Christmas Travel for Boomers

Christmas is upon us and we Boomers will be traveling the globe to meet up with family and friends. For the first time in years, I'll actually be staying home except for a brief jaunt to Knoxville on Sunday to meet my mother and sister!

Hope your travels are safe wherever you go this Holiday Season!

Greetings from Siesta Key!

Having a great time in Siesta Key! Wish you were here! The weather is just perfect and I'm reading the new Dan Brown book "The Lost Symbol." Wish you were here! Be back Wednesday!

Alice

Music and a Marathon

More than 7,000 runners who recently raced in a half-marathon in London were under the influence of a powerful performance-enhancing stimulant — pop music.

The music at London’s “Run to the Beat” race was selected on the basis of the research and consultation of sport psychologist Costas Karageorghis. He has learned how to devise soundtracks that are just as powerful, if not more so, as some of the less legal substances that athletes commonly take to excel.

The link between music and athletic performance is just one example of the inroads scientists and doctors are making into understanding the amazing power that music has over your mind and body. Science has shown that music really can kill pain, reduce stress, better your brain and basically change how you experience life.
Sources: Live Science October 15, 200

Harpists Bring Comfort to the Dying

I’ve been writing about music’s healing power for over 12 years now and I have seen the public’s awareness of the power grow and grow. Today, many hospitals have music therapy departments and the average person knows what is meant by music therapy, music healing, and music medicine.
Almost daily, there are articles about all the ways that music can be used to improve the quality of life and even heal illnesses. Last week there was a wonderful article about harpists playing music for people that are in hospice units or slowly slipping way at home.
” There was nothing more to do for this 62-year-old woman — no oxygen or other life support, just a morphine drip to keep her as comfortable as possible.

That, and the ministrations of Jane Franz.

Franz brought her harp to the foot of Carolyn’s bed, and started to play, weaving a hypnotic and soothing melody. Occasionally, she paused to adjust to the rhythm of Carolyn’s heartbeat and breathing. After 20 minutes, the last notes settled like a benediction over the room.

Three family members sat at her bedside, sometimes holding hands. There were tears and hugs. Franz returned the next day to play one last time, and then Carolyn died.

This is what Franz does. As a music-thanatologist on the staff of Sacred Heart Hospital, she uses music to bring comfort to the dying.

“Doctors can write lots of medical prescriptions and not get the right response,” said Dr. Stewart Mones, medical director at Sacred Heart. “There are times when no medicines are as effective as music therapy.”

Music-thanatology — “Thanatology” derives from “Thantos,” the Greek word for death — has been around in various forms for centuries. Its roots extend at least back to the monastic medicine of Benedictine monks in 11th-century Cluny, France.

As practiced today, it was developed over more than 30 years by Therese Schroeder-Sheker. Her Chalice of Repose program was located in Colorado and Montana before 2002, when it moved to Mt. Angel in the quiet farm country of the Willamette Valley south of Portland.
It stresses carefully individualized “prescriptive music,” a concept Schroeder-Sheker developed in which a harpist observes the body processes and mental state of a patient and adjusts tone and tempo to match.

Music thanatologists say they use the harp for the many sounds it can make and for its warm, low, resonant tones. And it’s portable.

Their “vigils,” as they are called, are held at no cost to the patient at a growing number of hospitals and hospices across the United States and elsewhere.”

From China: Dance of 1000 Hands

DANCE OF 1000 HANDS......

Read the paragraphs below FIRST before you watch the video

There is an awesome dance, called the Thousand-Hand Kuan Yin, which is making the rounds across the net. Considering the tight coordination required, their accomplishment is nothing short of amazing, even if they were not all deaf. Yes, you read correctly. All 21 of the dancers are complete deaf-mutes. Relying only on signals from trainers at the four corners of the stage, these extraordinary dancers deliver a visual spectacle that is at once intricate and stirring.

Its first major international debut was in Athens at the closing ceremonies for the 2004 Paralympics. But it had long been in the repertoire of the Chinese Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe and had traveled to more than 40 countries.

Its lead dancer is 29 year old Tai Lihua, who has a BA from the Hubei Fine Arts Institute. The video was recorded in Beijing during the Spring Festival this year.

Chantdoc Celebrates a Big Birthday!

This has been a wonderful year for me, one of the best of my life.  Since this blog is primarily devoted to babyboomer travel, I will recap some of the trips I've been on this year.  

Last August, my three daughters and two sons-in-law took me on a delightful cruise that was headed to Cozumel.  At the last minute we were diverted to Grand Bahama, because of a hurricane...one that we had to slowly go through as we were leaving Miami.  Will include a video of that!

In September, my friend and I went to Italy for a fantastic tour of Rome, Florence, and Sorrento!  We had spectacular weather and met lots of wonderful people everywhere we went.  The food and the sites of ancient wonders of the world were simply spectacular.  Will enclose a photo of that!

In April of this year, I went to visit my daughter in Paris and another daughter joined us and the three of us went to Dublin, Ireland for the week-end, then back to Paris!  It's been a year of fabulous travel to capitals of Europe as well as a tropical paradise.  I don't think I can top it!

A few final pix from Paris!

I had such a fabulous time in Paris and am so looking forward to returning there!  Just thought you might enjoy a few more photos that I haven't posted yet!  Let me know if I can  help you with your travel plans!

Alice

Visiting the Salvador Dali Museum in Paris

This last trip to Paris was filled with museums!  For the first time I went to the Salvador Dali museum which is just a few blocks away from Sacre Coeur.  I'd heard of Dali all my life but I guess I really didn't realize that Dali was a brilliant madman!  I wish I could post all of the pictures I took there but the two above are pretty typical of his way of thinking.  The one with me in it is his "Alice in Wonderland."  The second is about a picnic and the woman is wearing most of the food!  She also has ants crawling across her forehead.  If you're not familiar with Dali, just Google his name and I'm sure you can find many, many pictures of his amazing art!

Update on my trip to Paris

Hello to all my Boomer friends! I've now got my ticket to Paris and have two possible speaking gigs:

• one would be at the American Church in Paris
• one would be speaking to a group of harpsichordists who are lifetime fans of the great harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, topic of my dissertation

Now I have a third invitation:

• Traveling for a few days to Jaen, Spain to consult with the music faculty at the university there about a "Music in the Hospital" curriculum that they are putting together! They will fly me down there and I am soooo excited as I have never been to Spain! It is in the Andalucia section of Spain and is very far south!

If you know anyone in Paris or Southern Spain who would like a workshop, contact me ASAP!

Thanks,

Alice

Traveling to Paris

Paris is one of my favorite cities. I've probably been there half a dozen times in my life and I love it more each time. I was very fortunate to have spent 6 weeks there in the summer of 1987, which I was doing research on Wanda Landowska for my doctoral dissertation.. Now I am going back to Paris this Spring to visit one of my daughters who will be doing an internship at the American Embassy in Paris. I will be able to stay with her in her apartment, but I am trying to find a good price on a plane ticket. You probably know that I have my own travel agency at www.CashFamilyTravel.com. I hope that you will always check there for the best price on your own plane tickets, hotel rooms, and rental cars! Thank you!

View from Anacapri

Although I've been to Anacapri before, I was eager to go back because of the memories of the Debussy prelude I payed long ago, "The Hills of Anacapri." I highly recommend seeing Anacapri if you're going to Capri. You can take a bus ride to Anacapri and then a chair lift to the tip-top for a spectacular view!

Thanksgiving Menu 2008

This Thanksgiving I decided to make 3 or 4 new dishes for our family feast of Thanksgiving. I had one major request to incorporate some recipes with pomegranate as an ingredient. I found a delicious recipe for cornbread stuffing with pomegranate and a salad made of sauteed shrimp, scallions, various seeds and pomegranate arils. This mixture is put on a bed of baby greens and was totally delicious! The cornbread stuffing also had chopped dried cranberries and raisins in addition to the pomegranate. Of course we had turkey, gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, poached, spiced pears and asparagus too! Hope your's was a good one. We all have so much to be grateful for despite the current economy!

More from the Italy trip 2008

Picture #1 on the left is a directional sign pointing to the red-light district of Pompei.

Picture #2 is me washing my hands in an outdoor fountain that now functions again on the streets of Pompeii.
Picture #3 is me standing in the garden of a Pompeiian home, long since destroyed but the garden still blooms.

One of our favorite trips within the Naples area was the day we went to Pompeii! This ancient city, oer 3000 years old was completely inundated by volcanic ash when Mt. Vesuvius suddenly erupted one day and killed nearly everyone in this very sophisticated city. I highly recommend a visit to Pompeii when you visit Italy!

Sarah Palin: This Boomer's Opinion

by Nataly Kogin (from her blog www.workitmom.com/blog)

We (too) rarely have women running for VP and seeing an unknown political figure catapult to the national stage is intriguing, whatever party you support. There is a lot to write about.
In this case, it’s about Sarah Palin blowing a kiss to the audience before VP debate last week. And winking during the debate. Numerous times. As I watched her do it, I cringed. I am no career expert but I know enough to understand the importance of body language in the workplace. If you want the job, start with a firm handshake. If you want to be heard, state your ideas sitting confidently and upright on the edge of your chair instead of slumping down and making your statement a question.
And if you want to be taken seriously by your coworkers and clients — or say, by 70 million people watching you on TV — don’t wink during a heated political discussion and don’t blow kisses to people you don’t know.
Now, I am no dummy. I know that this extremely casual body language, manners as well as peppering speeches with colloquial phrases like “You betcha!” is both part of Ms. Palin’s personality and the image that she is aiming to build of someone who is one of us, a regular person who just happens to be running for Vice President. But I don’t buy it. If you’re running for office you should not sound and act like a regular person in a casual setting. Because you’re not a regular person, you’re a Vice Presidential candidate and when you’re out there on some international mission, talking to world leaders as an American representative, I definitely don’t want you to act the way you might around your family.
Sorry to lecture, Ms. Palin, but after seeing women sabotage their success in the workplace by the way they talk and hold themselves, I care about this stuff. Fair or not, women have to jump over a higher bar just to be on par with men in professional settings, which means there’s no room for overly-girly body language or expressions that make you sound juvenile. When I was starting my career I was lucky to have one woman boss who took me shopping for a serious suit. “How you look matters, whether you like it or not,” she told me as I invested in my first-ever (and last-ever) Ann Taylor skirt suit.
Your suits are fine but in my not-so-humble opinion, you need to act as serious as they look.

Day 3 of our Caribbean Bahamas Cruise

This is Day 3 of our fantastic cruise we had last week. Day 3 was actually our only port of call on the trip and after a long day at sea on Tuesday, we arrived at Grand Turk, Bahamas around 8 a.m. on Wednesday. My three daughters, two sons-in-law and I were chomping at the bit to get off that big ship and into that gorgeous blue water. The girls and I signed up for a bike tour of the island in the morning and the guys did "Power Snorkeling." The weather was clear and sunny but also hot and humid and when we would stop on the bike ride to hear about an historic location the heat from the pavement was almost overpowering. Still, we really enjoyed the bike and hike and saw a beautiful little island.

This Babyboomer loves to travel!!

My parents instilled a love of travel in me as a child. My first big trip was at age 6 when our family went to Washington, D.C. and saw all the sights! We stopped in Virginia at the Luray Caverns and I remember being absolutely amazed at the stalactites and stalagmites. There were also beautiful pools of water down there where people had thrown coins and made wishes.

Now I have traveled all over the world and even lived in Italy for a year (1974). My love of travel continues to grow and I am taking a cruise with my children in August (Carribbean) and then going to Italy for a couple of weeks in September. I even bought my own travel site! Now I can travel as much as I want and it becomes a business expense, I get free upgrades, and I get all the commissions that would otherwise be paid to someone else! If you're interested in getting your own travel site, just go to mine, http://www.cashfamilytravel.com/, or go to www.ytb.com/chantdoc and click on "view the presentation."

Hope your summer travels have been fun! Let me know!

Are you out there Boomers?

There's a lot in the news today about us Babyboomers! Some of it is good, some is a little scary. I keep hearing about Social Security running out and that is something that always stops me in my tracks. I've paid into this fund for a long time and was looking forward to having my future softened just a little with that eventual check!
Thank goodness I've gotten a fabulous travel site that my friends and family are using now to purchase airline tix, hotels, rental cars...even flowers, tickets and cars!!! I'm so excited by this www.CashFamilyTravel.com. It uses the same search engines as the big guys (Orbitz, Travelocity, and Expedia) but gives me the commissions instead of already-wealthy strangers in LA and NYC!
I think this stream of income will allow me to continue visiting the tropical destinations that I love so much! Please check it out...you can get one too!!!!!

Beauty at the North Pole

You know, I've never seriously considered going to the North Pole. I figured that's where Santa and all of his elves are busily at work and really should not be disturbed, but when I saw this picture I began to reconsider! What do you think?

A scene you will probably never get to seeThis is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point.You also see the sun below the moon. An amazing photo and not oneeasily duplicated. You may want to pass it on to others. The Japanesehave a saying: 'When someone shares with you something of value, you have an obligation to share it with others.'

Boomers look for luxury and efficiency

PRINCETON, N.J. - Shea Homes, one of the nation's largest builders, believes Baby Boomers are looking for communities that make an environmental difference.

Last month, Shea announced the opening of Victoria Gardens, an "active lifestyle," or retirement, development sandwiched between Orlando and Daytona Beach, Fla.

The homes were advertised as having a carbon footprint that is 20 to 30 percent less than that of a typical household.

Billed as eco-friendly and energy-wise, the homes feature solar attic fans, green-fiber recycled insulation, motion-sensor triggered lighting, energy-efficient windows and appliances and garages with electric-vehicle charging stations.

Shea says it has focused on small, incremental green features that will add up to important energy savings.

Compassion Network: Think on those things up high!!!

Compassion Network: Think on those things up high!!! I love that picture of a bluebird of happiness Tony! Where'd you find that?

Chantdoc