Fire Water in Providence

Providence has a cool arts installation called Fire Water which are burning fires installed along the Providence River. It happens several times throughout the year. We were lucky enough to be here during the Halloween Fire Water. Sara, Nancy and I, friends from Houston and LA, walked along the river. The Fire Water event set the Halloween tone by piping classical music through the city and people meandering in their costumes. Very mellow compared to San Francisco's scene.

The best part was that we smelled like we had been sitting in front of a fireplace when we got back to the hotel. Very autumn.

Mount Baldy Mount Climb Fundraiser Photos

Here are some of my best shots from the Mount Baldy hike in LA. I am still feeling the pain and the elevator is down in our office building so the pain is growing. Why are stairs so much harder than climbing a mountain?


Holly and Dylan preparing for the hike. They are official adrenalin junkies which is pretty obvious considering their career choices of Documentary Director and Cinematographer. This should have been the first clue that the hike would be, well, super difficult.

This green ski hut was the half way point of the climb. Imagine hiking this in the winter with all your gear and skis.

A fantastic twisted, fallen tree.

The Summit and a view of the surrounding mountains. The surface looks a bit like the moon but boy did I feel the gravity.

Here I am lounging on the Mount Baldy aka Mount San Antonio sign at the summit.

Holly doing a cheesecake pose. She was certainly at her happiest having concurred the mountain. Now to head back down.

Here's our group: Nancy (Producer) Dylan (Cinematographer), Holly (Director), Wendy (lawyer and triathlete), Rob (Holly's brother, cinematographer) and me (photographer).

Mountain men Dylan and Rob. They have that cinematographer looks. One of their recent projects was photographing Alaska.

Dazy in Heaven

Here's Holly's dog Dazy who is living in heaven in this Studio City home. It is certainly a dog's life in LA.

Victoria Beckham and Cultural Literacy

If you head over to my other blog Career Goals: Take the Lead you can read updates about the leadership think tank in which I am participating. Yesterday we had an extended conversation about Cultural Literacy which is a new term to me and seems quite buzzy. I couldn't fully embrace the conversation.

Later in the evening I was able to catch the show Victoria Beckham Coming to America. Now I get it. Over in the UK she is considered fascinating but trashy. She never smiles, has three children but is skinny as a pencil and is married to the world's hottest man (second to Stephen) David Beckham. Her move to the US is considered a desperate publicity move.

However, watching her show I can see that she does smile, seems to have a great sense of British humour and is struggling to understand America. In return, Americans are embracing her and I'm sure that the UK is none to happy about that.

Her first month in LA is highlighted on the show. Despite her ample plastic surgery, outrageous clothes and heals so high that she can't actually walk, she is NOTHING in comparison to the wives of LA. She seems downright subtle compared to them. She doesn't take herself too seriously as illustrated by her continuous side-comments. Even after the show ended I continued to giggle out loud about her comment after throwing the first pitch at a Dodgers game, "I thought my silicon would come out my armpit."