Friday, March 30, 2012

My List

You know how some people have a celebrity cheat list?  Like, they are completely faithful to their spouses at all times unless they run into one of the 5 celebrities on their list and then they are permitted to have a torrid one night stand?

I don't have one of those.

As evidence, remember how I DIDN'T tackle Rupert Everett when I totally had the chance??


What I do have is a list of people that I would love to have as great friends.  Several years ago, I decided that I really wanted to have Daniel and Jill Pinkwater over for dinner.  I thought they would make for excellent dinner company.  Our whole family were huge fans at the time.  How can you not love a guy who writes a story called "The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death"?  Really.  And his wonderful artist wife Jill, who illustrates most of his childrens' books??  We KNOW Irving and Muktuk the polar bears because of her!  (Although, I was very disappointed to learn that there is no zoo in Bayonne, NJ.  I mean, I was pretty sure, but the polar bear books gave me such hope.)  Anyway, I never invited them because I kept thinking that surely we had to know someone in common and eventually I'd make the connection and we could begin our life of bumping into one another at dinner parties and exchanging some witty repartee.  Alas, it never happened, and now we are too far from their Hudson Valley home and NYC to really ever have a shot.



You and your children should read everything ever written and drawn by these people.  They are delightful and wacky.


Which brings us to John Green.  I love the things that John Green writes.  (Paper Towns the very least, but everyone has an off day.)  John Green is a very smart writer, and all around funny guy.  Clever funny.  I wish that I could have hung out with him in high school or college.  (Partly because so many of his characters remind me of guys I hung out with in high school and college.)  I wish that I could drop him a pithy, yet nostalgic line at holidays.  Or a warm email of congratulations at each new literary accomplishment.  But, I did not know him then.  I do not know him now.  However, he lives just a few hours away from me now...

I will not stalk the nice author, though.  However tempted I may be.

I started this conversation about lists last night and Todd looked a little alarmed until I explained my type of list and told him not to worry because John Green is a little too blondish for me anyway.  Maybe he'd already done the math to figure out how NOT far away John Green lives from us...


Speaking of temptation.  Todd gave me John Green's latest book "The Fault in Our Stars" which everyone should read, btw.  My husband is indulgent of my love of John Green.  He gave me the book on my birthday, which was on a Saturday night.  I try really hard to leave Sunday for reading and listening to more spiritual things, so when he came up to bed Saturday night, he found me caressing the cover of the book, but not reading it.  He laughed and I explained that I knew myself well enough to know that if I started it that night, there was no way I'd be able to put it down for a day before picking it back up.  He told me he admired my self-control.  (My self-control was great then, but yesterday instead of doing all the chores I needed to, I sat and read the whole thing.  It helped that Lilyanna was fevered and wanting to be held...)

What about you?  Do you have a list of any sort?

2 comments:

waif said...

Agh! I thought I was the only one with a list like that. I might even write it down someday, but it definately has Tom Baker on the list. Come on, who wouldn't want a friend who played one of the best Doctors EVER?

Emilia said...

i could see tom baker, too... He'd probably get along with Daniel Pinkwater.