This is John Mayer's new album cover. I think it's a beautiful image.
But then I remember who John Mayer is.
"Life is like a box of crayons. Most people are the 8-color boxes, but what you're really looking for are the 64-color boxes with the sharpeners on the back. I fancy myself to be a 64-color box, though I've got a few missing. It's ok though, because I've got some more vibrant colors like periwinkle at my disposal. I have a bit of a problem though in that I can only meet the 8-color boxes. Does anyone else have that problem? I mean there are so many different colors of life, of feeling, of articulation... so when I meet someone who's an 8-color type... I'm like, 'hey girl, magenta!' and she's like, 'oh, you mean purple!' and she goes off on her purple thing, and I'm like, 'no - I want magenta!'" - John Mayer
"Like, you need to have them be able to go toe-to-toe with you intellectually. But don't they also have to have a vagina you could pitch a tent on and just camp out on for, like, a weekend? Doesn't that have to be there, too? The Joshua Tree of vaginas? ...I'll be happy when I close out this life-partner thing. Think of how much mental capacity I'm using to meet the right person so I can stop giving a fuck about it." - John Mayer
"Sometimes I get so bold and I'm so confident about what I'm doing that I actually try to be more of a dork because it's a really liberating feeling to experience what it's like to not care." - John Mayer
There are Buddhist teachings that remind you that you are not the things of your past ("What you are now is what you have been, what you will be is what you do now."). Simply put: your past experiences inform the person you are today, but you still have a choice to be new and different - the person of tomorrow. Perhaps Johnny has moved past this retarded phase in his life.
But this runs directly counter to what, cloud-Mufasa says when he told Simba "Remember who you are... remember who you are...remember...remember...remember..."
I don't want to pigeon hole our Johnny, but I have to agree with cloud-Mufasa on this one. Remember...Remember...Remember...
I just got back from a long weekend visiting my sister and my brother-in-law... and of course, our baby Leo! He's 7 months old now and just the cutest little guy. He's a very good baby: he only cries for good reasons and smiles a lot. The girls at his day care have also reported that he's a big flirt; he's always making eyes at them, smiling slyly, and listening intently to everything they say.
My sister found that when he gets upset, she can always bring a smile back to his face by singing "Six Little Ducks" by Raffi. Here's a video of him enjoying the song during dinner.
Singers: Carrie and mom
Laughter: Dad
Video: Me
Ted, the head of our maintenance department, went fishing this weekend and brought some of his trophies into work to share. The chef at Harvest, our gourmet rooftop restaurant, stuffed these enormous rainbow and lake trout with lemon and herbs and they were unreal delicious. But nothing is quite as tasty as a one-liner from the gruffest man on the planet.
(Lights up.)
Me: Ted, those fish you caught were pretty impressive!
Ted (gruffly): Yeah, well, everything I do is pretty impressive.
He walks out of the room.
(Lights down.)
AND THAT'S HOW YOU DROP A MIC WITH JUST YOUR PERSONALITY!
When I woke up this morning, I did not think today would be an important or special one. But it ended up being one of the best days in a while, thanks to some subtlety beautiful moments that came out of humans impacting the lives of other humans.
One of my best friends, Eric Eyerman, is leaving Chicago for grad school in Boulder, and today was his last day as Camp Director at Lakeshore. One of the counselors, who had been shooting footage all summer to make an advertisement for the camp, surprised Eric and the other camp staff with a goodbye video that featured clips from the past few months: kids reading alongside adults, dancing at the beach, playing sports, and lots of shots of Eric smiling. And it was set to acoustic guitar so it was extra touching. It was so wonderful to see people being good to other people; that video was just to say "We want to honor you and give you something to remember us." Beautiful.
It's been almost a year since I began mentoring Tiara, a high school student from Chicago Tech Academy. She's recently earned one of the much sought-after spots at Genesys Works, a program that connects inner-city youth with internship opportunities at some of Chicago's biggest companies. She's been honing her IT skills all summer and is now interviewing for her internship placement. She didn't have a suit coat for the meeting and asked if she could borrow one from me. I have one that's a little too small for me so I brought it into work for her to borrow. Of course, I made her try on the suit coat BECAUSE I'M A MOM. She looked so professional in it. I felt so proud of the little grown up in front of me that's working so hard to create a great life for herself.
I've been teaching an improv class for kids on the Asbergers-Autism spectrum for about 2 years. This session's class we tried something new: on the final day, the parents were invited to join us for a show and the chance to join in on some of the games. It was so much fun and the kids were great. This was especially good because... I didn't know what to expect. Even having ONE new person can sometimes send the group into a tailspin of excitement and/or apprehension. In this case, we had 7 unfamiliar faces! There was a part of me that was worried they'd all freak, refuse to participate, and the parents would be like, "I've been paying money for my kid to do this???"
One mom got misty-eyed on the way out. Seeing her son in the group made her realize how much progress he's made this summer. And another parent said how comforting it was to see that his child wasn't "the kid misbehaving in class". In our group, they're all in the same boat. No one's "the weird kid". And the best part was that the parents got to be silly alongside their kids, something I get the impression they don't get to do too often.
And because the kids tend to rush out so quickly after class, I never really know if I'm making a difference. I know they get to have fun and logically, I know that makes a difference. But it wasn't until today when I got to see the parents reactions that made it feel really rewarding.
Sometimes I worry that I'm spinning my wheels and not fulfilling my purpose in life. But this totally normal, average day that wasn't supposed to be special was a great affirmation that I'm living life to the fullest. I get to help others and in turn, be helped by them. All is well.
