A Beautiful Day & Some Things to Check Out

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out
- U2, A Beautiful Day

Ever wake up and just feel happy, with no real reason? That was today. On one hand, it is a sad day - my last at the UN Foundation. On the other, it is the start of an interesting, slightly intimidating, adventure.

First stop: California. San Francisco to hang with my mom, one of my oldest and best friends (and her gorgeous family), and several other, very special people. It promises to be a trip filled with laughs, tears, introspection and just plain fun.

Then: New York. Food, theater, old friends and a certain deliciously handsome Englishman.

Next: Paris. Language classes, yoga, Rue de Buci, café au lait, the Seine and so much more.

How decadent and fabulous this all is; how lucky I am. And I fully appreciate that. When I need a reminder of how different my life could have been, I need only open the New York Times, or check out CARE, or even talk to people at the UN Foundation. How priviledged I am to be able to make the choice to leave my job, to travel around the world, to try new things.

It's something that I will try to remind myself of, everyday.

On Another Note, Some Things to Check Out

Over my last three years, I've had the opportunity to work with some amazing organizations and develop some cool campaigns. I plan to stay involved in all of them moving forward (strong reminders of how little things go a long way to making a difference). Here are some links to my favorites:

Télécoms sans Frontières
N. This is an NGO that helps re-establish communications during disasters & emergencies. They are currently deployed in American Somoa.

www.nothingbutnets.net. An obvious choice for me. This award-winning campaign is, was, and will always be one of the things I am most proud. The power of six words: Send a net. Save a life.

The Girl Fund. Two years, a bazillion years later, we were able to start moving on The Girl Fund. Designed to help fund the UN Task Force on Girls, this is about to grow into something so much bigger; stay tuned to the Foundation for more info.

UN Dispatch. What fun it was to nurture a blog and see it grown into a premier voice on global issues. Also such fun to work with Peter Daou, Mark Goldberg, Jessica Valenti, Matt Cordell and others to make it happen.

Measles Initiative. In a few years, the world will be close to eliminating measles. One coalition deserves a lot of the credit, especially one woman, Andrea Gay.

I've also had the pleasure of working with some of the best firms and partners in the business: GMMB, SS&K, Rubenstein PR, Communicopia, MSHC and many others.