We’re less than four months away from Read Across America Day, and something tells me 2022 will be different! I feel like I have more than one full-time job these days so I’m not going to sign up for more controversial debate just yet. Theodor Geisel left us some time-honored gems – he left us some others that likely time no longer honors. For those familiar – “I can read it all by myself” – were the beginner books I grew up on. Dr. Seuss seems to have fallen into a current benign while others gain attention…

I have never been one who loves to read or loves books but I love knowledge and consequently I’m still codependent.  My wife and boys all are avid readers – I wish I could be like them sometimes.  I had a colleague nickname me “the condor” many years ago to highlight my bookish, researcher style.  Again, I’m not prone to enjoy any publication cover to cover but I’m very good at quickly scanning its contents for needed info (and yes, I tend to start at the end of the jacket and work my way forward).  I spend most days with 20 tabs open on my browser while I shop a topic – maybe to me one book means one browser and one tab…

Yesterday my wife and her mother spent the day shopping at a home and garden show.  Along the way my missus managed to win us an egg – as in a Big Green Egg!  She called me right after she got the call letting her know and while the house still needs to be paid off the green egg was a pretty dang exciting free addition.  It’s been a splurge purchase item we’ve discussed for years and never splurged.

As for the ham, it turns out I’m the only one in our household that likes it.  I tried to get fancy and mimic a healthier Egg McMuffin breakfast sandwich for my boys in the morning only to get a text later that read “dad I don’t like ham.”  I clarified it wasn’t ham but Canadian bacon but before I could intercept I got “dad I don’t like Canadian bacon either.”  On a lighter note, my kids don’t particularly care to eat paper either…

I hated eggs as a kid (not loving them these days either necessarily) – my youngest has more of a similar opinion.  We both eat eggs now (kinda – sort of).  People change as they evolve.  Some are quicker to change than others.  My wife and oldest love eggs – but as a collective family of four green eggs and ham is a tough sell.  And that’s okay.  The fact that Green Eggs and Ham is now shock talk makes me wonder as I talk to my oldest about Rock Chalk and their offer to attend.  Rock Chalk is code speak for Kansas University peeps and they are recruiting my kiddo.  This new college courtship we’re collectively dancing through will turn out great.

I’ll close with another author who tends to generate some reaction.

 “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” `Mark Twain

I’m outside of COVID confines for the first time in what feels like an eternity but more closely represents a year and a half off.  I am attending a work conference close to Austin at a new venue I’m not entirely sold on – it’s plenty nice but overmuch by my estimates.  It feels like you are eating a 2-pound burger just to say a 1/4-pound was wimpy.  And I just got an automated text from the front desk that they were sad to see me go but I was invited to use the waterpark until close!

Last night I stayed up a bit to catch up on work matters and the background infomercial was GetBreeze.com. If you hurry, like in the next 20 minutes, you can own this personal “most advanced airbrush tanning system” and be well on your way to Cabo, or Cancun, or Costa Rica as a perfectly tanned, fooling no one, vacationer.

As full confession, I fell for the GetBreeze shtick – not tanning per se but on the hurry up to achieve the most advanced.  I’ve decided I need to write a book for parents for what not to do in planning for your kid’s college – I feel like I’ve missed every step up to full panic mode which is where I find myself these days.  It’s a wonder…

Embroiled in all this drama my youngest turned 16. I was actually in town for the event but what my wife and I planned for the wow factor occurred while I was college searching with my oldest. I pulled the once in a friendship’s lifetime card and asked a “cool” friend of ours to accompany my Sweet 16 (I wrote about him in my last blog – not the friend, he’s really not THAT cool – my son) to a concert I could not attend. It was my son’s first ever concert and our family friend was the best family friend you could ever have asked for in such an event. Even sweeter was the buddy my kiddo surprisingly ran into…

It was an event that just kind of became organic, from my duo arriving early enough and finding friends to the bitter late which the show afforded.  On most days, I want to be the quasi-cool dad but for this evening, I fully signed over the power of attorney.

As school folks, how many of those lifelines are we pitched?    It’s a wonder sometimes why we insist on competing with ourselves.  I’ve spent the better part of 3 days surrounded by K-12 professionals at various stages of their careers after a long pandemic pause for such events.  I thought the vibe would be different but it felt remarkably familiar.  It’s a wonder but maybe it’s worth wondering.  I had a principal reach out to me yesterday and I stepped away from the event to take the call.  We talked for a bit and then caught up on our own kids.  By the end of the call I was sharing with her my college cost calculator because she’s got two years before the same exercise.  I told her I’m going to write that book I mentioned above on the whole experience one day – I’ll probably have to self-publish 🙂 – but it’s a wonder who might benefit from a little benevolence.