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Matt blogged about the Greendrinks event last Wed unfortunately I had to leave the event early. You see, my body decided around 8pm that night that it needed a time out. The way I knew this was from getting lightheaded, no I wasn’t drinking, and how hot I thought the room got.

I left the event and proceeded to drive home from Babylon to Huntington. As I got near my house this unbelievable shiver gripped my body and I couldn’t stop shaking. It continued as I entered the house and I was shaking so visibly my wife, Adele, asked what was wrong? “I don’t know” I said, “I just can’t stop shivering.” I explained feeling lightheaded, she came over and felt my head and offered to make some tea with honey. By the end of my first cup the shiver dissipated and we headed off to our bedroom.

I took my temperature and had 102 fever. My plans for the evening having changed, I hopped into bed and proceeded to sweat profusely through the night. As I woke up in the morning I knew I had a least an infection and hoped nothing worse. I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck. I called in sick and got back in bed. Knowing my Dr. is closed on Thursdays and I’d have to wait until Friday I also started to take otc things to help.

The long and short, “full blown bronchitis” my doctor said. I told him I put off coming in until necessary, hoping my body would fight it on it’s own. He said “I guess you waited a little too long.”

I went home after seeing the doctor, got into bed and continued to be up and down throughout the weekend.

I learned a few things from this:
1) Our bodies don’t care about our agendas, they decide when it’s enough and take their own time outs
2) I have a very loving family who knows I don’t get sick often, but when I do it’s generally not a minor cold, it’s usually something that knocks me out
3) 20 month olds toddlers are very smart, even though he doesn’t know exactly what’s been wrong, my son Jake was very clingy this weekend with me
4) I need to develop my ability to be a good patient, I got very cranky and irritable
5) We all run too hard - I NEED A TIME OUT should be a more common phrase in my, our vocabularies, before our bodies force it on us

Tom Pellicane - Publisher, canvas Magazine

We had another wonderful Green Drinks event at Argyles Grill in Babylon last night. We had a really nice turnout and we teamed up with Mike from www.greensender.com and www.zipgoesgreen.com and we gave out organic cotton t-shirts to everyone who came through. Blue Point Brewery was also there in support of our event with drink specials and extra bottle choices.

An extremely wonderful and eclectic crowd came through last night: real estate brokers, green janitorial supply, 2 organic home & office cleaning companies, an organic landscape company, a whole crew from www.lululemon.com , a restauranteur, a green architect, a gentleman from www.LIcares.org, Citizens Campaign for the environment, the list just goes on and on. Its truly amazing to see people come out and support our group for their love of the REAL Green, or Bright Green movement that is all about true green initiatives not green washing ones.

Also the author of this great article that ran in the Daily News last Sunday about Green Drinks was in attendance! For those of you interested there is also another good article from the NY times about Green Drinks here.

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A friend of ours here at canvas is developing a blog site. It’s a great blog that uses wit, satire and humor to get the point across. The topics being blogged about range from climate change to being an open or closed society. The site is still in its beta stage and every so often we get a push of a blog that’s been written.

We received one yesterday comparing climate change to gays in the military - if we don’t see it, it’s not there. This blog also included a link to a you tube video from a Gay Bashing episode of State Legislator, Sally Kern of Oklahoma. In my head I know people like this clown exist, but I guess I just try to block them out. This person actually says to her audience that she would in in hot water for saying what she’s about to say, and then launches into her bashing. At one point she says “Gays are worse then terrorists.” If she actually believes this I feel sorry for her.

It boggles my mind that we live in a country that is supposedly so advanced, a world leader, yet we have Neanderthals like this shaping our government.

Tom Pellicane - Publisher, canvas Magazine

Yesterday we celebrated Easter with my wife’s sister and her family in their new home in New Paltz. They hosted Easter dinner for their friends, my wife’s step mom and us. We had delicious Italian anti-pasto and a non tradition meal; turkey, corn casserole, asparagus, shrimp in garlic and oil. It was a good time with good company. But we didn’t have an Easter Egg hunt for Jake, whose 20 months. That didn’t matter to him since he chased their dog Frisket for a good part of the day like she was the item to be hunted.

This morning before 9 AM I had been asked twice if the Easter Bunny had come for Jake and if he did an Easter Egg Hunt. When I got in to the office a little later a conversation ensued on where this all comes. My business partner Matt had said he understood it was a pagan ritual related to the spring solstice and that the bunny represents rabbits emerging from their boroughs and the eggs represent the ability to hunt again in spring for a plentiful bounty, or something there about.

I was like ohhh! So it’s another pagan ritual like the Christmas tree. I find it really interesting how pagan rituals migrated into Christianity in the name of converting people. Beyond that it astonishes me the commercial aspect that these rituals take on.

I wanted to see for myself so I googled the meaning of Easter Eggs and the Bunny, sure enough a history somewhat similar to the one Matt shared came up, although this one had Google Ads attached and I think it was sponsored by Hallmark.

I never got the connection between the Church meaning of Easter and the Bunny but now I understand it’s about tradition, celebration and early conversion. At least now I can share with my where it comes from as he grows.

Tom Pellicane – Publisher, canvas Magazine

I wanted to share this article that ran in the Daily News yesterday. Its about Green Drinks, (a business networking phenomenon that has been growing very quickly over the past few years) Green Drinks Hamptons and Green Drinks Long Island.

Its a powerful networking movement that canvas got involved in last year. We weren’t sure what to expect and now this event has grown very substantially over the last 6 events. Its a great event for people who are interested in finding out about ‘green initiatives’ what it really means, and why there is such a concern about ‘green washing’ which we wrote about back in October, you can read that here. The definition of ‘green washing’ is basically when a company talks about being ‘green’ but the information is either misleading or untrue and they are just using it to sell their product. You can find more about that here as well.

Our next event is taking place at Argyles Grill & Tavern, in Babylon, NY this Wednesday, March 26th, from 5:30 to 9:30.

Its also a great event if you just want to be in a positive, upbeat atmosphere meeting new business contacts, hanging out with good friends, and new friends.

Hopefully I will see some of you there.

- Matt O’Grady, Associate Publisher, canvas magazine