Two Awesome Days

'Allo 'allo!

So things are going well in the Dashiell household these past couple of days.
Firstly, Dash is doing great in his recovery, even though I did get him a cane off the Gift Economy to help him get around. I think it makes him look almost scholarly when coupled with his glasses and budding Harry Potter scar. ;)

There's always a silver lining to these things, you know?

For instance, now that we are without a car I've been having to bike ride everywhere and clocked in  about 21 miles on Monday, what with the kids' drop-off and pick-up and then having to drop by the tow company out of town.

I got to take a shot of the truck and say one last good-bye to it:

Thank you little $800 truck, you served us well!!

Pretty amazing to think that Dash came out of that wreck in as good a shape as he did. And what a surprise that the windshield didn't so much as crack. Huh.

Another thing that happened on Monday was that Ella's other front tooth finally came out!
That thing had been rattled around in its socket for, like, three weeks so I know it was a relief to Ella to finally have it out. Myself, I like that somewhat vampiric look it's given her:

Holding a lovely camellia flower~

Monday was actually rather sunny and even, dare I say it, warm so I took a nice long walk to the library with the kids with William riding his little bike and my main goal being to wear them out.
I think it worked because they promptly fell asleep at 6:30pm. What-what?? NICE.

Oh! Monday ended with a happy surprise for me, when I was notified that an article came out in the local Valley Parent Magazine the Gift Economy and upcoming Clothing Swap :)
You can read about it here, and it was written by the lovely Sarah Nieminski who had interviewed me back in early January for it. Truth be told, that very same day I had had to remove this fellow I'd installed as an admin for the group because of his persistently vitriolic comments made to members and such. I'd been a whirlpool of anxiety over that whole thing, and the interview had helped calm it down...and now that the article is finally out, it's nice to think back to that time and how much has transpired over the past month and more. Time keeps on slipping in the future, as they say, and so far, all good things are coming from it :)

Which brings me to today!
I've been looking forward to today because I got to partake in my second experience of the Benton County High School Career Convention.
I don't recall how I heard about it, but I went to the one last year, too, and sat on the "Writing, Journalism, and Language" panel with the fantastic local author Tom Birdseye representing the field of Writing, and Anthony Rimel from the GT representing Journalism. I, of course, represented the Language field and discussed my career as a translator and all the pros of knowing a second language.

Truth be told, last year I hadn't come all that well-prepared, and just sort of winged it.
The results had been all right, I suppose, with some kiddos coming up to ask questions at the end, but nothing came of it.

Today's Fair, on the other hand, went much better!
I sat on the same panel, as well as in the "Arts" panel where I represented the field of comics (to some degree).
I passed out a lot of business cards, and even got a thank-you card targeted at me in particular by one gal in the audience who felt that what I spoke about is right up her brother's alley. So I thought it was sweet of her to be looking out for her little bro like that. :)

I love love love speaking to kids about what I do for a living because I like to show them that "yes, you can turn your passion into a paycheck!" and because I truly love what I do to support my family. I hope to convey all the positive feelings I have around my career, since not all adults are very enthused about what they do and I count myself as one of the lucky ones who gets to do what she loves for a living.

Oh, and I must give a shout-out to our friends the サンソム家族 for making this possible for me by picking up the kids since Dash is still in no shape to be bicycling around let alone with children in tow.

And so that is how yesterday and today were awesome.
Nice weather, Dash getting better, some attention given to the Gift Economy, and a chance to speak to about my career :)

I hope your week is starting off well, too, and until next time take care and Happy Two Awesome Days!!