You don’t need that latte!

I’ve got something — actually someONE — who rates head and shoulders over your afternoon caffeine fix.

His name is KC (his friends call him “Kace). He’s 12 years old and his Gramma (my friend and workmate) says “He’s a total social butterfly – laughing and smiling all the time. He loves everyone, loves school and his family.”

And, oh, yeah — KC has Angelman Syndrome.

It limits his speech, motor skills and communication.

But — someone in little ole Boise, Idaho has come up with software that could help KC — and other kids like him.

OneVoice – it’s a software for the iPad, and it has pictures for differently-abled people to touch so they can communicate with their family members, teachers and anyone else they need to “speak” with. According to KC’s Gramma “It is an amazing program!”

She is trying to raise money to get KC the iPad and the software. She’s about halfway there and I will vouch for her, this is not one of those I’m-the-king-of-Moldavia-and-you-have-won-the-lottery gimmicks.

This is for real.

And so is KC.

And so is his chance to finally say what he wants to say.

I say, let’s give him that chance.

Here’s the link:
Chip in for KC

Strange days

Have you had an exceptionally weird week? I think I can stand up and proudly say: I HAVE!

The first weird thing came from one of my Facebook friends. Now, even if you are one of my 400+ friends (I know, I know, that sounds like a lot but I started out “Friend”-ing every Tom, Dick and Harry, so to speak; I’ve mellowed out a bit on that front), I dare you to try to figure out who sent me the message about how the great state of Kansas outrageously, egregiously bans the sale of um, er, what I like to call “pleasure givers.” I hope you’re with me because I don’t want to spell this one out, if you know what I mean.

And, just in case one of you happens to get a likewise seemingly ridiculous message from one of your old time, high school or college buddies, don’t jump to conclusions and guffaw, posting the cut-and-pasted message on his or her Wall with “OMG — some one hijacked your Facebook ID and sent me this crazy thing — can you believe it?!” — like I did.

It turns out that he or she may have had a totally legit reason and wasn’t out of his or her mind at all. And she — or he — definitely did NOT want the er, potentially embarrassing and possibly mortifying tidbit on his or her Wall for all his or her friends to see. (Thank goodness you have a “delete” option, Facebook — thanks Zuckerberg!)

True, they may have had a glass of wine or two prior to posting the message and their judgement might have been a tad impaired by some sort of inebriating substance — but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a point.

The point is — I hope you’re still following me on this because I feel dreadfully close to losing my place here — there is nothing wrong with getting a little pleasure out of life — I endorse it. And as for it being — WHAT? ILLEGAL?? — that just goes beyond the pale.

So come on, Kansas — and Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana and Virginia. Get on the stick — and I mean that literally.

Some of us don’t lead a movie-star life. We can’t afford to jet-set around and we don’t have the money — or the inclination — to jump out of a plane on a daily basis.

We just wanna have fun.

Okay, so that was the first weird thing. And it took my whole lunch hour to tell you about it. Whew! The rest of the story? It’s coming…

Finally

T.J.’s Poem

Bert’s in the train,
Ernie’s in the way,
Bear wants cake,
Kitty wants to play.
Bunny wants to swim,
Lion’s got some flowers,
Mickey’s saying “hi” to Donald.
Puppy is hungry,
Big Bird has a balloon.
Bambi is curious,
And elephant’s blue
– TJ Gaylord, at the age of 5, circa 1989