a go blue day in michigan:
morning- governor whitmer and obama (blue state rally)
evening- university of michigan vs. michigan state rivalry football game (go blue!)
“on a good day everybody can beat everybody.”
-chris hughton
—
photo credit: michigan stadium, fox sports
somehow a cow
always manages to find its way back to the barn
(along with his sidekick penguin, of course).
—
“build the barn before you buy the cow.”
-serbian proverb
when robots and humans have a playdate
—
“we’re fascinated with robots because they are reflections of ourselves.”
ken goldberg
a favorite comment said to me
when wearing a yellow sweater
“i enjoy you in yellow”
—
“some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.”
-pablo picasso
surrounded for a long weekend by big people who choose to live creative lives
working daily with little people who quite naturally live creative lives
i realize they are the same kind of people
who are, in spite of everything,
open, honest, vulnerable, full of wonder, bravery, creativity, joy, passion, and spirit
i feel such an admiration for them and kinship with them.
—
“life should be a continual celebration, a festival of lights the whole year round.
only then can you grow up, can you blossom.”
-rajneesh
happy diwali to those who celebrate!
attendees stand up comedy show
alan zweibel and laraine newman – old friends from saturday night live
cathy guisewite with her shoe
erma’s grandson sees her selectric typewriter
tried to open my hotel room coffee, attempted to bite it, finally had to stab it with a pen
trouble getting in and out of magic star trek door
always a sure sign of a long night, an abandoned jerky wrapper
—
“it takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.”
-erma bombeck
memoirists, novelists, songwriters, television writers, screenwriters, comedy writers, social media writers, cookbook authors, newspaper writers, bloggers, it writers, comicstrip writers, standup comedians, human interest writers, 92 year old and 17 year old writers, actors, playwrights, short story writers, cartoonists…
so much creative energy all in one place
learning, listening, talking, writing, improv, playing, crying, laughing my face off with stomach hurting fun.
not your usual conference
not your usual hotel drawer reading material
—
“you can’t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.”
-stephen king
after 4 years and 4 tries
at last i find myself in
the erma bombeck writer’s workshop
at the university of dayton
her alma mater
where she has left an endowment
to support writers of humor and the human condition
i’ve always admired her style of writing
her daughter spoke of growing up in the family
the joy of erma’s looks at life
already feeling inspired and so lucky
with very welcoming writers
of all shapes and sizes, ages and stages
beginning to accomplished author
each with a unique story and reason
all with a common passion
the desire to write.
—
“to say, ‘well, i write when i really get into it’ is a bunch of bull.
put the paper in the typewriter, stare at it a long time,
get snowblindness if you have to, but write something.”
-erma bombeck
