One of my very best friends, Amy, just had two great things happen. She gave birth to a sweet little baby boy (her second), Wes, and she had a book published! It's called Great Books for High School Kids: A Teacher’s Guide to Books That Can Change Teens’ Lives and she edited it with her colleague Rick Ayers. Amy mentioned it but did not make a big deal about it. So I knocked around the Web a little and lo and behold, it seems like it's getting major buzz. I was surprised and proud when I saw that Studs Terkel himself wrote one of the book jacket blurbs, praising them both as teachers. To me, that is the most impressive thing. That and little Wes. So all in all, I think Amy's having a good week.
Things around the homestead have been a little less nuts because work has really slowed down! I know that I should be grateful that I have a week off, and if I get more gigs, I can definitely afford a week off here and there, but I get scared that the gigs will dry up. Y'know what? I'm just now going to vow to enjoy myself. So what if there's a few dry weeks? I am still doing some small jobs, and I'm sending out resumes and talking up da' skills ... Must. Enjoy. Myself. I'll have to convince myself.
The gremlin is trying to do everything. She wants to drink out of a grown-up cup and does it all right for a bit and then celebrates with a turn of her wrist and a dump of the water. She is trying so hard to put on her own clothes, to undo her seat belt when we arrive somewhere, to feed herself, to talk! She has an extraordinarily sweet disposition. She has teeny-itsy-bitsy tantrums and stuff like that, but all in all, she is super swell. And way cool.
And then there are those tributes, like the little one I've got to share about the late Tony Randall. Most celebrity deaths are of remote interest to me at best, but there are the ones that have touched me deeper. Hearing of Tony Randall's death made me sad. First, it's one of those signs of your own mortality (of course, I've lived through more personal reminders). Second, he was just always a pleasure. He was iconic and funny and proper and interesting and comic and genteel and you know? He took himself seriously and didn't take himself too seriously, both at the same time. He was great and I will miss him.
Must. Enjoy. Myself.
