A Sad Post That I Hope Will Make You Smile

On Sunday morning, the President of my company died.  His name was Mike Hughes and he was an actual writer.  A copywriter by trade, and a creative visionary that turned a small regional advertising agency into the most awarded agency in the world in 2013.  But he was best known as just a nice guy working in an industry full of not-so-nice-guys.

Everyone is sharing their We All Love Mike stories – there is a website and everything.  I probably should have shared mine on his site where he could have actually seen it, since that was the intention.  But I was told not to tell anyone this little tale, so I didn’t.  But what can you do to me now, Mike?  (He would think that was funny.)

Several years ago, I was in a pretty awful client meeting the week of Thanksgiving.  A bad enough meeting that the president of the company was there.  It was clear to him – and to the rest of us – that we’d be working over Thanksgiving weekend and have a pretty rough workload leading up to Christmas.  There were some really sad faces in the room.

Mike felt really bad about what was clearly headed our way.  So he said “I want all of you to buy something nice for your family and expense it.”  A very nice gesture, but who would really go buy something and send the expense report to Mike?

Two days later, he called our project manager and asked her if she thought people had bought anything yet.  She of course said no.  He said “Good.  Send me the list of everyone in the meeting – I don’t want to forget anyone.  I am giving them all $500.”  And he did.

He was put into hospice care this past January, given only two weeks to live at that point.  We were all encouraged to send him emails – he actually likes them.  So I wrote a little note about how sorry I was about his prognosis and that he was great or something like that.  15 minutes later he wrote me back asking me “when is that baby coming?” Ironic that he was all over me about a deadline.  (He would think that was funny too.  In fact, I like this new method of just pointing out what my jokes are.)

You can read more about Mike on The Martin Agency website.

Or on his blog, where he wrote his own obituary.

Blog Post is Totally Off Brand

I just listened to An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresinowski. I mean, wow.  Just wow. 

The book is an easier read – or rather, listen in my case – than that verbose title that actually is more of a plot summary.  I was very inspired by this woman’s friendship with a (virtually) homeless kid and the impact she had on his life.  Neither of them was perfect, but they helped each other.

The story of their relationship was incredibly interesting – the things she taught this boy that seem so obvious to the rest of us – like how to use a fork and knife, how to blow your nose – are things he was never taught.  Laura told her personal story as well, which wasn’t nearly as compelling as the story of their friendship.

This story was a good reminder to be generous to those who are less fortunate, especially this time of year.  And even I don’t have something snarky to say about that.

Bookworm Writes Astounding, Thoughtful Review of TV Series

I am not going to admit how few days it took Andrew and I to power through the Netflix series Orange is the New Black based on the book by Piper Kerman.  I do not think the producers of the show read the book (from what I remember of it) but I could care less.  This is just straight up good TV.  In like a totally filthy but also awesome but yes dirty but I don’t care I like it way.

And that’s all I have to say about it.

Here’s Where I Again Make Someone Else’s Story All About Me

If Maya Angelou read my grocery list aloud it would sound amazing.  I’d think “Bananas?  Brilliant!”  But she sounds even better when delivering her own words.  I thoroughly enjoyed her latest book Mom & Me & Mom about her interesting relationship with her mother, which didn’t even start until she was 13. 

I have made a mental note to one day impart some nugget of wisdom to my daughter at some point.  Really searching my brain to think of something.  So far, most of my wisdom-imparting deals with trying to convince her that ladies don’t throw food on the floor.  Her book about me is going to be very short.

Get Ready for the Most Boring Announcement Ever

Announcement:  I am getting back into audiobooks from the library.  They are the perfect accompaniment to nighttime motherhood & head housekeeper chores after the little one goes to sleep when all I really want to do is curl up with a book and relax my brain.

So what better to do that with than a book about the history of research on human cells?  That’s right fellow nerds, I just read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skoot.  If I had really known what this book was about, I would not have listened to it.  But it was available from the library, got a great rating on Goodreads and won lots of awards, so I quickly downloaded it so I could get going on the dishes.

There were points when I wasn’t sure I would finish this book.   It’s a true story of an African American woman whose cells have been reproducing in labs since the 50s and have led to all kinds of advances in modern medicine.  Her family was unaware her cells were still living for many years and in sad irony grew up too poor to afford health insurance. 

Skoot gives an extremely thorough rundown of this topic, in a way that even someone who spent most of high school Biology passing notes to friends could understand.   However I don’t have a ton of interest in scientific research (which makes me feel pretty dumb when I admit that.  But it’s true.) 

The human interest part of the story – about Henrietta Lacks’ life and that of her descendants I found really interesting.  And the audiobook narrator was really good.  So, I stuck it out, cooked lots of organic veggies for my girl and have just the slightest bit of  snooty pride about the whole thing. (Both the book and the organic veggies.) 

Don’t worry, Jane will put me back in my place by feeding organic veggies to World’s Most Available Dog During Mealtime, Norman.

Yes, I made a post about human cell research about
my cute kid eating vegetables.
It's a gift, people!

Someone is on a mission to get chubby.
It's working.