Whenever I seem to write reflective pieces I seems to always start out with the Seasons of Love from Rent. It always seems fitting because the words are really true. What happens in 525,600 minutes (a year in the life)is too much to write about sometimes.

However, yesterday I was driving home from dinner and realized that a year ago I was on a plane, heading across North America and then over the Pacific Ocean to my amazing vacation in Hawaii. It wasn’t until I got home from dinner that I realized that there was another anniversary that our community and so many people in my facebook community were thinking about as well.

It was the passing of Sy Benlolo (Sy Sylver).

Let me rewind briefly. I jumped on the smartphone bandwagon quite late in the game, and while everyone was already upgrading to Iphones, I was still (and still am) new to blackberry. I knew I was going to Israel after Hawaii and I had my phone ‘unlocked’ thinking I could use a US sim card and use my phone in Hawaii. When I arrived in Chicago for my first connection to Hawaii, I went to the electronic store and asked if I could buy a SIM card. She said, “sure”. Great. Next question, “what about data?”. Answer – it doesn’t come with data. I didn’t know that I had to buy a data package before leaving home! DOH! So much for using the phone in Hawaii.

Met up with B in LAX, waiting for our flight to Honalulu. He was busy showing me things on his Iphone and my Ipod and then we boarded to fly off to paradise for 9 days.

The first couple of days in Waikiki were busy and there really wasn’t time to use wifi (not that I really knew how to use it on my blackberry) so I did not. No emails, Facebook, chat….which was fine by me (surprisingly). Busy spending time with B, going to the North Shore, Diamond Head, Pearl Harbour and more….

Once we arrived on the big Island, Hawaii, the Sheraton resort fee included 15 minutes of free internet daily. While walking around the hotel, I ‘wandered’ into the business centre and logged on. Opened up Facebook and saw in private message from a friend. The message was very short – “did you hear about Sy”. WHAT? what about Sy? No one was on line and I didn’t know what was going on. I sent a message back to this friend and a few others to try to find out what was going on. My 15 minutes was up and we were leaving to go to Maui later that day.

Once we arrived on Maui, the Westin has wifi all over the property and is included in the resort fee. The light bulb finally went off and I started to use my Ipod with the wifi at the Westin.

We were busy in Maui as well, but took some time to finally relax by the pool, B went to the spa and it was a great time to sit back and enjoy the view of paradise.

By that time, I had heard the news about Sy, and what was going on back home. It was a very strange feeling, as I haven’t seen him in person in many years, but always followed his life, his successes and his global travels and adventures. It was a very strange time for me, being in paradise but feeling homesick. If that makes any sense.

So, fast forward to today. I am seeing posts and photos and messages to Sy and that one year has past. I know what these very dear family and friends are thinking about today. I think about it every year when the anniversary of Aviva happens. The first year was the hardest, and every year you remember, because you will never forget. We never forget the people that have touched our lives. Which is one of the reasons why you should make sure that the ones that mean something to you know it all the time, because once they are gone, they are gone.

Today’s musical interlude is not going to be Seasons of Love, but I just called to say I love you.

Have a memorable day!

When I write for my travel blog, I know that I am sharing personal stories about the places I have been and what I have seen and been able to do in my life.

When I write in this blog, it is personal and sometimes feels like confession. Now, I am Jewish so I have no idea what going to confession is really like, but I have watched my share of tv shows and movies so I have some idea.

Why blog? Why share personal details about yourself, your life and the way it makes you feel. Well, I think firstly there are probably a lot of you out there, that I may have more in common with on the inside than what appears on the outside. It is a way to connect without haven’t to put anything out there. Many people have told me, “wow, I feel the same way about what you wrote about”, or “that happens to me too”.

So, here goes the confession part of this post.

By now you probably know that I live in a condo. A beautiful, but small condo. Perfect size for one person, you would think. But what happens when you have pretty much outgrown the space you live in? Well, again, one would say, “you need to get rid of some of your ‘stuff'”. There in lies the problem and what has brought me here today.

When I lived at my parents house I used to collect ‘things’. There were always incentives at work – at one point, there was an incentive for gift cards at…wait for it…Consumers Distributing (you all remember that store). I would go to the store, and buy dishes, and pots and pans, and all kinds of ‘stuff’ that I was keeping until I had my own place.

Little did I know that when it finally came time to pack up and move to my own place, I HATED everything that I had collected over the years. Well, that isn’t totally true…

I heard that UNopened Disney movies were (are) worth something. So, I would buy TWO, yes, two movies (VHS) one to keep sealed and one to watch. And every movie had a corresponding mug. I should say that I do use the mugs and they sit happily in the cupboard and are used for tea/coffee all the time.

Fast forward to moving to the condo. After going through what was coming with me and what was not, boxes were labeled and away we went to the condo.

For a while things were great…oh, I should rewind….what about all the visits to the annual Mikasa sale? What about you ask? Well, again, I was living in my parents house, but that didn’t stop me from buying beautiful serving platter, glassware, candle sticks (oh let’s not get to talking about candles).

WAIT…there was the William Ashley sale that came through town every November. It still does, but I no longer go to the sale.

Now you are starting to see the potential problems arising in my beautiful condo.

And now we come to the home office….seems to be the biggest thorn in my side.

I worked from home for almost four years that ended almost a year ago. During that time I have gotten rid of the ‘work from home’ elements – brochures, extra filing cabinets. But what about all my arts and crafts, my scrapbooking supplies, magazines…I could go on.

But I really don’t want to go on. I want to throw away the food and drink magazines, but then I look at them and think about the pretty cover, the recipes, and more….really? When was the last time I looked at the magazine?

I want to fix my home office. I have someone who can customize this for me. I have someone else who has already shared her vision and drawn it out for me. I have a vision.

But I can’t make the vision come true until I tackle my ‘stuff’.

Have I mentioned I have lived here for six and a half years. I would have to say that most of this ‘stuff’ did not come with me when I moved here. How did all of this get in here and how can I make it go away?

That is the question I am faced with even as I sit here typing this post – I look to my left and see a magazine rack filled with magazines, and I look to my right and see CDs, movies and more.

and then of course I think there is my adult ADD….because I start to look at something while I am trying to type this post.

The internal battle continues…I am off again this weekend. Maybe this will be the weekend that I really get a handle on this. That is what I said last weekend, and the weekend before and probably the weekend before that.

Yours truly,

collector of stuff