It's up to you, New York, New York!

I head to New York City for five days tomorrow morning to visit with friends and get up to some silly fun. I'll save writing a substantial post until I get back - tonight I must catch some zzzzs before my 4:30 AM SuperShuttle pickup.

Erica wrote email from Thailand after unwittingly racking up a 6000 baht (about $150) phone bill from the airport hotel upon arriving. Here's an excerpt:

"We went to a meeting last night at a large hotel called "Thai Together" with all of the individual groups of volunteers representing different parts of the islands. We also had a wonderful lunch prepared by the families at Yanui with them under their temporary housing structure. They are so kind and so happy that we are here. At the end of lunch, I could not hold back the tears rolling down my cheeks. I was so touched by their hospitality when they themselves have nothing . This place is soooo freaking beautiful yet there is still a lot of pain and fear. Hardly anyone is on the beaches which I am told are normaly packed...

"They are cleaning up fast around here and the waters and beaches are as they were 30 years ago as if mother nature cleaned up the last thirty years of tourism. [editor's comment: I love this image of Mother Nature taking care of tourist development and the cultural, environmental and social impact it's had in some areas of Thailand in particular]. MTV is coming out on Saturday to do a story about our project on Yanui Beach, so we are excited about that. Oh yeah, a chicken was sitting in one of the guys helmets and when it got up there was an egg in it! We laughed our asses off!"

This past weekend, I spent with my first love Mario's girlfriend Sarah. She writes a mean blog and I honestly couldn't give a better summation of our time together than she did. I hereby challenge you to Transcend the Elephant in the Room.