Leaving the world a little better than I found it by sharing my passions and dreams, what inspires me,
and maybe you too, and furthering the discussion about how we can listen to our better angels.
1. It's mine. All mine. I can (and did) paint it the way I want it. I don't have to worry about nail holes because I own it and there's no landlord to get irritated about paint or nails.
2. It's super sunny! I've got a corner condo and face both directly east and south. In the morning, I walk into my dining room, look out towards Lake Michigan (I can't see the water exactly, but I'm only 2.5 miles from the water) and watch the sunrise. All day long, I get lots of sun through my three huge south-facing windows.
This is the view from my bedroom. Not too shabby.
This was my morning greeting from Mother Nature today. No wonder Betsey and Ross were so eager for me to crawl out of bed. Isn't it gorgeous? (Ignore the bright lights on the right. Those are reflections from the glass.)
3. My 5-mile, 10-minute tollway-free commute to work. Seriously. This morning, as I was pulling into work, the traffic report came on the radio. there were 2 accidents between my old house in Arlington Heights and my job in Lake Forest. Instead of sitting in that traffic and arriving agitated, I arrived quickly and in a lovely mood. Plus, I'm saving a ton of money in gas and tolls and wear and tear on my car.
4. My bedroom. My entire life I've had this image of exactly how I wanted my bedroom. Granted, it's changed over time and I no longer want the Strawberry Shortcake bedroom collection. My tastes have become more sophisticated and refined and I'm creating the bedroom I want. Sure, it still includes some hand-me-downs, but I'm re-purposing and re-painting them to fit my tastes.
5. Going home for lunch. I went home for lunch the other day. Going home is so radically different from going out for lunch. I went home, made lunch, sat down, and put my feet up for a few minutes. I got to breath deeply as I was surrounded by total silence. Seriously, it was the best part of my week. Of course, Betsey and Ross thought that my lunch was their lunch, but that's another blog post.
6. My master closet. It's a huge walk-in closet with two built-ins, plus tons of hanging space. Thanks to the overhead light, it's very bright. When I walk in each morning to choose my clothes, it just feels so luxurious to have a whole dressing space. The only thing it lacks is a mirror, making it difficult to determine if I like my outfit.
7. Being so much closer to the friends I see the most. This is no slight to my friends in Arlington Heights at all, but now the friends I see the absolute most are 15 minutes away, rather than 30+ minutes away. My life just became spontaneous!
8. Lower gas prices and sales tax. I paid $3.76 for gas yesterday. When I was in Arlington Heights on Sunday, gas was $3.99. What's the difference? Cook County taxes. Speaking of, sales tax is 7% rather than 9.5%.
I'm sure there are plenty of other things I love about my condo, but those are all that come to mind at this very moment.
You may have heard that today is my birthday. It's true. I'm 25. Wait, that part might not be true.
Over the years, I'm had some pretty extraordinary birthdays.
Because my birthday is in mid-June, it always fell right after school let out for the summer. Many years, we would hop on a plane on June 15th and I'd wake up at Nana's house on my birthday. I'd come downstairs for a special birthday breakfast with the whole family and then usually off to the beach. I grew up believing the only way to celebrate my birthday was to go on vacation.
My 18th birthday arrived just days after my high school graduation. Nana was in town for the big occasion and I got three of my girlfriends together and we all went into Chicago for lunch and a Wendella boat ride. It was freezing cold (even colder than it was today), overcast and windy and although we were dressed warmly, the wind still made it uncomfortable. Nana asked the Wendella folks if they had any big plastic garbage bags that we could use as rain/wind slickers. It was actually a great idea!
Janet, Cheryl, Me, and Cindy (l-r) on the Wendella Boats using plastic garbage bags to block the wind. Yes, I gave Sally Jessy Rapheal her glasses back.
I celebrated my 20th birthday at Watervale and because this is supposedly a family blog, I can't describe the debauchery that ensued. Let's just say that it didn't hurt things at all that the Bulls had just won their first NBA Championship.
In 1992, I turned 21 with the help of my good friends Heather and Emilie, and Michael, Scottie, and the rest of the Chicago Bulls. Heather and I spent the day in Chicago at the Bulls Championship Rally in Grant Park and then window shopping on the Mag Mile. After taking the train back to Lake Forest, I drank at The Lantern for the first time. That was also the year Dave surprised me with the sterling silver pendant he made of the two of us. An incredible day.
1993 found me in Washington DC without my friends or family. I spent the day wandering around Georgetown and then watched the Bulls win Game 4 of the NBA Finals over the Phoenix Suns on a date. Of course, the Bulls went on to win their third NBA Championship days later.
I turned 27 in 1998 and was in Chicago for the Bulls 6th and final NBA Championship. The night before my birthday, Christopher and I were in the stands at Wrigley Field watching Kerry Wood pitch a nailbiter and Sammy Sosa start his home run streak by hitting 3 that night as they beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-5. On my birthday, I celebrated with a few hundred thousand of my closest friends in Grant Park as we celebrated the Bulls and witnessed the end of an era. When I arrived back in DC on the 17th, I was surprised by my friends at a party at the rooftop bar at the Hotel Washington.
When I turned 30, Dave surprised me by flying to Chicago for the weekend. My dad also came to town and when I got up that morning, my lawn was filled with 30 plastic pink flamingos! I'm sorry I don't have pictures.
And then there was today. Today was fabulous. Words can't express my gratitude for all the joy and love I felt today. I got to talk to Nana, which was the highlight of my day. I heard from friends all over the country and friends in my neighborhood. God, I love the birthday reminder on Facebook! Emails even poured in tonight from my mom's childhood friends! Local friends surprised me with many delights. And my dad started his new job today.
I have had some amazing birthdays throughout the years, but today was the best. My gratitude list is long and I'm putting my head on my pillow tonight secure in the knowledge of who I love and who loves me. Words can't begin to express how full my heart is tonight.
I've been watching the perennials in my garden for a few weeks now, wondering which plant would bloom first. Each morning, I rush to the living room sliding glass door to see if any of the buds have popped. Finally today, my patience was rewarded with this beautiful light purple, white and yellow iris! There are many iris buds that I expect will bloom in the next few days, but this is the first. I love my garden! The best part? I got all of these iris plants for FREE through Freecycle two years ago!
If you look closely, you'll see two more buds that are almost ready to bloom.
At some point in life, we each need someone by our side. I don't care who you are or how tough you pretend to be (and I'm talking to myself here too!), none of us is an island. We need each other. We need each other in the good times as well as the bad times. I think it's easy to think that we need each other in the tough times (because of course we do), but the fact is the good times are better when shared with the people we love.
My favorite moments in life are when I can share something joyful with someone else. I can remember as a little kid racing home from school (all 2 blocks of it) to share something great with my mom. Maybe it was an A on a test or maybe it was being chosen to take the chickens my 2nd grade class hatched home for the weekend (true story). I still love that feeling of sharing something great with someone I love.
So I'm sharing this video with you because it touched me today and I know it will warm your heart too.
After you watch it, rush over to Playing For Change to learn the back story. You might also read about it on Gizmodo. You'll love it even more.
Tonight was Brad's book signing at The Book Stall in Winnetka, IL. And you know I was there. It was a rainy night, so I wasn't sure what the turnout would be, but the place was packed. I had about 15 books, including comic books, for Brad to sign, so my plan was to wait until the end because I hated to make others with fewer books wait for me.
Brad started out reading parts of Chapter 2, one of the most pivotal of the book, and then taking questions. Once the questions started, it became obvious that Brad knew at least half the room.
Finally, the signing itself started. One of the things I love about Brad is that he takes the time to have conversations with people and develop relationships. And as long as he's talking to you, you're the only person in existence. He doesn't see anyone else. There was a guy Brad met when writing The Millionaires who took him through the underground tunnels at Disney. And Brad remembered him from 2002. Another woman from Hogan (in addition to me). College friends. Grade school friends. Relatives. Some he hadn't seen in years and years. And all the folks he met for the first time tonight. He'll remember them. Really. Another thing I love is that he tells people to bring everything for him to sign. There were guys there with a box full of Brad's comics. And Brad was happy to sign it all.
Finally, the line fizzled down to just two other women and me. It turned out one of them he'd known since grade school. So the four of us sat and chatted for probably 30 minutes before he left for Ann Arbor. He signed all our books. I won't tell you what he wrote inside my personal copy of The Book of Lies. That's private. You get to read what he wrote about me in the Acknowledgements, but this is mine.
And then he did something for me that I'll absolutely never forget. And this is why Brad is the greatest guy ever. He called my mom and wished her a Happy Birthday. And he didn't just talk for 7 seconds. They chatted for a few minutes. It made her night. And it made mine.
Here are some pics.
First, is Brad wishing my mom a happy birthday. Second, Brad and Me.
In chapter four of the Bible, Cain kills Abel. It is the world's most famous murder. But the Bible is silent about one key detail: the weapon Cain used to kill his brother. That weapon is still lost to history.
In 1932, Mitchell Siegel was killed by two gunshots to the chest. While mourning, his son dreamed of a bulletproof man and created the world's greatest hero: Superman. And like Cain's murder weapon, the gun used in this unsolved murder has never been found.
If you were to only have read those two paragraphs, you might think the plot of The Book of Lies is about what these two murders have in common and the search to solve them.
And you'd be partly right. But only partly.
The Book of Lies is more about the relationships between our parents and us and us and our kids. It's about how our parents let us down and we let our own kids down. But more than that, it's about coming to terms with our pasts and reconciling the pain of our childhoods with the truth we find as adults. It's about seeing our parents completely broken and realizing, maybe for the first time, how much they love us. It's about forgiveness of them and ourselves. And it's about how ordinary people change the world.
My favorite line in the The Book of Lies is repeated a number of times, each time in a slightly different way: "There's the life you live and the life you leave behind. But what you share with someone else - especially someone you love - that's not just how you bury your past. It's how you write your future."
And if you pay attention, you'll learn the secret of immortality. It's right there. In black and white.
To say the least, I loved The Book of Lies. And not just because I had a strong bias in favor of it before I even cracked the spine. It was a page turner that I did not want to put down. It's well written, impeccably researched, and if you're a fan of Brad Meltzer, you'll find his passion on each and every page in a way it's not in his other books. This book is obviously much more personal for him and, in my opinion, much better than the others, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Can I be honest with you? Well, I'm always honest, but this is a little secret I'm going to share between just you and me. No one else.
The truth is when Brad Meltzertold me a week or so ago that I was in the Acknowledgements of The Book of Lies, while I was excited and shocked, I didn't entirely believe him. And that was about me. Not him. Brad is seriously the most upstanding guy I know. If he says something, he's not lying. So there really wasn't any reason for me to not believe him, but that's one of my insecurities in life.
So this morning, I ran over to Borders to pick up my copy of The Book of Lies (I was going to pre-order it from Amazon, but they said I wouldn't have it until next week and that wasn't good enough). As soon as I walked in the door, I was bombarded with a huge display of The Book of Lies. Seriously, it never gets old seeing my friends in the limelight.
As I picked up my copy from the table, I took a deep breath and prepared for what I might find. Would my name be misspelled? Would my name even be right or would I be mentioned as "Jennifer Gardner" (a mistake that happens at least once a day in my life)? Would it even be there at all? Again, these are my insecurities and not a reflection on Brad. Seriously. He's a perfectionist.
And then right there on the 3rd page of the Acknowledgements, in the center of the page, was my name. Spelled correctly and everything. I don't even know that I read anything but my name. And I cried. Standing right in the middle of Borders tears rolled down my face. Not a ton, but more than a few.
Here's what it actually says, "[a few other people] and Jessica Gardner trusted me with traits I truly hold dear, especially the ones you see in the characters."
Wow.
Thanks Brad. Thanks for making it easy that day to share parts of my life that I never discuss. Thanks for being one of the coolest guys I know. Thanks for your friendship. I truly treasure it and you.
No, I haven't read the book yet. I'm saving it for later tonight when I can savor each page. Then I'll post my review.
Yes, I know that Fred Rogers died 5 years ago, but that's not what I'm in mourning over today.
Effective today, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood has been taken off the schedule of many stations, including in Chicago, LA, and New York.
You may remember that I am a huge fan of Mr. Rogers. Growing up, I was not allowed to watch much television, but Mr. Rogers was on the very short list of approved TV. And I watched him daily. I can even admit that when I was laid up with mono in 2000 (when I was 28), I sometimes watched him.
My sadness that future generations of kids will grow up in a Mr. Rogers-less world is almost beyond words. Mr. Rogers was never condescending. He took on the tough subjects, talking to kids about divorce and war, and he even came out of retirement for a special segment addressing the anniversary of 9/11.
By Steve Schmadeke Chicago Tribune reporter September 1, 2008
Seven years have passed since new episodes of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" were taped and five since the show's iconic, sweater-clad host died.
But news that, starting Monday, "Mister Rogers" will disappear from the schedules of many PBS stations—including WTTW-Ch. 11 in Chicago, as well as stations in Los Angeles and apparently New York—has legions of parents and other fans lamenting what they see as a timeless show's end.
They are wondering, as Mr. Rogers himself might say: What do you do with the mad that you feel?"It sucks, man," said Brian Linder, a South Carolina writer who grew up watching the show on a wood-paneled television and now watches it on a flat-screen TV with his twin daughters. "That's not a Mr. Rogers thing to say. But maybe in this case he'd even say it."
Linder has launched a Web site, savemisterrogers.com, and a Facebook group that has about 4,000 members. Among the letters Linder has posted is one from Oak Park-based artist Chris Ware, a well-known illustrator whose work has appeared on New Yorker covers.
Ware wants his daughter Clara, 3, to be able to watch the show because, while it may seem peculiar to adults, it was a carefully calibrated work of art that taught children about real life, he said.
"The show is fundamentally about clumsy, awkward, uncomfortable real life, and it's one of the last places on television where children can see it honestly reflected (regardless of the 1980s clothing and 1970s cars, which young kids don't notice, anyway)," he wrote. "With very little camera editing on the program, it also 'feels' more real."
PBS said its decision is a reaction to the show's declining ratings and the desire of many local stations, which set their own schedules, for new programming. Episodes eventually may be available online, PBS said.
About 60 percent of PBS' 355 member stations carry "Mister Rogers." After Monday, that will shrink to a handful showing it daily, estimated an executive at Family Communications, a non-profit launched by Fred Rogers that produced and still owns the show.
The change means it's no longer feasible for PBS to keep "Mister Rogers" on the air, said Dan Soles, senior vice president of television content at WTTW. It showed "Mister Rogers" at 6 a.m. as part of 12 hours of children's programming a day.
"We respect the fact that many viewers are passionate and loyal to the show," Soles said. "I grew up watching 'Mister Rogers,' so I can understand their feelings. It's admirable. The spirit of Mister Rogers is going to continue. There are plans to really ramp up and build up the Mister Rogers Web site."
Soles and a PBS spokeswoman said talks are ongoing with Family Communications about a new series, but an executive there said nothing has happened yet. And there's a "strong possibility" that "Mister Rogers" might be carried by one of the PBS-partnered digital channels, Soles said.
While some fans interviewed seemed resigned to the fact that they may have seen Mr. Rogers zip up his cardigan for the last time on local TV Friday, they are heartened by at least one possible success: A PBS station in Milwaukee apparently changed course and decided to keep the show on the air. Calls for comment to MPTV were not returned.
Kevin Morrison, Family Communications' chief operating officer, said the show had a remarkable run, especially considering there were no new episodes for seven years.
"You just have to recognize inevitably the fact that this is an old program and appeals less and less to the market," Morrison said.
Danny LaBrecque, programs coordinator for the Field Museum's Crown Family PlayLab, said that while he admires some of the new children's programming on PBS, it focuses almost exclusively on cognitive development and not as much on children's social and emotional growth. He has written WTTW in hopes of keeping "Mister Rogers" on the air.
"Young children really need that face time with a real human being," LaBrecque said. "That's what's really great about Mister Rogers. He was talking about getting a haircut and separation anxiety. In our city, there's certainly a lot of kids who don't get those really personal conversations. The fact that that's not going to be there is pretty sad."
Fans respect that Fred Rogers didn't sell out.
"You've never seen Mr. Rogers' face on a diaper," Linder said. But that also means that only a handful of episodes are available on DVD, and just a few clips—like an episode where Mr. Rogers learns about break dancing—are on YouTube. Morrison said DVD demand has never been very strong, but the company may release episodes in smaller production numbers on a private label.
One actor, David Newell, who played the Speedy Delivery carrier Mr. McFeely, said he's touched that people still want to see a show that celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
"It's a wonderful tribute to the program," said Newell, who promotes the show for Family Communications, sometimes in character at events. "So many people who grew up with the show . . . have warm feelings about it and it's really meant something to them. It was more than just an average television program."
As I was sitting down waiting to meet a client for lunch this afternoon, I picked up today's USA Today and saw a blurb about the creation of Superman in the upper right corner. I thought, "huh, that's interesting, Brad Meltzer has a book about this exact topic coming out in a week." And then I opened the paper and found a huge above-the-fold story on the cover of the Life Section all about Brad's new book. Yeah Brad!
The USA Today story is below, but here's what you need to know: this book is AWESOME. I can't tell you exactly how I know this yet (I'm in the Cone of Silence until Sept. 2nd), but just trust me.
"Think about it. Your father dies in a robbery, and you invent a bulletproof man." Author Brad Meltzer, on the origins of Superman. Pic from DC Comics.
Prototype: Unpublished 1933 Superman proposal by Siegel and Shuster shows hero foiling a robbery. Pic from Superman: The Complete History by Chronicle Books.
Superman settlement: Artist Joe Shuster, left, artist Neal Adams, writer Jerry Siegel and Jerry Robinson, who invented The Joker in 1939, celebrate Siegel and Shuster's agreement in 1975 with Time Warner. Photo provided by Jerry Robinson.
On the night of June 2, 1932, the world's first superhero was born — not on the mythical planet of Krypton but from a little-known tragedy on the streets of Cleveland.
It was Thursday night, about 8:10 p.m., and Mitchell Siegel, a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, was in his secondhand clothing store on the near East Side. According to a police report, three men entered. One asked to see a suit of clothes and walked out without paying for it. In the commotion of the robbery, Siegel, 60, fell to the ground and died.
The police report mentions a gunshot being heard. But the coroner, the police and Siegel's wife said Siegel died of a heart attack. No one was ever arrested.
What happened next has exploded some of the longest-held beliefs about the origins of Superman and the two teenage boys, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who invented America's best-known comic-book hero.
Past accounts suggest Siegel and Shuster, both 17, awkward and unpopular in high school, invented the meek Clark Kent and his powerful alter-ego, Superman, to attract girls and rise above their humble Cleveland beginnings.
But now it appears that the origin might have been more profound — that it was the death of Jerry Siegel's father that pushed the devastated teen to come up with the idea of a "Superman" to right all wrongs.
"In 50 years of interviews, Jerry Siegel never once mentioned that his father died in a robbery," says Brad Meltzer, a best-selling author whose novel, The Book of Lies, due Sept. 2, links the Siegel murder to a biblical conspiracy plot.
"But think about it," Meltzer says. "Your father dies in a robbery, and you invent a bulletproof man who becomes the world's greatest hero. I'm sorry, but there's a story there."
The first 'Superman' The evidence for such a psychological underpinning is strong.
It was just a year after Mitchell Siegel's death, 1933, that writer Siegel and artist Shuster came up with "The Superman," a grim, flying avenger they tried to sell to newspaper syndicates and publishers for five years. In the oldest surviving artwork, this early Superman, whom they call "the most astounding fiction character of all time," flies to the rescue of a man who is being held up by a masked robber.
Was it Jerry's alter-ego flying to rescue his helpless father?
"America did not get Superman from our greatest legends, but because a boy lost his father," Meltzer says. "Superman came not out of our strength but out of our vulnerability."
The more Meltzer looked, the more intriguing things became. A letter published in The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer on June 3, 1932, the day after the robbery, denounces the need for vigilantes in the harsh days of the Depression. The letter is signed by an A.L. Luther.
"Is that where (Superman foe) Lex Luthor came from?" Meltzer says. "I almost had a heart attack right there. I thought, 'You have to be kidding me!' "
In search of answers Meltzer was not the only one looking. Comic-book historian Gerard Jones first disclosed the fact of the robbery in 2004 for his book, Men of Tomorrow, after interviews with Siegel's cousins.
"It had to have an effect," Jones says. "Superman's invulnerability to bullets, loss of family, destruction of his homeland — all seem to overlap with Jerry's personal experience. There's a connection there: the loss of a dad as a source for Superman."
Although they never went public, the father's side of the family was told for decades that the elder Siegel had been shot in the robbery. That's the dramatic angle Meltzer takes in his conspiracy novel. Siegel was shot twice in the chest at his store, he writes, and "a puddle of blood seeped toward the door."
In an afterword to his work of fiction, Meltzer concedes that the facts remain murky. In an interview, Meltzer said that some in the family were told "since they were little kids" that Siegel died by gunfire. Others were told he had a heart attack. "It was probably a heart attack," Meltzer said.
And yet Meltzer is not ready to embrace either answer as final.
More definitive is Marc Tyler Nobleman, author with artist Ross MacDonald of this year's illustrated book Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, who concludes that Mitchell Siegel died of a heart attack during the robbery. The coroner, he notes, reported "no wounds" on Siegel's body, and the gunshot might not have been related to the robbery.
"I spent a long time going after this," Nobleman says. "I believe I have the first accurate account. Jerry's father wasn't shot and robbed. He had a heart attack during a robbery."
A fortune sold for $130
The rest of the saga of Siegel and Shuster is better known, but no less tragic. It wasn't until 1938 that the familiar red-and-blue-garbed Superman appeared on the cover of Action Comics No. 1. The creators got a check for $130. In return, DC Comics acquired rights to the character "forever."
Siegel and Shuster bristled as Superman grew in popularity — on radio, in wartime cartoons and serials in the 1940s. They went to court several times, winning settlements but never rights to the character. By the 1970s, Siegel had been working as a mail clerk for $7,000 a year, and Shuster was almost blind.
"A shameful legacy," says Blake Bell, author of The World of Steve Ditko, a biography of the co-creator of Spider-Man. Comic-book creators "had no pensions, no contracts, no health benefits, and companies didn't even pay for the artists' supplies. When these artists tried to negotiate greater rights for themselves, they were either collectively cast out or made false promises."
After hearing that Warner Bros. had paid $3 million for the rights to make Superman the Movie in 1975, Siegel and Shuster tried again to reap some benefits. This time, though, they had help from the artistic community and from fans who knew their work.
In a landmark settlement, DC Comics agreed to pay the two men $20,000 a year for life. More important, friends say, DC agreed to add "Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster" on all printed and filmed material in the future.
"Having their names listed as Superman's creators was the biggest victory of all," says Steve Younis, editor of SupermanHomepage.com. "It's worth more than any kind of monetary reimbursement."
The man who helped negotiate the Siegel and Shuster deal was artist Jerry Robinson, who co-created The Joker in 1939 but who received little recognition for decades. (He's now a creative consultant for DC Comics in the wake of The Dark Knight film.)
Robinson says he threw a party in his Manhattan apartment when the Siegel and Shuster settlement was announced.
"Kurt Vonnegut, Jules Pfeiffer, Will Eisner, Eli Wallach and his wife were there," Robinson, 86, says. "Walter Cronkite came on, and they showed Superman flying, and he described what had happened. At the end, he said, 'Another triumph for truth, justice and the American way.'
"We opened Champagne. Jerry and Joe were there, and it was a very emotional moment. There wasn't a dry eye in the place."
The struggle goes on Michael Uslan, executive producer of the six Batman movies since 1989, including The Dark Knight, says there has been a "sea change" in how corporations view comic books and their creators. "Here you have people in their 80s and 90s seeing their comic-book work being taken seriously," Uslan says. "They are deriving economic benefits now either directly or through consultancies."
Shuster died in 1992 and Siegel in 1996, but their legal battles have been never-ending. In March, a court ruled that Siegel's heirs (wife Joanne and daughter Laura) were entitled to parts of the billion-dollar Superman copyright. Because of the ongoing litigation, neither the families nor DC Comics would comment, not even about Mitchell Siegel's death 76 years ago or its implications.
But in an e-mailed response, the Siegel family did say, "It is gratifying to know people want to know about Jerry Siegel, and that he is getting recognition for his creativity."
Tim first put the crazy thought into my head that I should start a blog. And I laughed. But he was kind of persistent. And I laughed some more. But I chewed on it. For about 3 months or so. I have so many friends who write for a living and I couldn't imagine that anything I had to say would be nearly as pretty as their prose or that I'd have any readers, much less loyal readers. Of course, one of the many things I've learned this year is that if Tim suggests it, I should just do it without hesitation.
When I first began Little Merry Sunshine, it wasn't even open to the public. It was only open to Tim, Tony and Brad. And I emailed them and asked for their feedback. That's right, I asked a New York Times Best Selling Author to review my little blog before I published it to the world. I obviously have no ego problems. I'd forgotten that Tim and Tony were in Italy and incommunicado for 2 weeks, but within a couple of days, Brad wrote me back and said "It's you. It's your voice. And it's great." And so Little Merry Sunshine made its world debut.
You know that memorable quote from "Field Of Dreams" of "If you build it, they will come"? Well, that's exactly how's it's been this year. I built it and you showed up. And I'm humbled.
What's in store for year number 2? While I can't know for sure exactly where life will take me and my blog, I do know a few things. For certain, the political commentaries will continue. It's a long way til November. The Cubs rock this year, so I'm sure to continue singing their praises. Look for more shameless plugs about my super cool friends too. Betsey and Ross are turning 12 this week. Other than that, the universe is my playground and I can't wait to continue sharing my take on it.
What I know for sure, however, is that without you reading and commenting, this wouldn't be so much fun for me. Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts with me. I look forward to our continued dialogue in the new year!
As I think everyone knows by now, Senator BarackObamaIS the presumptiveDemocraticcandidate for President. Yes, I know that this actually happened 48 hours ago, but I couldn't write about it then. You see, then I was pissed and I'm not nearly as diplomatic or good with my poker face as Obama obviously is. We won't go into why I was pissed, except to say that it had something to do with a certain candidate not dropping out of the race on Tuesday (note to HRC: when you don't have enough delegates and the other guy left the finish line in the dust, there's nothing to "decide") and her lack of graciousness.
But in the light of morning - 2 days later - I'm able to rise above it and just be thrilled about this historic nomination. Tonight, we will celebrate my favorite things about this . . .
Barack's speech . . .
Cats for Obama . . . scroll down about 1/4 . . do you recognize any 2 cats? Yes! Betsey and Ross are famous! Clearly their endorsements made the difference for Obama. Now if only they can get me into the convention (they're dele-cats, you know) . . .
The Anderson Cooper "I wanna be your boo" moment (note to AC: You can be my boo!) . . .
Barack & Michelle Obama's "first bump" . . . How cute is that?
There were many many favorite moments on Tuesday night and I'm sure there will be many more between now and January 20, 2009.
As I was driving home late last night, I heard a new song that immediately sent me back to the summers of youth at Watervale. In less than 4 minutes, the song perfectly captured every moment from my early teen years through my college summers and I was convinced that it must be written or sung by a new artist that coincidentally I'd grown up with at Watervale.
I also knew immediately I had to share the song with Dave because he lived it too. Hell, he's STILL living it and I'm just a wee bit jealous!
As a guest, Watervale has been part of my life since 1977 (and we still migrate there every August - just 69 days from today!!!!!), but I spent the summer of 1990 there on staff and it took on a whole new meaning for me. That summer can best be summed up with the slogan from the back of our staff t-shirts: "We died every morning, survived every afternoon, and lived every night!"
My cumulative years at Watervale are filled with many firsts:
My first kiss
My first alcoholic drink
I first went to a beach fire at Watervale
The first time I went skinny dipping
I learned how to drive a stick-shift car at Watervale
I first saw the Northern Lights at late one night on the beach at Watervale
I learned how to sail at Watervale
The Bulls started their six-peat as NBA champs during my summer on staff at Watervale
My first weekend road trip alone was to Watervale
I really learned to cook at Watervale - I baked bread daily and creme brulee weekly, in addition to my regular salad making responsibilities
My first and best drive-in experiences happened at Watervale
And so many more . . .
Watervale is about the simple things in life. The rooms don't have phones or tv's. In fact, there is 1 public phone in the whole resort and there are no televisions! My cell phone barely gets reception. There are no street lights polluting the beauty of the night sky. Meals are simple and amazing with everything being homemade from scratch with many ingredients coming from the herb garden and many more locally grown fruits and vegetables.
Watervale has been part of my family's summer for probably close to 60 years and loved by 4 generations of Gardner's.
So at long last, here is the song that started this wonderful trip down memory lane . . . Oh, and it turns out that it's not by a friend from Watervale. It's "All Summer Long" by Kid Rock.
For Christmas, per my request, my dad got me some new sheets for my new bed. Normally I don't ask for things like bedding, but I'd gotten a new bed and I only had 2 sets of sheets - 1 flannel (the winter set) and a set of white sheets that are fine, albeit boring. I wasn't specific about what I wanted, except to say "not flannel." I wanted something for the spring, summer, and fall.
Imagine my surprise when I opened my Christmas present and discovered Egyptian Cotton high thread count sheets in my favorite color - yellow! My dad scored on that gift! Now, they weren't Oprah 600-thread count sheets, but considering I always buy whatever's cheap, I felt like I was going to be sleeping in the lap of luxury.
Unfortunately, because it was winter, I wouldn't switch my sheets. In fact, I only ditched the flannel sheets two days ago. Yes, that's right. Saturday morning of Memorial Day Weekend, I finally took the flannel sheets off my bed for the final time. As I unfolded the luxurious Egyptian Cotton high-thread count sheets, I could feel the softness difference between my old sheets and I knew that getting into bed that night would be an event.
Well, my delayed gratification has paid off. I've slept better and with more vivid dreams in the last two nights than I have in a long time. I love these sheets. Thanks Dad!
I moved to DC over Memorial Day weekend in 1993. My first home was Thompson-Markward Hall, a Young Women's Christian Home, located directly across the street from the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.
My first DC Experience was the National Memorial Day Concert on the West Lawn of the Capitol and I attended with other women from the house. I remember Nana watched it on TV and looked for me in the crowd. With 50,000 people (or whatever there were), she obviously didn't see me.
That began a tradition. I attended almost every National Memorial Day Concert and the 4th of July Concert and Fireworks. Nana watched it every year looking for me in the crowd. Spending such a wonderful day on the steps of our Capitol, with all of Washington at my footsteps was never lost on me. In the 7 years I lived in DC, I never lost that sense of awe that I daily walked in the footsteps of our Founding Fathers.
Eight years later, I will once again watch the concert on PBS on Sunday night, wishing Nana was watching too. And I will be sad for a moment that I'm not still in DC. But I'll only be sad for a moment. And that sense of awe will still be with me.
I know what you're thinking . . . "Ya, RIGHT, Jessica . . . I KNOW you and you HATE mowing the lawn. You get dirty and sweaty and there are sometimes bugs, which you can't stand." Well, in the past, you'd be right. And maybe later this summer when it's HOT and HUMID 24/7, I won't be so excited to mow the lawn. But today, I LOVED mowing the lawn.
Seriously.
I've been looking forward to getting outside and working in my yard. The last time Dave was in town, he made sure my mower was in tip-top shape and ready for our summer together.
A freshly mowed lawn smells good and looks great. If I do say so myself, I now have one of the best looking lawns on my street. Of course, I can only say that because less than half of my neighbors have mowed their lawns for the first time this Spring. My lawn looks great! It's full and lush with minimal weeds.
And it felt wonderful to be outside with my sunglasses on and iPod turned up loudly enough to almost drown out the sound of the lawnmower. The best part may have been my tacky-ass yard work outfit. It pisses off the prim and proper GOPers, which is why it's so great. You know, this being Arlington Heights, certain things are expected - like matching when doing yard work. I don't exactly subscribe to that philosophy. I just put my hair up, put on my grubbiest clothes (matching and clean is not a requirement here), cover my body in sunscreen and minus the daily make-up and I'm good to go. Hey, I mowed in straight lines today. What do they really expect?
Plus, I know Dave is going to be happy when he arrives tomorrow and sees that I mowed the lawn. And really, that's what it's all about. Making Dave proud.
I love the rain. I love thunder and lightning. And I especially love all the pretty green grass and flowers that bloom because of it.
On this rainy Chicago Friday, here's a little treat to put a smile on your face. If Gene KellySinging In The Rain can't make you smile, I'm not sure what will.
As I was driving to see a client this morning, I saw an old toilet sitting at the curb near a neighbor's home waiting to be picked up by the garbage man tomorrow and was reminded of this story . . . Enjoy.
You probably remember that when I was 10 (in fact, on April 23rd, it will be 26 years ago - yes Mom, I checked, this is the correct date) my house burned down. To catch you up, the fire was mostly contained to the garage and attic, but other parts of the house were severely damaged from smoke and water. As a result, we could not live in the house for almost 6 months and the entire house was redone, including replacing the toilets.
I'm not sure why the toilets were replaced, they worked fine and did their jobs. But since insurance was paying, we got new ones.
My best girlfriend Amy lived just down the street and I pretty much spent the entire summer avoiding (or causing) trouble with her. One afternoon we decided to play croquet and I remembered that we had a croquet set in the shed, which had not burned down. So we walked down the street to my house to get the set and take it back to her house. Due to all the construction, we were not allowed to play in my backyard.
When we arrived at my house, there in front of the huge dumpster in the driveway sat one of the old toilets. Amy and I looked at each other and just knew what the other was thinking - we had to make it look like someone had used the toilet. Being girls however, we weren't just going to actually use it ourselves. That would be vile.
We got out the hose, filled the toilet up with water and realized that we needed yellow food coloring, but we couldn't get it from Amy's mom because Pam would immediately know something was up. We had to be more creative. We walked around the block to a family I babysat for and explained that we were making a cake at Amy's house and could we borrow some yellow food coloring.
After we poured almost all the food coloring into the toilet, we decided that we needed some wood chips from the backyard to really make it look good. On our way to gather wood chips, we walked by my neighbor George's garbage cans that he kept in the walk-way between our houses and saw a very stained, almost threadbare pair of men's tighty-whities sitting on the ground next to his garbage cans. Instantly, we knew we had to have them! We grabbed the biggest stick we could find to pick up the briefs and carried them, along with the wood chips, back to the toilet. We squirted the rest of the food coloring all over the tighty-whities and crushed up the wood chips and dumped them in the toilet. The tighty-whities were arranged (using the stick) on the ground next to the toilet, with some leftover woodchips.
Then we stood back to admire our work.
A few days nights later, my mom and dad had to stop by the house to inspect the progress. They went inside and left Dave and me playing in the front yard. Once they were safely inside, I found my mom's camera and went to take a picture of the toilet Amy and I had decorated. Predictably, just as I started to take a picture, my dad walked out and wanted to know what I was doing. Before I could answer, he asked if I knew anything about how the toilet had become "used." I'm sure the look on my face said it all because he immediately called out to my mom and she came running.
To say I couldn't have been more wrong about the kind of reaction my parents would have would be an understatement. It turned out that my parents had seen the used toilet a couple of days earlier and my mom had gone around the neighborhood ranting about how disgusting teen-age boys were these days! Now, she was humiliated because Amy and I had done it - not some icky teen-age boys. I got quite the lecture and probably a decent whooping too. I also had to go apologize to the neighbors I got the food coloring from and to George for stealing his underwear.
I never did get the picture that I was after, but we all still laugh about those "gross teen-age boys" to this day. And every time I see an old toilet sitting at the side of the road, I am reminded about the prank Amy and I so successfully pulled off.
Today is the 80th birthday of the late Fred Rogers.
I wasn't allowed to watch much tv when I was a kid, but Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was always allowed.
In this big, bad world we live in today, it's nice to be able to remember the simplistic truths of this life. Mr. Rogers likes us just the way we are and if we liked everyone just the way they were, without expectation, maybe the world would be a better place.
So in honor of Mr. Rogers and Sweater Days, here are a few YouTube videos for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.
Opening Theme Song, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"
Testifying before the US Senate in 1969 . . .
A rare interview from 1986. . .
This is Mr. McFeely telling us about Sweater Days.
Mr. Rogers' goodbye . . . If you're a true fan of Mr. Rogers, can you really watch this with a dry eye?
And, of course, we can't close this blog post without the traditional closing to Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, "It's Such A Good Feeling." I gotta add this one to my iPod. Sorry about the crappy video and the thing at the end . . . you gotta take what you can get on YouTube.
