From Lenny 05-13-2016 How I Met Efrat
Interesting things led to my meeting Efrat -- I was a mess in high school and college (Bridgeport CN) - very lost/lonely... i developed a love for hitchhiking during my working in camp Wel-Met (Silverlake) (which by the way is now owned by the NY Gurdjieff Foundation & in Austin at a Gurdjieff meeting group i kept hearing about a summer retreat at Silverlake... never did I think it was THE Silverlake/Wel-Met!) (among other places from camp - i hitched back and forth to Woodstock!) and alot around long island and... one college break i was trying to figure out where to hitch hike to (i already hitchhiked to Chicago to visit Sabin-land) i thought of Vicki in Burlington - looked at a map and that seemed like a simple hitch-hike -- so i did... Vicki and i and one of her friends went to a coffee shop one eve - i turned around to listen to discussion at next table- Ouspensky-Gurdjieff stuff (my first time)--- sounded like weird stuff right up my alley!... bought In Search Of The Miraculous when i got back to Bridgeport (that book blew my mind)... fast forward - a year after i dropped out of college... living at home with my dad - went to get a job and was nervous to actually go inside the store to apply.. as i was driving away i remembered something a friend of Vicki said many years earlier about how she hesitated to "do it" but did and it worked out very very well.. so i DID apply and did get the job of photography manager in that store in Baldwin... during lunch i did various things including browsing the Baldwin library during hot summer days... i saw a simple 3 line classified ad in back of Mother Earth News about Gurdjieff-Ouspensky oriented meetings in WV during the summers (Mr Rose).. so i immediately recognized that as a way for me to get the hell off long Island... i corresponded with Mr Rose for a while then drove to WV... slept in a 1 man tent and milked goats at 5am all through winter... after a few years there i moved into wheeling city-proper and shared small apt for $20 a head (3 of us split the $60 a month rent)... my friend Dennis said "Schwartz" you need a girlfriend - why don't you try computer dating... i did and that's how i met Efrat... (how my life changed when i first met her - i had nothing, then, almost overnight i had everything!) - BTW - my first date with her was during a very very very bad snowstorm... my friend Dennis actually had a date in PGH the same day as i did with Efrat so we drove up together during the snowstorm with no other cars on the road... he married Zoe a couple years after and me to Efrat!... (he met Zoe because she was his sisters friend - so both Dennis and me owe our families to our sisters!) if all this isn't destiny at work i don't know what is!! ---
Interesting things led to my meeting Efrat -- I was a mess in high school and college (Bridgeport CN) - very lost/lonely... i developed a love for hitchhiking during my working in camp Wel-Met (Silverlake) (which by the way is now owned by the NY Gurdjieff Foundation & in Austin at a Gurdjieff meeting group i kept hearing about a summer retreat at Silverlake... never did I think it was THE Silverlake/Wel-Met!) (among other places from camp - i hitched back and forth to Woodstock!) and alot around long island and... one college break i was trying to figure out where to hitch hike to (i already hitchhiked to Chicago to visit Sabin-land) i thought of Vicki in Burlington - looked at a map and that seemed like a simple hitch-hike -- so i did... Vicki and i and one of her friends went to a coffee shop one eve - i turned around to listen to discussion at next table- Ouspensky-Gurdjieff stuff (my first time)--- sounded like weird stuff right up my alley!... bought In Search Of The Miraculous when i got back to Bridgeport (that book blew my mind)... fast forward - a year after i dropped out of college... living at home with my dad - went to get a job and was nervous to actually go inside the store to apply.. as i was driving away i remembered something a friend of Vicki said many years earlier about how she hesitated to "do it" but did and it worked out very very well.. so i DID apply and did get the job of photography manager in that store in Baldwin... during lunch i did various things including browsing the Baldwin library during hot summer days... i saw a simple 3 line classified ad in back of Mother Earth News about Gurdjieff-Ouspensky oriented meetings in WV during the summers (Mr Rose).. so i immediately recognized that as a way for me to get the hell off long Island... i corresponded with Mr Rose for a while then drove to WV... slept in a 1 man tent and milked goats at 5am all through winter... after a few years there i moved into wheeling city-proper and shared small apt for $20 a head (3 of us split the $60 a month rent)... my friend Dennis said "Schwartz" you need a girlfriend - why don't you try computer dating... i did and that's how i met Efrat... (how my life changed when i first met her - i had nothing, then, almost overnight i had everything!) - BTW - my first date with her was during a very very very bad snowstorm... my friend Dennis actually had a date in PGH the same day as i did with Efrat so we drove up together during the snowstorm with no other cars on the road... he married Zoe a couple years after and me to Efrat!... (he met Zoe because she was his sisters friend - so both Dennis and me owe our families to our sisters!) if all this isn't destiny at work i don't know what is!! ---
