To the lady working construction at 6am, on Jefferson Blvd:

Thank you!  You know who you are; I drive right by you every week.  Your job is to direct traffic when one of the big trucks comes in our out of the construction site.  Those trucks don’t come very often, and someone else would sit around and look bored.  Or maybe they’d bring a magazine or pull out their phone and text their friends.  But not you.

You stand on the corner and wave with both hands at every car passing by.  You wish us a good morning the way some people shout I love you.  The sun’s not even up yet.  And you smile like it’s your birthday, again. 

So I smile too, roll down my window, and wish you a good morning right back.  And that smile lasts me the whole day.  I wonder how many other hundreds of people feel that way?  Thank you for brightening my day.

This past weekend I volunteered at Opportunity Green 2008, a conference on being green + being profitable (Thanks to Noah for the intro!). 

My reasons for attending were 1) to meet cool people with similar interests, 2) to see what is going on in green business in LA, and 3) to see if there are any cool jobs close by.  By these measures, the conference was a total success (for me anyway!) Amidst the serving out of organic, green-tea sodas and fair-trade coffee in a can, I got to meet very cool people (here, here, and here) and also the owners of one of my favorite restaurants.  I squeezed in a panel on getting funded by Adeo Ressi and Andy Funk, and I even got a few job leads out of the after-party, with its (no kidding) all-organic open bar.

I just wanted to share my gratitude for today and hope for the future.  This is truly a woderful an exciting time to be alive.