Post 1 – June 1, 2016, We’re going on a pilgrimage!

     First, let me introduce myself.  I’m Harold Rosenberg, Tom Gehring’s friend.  He asked me to write this first blog on his new website.  He told me he’s never had a website.  Today, he and five others made a decision.  I’m one of them.  He asked me to do this first post.
     I am writing this as it is happening, or as it happened just a few minutes ago.   I’m typing as fast as I can, and just writing down exactly what’s happening because TPS (“the Problem Solver,” or Norm Adams, whichever you prefer) told me to write it down, and then Tom told me it was going to be the first post on his new website.
     So, here’s what happened and why five of us decided to trek the Camino de Santiago, the del Norte/Primitivo route, with just thirteen days notice, leaving on Monday, June 13^th.  (I’m not sure how I’m going to get the time off, but, whatever.)

     I’m here at Café Heaven.  First a little background.  I’m a lawyer.  I had problems.  I ended up in an amazing team of problem solvers.  To get the real background you have to read The Problem Solver.  This same team just committed to trekking the Camino de Santiago, the del Norte/Primitivo route.  The team is:

     The Actor, Nick Tate.
     The Professional Man, Harold Rosenberg, that’s me of course, but I’m sticking to the original list.
     The Everyday Woman, Tempie Teagarden.
     The Young Man, Norm Adams, now also known as the Problem Solver, or “TPS” for short.
     Baby Doe 1, the photographer.  Yes, that’s her real name.
     And, Tom Gehring.

That’s six of us.

     So, here we are at Café Heaven in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles.  And, it’s a coincidence that we are all here on Wednesday morning at 8:00 a.m.ish, but that’s the way it worked out.
     So, in comes this lawyer, Tom Gehring, he comes very often and usually sticks to himself, sitting at one of the tables covered with, of course, one of Becky Adams’ blue table cloths, yes, the Blessing table cloths, and there he is sitting there drinking a cup of: Pope Francis coffee, we’re famous for it, not because of “it” but because, well, it seems to work miracles for people who drink it and—commit to something.  Please!  Commit to something, people!  So there was ol’ Tomboy sitting there, dressed in his courtroom best: blue suit, custom made with totally operational buttons, great stitching, and other thingies, white buttoned-down shirt, decent looking tie, and his Cakoleria Harris Latte a Mano Exclusiva shoes that he buys at Barney’s of New York (Beverly Hills branch).  We know all this because he comes in often.  Did I already tell you that?  I’m typing as fast as I can (and I’m fast), and there he is sitting there by himself when . . . Tikipas our cook decides to sit down and talk to him.  He’s done that before.  I mean Tomboy looks so lonely all the time: not married, no girlfriend, and usually no one with him whenever he comes through the narrow door into our massively big coffee house, Café Heaven.  We’ve thought about getting him a dog, but he already has two cats.  Mercy.  Poor soul.
     So, Tikipas sits down and I see him talking to Tommy (that’s how Tikipas refers to him), and then Tikipas signals me to come over.  And then one by one he signals all of us to come over until we are all sitting there:  Tom Gehring, Nick Tate, Me, Tempie Teagarden, Norm Adams, and Baby Doe 1.  Six of us.
     —And Tom just told me that blogs have to be short, so to sum it up:  Tom says he recently decided to start over after decades of being a lawyer, and he was going to trek the Camino de Santiago, the del Norte/Primitivo route.  The Way of St. James.  He’s excited.  He explained in great detail about how the Way of St. James is this 500 mile trek across the north of Spain to the shrine of the Apostle St. James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
     It’s a pilgrimage!

     And after telling us this long story, and how he was leaving on June 13^th, he paused, took another sip of our famous Pope Francis coffee, looked at us . . . and . . .
     asked us if we wanted to go.
     And all of us, for some reason, one by one said: yes.

     And there you have it.  I suppose as I’m writing this I’m wondering if . . . really, we are going to actually do it?  And then I remembered, that commitment is everything.  And we had just committed.  Mercy!

     . . .