I Solemnly Swear I Am Up to No Good

I just got back from Charleston, West Virginia. I tagged along to play Mrs. Doubtfire while MJ gave her seminar. I was worried about air travel with LMJ. She’s just ten weeks old, and I was afraid the pressure changes would really bother her ears. She came through it like a champ, a very sleepy champ. She hibernates like a frickin’ bear. She dealt with the plane ride better than MJ and I did. I hate the whole air travel industry. I hate its casual acceptance of inefficiency. It seems that all the airlines have colluded to suck, which I’m sure has to be some type of anti-trust violation. Maybe the government should consider leaving Barry Bonds alone and fix the airlines. I digress. Perhaps it would have been better in the long run for LMJ to have been a little more trouble because on both the way up and the way back not everyone too young for Hogwarts (HSWW) was well behaved, and I’m worried that MJ and I are turning into those politely arrogant parents that pity other parents whose children aren’t perfect. If only they would read the literature. The little bastard on the way up made everyone on the plane laugh as we were landing when he screamed, “I AM NOT MISBEHAVING!” at his mother as she tried to settle him down.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Charleston. It was nice. They’re a little stingy with the pork at their breakfast buffet, but I understand that’s a bigger deal for me than it should be. There is nothing in downtown Charleston, WV. Team LJ (Ya boy and ya boy’s baby girl) searched and searched but we couldn’t find anything of interest other than the mall across the street. Our pattern took us a mile in each direction but there were few signs of life. We saw banks, furniture stores, a movie theater, both the state and federal courthouses, an actual haberdashery, but no crowds. The only discernable groups were the mall walkers who had to see the baby. It was like a movie set where the back drop was a façade. We walked to the Kanawha “river”. Maybe it’s because I’m from Jacksonville and I live near the mouth of the St. John’s, but I don’t know if the Kanawha qualifies as a river. It’s definitely more than a brook but not much more than a creek. Maybe it’s deep. I did see a large barge sitting underneath a bridge with no one on it at ten thirty in the morning on a Tuesday. The few people we did encounter were extremely nice. Charleston is friendly town. I don’t see how the people could have been nicer, but then I was pushing a pretty baby around. Charleston seems like a nice place to live but you wouldn’t want to visit there.

The reason we were in Charleston was that MJ, JG, and MB were giving their world renowned Writers Institute. Teachers came from all over West Virginia to see The Crew do their thing. Everyone knows that JG and MB are fantastic people, but they are also consummate professionals, which is rare. My job forces me to deal with people from a bunch of different professions in a bunch of different situations, and professionalism is rare. People don’t do their jobs to the best of their abilities. The Crew does. I think so highly of JG and MB personally that they each walked away with LMJ at different points and I didn’t think twice about it. My lack of a second thought is what gave me pause. I didn’t really want to go on this trip. I had a lot of stuff I could have been doing if I had stayed at home, but from now on, as long as they are going to travel around the country helping teachers get better at their jobs; LMJ and I are going to tag along at least once a year so that she can see exactly how powerful women get it done, and get it done well. Plus, adventure will always be the order of the day for Team LJ.

***WARNING: HARRY POTTER SPOILERS***

I just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I want to thank J.K. Rowling for the happy ending, but I really need to know what Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny do in their adult lives. Do they all become Aurors? Does Harry try his hand at professional Quidditch? Does Hermione reverse the spell on her parents? Who becomes headmaster at Hogwarts? What happens with Draco Malfoy? I’m bittersweet about the ending. On the one hand it’s great, it’s everything I wanted and there is a sense of closure. On the other hand I am

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/30/arts/EU-A-E-Potters-Afterlife.phpgoing to miss them.