Pondering what preparations, if any, other quasi-committed PCers make prior to sitting down to the keyboard to put in print what standout memories come to mind after contemplating such an always daunting task as writing a KIT (keep in touch) to their year rep, highlights and cherished memories, even if mine are usually embellished by an active imagination, this year's recap begins with a realization that my commitment fell short last year and my job at hand is to conjure up a recapitulation of not 12 months, but 24, and almost leads me to the favorite act of every procrastinator and am saved by the mere thought of two numbers, namely three followed by six, and I opt to recall 1997 with the first ten words that come to mind - family, reconnecting, New York, fashion, Gianfranco Ferre, public relations, overindulgence (a repeat from previous years), Mick Jagger, Iman and evolution - and, yeah, that's 14 words if you're counting, but who knows where York is? ...and Gianfranco could be just any Italian...you get the idea, which leads to 1998 and for me a return to Los Angeles where I continued working in pr, still contemplating why the American psyche is so accustomed to viewing the world with tunnel vision, a tunnel with Hollywood at one end or the other, which leads me to consider why name-dropping Ferre and Iman would in any way encapsulate my own identity, or lack thereof, but as Paula Covell once said, "you're definitely American," which reminds me that I did finally speak to Gena Morgan and Bettina Guerrero this year, and attended the PC reunion, vicariously, through Bettina's eyes, and later E-Mailed Cristian Palma to congratulate him on his growing family, also learned that I worked in the same office as Dominic Porter's sister-in-law, whose sister was nearly Cristian's sister-in-law, which echoes the most PC of cliches that it's a small world, after all, which is a cliche I adopted as my own until late '98 when I had to travel to seven U.S. cities in a fortnight, which made America seem so very BIG, and after returning to Los Angeles still on a scavenger hunt for my life's compass, reflecting on the highlights of the year, especially my friend Elizabeth's October wedding in Switzerland, I am reminded that as expansive as the miles sometime seem between friends and family, it's analogous to looking back on PC as if it was yesterday, when it was actually 151 months ago (some 4,300 days) !! Life lesson # 4,381: Never become too PC - politically correct.
