we had our little buddies, ages 4 & 6, over for dinner and play tonight. they are so good, I forgot they were here. seriously. their mama came by to get them and i was all, Nice to see you, but why are you here?

our kittens are not always nice to guests.

wacky boy to friend: “The one cat is mean to kids and the other cat just doesn’t like kids. but the other one is okay.”

i made waffles (“…with WHITE flour!” wacky girl told her dad, gleam in eye) the special way. that’s right. with white flour. cinnamon sugar, organic milk and eggs, REAL butter and REAL maple syrup. won award for mother of the year, yes, that’s right.

but i’m thinking, why is it that as a mother, your worth is measured by how good the waffles taste and how entertaining the puppet shows are?

just wondering.

because the content of my character, my love of books, my ability to spin gold from straw, my large and impressive vocabulary, my inability to properly use capital letters, my newfound skill at knotting scarves… shouldn’t that matter, a little?

Our political associate and friend Terry Olson passed away on Oct. 15th. His notice ran today. I am so sad over this. That should read, I am so sad inside of this. Terry was the coolest dude — great husband, father, grandfather, teacher, activist, dog-dad and friend. He fought cancer for so long, so hard. I have never seen anyone fight a disease the way Terry fought his.

Here is my first “real” post that I ever wrote about school politics — the inequities, the unfairness of it all, the effects of poverty as they relate to education. Honestly, I didn’t know what I was doing, I just knew I wasn’t happy with the status quo.

Terry was always quietly supportive of Steve and me. He would also bang on the table with his fists, as necessary. He loved that post, and sent me a note that said, in effect, forget about the recipes and all that, just focus on being renegade. So I did. (OK, I only wrote about food half as much after that.)

He also loved this post, and that thrilled me, that he stamped my work with a big gold star. (For the longest time, when you did a search on “wacky mommy,” Terry’s post popped up at the top of the list: “What Set Wacky Off?” haha.)

Terry was, first and foremost, an excellent teacher. I learned so much from him. (I learned to forgive people, for one thing.)

Love and peace to you, Terry. Love you. I am sorry I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to you, but I didn’t want to say goodbye. Peace to your family, besos y abrazos. You lost a great guy. I am so sorry.

ps — Terry, thanks for outing me, all those years ago, on your blog. Someone needed to do it. (hugs.)