My Bunny Valentines

My impulse to spread bunny cuteness started before Valentines’ Day, but I didn’t finish up these little spot illustrations until last night.  It’s only a week or so late, and hey, who doesn’t want a valentine all year round?

I Don’t Care About Your Band – But I Do Care About Your Blog

In celebration of my first week at work, I thought you’d all like to know that Penguin actually has a pretty sweet blog.  And this week, I can’t get enough of their guest blogger/author, Julie Klausner!  She’s got a snappy, self-deprecating (and yet, somehow uplifting?) sense of humor that not only makes me not only want to tune into the next post-Valentine’s-day post, but also buy her book, I Don’t Care About Your Band: What I’ve Learned From Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Felons, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters, And Other Guys I’ve Dated, which came out Tuesday.

I Don’t Care About Your Band is the latest in a line of books dedicated to the single and too cynical to mingle, focusing on the author’s hilariously awful failed relationships.  In the end, though, her message comes through loud and clear:  that all the jerks and weirdos in the world can’t cramp your style – or your hopes and dreams. Don’t believe me?  This Jezebel review will prove it to you.

If you’re like me and can’t get to Barnes and Noble to buy the book until after pay day tomorrow, skip the Valentine’s Day movie and check out a list of more single people treats:

1.  The Blind Leading The Blind – From Imboycrazy.com (how many times can I say “go to there”??), my weekly bible that’s a “pep talk in the form of a slap in the face in the form of a blog”.

2.  Schmitten Kitten – A hilarious blog with topics like, “Things In His/Her House That Make Us Sad”… it has the writing talents of both ladies and gents, and if they weren’t Philly-based, I’d be rocking all of their events.

3.  Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me (Grand Central, 2008) – Bro out with side-splitting short stories about break-ups from the male perspective – our favorite comedic males like Stephen Colbert, Nick Hornby, Andy Richter, Dan Savage etc. etc. etc.

4.  Along For The Ride by Sarah Dessen (Viking, 2009) – Missing some summer YA-lit in this cold, snowy weather?  Get out of your studio mode and release your inner night-owl with this gem of a novel about a perfectionist teen who learns to ride a bike and fall in love before hitting the books at college.

5.  If a celeb can do it, so can you – Lauren Graham is 40 and – SHOCKER – happy.  Cheers!

photo credit – put a heart on your pug’s face!

I Like You

I like you because if I think I am going to throw up
then you are really sorry
You don’t just pretend you are busy looking at the birdies and all that
You say, maybe it was something you ate
You say, the same thing happened to me one time
And the same thing did

Growing up, the highlight of my year was the two weeks spent at Camp Calumet.  Every night, we would jump into our bunk beds, filled with the adrenaline of wide games and campfires (and hopped up on a bit too much sugar from the Snack Bar).  Our counselor would settle us down by reflecting on the day with Devotions. We’d start to slowly deflate like helium balloons, lying in the dark of our cabin, taking in the smell of pine needles and Lake Ossipee, and listening to the waves lap up against the shore.  We’d read a story or listen to a song, and all the little things about the day seemed to tie together in some larger, more wonderous sense.

Years later, as a counselor, the book I remembered most (and probably heard every year during Devotions) was I Like You, by Sandol Stoddard Warburg.  The poem, in childlike rhythm, gets to the heart of what we learned at camp.  At camp, we were able to let go and be ourselves.  Our friends saw us at our best, and we learned to love each other unconditionally.  I never felt more loved than when I was at Camp Calumet.

That’s because you really like me
You really like me, don’t you
And I really like you back
And you like me back and I like you back
And that’s the way we keep on going every day

This Valentine’s Day, I’m celebrating that unconditional, child-like, “friends-forever” love.  If you’re like me, who finds romance to be floating in some mystic, unattainable realm best left ignored, today is great for thinking about how loved we are in other ways.  That we can find love in our friends, family, God, and most importantly, in ourselves.  And that’s what I learned from I Like You – and from summer camp.

Four other perfect devotional books for kids:

1. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (Harpercollins, 1964).  Try having small children interpret this one.

2. Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss (Random House, 1990).  For the end of camp, when everyone has to take all the memories home with them.

3.  Walk On! A Guide For Babies Of All Ages by Marla Frazee (Harcourt, 2006).  I received this book for graduation, so you really can use this picture book with campers of ALL ages.

4.  Chicken Soup For The Preteen Soul (HCI, 2000).  Chicken Soups are the cop-out of all “devos” books.  There are so many to choose from, and you can open to literally any page and make it work.  On the bright side, teens are confused.  This helps.