Event Planning-from Beth

Reunion with Air Force buddies

It seems so long ago (and it was.)

Left the Philippines in 1969.

Gosh--39 years ago!

Last weekend, I reconnected with guys I served with in the U.S. Air Force in the Philippines: Mike Stegeman, Les Forester, Allen Canedy, Malcolm Harmless, Wylie E. Hunter, Tom Flynn, Tony D. Hill, Larry D. Durham Sr., Willie Wright, Clarence Graham, Jerry Latham, Dan Hannon, Bruce Tewell, Freddy Brace (and Mark Staley--with us in spirit).

We're older and slower.

Most of us are fatter.

Some of us, sad to say, are no longer around.

But the 15 who did make the trek to the reunion in Myrtle Beach, S.C., celebrated spending our years together in the Air Force (Vietnam era) at Clark Air Base or Wallace Air Station (both in the Philippines, but no longer there today, because the U.S. military pulled out of that country in the early 1990s, thanks to a volcanic eruption by Mount Pinatubo.

(Click on the hotlink in the headline for this blog post to see video of the explosive force of Mount Pinatubo.)

We hugged. Broke bread together. Swapped lies. Some of us got choked up with emotion. We reminisced about San Miguel beer, having fun, defending our country, and the beautiful (and I do mean BEAUTIFUL AND FRIENDLY) Filipinos.

Today, we are black and white, thin and fat, disabled and working, Yankees and Rebels and everything else. You name it. We're all over the board. But we basically love each other and cherish our U.S. Air Force memories from the late 1960s.

Some of us wondered if we'd make it or still be around for our next reunion--tentatively set for 2010 in Orlando, Fla.

I'll be there, God willing.

Malienation

"Malienation" (no, not "alienation") is an interesting way to describe what some of us men do when we try to communicate with or relate to the opposite sex.

Encountered this term today on the CBS Early Morning Show.

Seems it derives from a new book titled "Brocabulary: The New Manifesto of Dude Talk," by Daniel Maurer.

Read Maurer's book and you'll encounter words like: banguage, brommunication ("the art of communicating in a brophisticated manner, with or about your brothers") and brologue (having a dialogue with your bros).

Dude Talk.

Malienation.

What next?

What are you hard wired for?

Been reading an interesting book lately by televangelist and mega-church pastor Joel Osteen. Name of the book is: "Become A Better You."

One idea that seems entirely common sensical but frequently overlooked (by many of us out here in the universe who are struggling to find what it is that we're supposed to do or be about) is this: every one of us is a unique child of God, and, that said, each one of us has certain skills, talents, predispositions or gifts.

We all have our strengths.

We are HARD WIRED, as Osteen puts it in his book, to do certain things. When that skill or talent is part of our hard wire circuitry (implanted in our DNA), those things come easily and naturally, and we like to do them.

If we're not doing what we're hard wired to do, then we struggle, fight, wring our hands, scratch our heads, contantly find ourselves trying to climb uphill.

What are you hard wired to do?

Shame some of us never quite come to grips with answering that question--which might be one of life's most important and challenging puzzles (at least for some of us.)

Hats off to Haney and Mark

Two of my colleagues in the mass comm. department at Winthrop have recently completed a documentary (which will air on SC ETV tonight) about small town radio stations in South Carolina.

Haney Howell and Mark Nortz did a lot of research before boiling it all down to about a 28-minute documentary.

See it.

Listen to it.

Learn about where radio has been and where it might be headed.

Good job, Haney and Mark.

J-Lo shines in "Angel Eyes"

I had forgotten how much I like Jennifer Lopez.

If she's not the most beautiful woman in the world she's right up there.

Sensuous, smart, breathtakingly (you complete the rest of the sentence.)

Saw a 2001 movie "Angel Eyes" this weekend, starring J-Lo.

Go rent it if you haven't had the pleasure of watching this one. In it, J-Lo plays a Chicago police officer who falls in love with "Catch," a strange man who befriends her and who's unlike anyone she's ever met.

J-Lo can have anyone.

Instead, she pursues "Catch."

See the movie