Benny and Mom

Happy 51st Birthday to my wonderful mother, Ruth!

Here are 5 reasons why my mom is awesome:

1. She’s a librarian. The most awesome career there is.

2. She got her Masters in Library Science in her 40s, while working 40 hours a week and taking good care of her family (including my little brother, who was 3 to 5 years old during that time).

3. She has a Vox blog too, and writes great posts.

4. She always knows what to say to make you feel better.

5. She is the best mom in the world, and I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am in life without her.

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What’s the best thing about today?

It’s Ryan’s birthday!

Ryan’s Birthday Cake

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Emma Wad

Happy Birthday to one of my very best friends, Emma Wad! (No, that’s not her real last name. It’s an endearment.)

Emma recently moved to the east coast, which makes my leg bounce up and down with joy every time I think about it. Our first east coast get together will be next week, when she and our other good friend Josh come to stay for Thanksgiving.

Emma is a special education teacher; she’s started a brand new program at the school. She’s also amazing at sign language and has taught us many absolutely marvelous signs.

The picture above is one of my favorite pictures of Emma. It was taken our junior year of college when we both had single rooms in the extraordinary Mason Hall. Emma could often be found in my room in that papazan chair eating various things while we watched DVDs and laughed about things.

Once we made up a song about Emma Wad, which is sung to the tune of Stacey’s Mom by Fountains of Wayne. Sadly, no known recording exists of our version, so I’ll have to settle for posting the original as a tribute.

03 Stacy’s Mom

Cheers, Wad! See you next week!!

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Actually, Jane Smiley beat all of us, because she wrote about it in the introduction of her book 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel. (Smiley’s own birthday is September 26th.)

But anyway, I love the date of my birthday mainly because September is the most gorgeous month in the most gorgeous season. I also love sharing my birthday with F. Scott Fitzgerald (my favorite classic is The Great Gatsby, no contest). It’s also Jim Henson’s birthday. :)

Anyway, here’s the list of famous authors born at the end of September: (Amazon forgot Miguel and Shel, so I added them.)

September 20 – Upton Sinclair
September 21 – H. G. Wells; Stephen King
September 24 – F. Scott Fitzgerald
September 25 – William Faulkner; Shel Silverstein
September 26 – T. S. Eliot
September 29 – Miguel de Cervantes
September 30 – Truman Capote

And, here’s a picture of my extremely awesome birthday cake that Ryan made for me a day early, due to tomorrow’s busy schedule:

My Birthday Cake!

We love Mario Party, if you can’t tell.

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