Not Quite Recovery Day

Oh so sadly I got up at 5:00 to say goodbye to Carter and Claire. They had an ungodly early flight. The only good thing about it is they got upgraded to first class. I tired to go back to sleep, but could not.

When Suzanne got up we went right to playing Siamese Mah Jongg. It was quite exciting that the card came yesterday, so we had two good days of playing lots of hands. I started my analysis. So far I have played about 150 hands of the 1,000 I need to get data for new card class.

Suzanne had an afternoon flight home to New Hampshire. She was trying out Breeze airlines and gave it two thumbs up. So now I can fly practically right to her house, but not just for dinner since there are only two flights a week.

After dropping Suzanne off at the airport I got on starting to have calls with the friends who hosted the party. I still have more calls since I have not reached everyone yet. What a dear sweet group.

I eventually passed out for a nap this afternoon. Three days of not much sleep finally caught up with me. I heard from everyone who had flown home that they got there safely. It’s less than three months until the wedding, but now I have to concentrate on one more week of teaching last year’s card, then full on new card class curriculum to write.

Recovery, maybe after the wedding. It’s full speed ahead right now.

Carter and Claire’s Shower

Happiness and love made the day. My dear friends gave Carter and Claire a most joyous wedding shower today. Shelayne, Lynn, Mary Lloyd, Hannah, Jan and Deanna went all out spoiling Carter and Claire. Everything from the invitations, food and drink, the flowers and the games played was absolutely perfect.

So many dear sweet friends and family who came to celebrate the girls made the day a big love fest. I have so much more to say about this day, but it will have to wait until all my house guests are gone. For now I will just share some of the sweet photos and say thank you to these friends who love and support Carter and Claire as they begin their life together.

I promise tomorrow to write more, especially about the fun games we played.

What a Day

Carter and Claire flew in Soooooo early this morning. I was happy to make the airport run and get them even with. Flight that arrived 35 minutes early. We got home to Suzanne still in her PJ’s and Russ already on a work call.

What a fun morning drinking coffee sitting in the sunroom talking. We had a quick trip to get our nails done and came back home to eat a tiny lunch before Carter and Claire crashed from having gotten up at 4:00 to be at the airport.

This gave me the opportunity take Suzanne to Chapel Hill Needlepoint to get her started on her new hobby. Once I gave her the right pair of glasses she got down the basket weave in minutes. It was also great to see stitching friends and introduce Suzanne to those friends.

We got home in time for Sydney to come visit, who is Grace, Suzanne’s daughter’s, best childhood friend. Claire and Carter had enjoyed a nice nap so we all had such a fun visit together.

Too quickly it was time for dinner and off to Jujube we went. We had the best waiter and he did not steer us wrong on a yummy meal. It was a jam packed day. We decided we all needed a good night’s sleep before the big day tomorrow . I had so much fun with my people today. I hope that I can actually go to sleep.

Suzanne if the First One Here

I started the day cleaning the guest room and Carter’s rooms in anticipation of this big weekend. Suzanne, my dear college friend and Carter’s god mother, arrived tonight for Carter’s wedding shower this weekend. I had the morning to get ready as I was spending the better part of the afternoon recording a class for the Mah Jongg Insider.

True to my tech skills I got on the wrong zoom link as did Alix, the Mah Jongg Insider owner. We had a grand ‘ole time talking when she realized we were on the wrong link. She quickly got to the right one to let all the people in the waiting room in for the class. It took me longer to find the right link, but eventually got there. We had the two hours of class.

I love teaching mah Jongg, but I like doing it best with real people in the room with me. I feed off other people’s energy. I like looking them in the eye and seeing,”Are you getting this?” Despite that, I hope that I gave the same energy on the zoom. We did cover all the material I wanted to share and even won a game.

I went to pick Suzanne up. Breeze airlines has a new direct flight from her house in New Hampshire right here. It was a fast two hours and I love that there is this easy direct flight. As soon as she got here we had to watch The Pitt. I’m going to hate watching next week without her.

We had to go to bed right after watching because I have got be back at the airport is less than 12 hours to pick up Carter and Claire. Let the festivities begin.

Tech Weaknesses

I am good a a few things, but the things I am bad I am quick to own. Running…If I were being chased by a bull I would fair better turning around and trying to coax it to stop chasing me, than be able to out run it. Doing my hair…or anyone’s hair for that matter. If I had to blow dry someone’s hair I most likely would end up needing scissors to remove the brush from their locks. Figuring out AV and Tech equipment…if only I had been in the AV club in junior high school I might have developed the skills needed to be able to figure out how to screen mirror my device onto a TV.

Knowing my weaknesses I try and plan ahead when I know I am going to have to face one of them. Tomorrow I am doing a live zoom event that is being recorded for The Mah Jongg Insider. A lovely woman named Alix Bryant runs the Mah Jongg Insider. She hired me to do this show for her. She is young and is tech savvy.

Knowing the event is live, but that means me talking on zoom to an audience of many I asked Alix If we could, do a run through on the tech side of things. Of course I had some issues that even Alix could not solve. Thankfully my live-in IT support was working from home today and he came in a solved the ones that stumped even Alix.

One big issue was lighting, but Alix had Amazon send me a ring light in three hours and that was easy for me to afix since it was hardware, not software.

Since I need mah Jongg props and am going to have to be screen sharing while playing mah Jongg in real time I can’t be worrying about things like, “what do I look like?” I also need to have my computer at the right angle and still have room for all my mah Jongg tiles. So now I am using a pot strainer as my laptop base since it is the right height. This is a techy as I can get. Bottom line, I need a full team of support people, one to handle tech, one to do my hair and one to keep me from stepping in the Bull shit.

Corporate Mah Jongg

Today I had the pleasure of doing a corporate event at York Properties in Raleigh. It was fun team building activity. I always tell people they can’t learn to play mah Jongg in two hours, but these people paid extra close attention and did a great job. They actually got to the of play the game with great understanding.

I got to see my friend George York, who served on the food bank board with me for many years. And that was such a treat.

Two employees had already been my students so they were great to have in class. One, Anna Claire, had recently gone to a female icons valentines party. She sent me this picture of herself at the party (She has platinum blond hair in real life). Her note that came with the photo said, “at a Galentines female Icon party and someone asked me if I was Dana Lange. I said, absolutely yes, with a side of Ina.” The book should have given away the real icon she was.

I loved seeing her and hearing how her group she learned mah Jongg with still gets together every Wednesday night to play. She did tell me she has a sleeve of “Don’t tell Dana” cups as they sometimes play mah Jongg Junior. I’m just happy that the mah Jongg created this enduring group for them.

As I was packing up at York some students were saying they were going to start playing at lunch. That’s how it starts. Such a fun corporate event. Thanks York Properties.

Speak Out for What Is Right

When times are good we tend to think this is the way it will always be. Equally when times are bad we also think this is the way it is always going to be. Neither of those things is true. Times are constantly changing. Getting better and worse all the time. But there are also trends. So a day might be better, but more days could be bad. Trending down.

As far as I am concerned we have been trending down so far this calendar year. Not personally, but country wide. But we have to remember, we can turn it around. We don’t have to let the forces that are causing our down turn remain in power.

Yesterday in church our Pastor Chris read the names of the service members killed in Iran. He spoke about this “war” in a way that he does not normally speak and it made me glad to have him speak out from the pulpit about this ridiculous action.

For our confession we read a passage from the confession of 1967. This was written when America was in the height of the Vietnam war. Another senseless war, which the American public did not support. The protests of the war took out a lot of bad politicians and turned the tide of the country.

We can do that again, before we lose too many young bright people to senseless death for a war, which is costing us billions and for what? If we have money for a no-need war, then why don’t we have the money to have rural hospitals and feed hungry children and pay teachers.

Speaking out is important and we must all continue to do it, because when some do, others feel strong enough to do also speak out. When enough of us do it, then we can change the country and stop letting irresponsible despots think they have all the power.

Faith in Customer Service Restored, But Not By That Bank

For Christmas Russ gave me new bar stools for our kitchen counter. It was what we call in out house a “white envelope gift.” That means he makes some kind of certificate and puts it in a white envelope so I have something to open. Generally all my gifts are white envelope gifts. He even makes his own Needlepoint gift certificates and I have to tell Nancy at Chapel Hill Needlepoint to charge him for the gift he has made up.

The wonderful thing about white envelope gifts is I get to actually pick out the thing he is “giving” me. Sometimes the white envelopes go unclaimed because I think they are too extravagant or not really what I wanted. This year, I had mentioned I wanted to buy new bar stools. For the record I was just going to go buy them, but this way Russ had a gift.

Since they were on my todo list already Russ and I went shopping the day after Christmas to look for them. We went to Ballard designs. They had ones I liked, but the shipping was $300 a piece and I balked at that. I was getting discouraged with the other places as I really was not looking for $2,000 per bar stool. After more looking at bigger named places we ended up at Bar Stools and Dinettes on Glenwood in Raleigh.

This was not a place I thought was going to work out. It only could have been a worse name if it was called Dinette World.

As it was close to the end of the day on the day after Christmas there was just one woman running the store and we were the only customers. She was a great help. They had lots to chose from and I was able to find the most comfortable stool and pick out the wood finish and the fabric. They are made in Canada and so it was going to take 10 weeks. No problem. We ordered them.

The stools came in this week and the store called me. You know we had terrible customer service at the bank this week. Well Barstool and Dinettes has restored my faith in customer service.

When the stools arrived they unboxed them and looked over them. There was a tiny dent in one leg. They went ahead and reordered me a replacement. We picked all three we ordered up Saturday brought the dented one home to use until the perfect one arrives. When they said a dent I thought it was really something. It is tiny, but I so appreciate them being the ones to say it is not right and not making me have to fight about it.

Sometimes you have to ignore the name and just go look. This family owned business still has great customer service and I love my new stools.

Saturday’s Child

Russ and I had the pleasure of meeting our sweet friends Kelsey and Snow’s new darling baby girl. Carter had already met this precious child and had told me how sweet she is.

Carter was right. The baby, barley three months old was so well behaved as friends came to meet her. Adoring aunts, cousins and friends all came to her grand parents house to meet. It was great fun for me as I know so many of them and have not seen them recently.

We are so happy for Kelsey and Snow who have waited so long for this darling baby. It was wonderful to see what a happy little family they are. Babies are such a blessing. They bring hope and promise into the world with them.

I pray for a safe world for her to grow up in. She is a lucky child to be surrounded by so much love.

At Least Ask Me Why

A few years ago Russ and I opened a new checking account at a new bank. We kept our old checking account. We had banked with our original Bank since we moved to Durham in 1994. Russ has a corporate account with the original bank. We had a Personal banker at that bank, until she left that bank and they never replaced her.

So over the last few years we stopped depositing money in that account. The balance went down, bit was still a good amount of money. In these three years no person ever contacted us from the bank. We went from running lots of money through the bank to practically nothing.

Today Russ and I went into the bank for the first time in years. We went together because I was unsure if I could go and close this count by myself, or if they would want both of us since both our names are on the account. We approached the teller and I said we wanted to close our checking account. She asked for my Id, but did not care at all about Russ.

She pulled the account up on her computer and asked if I wanted cash or a Check. I said a check was fine. She printed me a check and a paper saying the account was closed. It took all of two minutes. Not once did she ask us why we wanted to close the account, or if there was anything else they could do for us.

Customers for 32 years and they never said thanks for being our customer. Leaving was the right thing to do. I know checking is not a profitable part of the business, but getting new customers is more expensive that retaining the customers you have.

I went in very neutral in my tone about saying we were closing the account, I left feeling like they were he worst bank ever. Why did we leave you, because you did not care and you proved it in the biggest way right at the end.

Hearing Aid Report

A month ago I started wearing hearing aids. I had noticed some hear loss in the last few years and decided not to wait any longer to get my hearing tested, it wasn’t bad, but enough that aids could make a difference.

My friend Jill had recommended an audiologist she has worked with for the last ten years. Jill is a very discerning individual so I knew that if she was good enough for Jill I would be happy. So I went to see Donella Hellencamp at Triangle hearing services in Cary.

I was tested and she ordered me the hearing aids. She programed them according to my test and taught me everything I needed to know about wearing them and taking care of them. One of the big things she also did was pair them to my phone and iPad. So when I get a call or am listening to something rather than using the speaker I just hear everything directly in my earring aid. This is the feature I love most about my hearing aids.

I have been back to see her for a check in and to make sure everything is programed and working just right. We did have to do some work to make sure all the features I had on my hearing aids we’re working perfectly. I felt like she went above and beyond to ensure they were perfect.

I know these hearing aids are helping because when I am watching TV getting dressed and I put them in I have to turn the volume down about 25%. I am glad I did not wait longer. There is no way my hearing was going to do anything except get worse and I like to really know what is going on. Hearing correctly is the best.

The Summer Day of March

I think we broke a high temp record today in Durham. It was in the 80’s. I wore white summer pants to teach. One of my students said, “No white before Memorial Day.” I said that rule does not count when the temperature is over 80.

It’s not going to stay that warm, but it was the taste of summer than makes me want to run out and buy plants and scatter seeds in my garden. I should not succumb to the temptress of the first summer day in March, but I think the arugula can handle it. So I will be throwing down some seeds.

I am in the market for some free food and that is practically what arugula is. I buy $3 worth of seed and will get $100 worth of arugula. It’s not time for zinnia seeds yet, but I’m not waiting too long as this year I would like for them to come up and bloom before I leave for Maine in August.

For the record, I wear white pants all year round, regardless of the temp. White shoes too!

My Gravestone, So To Speak

I was in the middle of teaching a class today and I got a text from a student asking a question. As my class was working on solving a problem I gave a quick response to the text question and chuckled. My students sitting in the room inquired about my chuckle.

I told them how I happily answer mah Jongg questions, but so many times it is the same question. “Can I (PLEASE) use a joker in a pair?” Today’s students have taken more than one class from me responded practically in unison, “NEVER can you use a joker in a single or a pair.” They are well trained.

I said, I should get that tattooed on my forehead I say it so much. That’s why I call that sentence “the Tattoo.”

“You should put it on my gravestone,” one cheeky woman said.

Since my church, Westminster has a memorial garden, which is where I will go, I said, “I think I have to have my name legally changed to “NEVER can you use a joker in a single or a pair” so it can adorn the little brass plaque that will commemorate my being interned in the Memorial Garden. It would be fitting.

People may forget my name, but over 30,000 students will always know me by that sentence. And even though they know it, they will still probably be coming to me, dead or alive, to let them break the rule, just this once, since it is for mah Jongg.

Good Thing I Over Bought

I am going to admit something about myself. I have a lot of craft supplies. I probably have enough craft supplies to be able to needlepoint, quilt, bead, paint, scrapbook, and cross stitch for the rest of life and never purchase another supply. Now I certainly don’t have all the white vineyard vine fiber I might like for a life time, but if color is not an issue, I could go on. But color is always an issue, so I will need to purchase more fibers, at least for needlepoint. I have been working on some beaded Christmas ornaments and I realized I might have enough beads for a year’s worth of production.

In the past I have had a tiny amount of shame for the size of my “stash.” That is what your raw materials are called in the craft world. I have enough fabric to easily make a dozen or more quilts…If I didn’t care what colors went in them. But color does matter so sometimes I have to buy more fabric for a specific project, despite the fact that I have hundreds of yards of other fabric.

Today it was brought to my attention that there is a real shortage of many essential craft supplies. Needlepoint canvas that is made in Germany is having a shortage. This means you might be waiting longer for a painted canvas since the painter might have trouble getting the blank canvas.

I have never been more glad that I have this hoarding issue. I have plenty of painted canvases ready to go whenever I find the time to stitch them. I have a number of rolls of blank canvas just waiting for me to create. I need to get on working on my Christmas exchange ornaments, but I am not worried about the supply side, just my production mode.

Being forced to utilize what you have on hand leads to more creativity. It is the same in cooking. Some of the best meals I have ever made were created from trying to use up things I had on hand.

So use up what you already have. But also, don’t feel bad about building up a stash. You never know when “what in the world” might happen to create a shortage. I would like to use everything I have on hand before I die. So currently my plan is to live to 124 years old. By then I can work down all my stashes.

Clock Change Mess

It’s the worst day. Losing an hour of sleep. We made it to church on time, although there were plenty who did not. It might also be spring break for some so that contributed to low attendance. For the record, I miss spring break. It was the one time of year we always went on vacation when Carter was home. Back to the clock issue.

Now since most of the time pieces I look at are controlled by the internet, they automatically get set to the correct time when the time changes. But then there are the rouge old fashioned clocks in our house… Like the microwave. I have not looked closely at it and have no idea if Russ has changed it. He one thing I know is not to trust a rouge clock for at least a month. In the kitchen I can always look at the cable box clock. Why do we still have a Cable box, and in the kitchen?

After church Russ and I went up to have lunch with my mother. It was a lovely brunch, but true to my mother’s very busy social schedule we had to be out by 2:00 because she was already late for her 1:30 mah Jongg game. I thought with the time change she would be given grace anyway, but she had told them she was going to be late since we were coming for lunch at 12:30.

Now the time change had not even been official for 12 hours and I was already exhausted. So Shay and I promptly feel asleep for an hour’s nap. I only woke up because Russ had a question and came in our room. He didn’t mean to wake us and he quietly backed out of the room. So glad he had a question because I did not need a nap.

I need to go to bed early tonight because I have an early morning class to get ready for in the morning. I never should have scheduled classes on the day after the time change, but of course that would have meant I knew when the change was happening.

I hope everyone stays safe and does not have one of the predicted heart attacks due to losing one hour of sleep. Do people have those heart attacks because they realize they are late for something? Not exactly sure why it is so danergous to lose one hour of sleep, except if you have a dog who wants their meals right on time. Not an issue for our not food obsessed dog. She is just happy to get a snuggle nap with mom.

Go forth and be on time.

Only Pair of Shoes I Need

If it was socially acceptable I would wear nothing but white sneakers everyday. I love white sneakers, I always have. In the seventies it was not cool to have white, clean sneakers. When your mom bought you new ones, most kids ran out and got them dirty, so they didn’t look so nerdy white.

Not me. I loved, clean, sparking white Sneakers. In my teens, tretorns came out. They were white with a blue sideways V. I loved them. I wore them everywhere I was allowed. Then they came out with white on white ones. Nirvana.

In the eighties I wore old school white keds, for the record I also had navy and red ones, but the white were my go to’s. Nothing could be more perfect than white sneakers.

Now I love this funny brand called Moshn. They have a curved bottom which propels you to walk forward. That is great since I rarely walk backwards. They are comfortable and comfort is all I care about in my advancing years.

I hope that the acceptance for wearing sneakers in almost any place will continue as long as I do. I dread formal occasions because I have given up regular shoes. In the summer it is a little better because I can tolerate sandals that are almost like wearing nothing at all, but with arch support. And sneakers are welcomed in summer, especially white ones.

Since daylight savings is tonight I guess I am coming into my season. Longer days and bright white sneakers. Just that I have been wearing them in the long cold days of winter, but now I won’t stand out so much.

Doing the Chores I Hate

Today I did some chores around the house I hate doing. I don’t know if it was the fact that I was doing many of them that made it worse, or that since I hated doing all of them I just kept at it.

It started with stripping my bed and laundering, the quilt, duvet and cover, the mattress pad, and the sheets. This was an all day affair of much washing and many drying cycles. I love having a totally clean bed, but hate the day I clean everything. I have no idea what Martha Stewart says about how often one should wash their down duvet or their mattress pad. I am certain she would say to do it more often than I get around to doing it. Having an almost 15 year old dog means sometimes I need to clean my bedding thanks to an emergency, but that is not a schedule.

The second job I worked on is thanks to my senior dog. Cleaning spots off the sun room rug. I bought a rug cleaning machine to help me with some problems Shay has left us. I spent hours today trying to rescue a rug. I have not succeeded, but I am not giving up. This rug is not long for this world, but as long as Shay is with us, I don’t think it would be a good idea to replace it. So I am just trying to make it acceptable.

Those two chores as bad as they were was not my least favorite. The third big one was cleaning out my tiny master bath. I have been putting this job off for such a long time. There were containers that held old makeup from the 90’s along with lotion sample bottles from resorts that I think have been washed away.

I am very thankful that lots of beauty products have expiration dates, but what became painfully obvious is that there was no need to try and find and decipher the dates, EVERYTHING was old and needed to be thrown away. The one thing I did not tackle were the medicine cabinets. I should have, but the washing took up too much time.

I deep cleaned the bathroom and felt a great sense of satisfaction. Just a drop in the bucket for all the chores I have on my list. I think I am going to spend tomorrow in my office. There are still bags from Christmas sitting beside my desk.

How to Get All New Cabinet Members

Kristi Noem was moved out of cabinet job at Homeland today. Rumor has it that it was not for the killing of American citizens, or the sleeping with a subordinate, or even disastrous appearances at congressional hearings. The rumor is she featured herself too much in a homeland security campaign, looking too good. That was a bridge too far for the supreme narcissist in command who believes he should be the only one featured looking better than he actually does.

If that is the thing that pushed her out then it’s time for the internet to get filled with many photos and videos of all the other cabinet members looking better than they actually are doing things that make them look heroic. The supreme narcissist needs to see image after image of his subordinates looking better than him, doing greater things than him. They don’t actually have to be doing them, just looking like they are.

If the idiot cabinet members are appearing to be doing better stuff than the boss the boss might decide it is time to move them aside for getting too much attention. So DOJ, needs a campaign showing what a fabulous job Bondi is doing and looking good doing it. Lots of bragging. We all know the actual truth, but supreme leader will think that everyone thinks that DOJ leader is doing more and looking better than he is.

Now how are we going to make JD look better? This is going to be a real stretch. He can’t be fired, so perhaps we just don’t bother with that one.

HHS ruiner, Kennedy could be easy to target. It would be perfectly believable that he started a campaign to show himself in some AI generated shirtless photos working out with “celebrities” but they have to be better than Kid Rock. Flooding the web with these photos could finally make the chief so jealous that he takes Kennedy out.

It would be so nice to get back to having cabinet members who were actually competent and looked like Janet Reno. We need 47 to decide he can only hire people less attractive than himself. We might never have another cabinet members again if that is the case.

At least ice Barbie is demoted. Can’t wait to never see her again.

I Forgot to Blog Yesterday

This has never actually happened. OK, maybe in the last fourteen years of writing a daily blog I forgot once to write. But usually I write right before I go to sleep. You can tell by the lack of quality when I am very tired and just bang out some random post. Sometime I have had such a nothing burger day I have to stretch to find anything to blog about. Since this is my practice to write daily no matter what always post SOMETHING.

I woke up this morning and looked at my phone and that is when it hit me. I totally forgot to blog last night. I should have done it between my classes at North ridge Country club since I had a two hour break. But I got distracted talking to various people. Then I got home around ten last night and Russ was home from his business trip so I talked to him. I looked at junk on phone and passed out.

I hate that I broke my streak of posting everyday, even though it would have been something mundane. So I am posting now to make up for yesterday and will post again tonight for today. Not that this matters to anyone, but me. But this blog is really just for me.

Not Even a Good Fake

I had a student come into class today all excited because she had gotten the new 2026 card already. Before she could even take it out I knew it had to be a counterfeit. She quickly realized it was the exact same hands as the 2025 card, but any 2025 hands were just changed to 2026.

She showed me the inside of the card and I broke the news to her that all those cards on Amazon that are claiming to be 2026 are counterfeit. She quickly went online and got a find for the $22.50 she had paid for a the four pack of cards.

Then she handed me the card. I looked at the front. Not only was it blue, the same color as this year’s card, but it had Mah Jongg misspelled. Not the biggest offense.

The biggest mistake is the word “GARDS”. What the hell is GARDS? Is that what the counterfeiter thought they heard when someone said, “Let’s make some fake Cards .”

My student had not noticed the front of the card in her excitement to look at the new hands. Perfectly normal for newish students to get fooled. I can spot a counterfeit across the room.

DON’T BUY MAH JONGG CARDS OFF AMAZON, unless the seller in the National Mah Jongg League. Best to buy them directly off the website http://www.nationalMahjonggleague.org. Do order your cards now so you get one at end of the month. We all can’t wait for the new card! I am sick of this one.

It’s Only March

January was a long month. Everyday felt like a week. Thankfully February picked up a bit, but it helps that it is the shortest month. Now here we are in March and we are in a war I don’t understand. This makes me fearful for so many reason, but especially because I feel like we are going to be in another January where everyday brings a new S#*$ Show.

I would love it if someone could explain to me exactly what we are doing here. How is it we can go to war without any congressional approval? This is not defense. They people in charge are calling it a war and war’s take approval.

I am tired of the lap dogs of congress. I no longer feel like media is doing its job. And I am most tired of An executive branch with too much power and no guard rails. I feel like this is so much diversion from the Epstein files. All of that needs to come out and people need to be held accountable. All of them.

Just Keep Showing Up and Saying Yes

That is the advice of experts to young people. If you want to succeed you don’t get there all at once. You have to keep trying, but if you don’t start somewhere you never reach your goal.

This advice is not just for young people. You are never too old to forge a new path. I am a perfect example. I have had many careers. Most were not planned. None were studied for. Almost all of them I was not qualified for when I started… but I started and kept showing up.

My advice is if you can dream it, you can do it. If someone asks you to do something, try it. This is how I started catering. Someone needed food. I said I could do it. And I did. For ten years!

When Dan Shannon called me from Durham Magazine and asked me to come meet him, I did. I was not looking for a job. He did not know he was going to offer me a job when he met me. He never asked me for a writing sample, but somehow he gave me a job as the community and events editor. And so, with no experience, I suddenly worked at a magazine. For ten years!

For the last 28 years I have been a mah Jongg teacher. When students asked me to teach them more advanced mah Jongg, there was no such thing. I created a strategy class that eventually became Beyond Beginner, a traded marked class that teaches not just strategy but a systematic way of improving your mah Jongg skills. There was no model, but I just said Yes and figured it out.

Saying Yes first, is the key. Not being afraid to try new things and listen to your gut when someone asks you to do something you have never tried is the most important trait I can share. You are never successful until you have tried, failed, learned, improved and kept at it.

Say yes to new things and new people. You never know where that yes will take you. The journey is exciting, enjoy it’s random path and keep moving forward.