Take our kids to work

Yesterday I enjoyed my first paid speaking engagement.  Now I can put "professional speaker" on my resume, along with my public speaking prizes.

The crowd wasn't very demanding: 3- to 12-year-olds visiting the office for Take Our Kids to Work day.  After my speech, they had pizza and then they were supposed to go across the street for cotton candy and bean bag tosses.

My speech, of course, was entertaining and educational.  But for the rest of the day, what did these children learn?  That when Daddy and Mommy go to the office their bosses shake their hands and offer them hot chocolate?

When I visited my father in the office I saw the stock tickers.  When I visited my stepmother I saw the Linotype and the manual exchange switchboard.  That photocopy machine made my day.  Once I figured out how to use it, I wrote and illustrated books.  Unfortunately I wasn't invited back...

When my kids visited me in the office they watched me stare at the computer and yell at them if they interrupted me in mid-sentence.  Or they helped me address mass mailings. 

When they visit Lloyd, they see a real chem lab with spectrometers and safety glasses and everything.

In other words, my children and I saw real work.  I hope all those children who participated in Take Our Kids to Work Day yesterday saw a little of that as well.

BBQ with NSAIDs

A bike ride would be a great way to improve my cardiovascular fitness, I thought. So yesterday Lloyd and I rode through the Great Swamp.

Until the last hill I felt powerful and fit. I communed with nature, reveling in the scent of the haymow, and spotting a red fox. My own cries clashed with the the bird songs, however, when I wiped out descending the Third Watchung Ridge along Fairmount Avenue heading down to River Road in Chatham Township.

Thank God I wore a helmet or I would have serious road rash on my face(!) I enjoyed Lloyd's savory Memorial Day barbecue with generous portions of aspirin and Tylenol.