Highlights

Truthfully, I didn’t enjoy my trip to Chicago. I’m so glad to be home. There were a couple MAJOR highlights for me on the trip though. The first highlight came after missing my flight. Geez!! I got to the airport and didn’t notice I had forgotten my portfolio until I had checked in my luggage. I hurried and called Keith in an absolute panic asking him to bring it to me. He came as quick as he could and while he was driving to the airport kept saying, “you better not miss your plane”. I did everything to ensure that once I finally got the portfolio could rush through security and make it to my gate. My gate, of course was the very furthest gate in the airport. I got there only a couple minutes after they closed the gate and several minutes before they were going to take off but they wouldn’t let me on (I even pulled tears). For the record… potentially missing my flight in LA a couple weeks ago would have been fine because we had a perfect back up plan. I had no backup plan for missing this flight but fortunately, Delta got me on the next flight in just a couple hours so I was ok. I almost lied to Keith and told him that I made the flight but I just couldn’t do it. I was so tempted though.

Missing my flight turned out to be the greatest thing. On the next flight I sat next to a man from India. He said he was from Bombay. I asked him, “Isn’t Goa near Bombay”. He looked absolutely delighted I knew about Goa and said, “Yes, that’s where I live”. I explained one of my best friends from High School was from there. He asked what her last name was. I said, “Chowgule” then he said, “What’s her first name”. I said, “Maya” and he smiled and said, “I’m her dad!”. Ha ha! How cool is that? What a crazy coincidence! We ended up talking the entire way to Chicago. It was a lot of fun. I really liked talking to him. A lot of the things I like about Maya are personality traits her dad (Ramesh) has. I had met him before, but only once and I doubt we talked more than a couple minutes. All the kids in Maya’s family came here for High School. Maya’s mom (Bonnie) is from Utah. Maya’s parents met in the sixties at BYU and lived in the states for a few years before going back to India. While Maya lived here, she lived with her older sister. Her parents stayed in India. Her mom was able to travel here much more often than her dad which is why I didn’t know him.

As I said, it was a lot of fun talking to him as we flew to Chicago. I loved hearing some of his perspectives on the world. We talked about many of the differences between the US and India. We talked about raising kids – he thinks all kids should learn a second language and a musical instrument. We talked about jobs – he believes there will be a lot more great employment opportunities outside of the US in the coming years. We talked about various cities – I didn’t realize how modern some of the Indian and Middle East cities are becoming. We talked about living in different countries – he wants to buy a house in Australia or London because it would be so much easier to travel to than the US. He still plans to keep a house in Utah because they still have ties here but wants to buy another home than the one he has here so we talked about that too. Ha ha. I certainly live a different life than he does. I can’t imagine thinking that way although I do have a goal to live outside of the US for at least a year while my kids are in school.

After being friends with Maya for a while in high school, she told me about her life in India. She told me about her house and all the people that worked for them in their home. I couldn’t believe my down to earth friend had such a wealthy life in India. I still can’t quite picture what her life is like there.

The most interesting part of our conversation was talking about Maya’s mom Bonnie. Bonnie needs to write a book. I would absolutely LOVE to read it. Ramesh came to Utah to play Tennis for BYU (an LDS school). He is a Hindu but said it wasn’t weird for him to attend BYU because he was raised going to schools sponsored by other religions. Anyway, Bonnie (a Mormon) met Ramesh and they got married. They lived in the US for a few years before going to India. Bonnie (like Maya) is a strong independent personality. When she moved there she learned to dress and fit in but refused to quit some of the things she was used to like driving. At that time the women never drove. Ramesh said he always knew where Bonnie was because all day people would tell him where they saw his wife. She was easy to spot because she was white, blond and a woman behind the wheel of a car. At that time women also didn’t eat in restaurants alone. Ramesh said Bonnie started a trend with women driving and eating in restaurants without their families. Now it’s common. She also has had a lot to do with bringing the Mormon religion to that area. Apparently there are about 200 members in Goa now but when she first moved there I’m pretty sure she would have been the only one because the church gave her permission to start some sort of a church there. Many of the baptisms have taken place in their swimming pool. She has also done a lot of work in an orphanage there. She has faced a lot of opposition. Many of the people there thought she was trying to sell the babies or something when her intentions were only positive. She has done a lot of good for the orphanage there and I remember I used to really love Maya telling me about that.

So much more I could say but I’ll stop now. It was a great conversation. I’m so happy I missed my plane. Maya, I miss you!!!

My second highlight on the trip was hanging out with my friend Kelly. She treated me to dinner at Gibsons. What a TREAT! I don’t like red meat or seafood but I still LOVED my food and she was so much fun to be with. Normally we get together with a lot of friends at this trade show but this time it was fun to have alone time with Kelly.

I love going to explore the cities I go to but I’ve been to Chicago several times now so I didn’t do anything touristy on my time off so I wouldn’t be exhausted at the show. I did have deep dish Chicago style pizza one night though. YUMMMY!

BTW - In case you are curious. I went to Chicago for the CHA show (Craft and Hobby Association). It's a huge trade show. I have a booth at this show twice a year to introduce my products store owners from around the world.