She always smiled.
memories
2
Jan 17
In exotic Milford, Connecticut
We met some friends for lunch today. He’s a fireman. She’s a counselor. Also, they are parents, and they brought their kid, who is adorable and interested in pointing at people. They told us of their 2016 real estate horror stories, which were so bizarre and bad we didn’t even tell any of our tales from last year.
And we have some tales, mind you. Tales involving buyers who didn’t understand the concept of boundaries, a realtor who was either a compulsive liar or losing her mind. Tales involving people showing up at inopportune times, and not taking the hint. And we sold our house in less than a week. These are some write the real estate commissioners and complain sort of tales. But our friends’ tales were better. Or worse? Worse. Definitely worse.
Anyway, we had lunch at SmashBurger:
The place where they make burgers like most other places and charge you a bit more. And then they drizzle a little oil on their fries and you think This place is brilliant!
Also, it is the place where the shift leader has to come out and make an announcement that everyone that ordered milkshakes is going to have to wait about 10 minutes because it is just her and three other people working today. They’d been open for an hour.
But the point was visiting and seeing the kid and not so much worrying about burgers or milkshakes we didn’t order. It was cold and wet and raining and it was a good day for friends. We also went to a mall, which is something people seldom say anymore, I gather. We walked into the mall itself through one of the anchor stores and one of the employees there was saying to a coworker that they’d been busy today, but it didn’t especially feel that way. Anyway, we went to a makeup store, which was perhaps the busiest place. It is colorful and full of smells and you can buy a charcoal face scrub product for $47 a pound. I thought about making a video out of it, but remembered I did that in the same store last year:
I went to a store at the mall. I also shot these images. #AShortFilmOfNoConsequence pic.twitter.com/a0famDBpfa
— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith) December 29, 2015
Which, I suppose, makes this an annual pilgrimage now.
And I took a few pages out of a children’s book, Yellow Copter and cleaned them up. I like these scenes where there is a lot going on:
The theme of this book, if you are like me and unfamiliar, is that the school goes on a field trip and, somehow, the teacher gets stuck on the ferris wheel. Cranes can’t reach her. Jets just zoom on by. But a little yellow helicopter comes to the rescue.
This is the guy on the crane. His original message says something like “Hold on, teach!” I’m going to repurpose it with other positive messages, like this:
I mean, a guy on a crane is holding a sign out there for you? How can you not be encouraged?
25
Dec 16
Merry Christmas
I love coming to church here. My great-grandfather donated the land for the building. He and just about everybody else in my family has been a deacon or led the singing or preached or prayed over the congregation.
They’re all older now, but we’re all older now. Most of us, anyway, and this was one of the places where I learned about singing.
Yes, we brought Allie with us:
She’s an excellent traveler, and she’s feeling right at home at her grandhooman’s place. She will climb all over you to reach a piece of furniture that holds her interest.
And we went to visit my grandmother, too:
Merry Christmas to you and your family. Enjoy your time together and your traditions.
8
Nov 16
Election night coverage
Well, that was something.
Election night was a big deal in our new building on campus. We had live reports from the public television station, various political panels and all kinds of working student media. And, of course, on the big screen, we watched all of the national and international coverage. And at one point I looked up and I saw one of our students reporting on statewide television. That’s the young lady on the right:
She did a nice job, because she’s a talented reporter. We expect big things.
Elsewhere, the reporters at the IDS, the ridiculously successful campus newspaper, were planning tomorrow’s layout:
And in the newsroom they were waiting for numbers to roll in:
Meanwhile, over in a few of our production booths we had students doing a talk show on WIUX, the student radio station.
And of course my friends at IUS-TV had an election special tonight as well. You can see that right here:
The first election I covered, I was also in college. I wrote a story about the election of a new congressman — he would go on to become a two-term governor and when I interviewed him they were still whooping and hollering in the background — and a junior U.S. senator. That was a pretty great opportunity, and it set me off on a few great years of political news coverage. And me and my peers didn’t have the possibilities afforded to us to these young reporters. Imagine what they might do in the next 15 or 20 years.
12
Oct 16
Huh
It is funny where things come to you. Some important thought once came to me in a dream. Once I had an important realization while driving up a little hill in a quaint downtown area, wondering if I would hit the green light above. I’ve had plenty of life’s little epiphanies while standing over a sink of one sort or another.
And now today. Today, I was cleaning out my phone a bit. I need the space, you see. So I’ve dumped a lot of things and I’ve removed all of the messages I can stand to delete and now I’m going through old texts with a few key correspondents. At this point I’m deleting the odd picture or two, but mostly reminiscing. You know how it is: sometimes you see a thing you’ve written and it brings back the flood of details that worked around the bits you wrote. I stumbled on a particular text and that prompted this:
I was sitting in an office when I typed that text. I was sitting in a different office when I found it again.
And it is funny where things come to you.
