Chit and chat
In the comments of the previous post I was reminiscing about the (quite long-ago now) shift from early text-only blogs to posts spotlighting gorgeous images, and how grumpy I was about that shift at the time. What’s the matter with a nice wall of text? LOL. But I gradually got on board, and then I started growing milkweed and documenting monarch butterfly life cycles…and bit by bit, photos won me over. Also, cute babies.
But my WORRRRRDSSSS MATTTTTERRRRR banner-flying makes it particularly funny that I went all gung-ho Instagram when it took off.
Anyhoo. Here is it a Monday in late June (ye gods, how can it possibly be late June already?) and I’ve done my day’s work, both on the novel and the advocacy gig, and I’m sitting in my favorite pub watching the couple next to me share a cherry custard float I didn’t know was on the menu (it’s a chalkboard special today), and I have about an hour before Scott pings me to say the meatloaf is ready, so here you are, a real live blog post.
…
(crickets chirping in my brain)
…
It’s not that I have nothing to say, it’s that I have TOO much to say. But lucky for you, I’ve said it on Facebook. Hey future Lissa, when you dip back into these archives, know that you were advocating hard for compassionate treatment of immigrants today, okay?
What should I blog about?? I need an assignment, y’all. I mean, it’s big doings here in Bonny Glen PDX: Jane graduated from Cal Poly last weekend and is home with us now for a few weeks at least, and Wonderboy (about whom I would write much more if I could just decide on a more age-appropriate blog nickname for the kid) graduated from 8th grade this month. HIGH SCHOOL, my dears. I mean. And lots of antics and adventures swirling around the other four kids too.
And Scott has a big Batman miniseries launching in August, about which I’m very excited. Illustrated by Kelley Jones, who is both brilliantly talented and a total sweetheart. OH YOU GUYS—I wish you could hear the conversations between these two stay-at-home comic-book-creator dads. This project has been years in the making and in our old house Scott used to pace on the patio outside my window during his frequent phone calls with Kelley. Of course I could only hear one side, but it was clear they spent a lot of time chatting about dad stuff and swapping chicken recipes. I mean, total melt-my-heart stuff. I keep telling them they need to do a podcast. Spend five minutes talking about comics, sure, and then get to the recipes and laundry stories!
Last week I went to a community singalong in Southeast Portland called (fabulously) OK Chorale. 70 people crammed into a bar at Revolution Hall singing—get this—a Duran Duran medley. (Duran Duran Medley Medley, said the songsheet. I’m still grinning.) It was my absolute ideal of a social event. Happens twice a month and I freely admit that my resolution to get up early and get my novel-writing done before breakfast was given a tremendous boost by the desire to free up my evenings.
A year ago today I was in the middle of a whirlwind trip to Portland to look at the house we’re now living in, and to meet with Wonderboy’s school principal and special ed administrator, and a suddenly-squeezed-in consult with a breast surgeon about a four-day-old diagnosis. I just looked at my calendar from that week and it’s just bananas. Genetic testing, Ron’s birthday party, flight home, movers’ estimate, MRI. All in the space of a week. And I was teaching a Bravewriter class that started that week, too. Oh plus the kids’ piano recital the day before I got on the plane to come here. BANANAS. How my hair didn’t go fully gray that week is beyond me.
(It’s on the way, though.)
Meatloaf’s ready. Gotta run. How’s that for some old-school Bonny Glen blather, eh? 😉
Jennifer says:
Yay, loved it.
On June 25, 2018 at 6:08 pm
Melanie Bettinelli says:
My very favoritest kind of blather. With cute baby photo and flowers. I really can’t believe Wonderboy is that old. Or Jane.
On June 25, 2018 at 6:43 pm
Karen Edmisten says:
I will totally tune into that podcast.
On June 25, 2018 at 7:44 pm
Penelope says:
I think that for so many of us who began blogging the homeschooling life a dozen years ago with small children, life has gotten a lot … fuller (I was thinking fluffier, but that’s not really it, unless by fluffy I was meaning like being swamped by a nice thick eiderdown) around the margins now with our older kids. Older kids, deeper needs, in many ways. It uses our mother brains so differently I find. By which I mean to say that the thoughtful but chatty writing brain space isn’t as easily come by, especially ahnd in hand with the time to do so.
(Is any of this making sense at all!?)
Love having a post from you my dear 🙂 Yes, between family and novel and paid work, phew …
On June 26, 2018 at 2:57 am
Penny says:
I would tune in as well!
I love how you find the beautiful in life no matter how full your calendar is, or what it’s filled with. It encourages me.
xo
On June 26, 2018 at 4:31 am
Emily DeArdo says:
Wonderboy is NOT that old! HE IS NOT! Oh my gosh. I would love an update on him though. Really, an update on everyone….I adore your kids (I say that in a non-stalker/weird way!).
And you still have the best hair ever. I want to be you when I grow up. 🙂
On June 26, 2018 at 5:53 am
Melissa Wiley says:
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
On June 26, 2018 at 5:25 pm
Mary says:
Hey, I would love to hear your thoughts on the decision by the American library association to remove Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name from the award. I was saddened by it, but I worry such thoughts are politically incorrect. I am not being snarky or trying to incite a fractious discussion. Honestly, I was bothered and wondered about your thought since you have addressed her writing on the blog. Thanks. P.S. I like your ramblings too.
On June 26, 2018 at 10:45 am
Melissa Wiley says:
It’s a good decision. The LIW Award (now named Children’s Literature Legacy Award) honors a writer’s body of work as a contribution to children’s literature. (It was described in the press as a book award, but it’s not for a single book—it’s a career achievement recognition.) Nothing is being changed in Laura’s own books, and removing her name from the award (an award I suspect few people outside the kidlit world had ever heard of before this news broke) doesn’t diminish her work in any way. It puts the focus on the person being honored with the award.
Andrew Karre (editor) has a good discussion of the issue on his FB page. He’s spot on when he says: “Serious people don’t debate the fact of the problems in WIlder’s work, especially in the broader context of American children’s literature. They’re not subtle problems. And the existence of those problems needn’t make anyone’s memories of childhood fondness for the book less intense.”
On June 26, 2018 at 5:30 pm
tee+d says:
I am so excited that my grays have decided to collect in the front of my hair. I’m trying for a stripe – I figure if I can get Rogue’s hair, I can get Rogue’s powers too, right??? RIGHT????
I am just… speechless… about… 8th… grade. WUT?
Er, so Wonderboy isn’t right anymore? Maybe just… Boy Wonder…? WiseKid. The Wizard of PDX…? I am terrible at titling things, as you might be able to tell.
On June 26, 2018 at 12:11 pm
maria says:
Perfection! 🙂
On June 26, 2018 at 5:13 pm
Anne V. says:
OH gosh…..like old times!!!! Love it. Congrats to Jane. And Wonderboy. Feeling so super old!!
On June 27, 2018 at 6:08 am
Von says:
Make-a-me-cry! What a fabulous blog post. 🙂 And the picture at the bottom–pretty, pretty mama.
P.S. 8th grade??? No way.
On June 27, 2018 at 2:47 pm