How in the world did I miss my own blog’s birthday? Shame on ME!
Happy 6th Birthday to Bowllan's Blog! What a year it's been! (Thursday, May 19, 2011)
Wow, what a year!
1) On May 22, School Library Journal began its migration over to Word Press, which means a Happy Birthday is in order to the Wonderful World of WordPress (flaws and all).
2) In February, my good friend and faithful reader, George E. Stanley, died. This left an incredible void in my W.A.R. Here’s one of George’s final comments from May 2010:
Amy, I’m just back from Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, where I spoke at the 46th Annual Bloomsburg University Reading Conference (it’s a stop on the IRA circuit, I believe). It was great fun! I did three talks on Thursday, and the last one was called “Erasing Racism” where I talked about all the things that have happened since NIGHT FIRES! Although there were a number of teachers who told me that they visited the School Library Journal site often, they didn’t always check out the blogs, but now that they know about your starting the W.A.R, they’ll be going there daily, I’m sure. We talked about reading lists and how they don’t usually represent this country’s great Writers of Color. I was quite surprised, though, that a number of those attending do try very hard to make sure their students know about as many cultures and ethnic groups which make up this great nation as possible. Still, they were absolutely thrilled to learn about all of the links to these authors on your blog site. The blogs added while I was gone will only add to the information they can share with the students in their classes. I have to tell you, Amy, that my hope was renewed.
[Rest in peace, George. I miss you.]
3) My son was accepted into the A Better Chance Scholar’s Program and is off to a prestigious boarding school in the fall. He also got his braces taken off yesterday, so this blog birthday post is dedicated to HIM and to my daughter for their unceasing support.
4) As for me, my tests from Tuesday and Wednesday were positive in that the PET scan and bone scan came back normal – meaning the cancer has not spread to other parts of the body. I also made it through the MRI without embarrassing myself. It’s good to have an no-nonsense-we-don’t-have-time for-babies-technician. *smile*
5) As far as next year, I hesitate to predict anything anymore because you just never know. You never know.