Today was just your average Monday

CallieCat made friends with a hornet.

And then couldn't understand why I pulverized it with a flip flop.

Work was a blur. Something like this:

from netglos.com

Then off to Portsmouth for dinner and a little light reading.

And finally to the Portsmouth Music Hall Loft. This place is fantastically small.

The guest? This guy: 

Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Funny, smart, sincere, and over the top at the same time. They didn't let him speak nearly long enough.

Price of admission includes a beverage, his newest book, and a meet & greet. He said this book was a work "that Daddy could read." A departure from academic publish-or-perish pressure, this book is 500 pages of pictures and text of the history of African Americans. A book he hoped his father would flip through while watching baseball on TV.

Africans first came to the Americas in 1513--almost 100 years before Jamestown. Say what?! And I bet they didn't eat their shoes or neighbors (ahem).

Of course I fumbled my words when I met him and nervously talked about finding passion and being an inspiration blah blah blah. Oy. But I also asked if I could get in on the dinner they had been discussing (Indian, no less!). Professor Gates and UNH Professor Wilburn laughed--and while they didn't say yes, they didn't say no. I can only imagine what a great conversation they're having right now over pakoras. Boys, I think we've only just begun this dialogue.

And just imagine how cool it will be when I'm on PBS getting all kinds of Frenchie history thrown at me after a DNA check. Sigh...