…and still have time left for just the two of you?

(Posted by Gayle)

What does it take to make a relationship with a significant age gap work.  In a word…

Creativity

“The creative person is both more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive, a lot madder and a lot saner, than the average person.”

Frank Barron

We are halfway through one of our best and most creative vacations yet. We are holed up in French Lick, Indiana having a great time wearing our Extreme Pop & Gigi superhero capes!  We came armed with a suitcase full of Legos, puzzles, books, recipes, and even our Wii. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m an Oil Man again:

(Posted by Ron)

I told the partner for whom I worked that I wanted to leave Price-Waterhouse.  He was the senior partner on the Gulf Oil audit and immediately sent me to meet the corporation’s Audit Director.  He and I got along very well and I soon joined Gulf as one of four “Corporate Auditors.”  Ours was a unique group.  We rarely did financial audits. Instead, we were an operations audit group.  As such, our area of responsibility was the entire worldwide Gulf Oil corporate entity.  I later learned that one of the reasons they hired me was because of my Chinese language skills.  Who would’a thought?

During the next four years I traveled the world.  I was sent on audits in Singapore because of my Chinese Language skills.  On the way home I stopped off in London.  I traveled throughout Asia, the US and Central America.  I spent more time traveling than at home.  While in Asia I was away from home for more than seven weeks without returning.  I was having fun, was successful, and my marriage was getting even worse.

After five years, another defining moment came along.  I applied for a senior management position with an independent oil company that was headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts.  The company was owned by a man with a reputation for firing executives on a moment’s notice.  I went there as the Controller with a six month employment guarantee and survived four years, rising to the position of Vice President of Finance before escaping.

Our main operations were in New Orleans, Louisiana and Houston and Laredo, Texas, not Massachusetts.  I spent most of my first two years in those cities, returning to Massachusetts for a few days or weeks at a time.  Finally I moved the family once again.  This time we moved to a New Orleans suburb and were there another two years.  Next I took a job in Dallas and moved the family here.  It was the last move we made as a family.  These were troubled times in the oil industry and in the next three years I worked for two different companies, one of which was in Kansas City.   At the first of these companies I met the woman who would become my “May” several years later.

We’re getting closer. It won’t be long till May meets December. Stay tuned. Don’t want to miss a word? Subscribe to our RSS feed now.

We’re getting closer. It won’t be long till May meets December.   Stay tuned. Don’t want to miss a word?  Subscribe to our blog now.

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Read Part 1 of Ron’s Story
Read Part 2 of Ron’s Story
Read Part 3 of Ron’s Story
Read Part 4 of Ron’s StoryRead Part 1 of Gayle’s Story
Read Part 2 of Gayle’s Story
Read Part 2a of Gayle’s Story
Read Part 2b of Gayle’s Story
Read Part 2c of Gayle’s Story

The great (Luster) depression.

(Posted by Gayle)

Striving for more compulsively can cause you to end up with less. My father was never satisfied.  He did everything big (except save money).  By the time I was in 5th grade his thirst for more was leading to some pretty bad business decisions.  He made a mess of his business (against my mother’s pleas) and was in some very hot water financially.  We moved from our luxurious brownstone apartment into a small two flat on the far south side of Chicago.  I began attending a public school in 6th grade.  We spent 3 years in this neighborhood.

The things I remember about this period of my life are:

• Buying my clothes for school at K-Mart.
• Hoping that if I wore the same dress to school two days in a row the kids might begin to like me.  I had problems at the private school because it was obvious my family was wealthy.  Now that we were “poor”,  I was hopeful that I would fare better with the kids in my class.  I actually wanted them to know were poor.  I had enough clothes to wear a different outfit each day, but being resourceful I hoped repeating ensembles would work in my favor.
• My father laying in bed depressed because of the financial situation.  I never saw him being violent again, but he was filled with self-hatred.  I’ve heard it said that depression is anger turned inward. Read the rest of this entry »

Shiny things get tarnished, but there are ways to restore a Luster.

(Posted by Gayle)

We do what it takes to survive. As mentioned, my mom and I shopped a lot.  Chicago is famous for it’s magnificent mile.  I’ve been to only one other place in the world that compares – Le Champs Elysses.  No wonder I’ve fallen in love with Paris – it reminds me of home.  My mother, Aunt Doris and I covered every inch of that mile over and over again.  On this particular day, we had ventured to another unique area in Chicago – Old Town.

I do not still love shopping.   It was on this day the worm turned.  Read the rest of this entry »