What's My Line?

For a variety of reasons, I’ve always felt a kinship with Matthew Perry’s “Chandler” character from the show “Friends.” He is intense and emotionally volatile without wanting to be, has a sarcastic edge to his communication that is not very warm and fuzzy and often misconstrued, and struggles to maintain healthy relationships despite a colorful history of family dysfunction. We’re a lot alike, he and I. Another commonality we share is that we have to explain what it is we do for a living. It is a running gag on the show that no one can quite understand or remember Chandler’s job description. I run into the same thing, especially with my extended family, all the time. People know I do something with speech, so they automatically assume I am a speech pathologist working with the communication-impaired. When I try to explain that I don’t help people with speech disabilities, but rather instruct people who can already talk communicate more effectively, they stare at me blankly. So, I just say, “I’m a teacher,” much like all the Friends default to, “Chandler does something with numbers.” I think most of my relatives are just glad I finally get paid to do what I always did best: talk. In Jimmy Thomson’s The Koala Who Bounced, no one understands what the springy little eucalyptus-muncher is all about until he finds his niche. I teach Public Speaking, Chandler does the W.E.N.U.S, Karri bounces. It’s what we do, but some people just don’t get it.

http://www.bookworm.com.au/Book/The-Koala-Who-Bounced-Pocket-Edition-9781740518932.aspx

http://www.jimmythomson.com/

You've Got A Friend

Jeff Foxworthy says that your best friend can never bail you out of jail--because if they are really your best friend, they’ll be in jail with you. So true. I got to reconnect today with a best friend I haven’t seen in way too long. I’ve known her for more than a decade, she has been with me through some tough times, and she can make me laugh faster than almost anyone. She has cared for and about my kids, jumped my battery way too early in the morning, given me a safe place to stay, listened to me cry/rant/rave and nearly suffered mortal injury from helping me take out my Christmas tree the first holiday after an awful divorce. We have so many inside jokes that we speak our own language. She knows a lot of my secrets, much of my past, and all of my flaws. I don’t have any sisters, but I have Christina, and that must be pretty close. Scarlett had Winnie the Pooh on the brain today, so Nick read her Nancy Parent’s Friendship Day from the Lessons from the Hundred-Acre Wood series. All the woodsfolk come up with special, handmade gifts for everyone on Friendship Day--all, except Eeyore, who can’t think of a thing. Naturally, Christopher Robin steps in with a creative idea and the morose little donkey is the day’s big star. Prairie dogs. Naughty koalas. Temptation Island. Birdie. I could tell you what these mean, but you wouldn’t understand. Unless you’re Stina.



http://www.flashlightpress.com/authorillustratorNancyParent.html


http://www.amazon.com/Disneys-Winnie-Pooh-Day-Lessons-Hundred-Acre/dp/1579730876