The Tao of Pooh

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully."It's the same thing," he said.

My son Daniel read me this little excerpt from the Tao of Pooh and it made me laugh. I thought about it yesterday when I was at Sam's excitedly buying food for lunch. I chose thick, crusty sourdough bread, goat cheese dipped in red wine (it's called The Drunken Goat), and deep purple blackberries the size of quarters. Eating this feast was definitely the most exciting part of my day.

Okay, now on to more important things. My daughter Korina is in a play at the Zach Scott Theatre in Austin. Wanda's World! (Korina is top row, second from right.) If you have middle school kids, they will love it.

Here's what it's about:

Wanda is the coolest 8th grader ever. She’s beautiful. She’s confident. And she’s the star of her own TV talk show where she gives great advice to troubled tweens. That is...in her fantasies. In real life, Wanda has a problem of her own to face. Will the kids at her new school tease her for being different…or will she finally find a way to fit in? Find out when you ‘tune in’ to the critically acclaimed, Off-Broadway hit, WANDA’s WORLD, live on stage beginning January 31. For ages 6 and up.

Lazy, Lounging, Sleeping Till Ten (or eleven) Chowing Down and Basically Goofing Off

Yeah, that pretty much sums up what I've been doing over the holidays. I finally finished my three month long revision on The Less-Dead (yes, I'm aware some people write complete books in three months), sent the manuscript to my lovely editor, and now I'm crossing my fingers, hoping she'll call and say, "It's perfect, April. I'm sending it to copy editing." Ha.

Besides all the lounging around, my daughter Liz and I made a lofty goal to see all the 2008 Oscar contenders. So far we've seen Milk, Doubt, Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight (ugh) and Slumdog Millionaire. (So far, Slumdog is my fav.) Next two on our list are Synechdote New York and Revolutionary Road.

Our family did something completely different this year. We decided to skip the tree, the gifts, the decorations, the lights, the shopping, the stress, and just hang out together. We had a really nice time! We took walks, cooked, talked, laughed (we were all pretty silly), and generally had fun without really doing much of anything. Oh, and Jonny and his band had a gig at the Thirsty Nickel on 6th Street the day after Christmas. They were awesome.

Pretty soon it's back to work which means facing the blank page. It's scary in a way, but exhilarating too. There are so many possibilities. I've been reading some post-apocalyptic/dystopia novels, and I'm thinking about giving that genre a try. I seem to skip around a lot. So far I have a character and scene involving a poisonous mushroom. I know that sounds weird, but I can't seem to get it out of my head. But ... for now, a glass of wine and a Belgium chocolate are calling to me. Must go.