Mom, Mom, Mom #29

This should run in the July 24 Alameda Sun. 

 

What Would Your Six Words Be?

There’s a site on the Internet called Smith Magazine (smithmag.net) that I’ve only recently discovered. It’s a storytelling site and on it are a few creative writing exercises. One has really stirred me up, called “Six-word Momoirs,” in which the site poses the question:  What can you say about motherhood in just six words? The entry I submitted was:  “It’s all going by too fast.” Not as clever as Michelle Norman’s “Stretchmarks are the roadmap of life,” but it’s pretty much how I feel these days. How did it get to be summer already? And soon school will open and then it’s Christmas and then high school and college and, well, you get the picture.

 

For the two or three of you paying attention and remotely interested, I am still pursuing a near-vegan lifestyle. (A near-vegan is someone who doesn’t eat meat or dairy, but might eat honey and wear leather.) It’s been an incredible learning experience and I continue to learn new things everyday, some good—like, quinoa (keen-wa) is a power food! It’s a whole grain with a lot of protein! and some not so good, like Trader Joe’s Joe-Joe cookies are vegan! After consuming several boxes on my own (It’s vegan! It has to be good for you!), I must now look away when I get to that section of the Trader Joe’s at South Shore.

 

I am enjoying this focus on food. I haven’t been as obsessive as I usually am when I “diet,” which is a method that always ends in ruin. This time, I am approaching food with a researcher’s eye, as well as an open mind and palate. It has been a challenge to feed the girls and me, for now we have a near-vegan, a vegetarian and two carnivores in the house. I work hard to have a dinnertime, when we sit around the table, eat roughly the same meal (with a few alterations depending on who you are) and spend some time together.

We leave soon for our summer trip to the east coast, and I am curious as to how I will handle being a near-vegan on the road. I have already told the girls that I am eating pizza—the horribly unhealthy New York style with mounds of melted cheese, cut into triangles you have to fold and hold over the plate letting the grease drip off before you take the first bite. Oh, yes, and I will have a soft-serve vanilla cone dipped in chocolate on the boardwalk down the Shore. I am not even sure it it’s truly ice cream, but who cares?

 

People have been asking me why I am doing this “whole vegan thing,” as my sister calls it. What was at first a lark, a “can-I-make-it-through-Lent” experiment, has morphed into a daily trial and error of healthy living. I haven’t lost much weight, but I feel better—lighter, somehow. I also can’t help thinking that I am contributing to the fight for the environment in my own small way. Maybe this will lengthen my time on this earth, help reduce my carbon footprint while allowing me to take a few more steps and spend more time with my family, my beautiful children. Because these days I feel it’s all rushing by me too quickly.

 

So, my near-vegan experience can be expressed in six words:  An attempt to add more time.

Junie B. Jones and Mary F. Pols: Two Literary Events

Can you believe it’s been since May that I’ve posted? Does anyone really care? For some strange reason, on July 3, 60 people checked out this blog. That’s 6-0, folks, the highest number ever!

What’s next for this part-time blogger, full-time worker? According to Notes from the Universe, all I have to do is “think great thoughts.”

In the meantime, I am plying my multi-faceted trade. Here are a few of the Books, Inc. Alameda events I’ve been to lately.

First, was the irrepressible Junie B. Jones. (The actors were delightful!) This piece, with photos, ran in the June 27, 2008 issue of the Alameda Sun:

The Wild and Stupid Smelly Bus Tour of Junie B. Jones

by Mary Lee Shalvoy

“Junie B. Jones” talked non-stop, grabbed a variety of treasures from her “Big Pink Trunk of Junk” for a wacky show-and-tell (the cymbals were a nice, noisy touch) and generally ran amok around Books Inc. last Tuesday night.

June is Junie B. Jones month, of course, and the character honored the Park Street shop with a stop on her whirlwind “Stupid Smelly Bus Tour.” It’s a 25-city, cross-country excursion that promotes the silly 6-year-old star of the best-selling “Junie B. Jones” series of books written by Barbara Park and published by Random House. The series, launched in 1992, offers 27 books and an interactive journal, and has sold 44 million copies around the world.

For the crazy road trip, the vivacious Junie B. Jones character has a traveling companion in Mr. Woo, the driver of her bright pink school bus. While Junie B. entertained the audience (the 5- to 7-year-old set and their clearly bemused parents), Mr. Woo offered some adult supervision, although not quite enough to avoid the cymbal clanging. At one point in the 20 minutes of hilarity, either before or after the quick change into a bunny suit and the introduction of her stuffed elephant, Philip Johnny Bob, Junie B. proudly extracted the floaty ball from her toilet tank, proclaiming it her favorite plumbing supply.

Junie B. engaged the audience members with questions, but often they offered their own comments and squeals throughout the event, providing a bit of spontaneity. After show and tell, Junie B. stamped books for all the kids in the audience.

It’s an exciting trip for Caitlin Thurnauer, who plays Junie B. Jones, and Jay Paranada, the often-befuddled Mr. Woo, who clearly relish and take their roles seriously. The best part of the gig for them is seeing the reaction of the thousands of children they meet on the road at bookstores, shopping centers, libraries and military centers. The two invite questions and interaction from their fans. The craziest question Junie B. and Mr. Woo have been asked on this tour? “Do you like pigs?”

In addition to the fun and games, the Junie B. Jones tour is also helping kids in need. During the month of June, Books Inc. has partnered with Random House, and for every two books in the Junie B. Jones series sold, one book is being donated to an organization called First Book. First Book is a nonprofit organization devoted to giving children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books.

Here are the photos.

Before Junie B., there was the Mary F. launch party for her book Accidentally on Purpose. It ran in the July 10 issue of the Alameda Sun.

Mary F. Pols and Her Journey to Accidental Happiness

by Mary Lee Shalvoy

Mary F. Pols launched her first book, a memoir, at Books Inc. in Alameda.

Book Review

You might want to hate Mary Pols, Alameda mom and author of the memoir Accidentally on Purpose: A One-Night Stand, My Unplanned Parenthood, and Loving the Best Mistake I Ever Made (HarperCollins, 2008), like I did.

From my perspective, the gods of the Writers’ Universe have been very good to Pols.

She’s a local (she even lives in my neighborhood) who got a book deal with a reputable publishing house, after both a successful career as a film critic for the Contra Costa Times and a writing fellowship at Stanford. (Please kill me now.)

Pols even managed to find a topic that no one else, except for the inimitable Anne Lamott with her book Operating Instructions, had yet to tackle in non-fiction — choosing single motherhood by keeping her baby from an unplanned pregnancy.

Then I met Mary Pols and read her book, and though I am still a bit jealous, I can’t really hate her. For in Accidentally on Purpose, Pols’ book takes the reader on a journey from the day that leads to a one-night stand, through the discovery of her pregnancy, the birth of her precious son, and some additional life-altering events without a hint of hubris.

In fact, she writes about her life, like the one night of the aforementioned stand, her failed attempts at love, her struggles in the relationship with her baby son’s father, and her parents’ aging, in such detail and with such candor and intimacy that you have a tendency, as one reviewer said, to “wince.”

More than once, I closed my copy of the book with that feeling that I was peeking into someone’s diary.

But these are the elements that make for excellent writing and a darn good memoir.

“I don’t think a memoir is really worth doing if you’re not going to be completely honest,” said Pols.

Especially uncomfortable for me was reading about her relationship with the baby’s father.

Pols had difficulty with the situation, too, but a year out from finishing the book she is “just grateful for how good and kind he is and how much he loves his son.”

In the book, while Pols describes her life’s events, she also comes to a few important epiphanies about working through whatever happens in your life and letting go of long-harbored expectations.

“It’s about finding happiness in an unexpected place,” explained Pols and, in addition to the book deal, the beautiful boy and an excellent father for him, “I found peace.”

We all could be a little jealous of Pols, but maybe a little grateful, too.

She has shown us how to take the lemons of life that grow from the bad decisions that we make, and turn them into sweet lemonade.

Mary Lee Shalvoy is an Alameda writer.