BENJAMIN

So all I can say about Benjamin is that he was born pretty much perfect. And pretty much stayed that way, too. Well, sorta. Benjamin... who everyone but me calls Ben... is Claudia's son, hence my nephew. He is four years older than MY kid, who btw, is also fantastic, but not nearly as perfect. Seriously... anything you wanted in terms of total stress free parenting, bingo. Benjamin's your kid. Even better... Benjamin always had me somewhere on his A List which only goes to show exactly how astute he is.  

Growing up, he did whatever he was asked and completely did so as I said, without causing a moment of stress and with a huge amount of success. My son, on the other hand, entered the world on day one wanting us to immediately clear the decks so he could remake every rule possible for every person possible. To this day, I'm still trying to set him straight. But whatever. Regardless... these two boys grew up as close as brothers and even today, they love each others' company tremendously.

In the meantime, Benjamin, was indeed the perfect kid. As we speak, Benjamin lives Australia with the love of his life and their two kiddies. When first he got there, he had a couple of jobs, several businesses, and then bingo. A few years ago he decided: F this. I'm going back to school to get my teaching degree and then boom. I'm going to teach. Which indeed he's now doing. 

And what fantastic job does he land lickety split? A wonderful position in a high school in Queensland where almost immediately he was asked to please teach the Baccalaureate Programs in English and/or Literature and btw... in Economics, too. I think, anyway. Can you believe it?? Well, I can. Man... talk about living under a lucky star in the world of  professional assignments. AND... what a surprise... his students are absolutely nuts about him.  

Anyway, Benjamin had originally wanted to be a writer. He even wrote a pretty good manuscript if I remember correctly. Which I guess is why teaching English is a perfect marriage for him. Which brings me to why I'm writing this entry in the first place.

I was thinking earlier today... Hey. If his students are busy reading, dissecting and discussing fine, high brow literature then why in the world shouldn't they also be reading my blog as WELL??? Seriously. I decided his class would not only get to learn something great about their instructor, but way more important: something about their instructor's aunt. As in: MAKE ME WORLD FAMOUS, PLEASE.

Yeah. Yeah. I know. I break every language rule in the book. They'll surely correct my bizarre grasp of how I choose to totally do away with proper sentence structure, correct grammar usage and naturally acceptable punctuation, capitalization and spelling rules. Which of course already makes me rethink from where my kid could have gotten the idea in the first place of making up his OWN set of rules on how everyone on the planet should live. But whatever.

More important however.... how great would it be to debunk the notion that 65 year olds are way over the hill, by having them adopt this blog as required reading? Can you imagine?? Besides... they should only KNOW that I went to college during our rock n roll revolution, our sexual revolution, our civil rights revolution, our drug revolution and God only knows what other revolution. Now THAT was a time to graduate high school, alright. Going braless was in. Waiting until marriage was out.

Which brings me to the bottom line: I think I should tell Benjamin to make me Required Reading. Indeed, I'll have to explain that YES, I KNOW I have zillions of corrections to be made in my blog entries, but those can wait til some fantastic editor and/or publisher comes along and wants to pay me huge sums of money. Until then... I'm way too lazy to go back and fill in missing words, etc. for nothing. 

Not that Benjamin will give a sh^t about making me required reading, mind you. But since when is that important? In fact, he'll be none too pleased I even wrote about him to begin with. He likes keeping way below the radar screen. Way like his Mother. Way unlike his Aunt.

In any case... get this... I'm thinking that AFTER the school year is completed, just before the last day of class, and after the students have kept up with my blog, etc. I'll then get right smack onto Skype and then FINALLY... in real time, let the students actually talk to me! After having read all my entries... trust me... they'll have a fine understanding of EXACTLY who and what I'm all about. I'll call it: YIPPEE. THE WOMAN HAS A VOICE.

Hmmm. Now... how can I bribe Benjamin to totally make me famous world wide? Therein lies the challenge. Better yet... how can I bribe him to have me TEACH at his school?? Kinda like making me a guest professor or something. Afterall... EVERYone at Benjamin's school adores him. So why wouldn't they adore his Aunt as well??