Red Velvet Cake and Balderdash

Lance made me breakfast in bed!
When I got out of bed, I noticed Lance had made me a red velvet cake!
Then…Lance made “Poppie’s Homemade Enchiladas” for dinner.
Oh, he has charmed me all over again! He blows my mind.
We have such good balance, he and I.
I love being at home because the kids are funny,
Lance is funny.
Even our dog is funny!
And the lettuce keeps on growing…as I’ve said before:
We grow happy lettuce!

Clara and Kenna came over, dressed in the same coat, looking like Siamese twins
in Edward (Twilight) tee shirts and pajama pants, singing “Happy Birthday”
with a tray full of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes!
They were funny, too!

And iolana bought me these beautiful earrings of plum and white with gold hearts
from a very vogue garage sale! I loooooooove garage sales! I love that
my kids love garage sales, antique stores, vintage things…things that have
been loved and valued and get a second life because someone thinks, ” This is
beautiful…it has a story to tell!”

And today is Bear Eagle’s birthday, too…so we saw him with his lovely wife, Jane,
at Amy’s Ice Cream, where Todd and Dale and Corinna and Audrey and Bridget
and io and Lily and Cat and I all got together to eat the red velvet cake. And there
was plenty left over, so we shared it with the table next to us: Terry and Jacob and
Desiree and Courtney, three teens and a nice lady. I know there names cuz I asked them
and sang them each a birthday song! It was a day of celebration…from hilarious phone
messages (Marty SANG! I do not believe it, still!) and cards and sweet surprises.

Last night we were at The Jeansonnes for a small house warming gathering, and
the adults played Balderdash…what a fun game! I’m going to start playing it with
the kids on game night…I think it will add more silliness to our happiness.
The food last night was really yummy, especially the asparagus with lemon juice.
I kept picking them up singularly and popping them in my mouth. When I wasn’t
munching on the lime jalapeno chips! Or the broiled salmon…

Sarah’s lifelong friend, Sam, was there, and he is my new chum. I love clever people,
people who like to read and talk film and art and generally enjoy discovering the odds
and ends and zaniness.

I am reading “Blonde Roots”. It is excellent. It is also funny*. There is something funny
going on in my life cuz everything is funny lately, even the lady that whistled WAAAY too loud
at the private event I performed for on Friday night. I just feel this giddy joy,
which I know might make you think, “Hey, wait…she’s on her period…isn’t she supposed to
be feeling blue?” Yea, yea, the quiet blue is down in there, but the
gleefulness can not be denied.

Not because I’m manic, but because I’m complex and real and present and overjoyed that
these moments are mine to experience. I feel so blessed with the variety in my life, but, like
any person would, I get overwhelmed, too…The fatigue I can experience makes my eyelids
heavy, but tonight I shall sleep a thousand dreams of gratitude.

To life! To love! To Todd and his camera and his verve! To Lance and his sweetness! To my
expanding cupcake belly! To red velvet! To Elvis! To the Flaming Lips! To Mickey, whose laugh
makes me smile just thinking about it! To Lily and iolana! To Girl Scout cookies (dag nab it!)
To pennies on the street! To the quarter that I found under my shoe in the park two days ago!
To guinea pigs! To Mr. Sombathy! To Jack Jeansonne and his calling me “Miss Sara”! To Sam
and his blog, which I need to find out the name of so I can regale it on mine! To the 70’s!
To weather! To weathermen! To Obama! To warm socks! To breezy skies! To mustard! To Mike
Daane (who used to be in a band called Mustard!) To Doug Bryan! To Cheryl and David, calling from
up east! To Brewster McCracken! To bowling! To lists! To the keyboard! To cherry pie! To
toenail clippers! To authors! To Sarah Bird! To Sarah Binion! To The Onion! To the fact that my fingers
are diligently trying to keep up with my brain as I type “To the fact that my fingers are diligently trying
to keep up with my brain as I type…”! To exclamation marks! To question marks! Why do question marks
remind me of worried little faces?

To Mrs. Tyner, my third grade teacher! Where are you, Mrs. Tyner? You were tiny and wore very nice shoes.

To my dog, Lucky, for snoring next to me.
For Steve Jobs…God bless you, sir.

And, lastly, to Paul Harvey! Thank you for announcing me on your show so many years ago. That was one
of the highlights of my life. I hope I can find a recording of that announcement some day. God bless you
on your new journey beyond this life that we call “life”. I know your sweet wife is welcoming you into her
arms. With a big, fat slice of Red Velvet Cake for you to cherish.

Love,
You know who

*An addendum: “Blonde Roots” isn’t funny in the sense of complete rip-roaring comedy. It is funny, on
occassion, in that the main character, Doris, is capable of relating irony, humor, self-deprecation all the
while she is also describing, in horrific detail, the brutality and unbelievable, but truthful, account
of slavery.

It is a book I would encourage any human rights activist to read, but, more so, I would encourage EVERYONE to
read since it is the sort of book that takes you through conditions no one could possibly survive, and yet, to this
day, millions of people are subjected to endure.

Slavery is wrong. It always has been, it always will be. And it needs to be discussed so that people will WAKE UP
and speak out about ending it…first, with words and acknowledgement, then through laws and regulation, but more so,
by being thy brothers’ keeper and preventing it in the first place.

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