A few hours have past now after the ALA awards have been announced, and I have spend half my day sending and responding emails while squealing by my desk.
A few things seem to happen when I get great news like winning an ALA award. For instance, I forget about everything else that I am supposed to be doing instead of squealing. This is the second time a Pura Belpre Medal is given to one of my books, and the first time I reported to have been so entranced in jumping and hugging my son and my husband that morning of 2004, that I practically forgot that my son was supposed to be at school already.
Today Son got to school in time; he is older, he can call his own shots. But once more, I forgot to make him his lunch (one of the few things I still do for him, part of my last kicks at trying to be a caring mother to a teenager). No big deal. He likes cafeteria food and by chance I had change in my pajama pocket.
Another effect of being slammed with great news is that I write with more typos and English grammatical mistakes than ever. That is when you know for sure that Yuyi speaks Spanish because her English is…well...still in process. The good news is that if you heard me speak in person that is exactly how I sound; in process. And that is truly me.
The other thing that is happening to me today is that the news start settling down and in their place come the feelings. I watched the Webcast award announcements, and more than anything else I was deeply touched by people’s reaction at hearing the names of each of the winners in the different categories. I am still carrying their cheering with me. Just thinking about it gives me emotional diarrhea. A couple of hour ago I finally got up my desk and I took my Luna Dog and Chacho Dog to run up the mountain. There was a little bit of sun shining through the fog, and the ground and the grass were still damp and soggy, but the three of us running up hill on the chill only intensified the explosion of this volcano of emotions that have been awaken in me by people’s reactions, their emails, and the sound of their squealing along me.
Thank you all for this celebration.
4 comments:
Yuyi, mega mega congratulations! I am so happy for you! Jumped up and down and up and down again when I read the news this morning! Yippee! --Much admiration, your biggest fan, Jo B.
CONGRATULATIONS YUYI!
Finding Wonderland mostly reviews YA books, but we love your picture books, too, and we enjoyed hearing you speak last year at the USF multicultural children's book thing. Three cheers for you!!
Jo B. I think I know who you anonymously are. Do I?
Thank you so much for your congratulations and for all of your jumping. I love that!
TadMak, I am familiar with you blog! I hope next time we are at a conference together we can say hi. Thanks a lot for your three cheers!
Post a Comment