From North Carolina: Observations and Peter Pan
The day began, in our booth, at 8:30 AM. It ended at 9 PM. Since both my parents are speaking here, and since the conference has 8,000 attendees, we've been pretty busy.
No, let me rephrase that...
We've been swamped.
I won't tell you much about what I do, because it's simple. I listen to people, and I talk to them. I try to serve. Of course, I also observe....
Observations of the Day
1. Mothers of small children are heroines.
2. Some dads were Lit majors in a former life (this is extremely rare, but also cool).
3. Glowing, flashing, neon purple-and-pink braces are not a good idea, no matter how great you think they are (yes, I really saw someone wearing them).
4. Many teenage boys travel in packs. I don't know why, but I wonder.
5. A loading dock can be paradise if you have it to yourself for a few minutes in the middle of a very busy day.
6. Tapestry really is amazing. This face is easily forgotten when you work with it every day, but impossible to ignore when you see person after person whose eyes light up as you explain it to them.
7. I don't know that I've ever seen an unselfconscious teenage girl, including myself (back in the day when I was a teenage girl). Why is that?
8. People everywhere love my parents. It's nice to know that people everywhere have good taste. :-)
9. Somehow, foot balm which my dad brought back for me from a monastary in Florence, Italy, is better than regular foot lotion. Especially after a day on my feet.
10. There is a tower here in Winston-Salem that reminds me irresistably of the White Tower of Gondor.
In other news: I have not been beset by any boys at this conference. May I say "Hallelujah"? Instead, much to my joy, my little friend Jonathan Bloom is working in the HSLDA booth next door. He and I are old cronies from the Ohio conference two years ago. In between being on our best behavior, we swap candy and rubber-band threats across the partition. Jonathan is about 10 years old, and believes that a rubber band is a pretty good weapon.
Jonathan is also one of the sharpest dressers I know. His suit is immaculate, and he wears beautiful ties in subdued, professional colors. No one could fault his shoe polish. Add to this a crisp tan, blond hair, excellent manners, and sea-green eyes, and you will understand why everybody loves him.
I like him because he is intelligent, alert, and has a wry sense of humor quite unusual in a boy his age. He is also quite heartless, and because of this he has become my living version of Peter Pan; I feel, more often than not, like his Tinkerbell. I wouldn't be his Wendy for anything---we are too good as playmates to spoil our games with mothering. But I supply the fairy dust and he the happy thoughts, and we fly around like anything.
Tomorrow, perhaps, we shall decide where Neverland will be.
No, let me rephrase that...
We've been swamped.
I won't tell you much about what I do, because it's simple. I listen to people, and I talk to them. I try to serve. Of course, I also observe....
Observations of the Day
1. Mothers of small children are heroines.
2. Some dads were Lit majors in a former life (this is extremely rare, but also cool).
3. Glowing, flashing, neon purple-and-pink braces are not a good idea, no matter how great you think they are (yes, I really saw someone wearing them).
4. Many teenage boys travel in packs. I don't know why, but I wonder.
5. A loading dock can be paradise if you have it to yourself for a few minutes in the middle of a very busy day.
6. Tapestry really is amazing. This face is easily forgotten when you work with it every day, but impossible to ignore when you see person after person whose eyes light up as you explain it to them.
7. I don't know that I've ever seen an unselfconscious teenage girl, including myself (back in the day when I was a teenage girl). Why is that?
8. People everywhere love my parents. It's nice to know that people everywhere have good taste. :-)
9. Somehow, foot balm which my dad brought back for me from a monastary in Florence, Italy, is better than regular foot lotion. Especially after a day on my feet.
10. There is a tower here in Winston-Salem that reminds me irresistably of the White Tower of Gondor.
In other news: I have not been beset by any boys at this conference. May I say "Hallelujah"? Instead, much to my joy, my little friend Jonathan Bloom is working in the HSLDA booth next door. He and I are old cronies from the Ohio conference two years ago. In between being on our best behavior, we swap candy and rubber-band threats across the partition. Jonathan is about 10 years old, and believes that a rubber band is a pretty good weapon.
Jonathan is also one of the sharpest dressers I know. His suit is immaculate, and he wears beautiful ties in subdued, professional colors. No one could fault his shoe polish. Add to this a crisp tan, blond hair, excellent manners, and sea-green eyes, and you will understand why everybody loves him.
I like him because he is intelligent, alert, and has a wry sense of humor quite unusual in a boy his age. He is also quite heartless, and because of this he has become my living version of Peter Pan; I feel, more often than not, like his Tinkerbell. I wouldn't be his Wendy for anything---we are too good as playmates to spoil our games with mothering. But I supply the fairy dust and he the happy thoughts, and we fly around like anything.
Tomorrow, perhaps, we shall decide where Neverland will be.
posted by Praelucor at 10:18 PM
2 Comments:
Well! It's probably a good thing I didn't try to call you this evening. Heh. I will try at some point for real, however.
Glad the conference went well! I was thinking of you on the 19-hr drive back to the midwest :-)
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