Almost, Maybe, Not Quite Famous

This morning I gave a presentation to around 35 high school students attending a student journalism conference at UW-Oshkosh. My session was called "Writing a book: from Idea to Print," and my name tag read: Jess Riley. Book Author.

I love that.

Afterwards, an adorable student in Harry Potter glasses asked if I'd initial the description of my talk in the program. Aww, was she asking me to ... autograph it for her? Shucks, is that sweet or what? I considered signing a postcard for her, personalizing it in her name, or maybe --

"It's so my teacher knows I came to this."

Ah. Yes. Of course.

It's been a literary whirlwind week, starting with an Earth Day poetry reading I attended with my parents on Monday night, also at UW-O. My Dad was the only faculty member selected to read; the other readers were students, and bless their hearts, some of the later prose was just too much after a long day of work.

I can say this because halfway through one of their pieces I heard a loud, "MUUUHH!" from my left. I jumped and turned to face this noise, which had apparently come from my mother. She'd fallen asleep, and I quickly jabbed her in the side. "Mom, wake up!" I whispered.

"Yes?" she sleepily blinked, leaning over as if I had a secret to share.

She really works too hard.

Happy Earth Day, everyone. To celebrate, I'm making tofu for dinner. Isn't J a lucky man?