Bonnie Brown

A. Gorey tale

2010-06-28T02:00:10Z

On page 196 of my book "Giigle", I tell about my brief encounter with Al Gore. At the time, I remember him as having strong charisma, but not like the Billy Graham kind. Before I recognized who he was, I felt him staring at me uncomfortably across the room. When we were introduced, I declined to give him a massage.

I've listened to the Oregon masseuse's testimony. According to her story, she had quite a battle on her hands. I've given thousands of massages and only had two "incidents". One while I was in massage school working on the public. The man on the table was receiving something other than I was giving. After his demonstration with groans and movement that indicated he was thinking about sex and not relaxation, I said, "this massage is over", left the room immediately and told the front desk to collect payment in full. He complied and promptly left the building, never to return.

The second was in the corporate setting. A man who had previously acted flirtatious booked a massage and during the course of it, he asked me to move my hands to an area that was out of bounds. I declined, told him the massage was over and left the room. Because we worked for the same company and I knew I would see him again, I waited for him outside the door and when he came out I smiled, shook his hand and said "glad that's out of the way." He knew what I meant and though he never booked another massage, we were able to say hi and get past the inappropriate moment without further incident.

I would have handled the Oregon masseuse's dilemma differently. I'm not intimidated by powerful people. But everyone has a different skill set, so if her story is true and I have no way of knowing if it is, she's done the right thing by finally reporting it so hopefully it won't happen again. Massage is a wonderful therapy and hopefully won't suffer from this negative public attention.

A GIFT FOR PALIN

2009-04-22T18:53:00Z

Recently I took a trip to Alaska to meet Sarah Palin. I was invited by a friend, Bob Cornuke and the Highflight foundation to join them in presenting the Alaskan flag that went to the moon with astronaut Jim Irwin. The presentation was to be made to Governor Palin at the Governor's Prayer Breakfast in Anchorage. Jim's daughters, Joy and Jill, are continuing their father's legacy of reaching out around the world as goodwill ambassadors by presenting as gifts some of the flags Irwin took to the moon. The list includes Anwar Sedat, Golda Meir, King Hussein of Jordon and many others.

Mt Redoubt had other ideas. Five of us met up in Seattle and were then in waiting mode for the volcano to mellow out and let us in. After 24 hours, we finally made it to Anchorage, but unfortunately the Governor did not. We attended the breakfast and presented the flag to the Lt. Governor, Sean Parnell. We met her whole charming family, but Sarah was grounded in Juneau.

The people we met in Alaska were warm and very hospitable. They made our journey a memorable adventure. After the breakfast, donned with a mask provided by the hotel, I went fur shopping and sightseeing. Alaska looks like another planet. I've traveled a lot, but this is truly the last frontier. I have never been stranded on a trip before where the options to go home consisted of a 3 day road trip on a partly gravel road to Canada (but, oops, none of us had our passports), or a ferry ride that left a week later and was on the sea 2,400 km to the lower 48. We considered we might be moving in.

I was able to get out during a small window of ash less sky. But Bob, being the persistent guy he is, just had to accomplish the mission. He and Joy stayed behind several days and finally made their way to Juneau where Governor Palin graciously agreed to meet with them. They re-presented the flag to her and told her of our story to fight the elements to meet her. She signed a picture and sent it to me via Joy. Maybe I will have the opportunity to meet her again someday.

At the breakfast, I gave a copy of my book, "Giigle" to her daughter, Willow, to pass on to her mom. I thought she could probably use a good laugh about now

Can You Hear Me NOW?

2009-04-20T17:15:00Z

April 15th I took aim and fired. I missed. Then I missed 5 more times. But then (I can hardly believe this) I got three in a row. I said "pull" and shattered three little clay pigeons in mid air. It was amazing. I tried this once years ago, but almost shattered my shoulder instead of the bird. This time, out of 50 rounds, I hit about a third. I felt like Jack Bauer.

I was being instructed by a military officer at Camp Pendleton. He was as surprised as me at how successful I was. But mostly he was glad I didn't shoot him or myself. Maybe I'll move on to a pistol next time.

From there, we went to the City Hall at Oceanside, CA to attend a tea party. Not the kind with China and heart shaped scones, but the protesting, chanting, sign-carrying kind. I've never done anything like that before, but I felt like I needed to. I am feeling unheard these days. So, I made a sign that said "Can you hear me NOW?" and I joined hundreds of other people as we walked through the town to the ocean and assembled a line of people to pass giant bags of tea out to the water. I'm sure Congress took notice.

Now that I know I can hit a target and that somebody heard me, I feel a lot better.