Betty Birney’s Blog

I just figured out that n the last 3 1/2 years, I’ve traveled to 18 states (some multiple times), 2 foreign countries and spoken at about 128 schools.

Even when I’m home, I always seem to be on the road! On Friday, I got up bright and early to drive to Ekstrand Elementary School in San Dimas, about 38 miles from my house according to MapQuest. I allowed LOTS of ample time, leaving the house at 6:15. My start time was 8:15, and my goal was to arrive between 7:30 and 7:45, allowing way more than enough time to get set up. The set-up is the only thing I stress about. Once the projector and laptop and screen and lights and mike are all set, I can enjoy myself.

I was making such good time going east on the 210, I probably would have arrived at 7:00 – traffic was really sailing. But not too far before I reached the San Dimas exit, I hit a massive backup due to an accident with multiple fatalities. I called my contact at Ekstrand, Lydia Molloy, to alert her and we both pretended to be calm. I sat in traffic for 40 minutes, inching along and eventually, the four lanes were reduced to one lane.

It was the worst accident I’ve ever seen and from the newspaper account yesterday, it seems they still haven’t figured out what happened. (There were actually several accidents involving several cars, a bus, two trucks.) My inconvenience was inconsequential in comparison to the lives that were ended and other lives changed irrevocably.

As it happens, I got to school at about 10 to 8 and the set-up was smooth and effortless. The kids were GREAT-GREAT-GREAT. After signing books, I was ready to hit the road again. But even going back in the opposite direction, traffic was at a crawl as I passed the site again. By that time, the eastbound lanes were totally closed – I believe they were closed for 10 hours. So it was actually an amazingly lucky break that the freeway was open when I was headed to San Dimas and that I made it on time.

But it wasn’t a fun drive.

The next day – Saturday – Frank and I headed down to Laguna Niguel to visit my Aunt Katie and Uncle Cy, who live there, and my Aunt Mil and Uncle Bob, were were visiting from St. Louis. Going to Orange County from L.A. and vice-versa is always tricky and you just have to expect heavy traffic. Too many people! It’s 66 miles from door to door, but it took 2 hours, 20 minutes to get there. It was worth it to have a great visit with my family and a drive to Dana Point Marina for a walk.  After dinner, we headed back to L.A., leaving around 8 and getting home at 9:10 – a much more reasonable drive!

So I’m more than happy to be sitting at my desk today, proofreading the U.K. version of The Princess and the Peabodys, which comes out in June, and the U.S. version of Summer According to Humphrey, which comes out next February.

No driving today!

We've had a lot of rain this year, which we need. One recent rain produced a spectacular sunset - this was taken a few feet from my office door.

When I haven’t posted for awhile, do not assume I’m lounging around eating bon-bons. It probably means I’m on a deadline, or possibly that I’m on the road.

A week ago today, I finished up the hurried-up revisions on the 6th Humphrey book, due out next year. Then I spent two days at Miller Elementary School in Burbank – probably the closest school to my house I’ve ever visited. Really great kids and the school had such a nice vibe. My thanks to Fran Zimmermann, Judy Hession and Betty O’Dell for hosting me so well. As usual, I learned as much as the kids did.

Then I’ve been dealing with some new health problems for Desi the dog. She spent the weekend in the hospital. She’s as pretty and sweet as ever but they’re trying to figure out what the problem is. She’ll be back home tonight, hurrah!

Ooh, the new book for next year has just the best cover ever, but it’s too early to share it. I wish I could!

ADVENTURE ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY comes out next week (drum roll, please), but it was written a year or so ago. I always talk about doing some kind of research on every book I do (and I am grateful for the internet which has made it so easy). But not all research is done in books or online. I snapped a photo of an experiment I conducted in my bathtub back then to make sure what I was writing was accurate.

I challenge anyone – ANYONE – to figure out what the heck I was doing.

No teddy bears were actually harmed in the making of this book!

This led to a second experiment (or just a lovely still life):

Stay tuned for another wacky but non-watery experiment to come!

As my family knows all too well, holiday music is a big deal with me, both listening to it and playing it on the piano.  It’s a key element in the enjoyment of the holiday, going back to my childhood. I’ve amassed quite a collection of holiday music for the CD player, including my beloved and obscure novelty songs, “I Yust Go Nuts at Christms” and “Yingle Bells” by Yogi Yogerson and “Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey” by Lou Monte.

Then there’s my tattered Christmas sheet music from the 50s. They’re all in pretty bad shape. “White Christmas” disintegrated completely but I managed to copy it and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” (one of my favorites) is partially gone. There are so many carol books but I far prefer one from my childhood. It’s in shreds but still playable.

Playing piano always makes me nostalgic, though, and last night I thought so much of Mr. Ehrhardt, my wonderful, patient, intuitive piano teacher who taught me theory at age 7 and taught me to improvise. He died in his 40s, a real loss, but his memory is always with me when I play and see his pencil scribbled shorthand on my music. I can still hear him chuckle and say, “That was great! Now let’s play it the way it’s written.” He saw early on that I had a knack for improvisation and he led me that way, while always insisting I also had pieces that had to be played the way they were written, too.

So, humming as I write, I say “Happy holidays” to one and all. Whatever holiday you celebrate, I hope you have a song in your heart this year.

Answer to last post’s mystery question: it’s a magnolia tree seed pod. The tree is actually in our neighbor’s yard. We frequently see the pods themselves but I’ve never seen those red M&M looking seeds before. Except for the skunks (and mosquitoes, etc.) nature is pretty grand.

Especially the owl I hear at 3 and 4 in the morning when I take Desi out in the front yard. It’s usually off in the distance but was really close night before last.

But there’s more drama than skunks and owls. Sitting in my quiet little office in the back of the backyard, I heard the loud crash of an avocado bouncing off the roof from the nearby (giant) tree. Actually, we have a very poor crop coming this year because we had the tree trimmed last year. But there was at least big one. I went to my (new) door and was face to face with one of our big, fat, smart squirrels. They really are the hugest squirrels I’ve ever seen, so avocados are definitely fattening.

He took the measure of me, decided to risk everything and check out the fallen avocado. And for the first time, I saw a squirrel carry a very large avocado up the tree. Here’s the sequence:

Squirrel hears the avocado fall

Squirrel sees me, sizes up the situation

Squirrel goes for it anyway

Squirrel gets the prize

By the way, my apologies to those who are iced in. This is Southern California in December but we’re supposed to have cold temperatures (highs in the 50s) the next few days and much needed rain!