Crosswords, Soap and Haiti

I am a huge fan of crossword puzzles. Every week day, I must complete The USA Today Crossword (and the Word Round Up), as well as the LA Times Crossword and the one on Boston.com (I don't particularly care for the technology they use for that one, which is always why I do it last). My favorite part of the morning is digging into the crosswords. Jere has suggested that I move on to Will Shortz's crossword on the NY Times site. You have to pay to play, but apparently, it is more challenging and the design of each puzzle is very clever. I am considering it.

So, some good news on the business front. I am getting a full page in The Providence Monthly. Next month! I met with the editor a week ago to drop off some soap for the photo shoot. She is a very hip gal and I immediately felt comfortable talking to her. The Providence Monthly (they also publish East Side Monthly, SO Rhode Island and The Bay) is in a funky location in Olneyville near this yummy Cuban restaurant we just tried called The Cuban Revolution. We went to see The Halloween Iron Pour at the Steel Yard in this area of the city last fall.

On a philanthropic note, since I am not exactly swimming in cash these days, I am going to be donating some soap to Haiti. It goes through a wonderful organization called Clean the World. I plan on shipping it off this week. As I previously stated, I will be organizing the Rosie's Place Soap Drive this year, too. Official announcement goes out tomorrow.

The Haiti tragedy is so mind-blowingly horrific. On a spiritual level, it makes me question all kinds of stuff. I am fairly agnostic, but I am also what I would consider "open to the possibilities" of whatever. I would like to think (most likely because my dad died so young and my mother is in such poor health) that there is another place we transition to after our bodies die. That there is some sort of greater purpose to life beyond what we see. Every time I start getting sucked into this state of mind, something like this happens. Thousands of people get taken out in a few minutes. How can you possible reconcile that? How does that fit into this lovely notion that we are all here for some huge, logical reason? Because there is nothing logical about an 8-year-old girl who finds herself suddenly without a family, a home or much of a chance. Not that I think that there is a lot of logic behind recreational dog fighting, the Holocaust, 911 or Jonestown. I don't know, I just can't make any sense out of it and like most everyone else, I feel really helpless. Maybe the soap I donate will help a little.