Tommie Lee, Tommie Lee, if I jumped that high, I would...

End the RHYME any which way you want, but that was the cheer my guys wrote for Tommie, my college student who is leaving me today. I'm still a bit teary. Tommie is a girl by the way, in Texas they can name girls that and no one thinks it's odd. Everywhere else, people think she is of the masculine persuasion, but that's okay, it probably opens more doors than it closes, especially since she is an athlete--a pole vaulter, hence the cheer.

Super Suppers opened on Valentine's Day, 2006. By the time May rolled around, I was tired--I won't even elaborate, but there must be a poet somewhere who could come up with a brilliant metaphor for the depths of weary that come with starting a business. I was sitting at my desk when a cute coed opened the door. I thought, "what could she possibly want to sell or have me donate to, I have already chased away 10 other people today and given all the money or food I can spare." I also thought I might just lock the door, curl up in the corner and cry or take a nap. But she smiled and said "Hi, my name is Tommie Lee and I worked at Super Suppers in high school and I was just wondering if you might need some help." Well, if I hadn't doubted my ability to bend over and get back up, I would have bowed down at her feet. I think she started that day, and besides the parmesan debacle, she has never done anything to cause me a minute of stress. She watches my store, my kids, my dogs and my house. She has not managed to teach Pierce his math facts, but I can't seem to teach him much either, he only learns what he wants, did I ever mention that he takes after me? Despite that, she will be a marvelous math teacher at her student teaching assignment in Kansas City.

Tommie is just my latest example of how things just work out. I always tell Jay that I never make decisions, as Paolo Coehlo says in my favorite book, The Alchemist, and to paraphrase my favorite writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson who said it first--when you seek your destiny, the universe conspires to help. Jay finds it frustrating that sometimes I don't even like to talk about making decisions because I think it's pointless. When something is supposed to happen, and when the need is greatest, things just happen, regardless of how much you plan or strategize. I have never yielded a great employee from an ad--I don't know why I still place--they always just appear.

And so we are still waiting and I am feeling a little desperate, but even Tommie is gone now. It has been two weeks since we sent out the material for a treatment recommendation and we still have not heard. I hope it's for good reason and the time invested by the doctors at Sloan Kettering will yield a recommendation without doubts. Or maybe, for some other reason we are supposed to be using this time for something valuable--but that's hard when the worry leaves you sleepless.

But it never ends, does it, losing sleep over your kids? Tommie's parents are here helping her move, then they will go back to Texas and no doubt lose a few winks of sleep thinking about their little girl in a new place with a new job and new friends, hoping she is happy and healthy. My hope is that I get to raise boys that will someday be loved and appreciated as much as I have loved and appreciated Tommie--that is success. Not money or possessions, but living a life and growing lives that enrich the lives of others. So far, so good, and hopefully this experience is only one part of Bo's contribution to humanity. Thanks to all the great parents out there, Lisa