Before church this morning, I took the kids to the Yolo Basin Wetlands for a nature drive/walk.  Maddie liked the rocks.  Matt and I enjoyed the birds and beaver lodges.  Something I like about fellow early-morning birders and hikers?  They’re so much more friendly than commuters. 

Church was good.  Saw one of my old students.  Which reminds me.  In the terminal at SeaTac, I saw a family from my old school.  The same family I ran into in Washington, D.C.  Let me say that I NEVER see them around town...and now I have seen them in two different states.  Bizarre.

During Maddie’s nap, I took Matt to the library and then to a group playdate.  As I dropped him off, his third-grade crush was arriving.  As Ryan and I picked him up, he gleefully told me that TWICE during hide-and-seek, “...we conveniently hid in the same place.  Not the same room.  The same place.” Goodness, I’m not quite sure what to think of my little Romeo.  I know *I* had third grade crushes (Alan), and I’ve known a few of my boy students have been smitten, but this just seems early for a boy to be clued into the whole crush thing. 

After church, we visited Ryan’s stepmother in the hospital.  She is recovering from pancreatitis and the accidental morphine overdose they gave her when they admitted her to the hospital.  We learned of her illness a few days before our return from Seattle, and I’m glad we were able to visit her.  We love her a lot, so it’s hard to see her there...especially because we’ve known for years that she is phobic about hospitals to begin with. 

My daughter, by the way, seems to have grown six inches since we left for Seattle.  She actually *looks* like an almost-four-year-old.  How’d that happen?

Off to bed. 

Hubby and I took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island today.

What a great day. 

Wish I’d brought my firewire to upload pics each day. 

"Have you ever been to Louisiana?”

I looked down at David Sedaris, unsure what I was supposed to say. 

Which is silly, really.  You should say what you have to say, and it shouldn’t matter that your favorite essayist is asking you.  It shouldn’t matter that your chance to talk to a man who’s made you cry (oh, that damn parrot story) and laugh so hard you wish you’d done your Kegels, that chance is now being spent answering questions about which you have no interesting comments.

“No.  Should I?” The fact that this is not witty in the slightest is softened by the essay David reads one hour later about his discomfort talking to strangers...his awkwardness and tendency to rely on a few stock stories makes me feel a tad better.

“I don’t know.  It’s an ugly place, really.  But the people are fun.”

Just yesterday afternoon, I had been frolicking in an aisle of Seattle’s Elliot Bay Books (the joy akin to Heidi traipsing through Austrian heather as it first blooms in Spring).  I glanced up to notice a sign announcing that while the David Sedaris’s book signing and reading was sold out, there would be “standing room only” accommodations.  I like the moments in life where serendipity brings about opportunities.  And seeing David Sedaris would be a memorable moment, a highlight of our trip to Seattle. 

Elliot Bay Books is the kind of bookstore you WANT to meet a favorite author in...brick walls, creaky wooden floors, and the signing down in the basement next to a coffee bar. 

So tonight I went to the bookstore about 6:30 PM, in hopes of being able to see him.  It turns out he was signing books BEFORE as well as after the reading, so I stood in line. 

One book, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, was signed to Maddie and Matthew.  He penned, “I’m so angry I missed ya!” And after asking me about Louisiana, he asked how I got there tonight.  Again, no witty reparte on my part.  We discussed his California visits, and how he’d never “found a bookstore that works for me in San Francisco.” We chatted up Book Passage for a moment, and he moved on. 

The reading and question period was everything I’d hoped it to be.  My view, by the way, was better than I expected by far. 

Seattle has treated me very kindly. 

And I’m too lazy to write.

This “Improv Everywhere” video courtesy of Busy Mom.

Sorry you can’t find me.  I’ve moved into the “Inspiration Booklet” for Room&Board.

Between napping in the bedroom pictured on p. 38 and curling up with a good book on p.10, I haven’t had much time to call.

Please send food and Depends.

M

I love when the people around me do great things.  I figure, all that great mojo has to be good for us.

My best friend from college, now my sister-in-law, is at the top of her game.  A few weeks ago, she appeared as the product placement expert on Fox Business Network’s “Money for Breakfast”.  Now she was just selected as the product placement representative for Variety’s special issue about about entertainment’s 50 leading women and their accomplishments behind and in front of the camera. 

I am not a business person, but I love when she and I have an hour or so to discuss how she thinks...Marketing in a textbook is so boring.  Marketing explained by a person who is passionate about what she does...that’s fascinating. 

People who love what they do, are hard-working, and are really talented, those people make ME want to be better. 

I am so proud of her. 

Congrats, Daphne!  I can’t wait until the special issue comes out. 

You may be wondering why, now that summer is fully in effect, I am not blogging much...Or you’re not wondering, because my posts have trickled to such a small corner of the blog world, that you have moved on.  Which is okay.  I have, too. 

My recent blogging hobby is now a third grade teaching idea blog, and it’s been great to have an outlet for my creativity through teaching. 

Curious? E-mail me at bookbelle@sbcglobal.net for the link. 

And in the name of sharing, let me just point out two things which brought a smile to my face:

1.  Calvin and Hobbes can be added to my feed reader!  Yahoo!

2.  Hubby sent me this clip of what tech support often entails:

I had so much to say about this clip of Tim Russert’s son Luke.  How much I admired his poise and perspective.  How much I hope for my son to grow up and be as level-headed and sweet as this young man appears to be...and for once I’m going to not be cynical and I’m accepting that he *IS* that sincere and affectionate as he appears to be.

But as I wrote, I found my words were far less powerful than Luke or Matt Lauer’s.  So do yourself a favor and watch the clip here.

We are experiencing a rough start to fire season, and I’m sad to hear the town where my in-laws lived for 5 years has been dealt a rough blow.  10,000+ people in their former community remain evacuated, and the fire isn’t close to being contained.  Ryan’s mom and step-dad moved last summer, and they remain close to many of the people there.  My kids think of that town as Grandma and Grandpa’s town, since they haven’t been to visit their new place in Arizona.

In a weird twist of fate, my dad called the police yesterday to report a bizarre incident.  Nothing seems to have come of it, thank goodness, but it is creepy.  As my dad drove home, he passed some of the Department of Forestry land, about a half-mile from their house.  They have no neighbors across the road, it’s just forestry land (beautiful redwoods, I might add).  A middle-school boy darted out of the woods with a long broomstick handle, a burning bundle of rags attached to the end.  He then immediately ran back into the woods.  Dad arrived at the house to report it through 911, but they were fortunate.  No fire started. 

Of course, this freaked me out a bit.  Northern Humboldt County land doesn’t get as dry as other parts of the state, so I tend to think of it as relatively low in fire danger, but it just hit me how much forest surrounds my childhood home.  How quickly that could be impacted by arson or childish prank gone wrong. 

In our area, grass fires have started our season off, and as I drove Matt somewhere the other day, we saw an ambulance zip past us, toward a fire just north of the freeway.  We later learned a firefighter was injured, and within the past few days, several local firefighters have been injured in the line of duty.  One local captain has severe burns, with a long recovery ahead of him.

My thoughts are with these communities, as well as those in other parts of the country dealing with flooding and tornadoes.  It’s getting too depressing to watch the news, so I think it’s time I turn the TV off. 

Now, I will say that hubby rocks, and he’s of the family-oriented sort.  No skipping on key family events for golf games.  The daycare ladies swooned when they learned he does Maddie’s hair every day (and purchases all her hair accessories).

But no matter how sensitive he is, I don’t think he’ll ever buy a self-help book, much less recommend one to a friend.

Tonight, as I stood in line at the bookstore, one professionally dressed man chatted up a friend he saw near some display tables:

Suit 1: What are you looking for today?
Suit 2: Nothing in particular.  Had a few minutes to kill while the rest of the family caught a movie.  I’m meeting them for dinner in a bit.
Suit 1:  If you’re interested, this book right here is pretty good.  [I had to peek.]
Suit 2: The Four Agreements?  What’s that about?
Suit 1:  It’s all about how to live your life...put into four principles.  It’s really helped me.

I never realized I had a self-help stereotype, but two forty-something suits discussing a new age book is just...weird.