I loved reading about Ilima’s awesome success. She is such a strong and determined writer. I was blown away when I read a bit of her manuscript a year or so ago. Yay for good news!
My good news is that on Sunday my oldest son said, Mom, you are so cool because you don’t look like anyone else.
Immediately I was flattered and Immediately I thought he must’ve been talking about my hair because it’s red which isn’t all that common and also because it’s long which makes me look like a pioneer but a really nice pioneer. And on this particular Sunday I had taken more care than usual to do it: painstakingly blowing it dry, then loading fifty five thousand gallons of product into it and finally trying to achieve a subtle yet striking beach wave using a technique I saw online. It was sort of a big deal hair day.
If it wasn’t the hair, I was thinking it could be the dress. An old dress but a different dress with flowers and a belt and I was wearing pre-marriage spanx which I never wear because it hurts and why would I do that? But for some reason, on this Sunday, with all the work on the hair, I’d decided to be bold and strap myself in.
So it was a good looking Sunday for me and clearly it had paid off.
I said to him, So, how do I look different?
Cam was listening. The other boys were listening. We were all very curious to see which feature he was going to highlight.
He studied me and then said, Most people have really smooth skin but your skin is like, pretty bumpy.
I stared at him. Cam stared at him. I tried not to laugh.
Then he walked up to me and said, and you have like red dots, here and here.
He touched my face where I guess there were some pretty awesome blemishes.
Wow, I said, laughing.
Wow, Cam said, not laughing but sort of laughing.
What’s so funny? He said.
So then I was really laughing and he said what?
And I said, nothing. I just love you.
So you guys, I am unique and really really cool. And I love kids and that’s why I write for them.
What’s your good news?
Throwing Up Words 