Andy Smallman

It’s my niece Jessica’s birthday today. That’s her in today’s photo on the right. From that photo, you might think that she’s turning 3 or 4 years-old. But you’d be wrong! She’s 27 today! Again, from that photo, you might say that she doesn’t look a day over 20. You might be thinking she’d get carded if she tried to buy a glass of wine in a restaurant.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. This photo was taken around 25 years ago! And that’s me in the photo with her! Heck, I look like I might get carded if I tried to buy a glass of wine in a restaurant.

When she was little like this, I used to get to spend quite a bit of time with Jessica. She had such a cute way of saying, “Uncle Andy.”

For a little more “Jessica history,” check out when she won big on Wheel of Fortune!

You may recall that it was Melinda’s birthday last Sunday. In today’s mail she received a package from her friend Christine in France. Inside was a delightful card and a set of cut-out magnets of the “little” girl from the Royal de Luxe marionette street company based in Nantes, where we lived. It was almost exactly one year ago that the marionettes made their triumphant return to Nantes, much to Melinda’s delight.

So excited was Melinda by this gift that she immediately sat down and began cutting out the magnets. She was like a little girl with paper dolls. Then she rearranged our magnet board to include the new ones.

In terms of birthday gifts, this was a score.

Here I am with my co-worker at PSCS, Steve. Steve served as the Interim Head of School during the sabbatical last year, and did a fantastic job. He has served the school this year in both fundraising and admission capacities, doing a super job in both areas. I’ve chosen this picture to not only mention Steve, but to recognize that tonight is the PSCS Student Showcase!

It’s one of our two biggest events of the year, perhaps second only to graduation. Every student is in some way featured and we rent out the nearby Wing Luke Museum for the event. There is food, student music performances, and the main act, the unveiling of the seniors’ projects.

Did I also mention it’s a lot of fun!

That’s Ella there on the left, getting a “makeover” from classmate Chloe (remember Ella’s friend Chloe from an earlier post?). The Chloe in the picture has a strong interest in make-up and fashion, and Ella is only too ready to oblige when a “model” is needed. Yesterday at school they had some time for Chloe to do some “work.”

You see, tomorrow night is our Student Showcase, an event at which PSCS intends to show off the students’ interests. So after the makeover was complete, some photos were taken, the photos being a way to showcase Chloe’s interest in makeup.

Make sense?

If a photo can fall under the heading “TMI,” perhaps this one fits. I mean, who wants to see a picture of my ankle or, more specifically, my achilles (since that was what I was trying to shoot)?

Anyway, here’s the point. About halfway through my hour-long run on Sunday morning, the back of my ankle really started to hurt. I thought I’d just keeping running, that I’d warm out of it, but it got worse, so bad, in fact, that I had to stop running! No! I felt a sudden sense of distress, like I did back in March of 2011 when I had to stop running due to runner’s knee.

I walked home, took some Ibuprofen and thought, okay, I’ll just take it easy. I skipped my Tuesday run yesterday and used our elliptical trainer, instead, which felt just fine. Then, dummy me, I went to the park today with a group of students and casually threw a Frisbee. Reaching to catch it tossed to me, I tweaked that achilles again.

That’s frustrating.

I bought my first Tom Waits record in 1984, the album called “Foreign Affairs” (that’s the CD version in today’s photo, complete with my reflection – cool, eh?). I bought it at Tower Records on what is known as “The Ave” in Seattle’s University District. It was a “Nice Price” LP, meaning it was cheaper than most brand new records.

I took the record home to my apartment and put it on. I loved it immediately, which helps me remember that day. It was a dreary winter day, with a chance of snow. I had a date that night, a friend coming over for dinner. I listened to the record while preparing dinner.

I’m embarrassed to admit that the only part of the meal I remember is the dessert, a mint pie with a crushed cookie crust. I’m also embarrassed to admit that I got stood up that night. That’s right, my date didn’t show. I blamed the weather.

I’m not embarrassed to say that from that first listen, I’ve been hooked on the music of Tom Waits.

I took today’s picture yesterday afternoon, while lying flat on my back on a lounge chair, sunning myself, looking up at the perfectly blue sky. I tried to explain to Melinda that the warm weather and blue sky were my birthday present to her. If only I could manufacture days like yesterday.

Today, too, for that matter. In fact, Melinda and I got home a little early today, about 4:45pm. We quickly changed into our sun wear and went out back to lie down. We kept telling ourselves that this was what it was like in France a year ago.

As the sun went behind the trees we went inside and imagined calling up Frédérique and Laurent or Christine and Bénard to invite them over for a little weeknight repartee. Ah…

It’s Mother’s Day AND it’s Melinda’s birthday, meaning Chloe, Ella & I get to take care of two events on one day. Not bad, eh? Indeed, it reminded me of this expression coined by a former PSCS student. He didn’t want to hurt anything, including two birds. Nor did he really like throwing stones. So he came up with, “feeding two birds with one scone.”

Much better, don’t you think?

On that note, we hosted a big Mother’s Day/Melinda’s birthday dinner. Melinda’s parents were here, as were Melinda’s sister, Brenda, and her family. Brenda’s mother-in-law, Dolly, is in town so she was present, too.

In other words, we fed a lot of Mother’s Day birds on one scone today. 🙂

Melinda and I are just about out the door, out on a date on the eve of her birthday. We are the lucky recipients of two tickets to tonight’s Seattle Sounders FC soccer game, given to us by our co-worker, Liana. It promises to be a great game. The Sounders are on an absolute roll, having won 5 straight games and having only lost 1 of their first 8. They are playing Real Salt Lake, the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year. With temperatures in the mid 70’s and Liana’s great seats, we should have a blast.

But, as you can see from today’s photo (which, incidentally is from a previous date of Melinda’s and mine, this one from 1994 on the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train), we’ll have to move fast to keep from being run over. Game time is in an hour and Melinda is still getting ready.

The first record that I bought with any real mindfulness of wanting to own a specific record was Elvis Costello’s brilliant 1979 LP “Armed Forces.” Owning the record turned out to be another one of those inspirational experiences.

Owning it and loving it, I then bought his two previous records. Because Nick Lowe produced all three records, I bought Nick Lowe records. Because Dave Edmunds played with Nick Lowe, I bought Dave Edmunds records. Follow? Before long I had a huge record collection, most every record tracing back to Elvis and Armed Forces.

I have dozens of Elvis stories, maybe even hundreds. But the saddest is from January of 1981. Elvis was coming to Seattle and all of my friends and I bought tickets. Two nights before the show my girlfriend came over and we played every record. She dabbled a bit on piano and started playing his song “Just a Memory.” She asked me if I thought he’d play it. No chance, I told her.

The next day I came down with a severe bout of food poisoning, causing me to miss the concert and so severe that a Department of Health investigation was launched. The next night, Elvis opened the show with “Just a Memory.”