Big News! Book #2!!!

2012 is going to be a busy year. I’ll be picking, catching, lugging, and sorting food all over the world. Check out the official announcement about book #2 in Publisher’s Weekly!

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My Red Face: Overcoming Blushing

(This is what I imagine the red-faced voice in my head looks like. Photo by PHUDE-NYC )

My face still gets red

Last night I was at a meeting where there was one person who didn’t know me. (It was a small meeting.) At the end of the meeting he asked me what I do for a living.

What I did was…my face got red.

It was an innocent enough question. It’s not like he asked me what type of underwear I prefer — boxers or briefs. Here’s the thing, though, I’ll stand in front of a room of more than a thousand college students and show them my underwear and…

There's just something magic about the 1st snow…

I admit, I am not a fan of winter, but you have to agree that there is just something magic about the first snow of the year. I called it quits early today and Harper and I built a snowman.

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Farewell to a friend

If you’ve had four kidneys – two that were yours and two that were someone else’s — cancer, and are nearly blind, you’re allowed to be pissed off at the world.

If, on the other hand, instead of scowling and complaining – which are well within your rights – you travel, compose music, and make the world around you a bit happier, you are one of a kind.

And that’s exactly what my friend Brian Eckstein who died last week at the age of 40 was.

One. Of. A. Kind.

Brian worked at Indiana Public Radio, the local NPR station, and he loved his job. I first met him when the World Vision Report…

Big News: The Adventure Continues

I’m on a flight to Dallas and I hope to God know one asks me about the book I’m reading. Why? Because of all the millions of books I could be reading, I’m reading the only one I wrote. Of course, maybe if I cover up the author photo, laugh really loud now and again, and pepper in a few hmmm’s of interest, it would be good marketing.

“You’ve just gotta read this book! This dude named Kelsey goes to all of the places his clothes were made….”

But this isn’t why I’m reading my own book.

My publisher, John Wiley & Sons, has asked me to do an update and revision. When Richard my editor called…

Are parents less awesome?

“He’s newly married without any kids. He still can be awesome.”

A buddy with four young kids said this to me the other day. It wasn’t said in a bitter way, but laughing. After saying this there was a bit of a pause in our conversation as we imagined (or at least I did) how much we would get done – how awesome we’d be – if we didn’t have kids.

When I get up early to work (I’m writing this at 6AM) there would be no chance an early riser would demand breakfast. (+4 hours/week).

Instead of a two-hour “bed time” routine followed by an hour of exhaustion, my bed-time routine would consist of a 15-minute shower. (+14 hours/week).

That’s 18 hours per week (10% of a…

If my book were self-published

If my book were self-published, I wouldn’t have been reviewed in TIME.

If my book were self-published, it wouldn’t have found its way onto the shelf of an airport bookstore and into the hands of the sociology professor at Wingate University who was the first to champion it as a common reader text.

If my book were self-published, I’d still have a “real” job.

If my book were self-published, universities wouldn’t purchase a thousand copies at a time for their entire freshman class to read.

If my book were self-published, my wife would’ve had to find a new job instead of deciding to stay at home.

I have nothing against self-publishing. In fact, I foresee a future in which I’ll traditionally publish and…

"I can't help everyone, but I can help some."

As much as I love meeting students at universities when I visit to speak, meeting the faculty is pretty cool too.

After a recent talk at West Texas A&M I had a chance to talk travel with a few faculty. One of the professors was a horse trainer who told a hilarious story about being invited to Saudi Arabia to judge racing camels. Another was Dr. James Hallmark, Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs. James (we’re Facebook friends, so I’ll drop the formalities) told a rip-roaring tale about traveling in Turkey and how he thought he had been abducted by al Qaeda.

Following my visit, James wrote an editorial for the Amarillo Globe News about my visit. In Consider Where Our Clothes Are Made James writes…

The Decision to be a stay-at-home family

Our co-workers / bosses

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I’m upstairs in my office and Annie, my ninja warrior stay-at-home-mom wife, is downstairs juggling our two kids.

Someone once told me that being a parent is one of the hardest and best jobs you’ll ever have. I believe it. I’ve had Harper (2), and Griffin (4-months) on my own for a few sweaty, poop-filled, patience-trying days. It was great, but exhausting.

In 1970, 70% of mothers stayed at home with their children. Today only 25% of mothers are stay-at-home moms (SAHM). Obviously what has changed is that mothers love their kids less than they did in 1970, right?

I’m kidding.

Back in…

My wife the ninja!

This is why no one messes with me. Annie is a stay-at-home-mom by day and a crime-fighting ninja by night.

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