Author: Andy Smallman

We took Celeste to the Puyallup Fair today, the “we” being Melinda and me. I was very helpful throughout the day. First, I helped Celeste learn how to pronounce Puyallup. It’s “pew,” like something smells bad (or a seat in a church). Then “Al,” my dad’s name. And finally “Up,” the opposite of down.

All together now, “Pew,” “Al,” “Up.” Perfect. Extra credit if you say it with a French accent.

As you can see in the first photo, I also broke the rules of the fair by touching Celeste. That’s my hand in the lower left, clearly violating the posted rules. My bad. I did explain to a sheep not to touch Celeste. And I sang “Happy Birthday” to a cow who will turn 4 on Monday. While I was doing that, Celeste and Melinda wandered away. I thought that was a bit rude. The cow did not seem to mind, however.

Later, Celeste and Melinda waited over 30 minutes to pay $10 to be tortured. And by torture, I mean they willingly allowed themselves to be strapped into a seat, elevated well above the ground, and then spun around and around. This seemed decidedly “unfair,” hence the name of this blog post.

To get back at the powers that be, Celeste ate some of her father’s beard. Oh, Papa’s Beard is the literal translation for cotton candy. I bet you knew that.m

This picture was emailed to me today by Sieglinde, another administrator at PSCS. It was taken on Monday at the annual PSCS retreat, an overnight in which the students, the teaching staff, and I head off for two days of contextualizing and celebrating the new school year. One of the school’s teachers, Scobie, brought along his nice camera and snapped a number of photos.

I’m not sure why I chose to present here. On one hand, it seems a little self-indulgent to post it, especially with it being such a close-up. But the picture got me thinking about my age. Inside my head I think I’m younger than I look in this picture. Looking at me there, I realize I am 52 years-old, and I figure others see me as being older than I sometimes think I am.

But isn’t it true, you are as old as you feel?

Anyway, it’s an interesting thing for me to contemplate. And, hey, I got carded buying a six pack of beer at Safeway a couple of weeks ago!

So at long last, eight days late, Celeste got to have her first day at an American high school. The teacher’s strike appears to have ended. We won’t know for sure if it’s completely settled until they get together over the weekend to vote on the new contract. Their leadership team has recommended they accept the negotiated deal so they returned to school today.

On a slightly side note, if you are interested in a very interesting perspective on the Seattle teacher’s strike, I highly recommend this piece that was published in The Stranger, one of Seattle’s alternative media sources. It was written by Jen Graves who just finished up serving on the PSCS Board of Trustees.

Now back to Celeste and her first day of school. She left the house with Melinda at 7:35 this morning, Melinda explaining the importance of taking a picture on our doorstep. Of course, I had to take a picture of Melinda taking that picture, so here you have it. When we got home, Melinda and I drilled Celeste on her day, which sounds like it went just fine. She found her classes, had lunch with some new friends, and worked hard to understand what her teachers were saying.

Yup, it sounds pretty much like the experience just about every sophomore had today at Roosevelt High School in Seattle.

If you’re ever in Nantes, be sure to visit Le Nid. It’s a swanky bar atop the highest building in town, affording you 360 degree views of the city.

As it pertains to today’s secret agent of compassion mission, it has to do with recognizing an acquaintance through an act of kindness. Learn more.

It’s true, I regularly (perhaps too often) reflect on our year in Nantes and get this mixture of sadness and joy. Sad because I’d really like to be there – right now and via a time machine back to 2010. And joy because so much happiness is associated with Nantes.

I just found this little video of Nantes. It’s only a minute so go take a look so you can enjoy Nantes, too. And the image here today is a screenshot I took of my computer while the video was playing.

While at that site, I discovered an iPhone app called Nantes Live that I am this very minute downloading to my phone. 🙂

And just in case you were wondering what important discovery Ella and I made in Nantes five years ago today, I suggest you check out this.

Click here for today’s secret mission of compassion.

After Celeste’s successful soccer playing debut yesterday, we went out for a Mexican dinner. Yum!

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for today’s mission in the Secret Agent of Compassion game currently taking place, you can find it right here. As a hint, here’s some of the text: Your mission today, should you choose to accept it, is to further shift your focus to being a producer of renewable compassionate power rather than a consumer of inefficient forms of human energy.

Secret mission #3 on Day 3 of the Compassion Games can be found here. Are you playing?

Melinda and I went to our friend Lynn Shelton’s 50th birthday today. Without question, this is one of the most inspired birthday parties I’ve ever been to. Lynn asked the guests to bring a potluck item, food or beverage, instead of a gift. She somehow secured an incredible place, the Fremont Abbey where Melinda and I have seen some wonderful local bands perform. She got a number of local musicians to perform a song or two. And in many of these cases, Lynn got up on stage and sang with the band, thus fulfilling what I assume has been one of her life’s wishes.

I say this because Lynn has an amazing singing voice. Her lead on the Johnny Cash classic “Jackson” was stunning. She also led all of the attendees in a fun sing-along version of “The Octopus’s Garden.” I took this photo of Lynn singing with Kevin Murphy of the band The Moondoggies.

In case you didn’t make the connection. Lynn has gained a fair amount of fame the last several years as a movie writer and director. She also has made the switch to directing for TV programs, with directorial credits on such shows as “Mad Men,” “New Girl,” and “Fresh Off the Boat.”

Side note – Find today’s secret mission, the second in the eleven day Compassion Games, here.

The Compassion Games begin tomorrow and I’ll once again be facilitating the Secret Agent of Compassion game. It’s a lot of fun, but with school starting this week, too, it makes for some busy days.

Tomorrow night I’ll be part of the Opening Ceremonies at the Seattle Center. I’m to give a 10 minute pep talk to all the secret agents in attendance, swearing them in as members of the International Kindness Team. It sounds like fun, but I wonder what I’ll be saying…