From this blog to God's ears

So roughly 10 hours since my last post, it's dropped to 65 degrees and a steady rain is falling, convincing me that my blog is basically a direct hotline to the (wo)man upstairs. I'll take requests for future posts via email, so send me all your most important requests ;)

Fall. And rain. Stat.

It's hovering near 80 degrees as we approach 10pm the last week in October. I'm sweating, contemplating turning the air conditioning on just so I can fall asleep in peace. Brian is hiding out in the basement with his dad so I can't even sedate myself with bad reality television, my uber cute jack-o-lantern has shriveled and molded on the front porch, and California is going up in flames before I even have a chance to get turned down by those fancy grad schools I think about applying to.

To steal a phrase from Alan, where the eff is fall? Cool, crisp, beautiful leaves? Maybe some rain while we're at it? Jeebus.

If you're looking for a wicked smaaaaht blog post (and not just me complaining about being hot) check out Eli's take on my take on Triple Crown Winners. Not only does her post beat the crap out of mine, her BoSox beat the crap out of my Indians too :(

How many more weeks til basketball season???

Summer camp, but with more gin and tonics

I spent a blissful weekend out on the eastern shore of Maryland (Chestertown) with four wonderful college girlfriends (and yes I know it's Tuesday night, and I'm no longer in weekend bliss mode because I've worked two days and am now stressed). But back to happy Chestertown...

We gathered for a birthday celebration (Happy birthday to Ann!) but quickly found many more things to celebrate-- new jobs, recent engagements, successes at work, completed tests, new cities, and finally (finally!) that crisp, cool fall weather I've been waiting for. Although we were in Chestertown for just a little over a day, it felt more like summer camp than a weekend escape. Amidst all the serious grad schooling, wedding planning, re-locating, social impacting, and Big Life Decision Making, we also filled our days with bike rides (no hands!), candy corn, pumpkin patches, delicious meals, giggling at the Office, and lazing on the porch looking out at the Chester River. Time slowed down and it felt like Canada, complete with cocktail hour on the deck courtesy of Dr. Collier and his famous g and t's.

Although we all kept apologizing for not keeping in better touch, getting back together made me realize how lucky I am to have these fabulous ladies in my life in the first place-- and that we are the kind of friends that don't need to talk on the phone every day to stay close. I was inspired (between the Sikh wedding planning and the UNC friendships) to dig up this blog post from a few months back-- one of my favorites from a Carolina blogger I stalk and a much more beautifully written ode to college friends than I could ever write!

Video from Nepal

Thanks to the Global Fund for Women's fall newsletter, I found this video about Lucky Chetri and the Three Sisters Trekking Company in Nepal (I blogged about them after having lunch with Lucky this summer). It's short, sweet, and sure it give you mountain envy...



Prior to receiving the newsletter I wasn't aware that Lucky was a GFW grantee and it reminded me of what we call "triple crown" syndrome around the GG office-- individuals or organizations who are Ashoka fellows, and Skoll grantees, and Tech Laureates, and Schwab fellows, etc. While I don't want to begrudge awards and funding to amazing organizations, it can feel a bit like a fraternity or country club-- once you cross a certain threshold, the privileges and riches just keep piling on and it's the same folks at the award galas and grantee conventions and featured in newsletters.

At the same time, I spent a few days in September at a Guidestar International conference talking about sharing due diligence, building systems that feed off each other, and reducing workloads for NGOs as well as foundations. How can we create scalable systems that drive more resources to high impact organizations, while also extending our reach into grassroots community organizations and surfacing the best new ideas to reward alongside the pedigreed triple crowners?