A Grumpy Post

My daughter, yes, that one, the one who is doing well if she updates her xanga once a month, told me I should update my blog.

Humph.

I have been putting off posting because I am in a bad mood and we all know how much we enjoy posts when people, especially females, are all moody and hormonal.

So. This evening we went to the VBS program, and this is all good, but I am feeling guilty for not being more involved this year, never mind that my right-hand-woman, Amy, was involved all week and I had a commitment to be at the fair all day yesterday (11 hours) and I took Emily in for her blood draw the day before and I was still catching up from being gone for a week.

Yes, the blood draw. Once again they sucked vial after vial of blood from her arm and sent it off. And I have not yet heard if the lymphocytes are viable this time, meaning last time was just a fluke, or if they are dying off and we have a long road of tests and stuff ahead of us.

And the fair. I sold 43 books and was all discouraged because last year I sold 80. Paul said I set my expectations too high. Joe Blakely who sat next to me as always said Eugene has 150,000 people so he feels the market will never be saturated with his books, and his historical books on the Tall Firs* and Lifting Oregon Out of the Mud--Building the Coast Highway will keep selling indefinitely. I said this is how I look at it: Eugene has 150,000 people, true. But men almost never buy my books, so there go 75,000 of those people. And people under 30 don't buy them either, so there go another 25,000. And another 10,000 can't afford them. And another 20,000 or so don't read books, so there you are with 20,000 potential customers, and the ones who buy them pass them around to their friends, so the market is about soaked.

*Ok, the Tall Firs were a famous basketball team one year at the U of O, many years ago. So I was very amused when this gushy woman looked at Joe's display and said, "OOOoooooh, the Tall Firs! Oooh, that's one thing I luuuv about Oregon! All those big tall trees! But they've logged a lot of them off, haven't they?"

By the time I had sat at my table for going on 11 hours I was so tired I could hardly remember my own birthday, and then the nice young lady beside me, who was in many ways almost Mennonite, with a long skirt and such, and who was selling pamphlets she had written about evolution and the pagan roots of Christmas and Halloween, gave my mind a twist by saying that she and her family, who incidentally also make up her church, don't believe in the Trinity. What?? No. They believe Jesus was the Son of God but not part of the Godhead. Or something. "It's a lot clearer in the Greek." Well, of course my brain turned to mush and all the wonderful scriptures I should have quoted never showed up in my mouth, and then of course when I related this at the dinner table today, the whole family popped like popcorn with relevant verses. This is how my life goes.

Another late-night Oregon Author at our table was the infamous Frog, who showed up with his wild head of hair, a new nose ring, a huge wild beard, four rubber chickens, and a big bag of photocopied joke books. Frog seldom bathes, he is sometimes on the wrong side of the law and decent citizens, and when he bent down to get more books from his bag he, um, "passed gas" extravagantly. But you know what, I just love Frog. He is just himself, he is kind, he remembered me and Emily from last year, and what you see is exactly what you get. I like that. Sometimes I understand a little why Jesus liked to hang out with sinners more than Pharisees.

Ok, Amy, I posted.

Quote of the Day:
"I hope my daughter grows up to be that poised and capable."
--one of the VBS moms, when I told her Amy was my daughter
(I shouldn't be grumpy after that, should I?)