped over this particular post, but something drew me back.  Not only because it was Gary V, but something about the title resonated with some of my recent musings. 

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/2008/06/05/when-do-you-know-you-have-a-community/

Gary talks about when you know you have a Community (yes capital "C").   Now, I'm not sure that I can ever be as eloquent as Gary, but I'd like to think I share his passion.  His focus is on the social media crowd, but I think his message can be expanded to relationships in all of the varied aspects of our lives.  He reminds us all that community = Communication!  If you are having a dialogue with just one person, you have a Community.  

Gary's words reinforced some of things that have been occurring to me lately.  I'm in the process of making a Major move and Major changes in my life.  In preparing to make these changes, I have been evaluating the roles that various people play in my life. When Gary talks about needing to remember that it does not matter how many Twitter followers or blog readers, it made me remember that it does not matter how many friends I have collected, how many colleagues admire me, how many business associates I have contacts with.  It is about the quality of these relationships.  Now, I will admit that sometimes I get lost in believing that the more people I am able to surround myself with, the more people there are to make me happy, to reinforce the positives about myself, in general just to affirm my existence.    Occasionally it is nice to be reminded that I don't need anyone to affirm me.   What I need is myself and the positive power of a good Community.   And Gary has reminded me of that. He has reminded me that I not only need myself, I only need good, supportive dialogue with a single person and I have a solid Community.    

I'm one of the lucky ones, I've realized that I have a lot of people in my Community, good people, solid people, smart people, caring and inspiring people.  From the people I love, my family, my close friends, some business associates, my Twitter  peeps and the sweet people who take the time to read this, I'm blessed with this Community.   I have communications with them that range for the soulful to the silly, but in all of these, one thing is prevalent, these are people who in some aspect or another bring something to my life.  Education, entertainment, love, compassion, support and sometimes, even the occasional disagreement (which I usually need to wake myself up to something I need to pay more attention to!).   It is nice to not have to reduce my Community to a single person, it would be so hard to chose.  Instead, I chose to be grateful that I have these amazing people as a part of my life and that I get to have this amazing Ccommunication!  So BIG thanks to Gary for reminding me what my Community means to me, what it really is all about and why it is so important to nuture it. 

So I leave with you a couple of questions.  Who makes up your Community?  What are you doing to foster the communication that truly translate into a Community? And most importantly, how often do you let that Community know what they mean to you?  

Sometimes things come to us in such a timely manner, that it restores our faith in the patterns of the universe.  After having ignored my ReadBurner & GoogleReader for several days (way too many, don't even ask how long!)  I started to wade through through the massive amount of reading I had in front of me.   As usual, when I have built it up to that lovely 1000+  (you have to love when it is so many that they will intimidate you with 1000+ and not really tell you how many there are!) that GR intimindatingly shows me I have failed to keep up on, I'm skimming subjects and titles.  In my haste to clear, I almost skipped over this particular post, but something drew me back.  Not only because it was Gary V, but something about the title resonated with some of my recent musings. 

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/2008/06/05/when-do-you-know-you-have-a-community/

Gary talks about when you know you have a Community (yes capital "C").   Now, I'm not sure that I can ever be as eloquent as Gary, but I'd like to think I share his passion.  His focus is on the social media crowd, but I think his message can be expanded to many aspects of our lives.  He reminds us all that community = communication!  If you are having a dialogue with just one person, you have a Community.  

Gary's words reinforced things that have been occurring to me lately.  I'm in the process of making a Major move and Major changes in my life.  In preparing to make these changes, I have been evaluating the roles that various people play in my life. When Gary talks about needing to remember that it does not matter how many Twitter followers or blog readers, it made me remember that it does not matter how many friends I have collected, how many colleagues admire me, how many business associates I have contacts with.  It is about the quality of these relationships.  Now, I will admit that sometimes I get lost in believing that the more people I am able to surround myself with, the more people there are to make me happy, to reinforce the positives about myself, in general just to affirm my existence.    Occasionally it is nice to be reminded that I don't need anyone to affirm me.   What I need is myself and the positive power of a good Community.   And Gary has reminded me of that. He has reminded me that I not only need myself, I need good dialogue with a single person and I have a solid Community.    

I'm one of the lucky ones, I've realized that I have a lot of people in my Community, good people, solid people, smart people, caring and inspiring people.  From the people I love, my family, my close friends, some business associates, my Twitter  peeps and the sweet people who take the time to read this, I'm blessed with this Community.   

Recently I got to go see my friend Gloria at her home in Philadelphia.  She tried to show me as much of her beautiful, exciting city as possible. She knew that I like history so we went to see a lot of the historic sites, but we also took a day and went "down the shore".  It was funny to hear her say that, but I learned that in the Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey area, they do not call it going to the beach.  They go down the shore.

                  

                            Our adventures in Philadelphia started with a ride on a SEPTA bus.  SEPTA is the
        Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

We took the bus the Philadelphia Art Museum.  It was such a nice day that we decided not to spend the day in the museum.  Gloria told me all about the beautiful paintings and sculptures and I want to go back and see it another time.  It was fun seeing the outside of the Art Museum because the steps are famous.  They are the steps that Rocky ran up in the movie.  I also got to take my picture with the Rocky statue.  

We walked back into Center City (downtown) on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It is very pretty with parks and fountains along the length.  It is also a very good spot to see the Philadelphia skyline.  See how pretty it is.

 Our walk down the Parkway took us through Center City and into the historic part of Philadelphia.  This area is called Old City because it is where the city originally started.  Several of the buildings are over 200 years old and there are even some streets that still have cobblestones. Philadelphia is an interesting city because there will be a little tiny very old building right next to a big skyscraper. 

We started our tour of the historic district at Penn's Landing.  This is the spot where William Penn landed when he came up the Delaware River and established the city of                                             Philadelphia.   From Penn's Landing you can see the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.  It was the                                         first bridge that crosses the Delaware River between New Jersey and Philadelphia.

Also at Penn's Landing, I got to see the Tall Ship Gazella.  The ship is very pretty with its very tall masts and sails.  There is a group in Philadelphia that works very hard on preserving the original ship.  It was very interesting to find out that they still sail this ship even though it was built in the 1800's.                                                                                                 
   .  From Penn's Landing we crossed a bridge over the highway onto Market Street. This led us into Old City and we started exploring all of the historic sites. Gloria was very nice and explained all of the history to me while we "playing tourist" as she called it.                                                                                           
          

One of the things I learned is that there are some beautiful parks scattered throughout
the city. We visited one next to Christ's Church.  Christ Church was founded in 1695.
That's over 300 years ago!  Several of the signers of the Declaration of Independence
were members of the church and for a very long time, it's steeple was the tallest thing
in the city of Philadelphia.  Our next stop was Elfreth's Alley.  It was like stepping
backwards into Colonial times.  Gloria told me that it is the oldest continuously
inhabited residential street in the country,  There are people who still live there now. 

                                                                     

From Elfreth's Alley, we walked around the    
corner to Betsy Ross' house.  It is the
house where she sewed the
original flag.  I never realized how
tiny Colonial houses were, even for
short people like Gloria and I. 
Betsy Ross was nice enough to take
a picture with me.   I also got to take a picture with a nice
Colonial lady named Mary who showed me how to knit.

Just down the street from Betsy Ross' house is the Christ Church burial yard.  It is were Benjamin Franklin is buried.  In my picture you can see the pennies that people throw on his grave for good luck.  Gloria says it is kind of funny that they do that since Ben Franklin is the one who said a penny saved is a penny earned.   Across the street from the cemetary is the Free Quaker Meeting House.  A meeting house is the Quaker version of a church.  It also served as a community meeting hall.   There was a very nice man named William who was telling everyone about the meeting house.   He showed me how to play the glass armonica (no, I did not mis-spell it) that you can see in my picture.  The glass armonica was one of Ben Franklin's many inventions.  It makes really beautiful music.

                                                                                                                     

Across the street from the meeting house is the US Mint and the National Constitution Center.   We couldn't take pictures in the Mint, but it was really cool to watch them make coins.  They were making pennies the day we were there.  Our penny adventures continued!   The National Constitution Center was just built in 2000 and it is the only museum in the United States dedicated solely to the Constitution.  At the time we were there, we got to see exhibits about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and how the Constitution has changed throughout the history of the United States.  It was really interesting and fun.  

We saved the most historic places in the city for last, but before we walked over to them, Gloria wanted me to see a SEPTA subway station.  We walked down underground to the subway station.  It was a little scary, but I it was really cool too.  All of those trains running for miles underneath the city.

                                                                                                   

After a quick lunch, Gloria took me to see the last
two stops on my tour of Philadelphia.  Independence Hall
and the Liberty Bell.  We had to go through some really tight
security but it was really worth it.  The Bell is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. 
Independence Hall is very impressive.  It looks just like it did in Colonial times. 
It was very cool to stand in the same room where they signed the Declaration of Independence.

Wow, we had a very full day and got to see a lot of interesting and fun places.  I was really tired, but I couldn't wait for the next day.  We were going down the shore with Gloria's sons, Drew and Sean.

We went to Ocean City, New Jersey.  It is in Southern New Jersey.  Gloria explained to me that New Jersey residents are either from North Jersey, Central Jersey or South Jersey.  They say this because all three areas of the state are very different.  North Jersey is very industrial and suburbs of New York.  South Jersey is a lot of suburbs of Philadelphia and is more agricultural.  Central Jersey is a combination of the other two.  Ocean City is south of Atlantic City and is on an island.  The drive down to the shore was fun.  I got to meet and talk to Drew and Sean.  For teenagers, they are really cool and funny.   We did a lot of very fun things. It was a very sunny day and there were a lot of people on the beach and the boardwalk.  We went on the beach for a little while, but the water was still too cold to go into the waves.   We walked on the boardwalk, had pizza and french fries that were really good.  We stopped in the arcade and played skeeball.  There is a part of the boardwalk that has rides.  We didn't ride any because the ones that were not too scary for me were too little for Drew and Sean.  It was fun watching everyone else on the rides.  Gloria told me stories about when Drew and Sean were little and the rides they used to ride on this same boardwalk.  A lot of the rides were the same and we giggled about how silly it would be to see them trying to ride them now.   Drew and Sean's grandmother has a house in Ocean City so they have spent almost every summer at the shore.   The last thing we did before heading back home was to play miniature golf. I actually made a hole in one! 

  I had a great visit to Philadelphia!  There was so much more that I wanted to see, but Gloria promised I can come back anytime I want.  I can't wait!