Harper Loves Griffin

Our kids get a bath every night whether they need one or not.

Bath times are extra special at our house. I think that’s why we wash our kids every night.

Our five-year-old daughter, Harper, and our three-year-old son, Griffin, don’t play together much during the course of the day. Griffin has autism and is in “Griffin Land” most of the day.

“I don’t know why Griffy won’t play with me, but I still love him,” Harper said one day, summing up her relationship with her brother.

You try not to compare your kids to other kids. You try. But you do. Watching special sibling bonds develop in other kids and not seeing them in your own is tough.

But bath time is time for Harper…

Chris Christie told the wrong heckler to “sit down and shut up”

If you’ve read my book WHERE AM I WEARING? you remember Jim Keady. He spent a month in Indonesia living with the workers at a Nike factory. That was in 1997. To this day, Jim still travels back to Indonesia. Recently he was deported from Indonesia for joining a labor rally. He stands with workers and through his work with Team Sweat educates high school and college students about global workers’ rights.

Jim stands for what he believes in. He does not sit down, nor does he shut up.

Yesterday Jim attended a press conference in which Governor Chris Christie was talking about the progress that had been made in Jim’s childhood neighborhood since Hurricane Sandy hit two years ago. Jim held up a sign that read: “Get Sandy Families Back in Their Homes / Finish the Job.”

In the wake of the hurricane, I remember following Jim’s efforts. Someone needed help with the disaster that was their homes and Jim would show up with a crew of volunteers. Eventually the city gave him his own dump truck to drive around and help people recover what they could of their possessions and discard what was unsalvageable. He took off an entire month and did this.

When Christie took to the mic, Jim held up his sign and began to ask him why only 20% of the $1.1 Billion set aside for families impacted by Sandy had been spent. Jim didn’t have a mic, but he had a voice. He kept talking. And eventually Christie shouted him down:

(From Bloomberg)…“somebody like you doesn’t know a damn thing about what you’re talking about except to stand up and show off when the cameras are here. I’ve been here when the cameras aren’t here buddy, and done the work.” Christie went on to tell Keady that “I’m glad you had your day to show off” and now, “turn around, get your 15 minutes of fame, and then maybe take your jacket off, roll up your sleeves and do something for the people of this state.”

There is a time to vote. There is a time to sit and listen. But there is also a time to stand and speak. (My thoughts on Standing Up here). Jim stood.

I honestly don’t know the intricacies of the Sandy recovery efforts, but I do know one thing: Chris Christie told the wrong guy to sit down and shut up.

Here’s Jim speaking out on MSNBC:

Below you can read what I wrote about Jim in WHERE AM I WEARING

Win My Fair Trade Underwear & More than $500 of Goodies!

Enter to win more than $500 of Fair Trade goodies!

I’m wearing Fair Trade underwear! And you could be too. Just enter the contest below to win more than $500 of goodies including PACT underwear, Patagonia yoga pants, prAna T-shirt, Boll & Branch throw, Under the Canopy bathrobe, and TOMS coffee.

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Buying Fair and Being Fair is now more than just about your (and Griffin’s) cup of coffee

The fact that I’m wearing Fair Trade Certified underwear is something I can’t believe. (My super soft organic…

Triple Header at Bakersfield College on Tuesday

I’m speaking at Bakersfield College in Bakersfield, California, three times on Tuesday. Three times! Apologies in advance to the third audience for not remembering what I’ve said or not said. I honestly don’t know how teachers and professors do back-to-back classes. Actually my mind shouldn’t turn to mush because I’ve got plenty of time between talks.

I’m speaking at 10AM, 2PM, and at 6:30PM. More info on the event here.

The event is part of the Cerro Visiting Author Series:

Made possible by a generous bequest by Delores Cerro, a local citizen who believed in the power of libraries to shape students’ lives, the Cerro Author program brings a prominent writer to the Bakersfield…

Chocolate comes from W. Africa, so does ebola. What this means for Halloween.

Cocoa farmers I met in Ivory Coast

First off, as ebola madness grips the world . . .

YOU CANNOT GET EBOLA FROM CHOCOLATE!

I was in grade school when the AIDS epidemic blew up in the 80s. My brother convinced me that one got AIDS by sitting on a toilet seat at truck stops after a trucker with AIDS had pooped. Seriously. Granted, at the time I didn’t really know much about sex or intravenous drug use, so I was easily convinced. The thing I don’t know is if my brother made this up or if he actually heard it somewhere. I the ebola fear is any indicator, I’m thinking he…

1 Book, 1 County, & a Host of Awesome Librarians

 Trying to win the Photo Contest at Wells County Public Library

You can go to West Africa to meet cocoa farmers (although not advisable at the moment with the ebola outbreak). You can write a book about your experience meeting farmers on four continents. But none of this guarantees that your stories will reach the hearts and minds of readers.

For that a little help never hurts.

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Wells County Public Library in Bluffton, Indiana. They used my book WHERE AM I EATING? in their One Book, One County reading program. Basically, they pick a book, get a ton of copies of it for their patrons, and start a community-wide conversation around the book. If…

Fatal diagnosis leaves young newly wed asking important questions

You’ve probably seen this video below of Brittany Maynard talking about her decision to end her own life after her fatal diagnosis. I wanted to highlight something she said that one asks themselves when facing death:

“What’s important to you? What do you care about? What matters?”

And her answer:

“Pursue that. Forget the rest.”

Brittany is choosing to spend more time with family and friends, and to travel to as many places she wants to see as she can.

Brittany is scheduled to die on November 1st.

Family. Friends. Travel. That’s what matters to Brittany. She doesn’t say that she wants to spend more time at work finishing a big project or buy a brand new corvette with her retirement money she’ll no longer need. Those things don’t matter to her….

Thankful for the Support of Hoosiers

Wells County selected WHERE AM I EATING? for their One Book One County community read program. Tomorrow night I’ll be speaking at the Main Library in Bluffton, Indiana, from 7-8 PM. Here are the details.

The event was made possible by the Indiana Humanities Novel Conversations program. Over the past year I’ve had the chance to interact with Indiana Humanities, The Indianapolis Public Library Foundation, and the Glick family, which supports both programs, and I’m so thankful for all the hard work all of them do.

Indiana Humanities

Indiana Humanities mission is to connect people, open minds and enrich lives by creating and facilitating programs that encourage Hoosiers to think, read and talk.

Why academic writing stinks?

Please call me Bachelor Kelsey Timmerman or if you prefer Kelsey Timmerman Bachelor of Arts.

Actually, no one ever calls me that. A BA isn’t as noteworthy as, say, Dr. Evil’s PhD at Evil medical school.

I speak at a lot of universities and have the pleasure of chatting with a lot of really smart professors with PhD’s and Masters. Sometimes for some reason, folks assume that I at least have my masters.

“Where did you go to grad school?” They’ll ask.

My grad school was writing 100,000 words of travel columns cooped up in my Key West attic apartment accessed by a fold out ladder. That’s where and when I learned to write and found my voice.

So, I didn’t learn to…