Thanks to the lot of you who have posted such nice comments on this blog. My readership is generally limited to Nadine, (a better sister-in-law is never to be had) but it’s good that it’s expanded to about four people.

I’m concerned, though, that you say such kind, ego-stroking things. I was temporarily worried that my ego would expand beyond its already bulbous boundaries.

But then I remembered that I once wet my pants in Atlanta traffic, about fifteen minutes before I was going to teach a class. I had to blow my pants dry under the hand dryer. Or, that on another day of teaching, my first at the same university, I fell backwards over a podium and landed spread-eagle on the linoleum. Or that, on my last trip to Australia, I projectile vomited into a lifeboat in front of thirty tourists. Or that, in high school, some people called me Hoover because some bizo named Erin started a rumor that I had sex with a vacuum cleaner.
The first three have occurred within the last three years. The latter never occurred, but ALLEGEDLY occurred in seventh grade, the same year that my idiot math teacher kept me after school for “gang activity” after he found the notes I’d made on gangs for my CHURCH YOUTH GROUP PRESENTATION.

I still wore side pony-tails at this point, mind you!

In high school I also did a dance routine in a bear mask to “Leader of the Pack” and thought I was in love with a boy who once ate a pound of fudge in a single sitting.

Clearly, I was misguided.

I could go on forever… Seriously. All that is to say thanks for the kind comments, folks. This has been fun.

Lots of people on the home front have been champions for us, too—mail, bills, mowing the lawn, trips to the airport, etc…and we are grateful, grateful, grateful. Thanks to all of you who have done all of these good, good things for us.