Practice of Writing: new session begins January 14th

The Practice of Writing was so successful last time, I'm doing it again. Please join me!

This is a five-week course that will help you jumpstart a daily writing habit, increase your confidence as a writer, and get a lot of work done. I'm putting together  a detailed FAQ for the course description page, but I wanted to get the registration information up ASAP, as I know many of you wanted to give the course as a Christmas gift.

Let me know if you have any questions, and I'll answer them here and on the FAQ. The fee for this session is $95 USD, and fair warning--it will likely increase for the next time.

p.s. once you've paid through PayPal, you are automatically registered in the course. I will send out confirmations, but do not fret! If you've paid, you're on the list.

And now for some good stuff: granting wishes

Just in time for the holidays, I got to give away some holiday cheer. With the help of Camp Mighty, I and ten other lucky people were hooked up with AT&T, who, along with the Make a Wish foundation, awarded us each $3500 worth of gift cards to spend on a charity organization in our communities.

My donations went to the All Stars Project, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting human development through education and performing arts activities.

They wanted to reward some of their kids for their efforts, and asked for portable speakers and headphones--fun stuff to give kids who don't often get stuff just because it's fun. It was an easy (and, well, fun) wish to grant. Do you know how many speakers and headphones you can buy with $3500? I brought Scott and Henry along for the trip, for their muscle as well as cab-wrangling abilities.

I told Henry he had to carry all of these. He didn't buy it.

AT&T gave me 35 $100 gift cards, which took a while to process in the store. In the time it took I became friends with Julio at the AT&T store in Union Square. We're quite close now. If you head over there, tell him Alice sent you. Alice BRADLEY. Then mime using many, many gift cards.

I am not chewing tobacco in this picture. I have no idea what I'm doing. I was out of my mind from all that swiping!

When we arrived at All Stars, Antoine Joyce (Development Officer, aka "Diddy of Development") was kind enough to give us a tour and introduce us around to the hardworking staff and volunteers.

He was quite busy with fundraising work, not to mention attempting to eat lunch while we hurled questions at him.

Here he is, after he finished his sandwich, explaining to us that the kids were not, in reality, posing with German avant garde dramatist Heiner Müller. I'm all, "What's a 'Photoshop'?"

All Stars is an amazing organization. In addition to helping kids and adults through performance, they run the Development School for Youth, a leadership training program for older kids, and work with the NYPD on Operation Conversation: Cops and Kids, bringing together the police and inner-city kids in positive interactions. In 2011, the NYPD incorporated Operation Conversation into their training. 

They also let my kid stand on the stage and perform some German avant garde for us. Or, okay, just stand on the stage. (This was one of many stages. They have quite a set-up at the All Stars Project.)

We were supposed to return to see the kids getting their gifts, but we were all under the weather. Bummer. Antoine sent over some pictures, and maybe they made me cry a little, whatever, I don't know, shut up.

Maybe more than a little. It's been that kind of week.

According to Antoine, the gifts were awarded to the youth and young adult teams. In his words: "these are the people who volunteer every week to guarantee our programs are a success. Some of them are on the load out team that heads to storage at 7 am to load equipment and then work the entire event and return at 9 pm at night."

I think they're hamming it up just a touch. Oh, theater folk!

YOU GUYS ARE SO CUTE AND YOU KNOW IT.

I am so grateful to the All Stars Project and Antoine for showing us all of the excellent work they do, and to AT&T, for making this whole thing possible. This was a gift for us, truly. Thanks, guys!

Look for the helpers

My mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother's words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers—so many caring people in this world.

— Fred Rogers

Henry's home from school, here with his best friend. They're in his room playing with Legos and discussing girls they like (sorry, guys, but I can totally hear you). This is another day to them. As it should be. As it should have been for everyone.

My heart is sick for all the families whose family members are not coming home today. Words fail in times like these. All we can do is cry, and pray, and fight for change. I am trying to figure out what I'm going to tell Henry later, after his friend goes home. Here's some helpful advice, if you're wondering the same thing.

If you're feeling overwhelmed with grief or panic, there is help. The Disaster Distress Helpline provides 24-hour support to anyone who needs it. It's free and confidential. 1-800-985-5990. You are not alone.

Also:

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence

Gun Control. Now.

If anyone else has any helpful resources to share in the comments, please do. (No pro-gun comments, please--you're just going to get deleted and probably blocked.)

Ho ho hurrrgh

On Saturday we did a thing we should not have done. We went to the Toys R Us in Times Square.

If you live in New York, if you've ever visited New York, or if you have even a smidgen of sense you are wondering what might be wrong with us. "Don't go to the Toys R Us in Times Square on a Saturday, especially on a Saturday a few weeks before Christmas" is right up there in the Most Obvious Advice Category, right after "Don't do a Google Image Search for 'syphilis.'"

The answer is, I have no answer for you. We took leave of our senses. We were in the neighborhood, we were already suffering, and Saturday being the first day of Hanukkah, we thought we'd get a little something for Henry because usually I get him something and I forgot. We thought "How bad could it be, really?" and we shared that thought with one another, and the response that came back to us was not "Worse than you can possibly imagine in your worst nightmares." It was not "Hieronymus Bosch-like levels of horrible."

Like this, only waaaay more crowded.

Even Henry, who was pretty amped up about getting a Hanukkah gift, was like, "Mother? Father? We are leaving here and never returning." Unfortunately we had already entered, and were trapped in a sea of people. You can't paddle upstream, when it's people. You somehow find yourself on the up escalator, wondering if they really need to have the enormous animatronic T-Rex blasting and lurching like it's going to eat us and making the kids scream and you know what? I'm not writing about this anymore. It was horrible! The end!

The good news is we got out. And also we never have to go there ever again. But seriously, Toys R Us? You are not allowed to let your stores exceed maximum capacity. You are lucky no one was injured. Or maybe they were, and you stuffed them in your T-Rex? Either way, you are worse than terrible.

Let's forget all about Toys R Us. Let's watch Maymo, shall we? Hi Maymo!



Maymo always helps. And never hurts. Maymo is un-terrible.

What else? Well, my friends! WELL! I've got the second round of A Practice of Writing coming up, beginning January 14th. (Those of you paying attention will note that I changed the date from December 31st. Who starts a class on New Year's Eve? Honestly.) I will be opening registration this week. Get ready.