I made a phonecall to Tel Aviv yesterday afternoon.

In all the wild imaginings in my life, I never quite thought I'd be placing phonecalls to Israel. But as it is, I needed to contact a man named Ezra there, in order to pave the way for our company to do business with him.

In total this week, I spoke with people from Russia, Poland, Israel, Germany, Scotland, Italy, Australia and New Zealand. I love hearing the different accents, and getting them to chuckle over some pronunciation I inevitably goof.

For me, this is the ultimate part of my job. I get to travel, in a sense, to these places - if for just a brief moment in time. I can't help but wonder what their day has been like. Where their offices are... what the view is from their windows. Is there a little cafe on the corner that they go eat at every day? Or do they suffice with some tea or coffee from a break room down the hall.

I can't help it. I'm a traveler at heart, and curious cat by nature. I am eternally fascinated by diversity. Dialing the long phone numbers to different countries is simply ringing up yet another intriguing facet of my day. I don't know why I am so enthralled with the idea that I've just had a conversation with someone in a different country... but I guess it is because I have a keen sense of 'this would never have happened if... '

If I didn't have this job, I never would have touched on these people's lives. There would be a man in Tel Aviv who would live his entire existance, and I would never realize he was out there. Or there would be a woman in Poland whose voice would never reach my ear. It's amazing to me! When I'm speaking with them, I see in my mind's eye a globe - with a thin glowing line stretching across it from me to them. I want to pin a tiny little flag to the globe that says "I was here".

This fascination of mine also proves something else - which I already knew, but it only strengthens the knowledge; the world really is a small place.

My phonecalls aren't anything of real importance. On a global scale, I'm just a worker ant doing my job, picking up my grain of sand and transporting it to the heap so to speak. But on a personal level, I'm making it easier for someone in another country to obtain something that will make their sport more enjoyable.

My worldwide vocal globetrotting is all about snowboarding, and the gear our tiny little company designs. It isn't anything earth shattering, but I love it. It puts me in touch with a creative process I've never known in a workplace before, and it lets me pick up that phone and muse about an afternoon spent in Scotland, or China, or Italy. Of course, I'm sure our Italian distributor Stefano has no idea of the wide eyed daydreamer talking business to him on the other end of the line.... and how I grin from ear to ear when he says "Ciao!" before he hangs up. But that's okay. He doesn't need to know.

When I spoke with a young man in Germany the other day, he said in a very thick accent "Oh...I saw the article in Transworld about your company. Was that you wearing black in the picture?"

Yes, it sure was.

Somewhere in my imagination, there is a tiny little pin being placed on a map of Germany.

"...so the world goes round and round
with all you ever knew
They say the sky high above
is Caribbean blue... " - Enya