Dear friends,

I’m in Atlanta at a conference this week.  Kendy’s been soccer-momming, Rob: coaching, Mark: geoteching, Joey: thinking and writing, Julie: teaching and farming, Lamar: holding his beautiful baby girl, Josh: advising, and Rachel: studying.  I share these “every day life” details about our contributors because I’m just really grateful for our team of volunteers and what they do.  None of them have to write, yet all of them do…thanks to all of them!

In about eight weeks, our website will have a new look and will be easier to navigate.  There will be “one-stop-shopping” in terms of pages and categories, and the design will be customized just for us.  I’m already looking forward to it after seeing the new masthead…eee!  We should probably have a launch party…

We were chosen for WordPress.Com’s “Freshly Pressed” feature Thursday morning.  Our site received one-third more views that day than our historical highest.  It’s kind of like the weather in Oklahoma…we have a record lows, and that was certainly a record high.

In closing, I wanted to tell you about a funny interaction I had in the Starbuck’s line at the Marriott Marquis yesterday morning.  As I head downstairs each morning I make mental bets with myself on how many people will be populating the line.  I was thinking “12” in my head.  There were 15.  About five minutes into the waiting-to-order process, I engaged the girl in front of me by saying, “So – this line is generally long all day, isn’t it?”  What followed was just downright weird.

She looked at me as though trying to focus, looked down at her phone, and in broken English replied, “This doctor has made a bra that serves as a gas mask.  My friend sent this to me, would you like to see it?”  Baffled at the bizarre response to my attempt at conversation, I took her phone and glanced at the screen.  The only thing showing on the screen was this word: “EBbra.”  I handed the phone back to her and said, “Well, yes, that is an interesting invention.”  She looked at me with the gaze of an innocent child and said, “Yes.  A very helpful invention for our society.”  Then she turned back around and didn’t say another word to anyone else in line.

I made a mental note to check “EBbra” when I got back to the room.

The “Emergency Bra” does indeed exist and was designed by Dr. Elena Bodnar.  I think Dr. Bodnar my have Red Dirt in her veins as well.  After all, last Saturday’s essay was about a bra saving my friend’s life (alternative uses for lingerie) and Thursday’s essay was about an alternative use for barf bags, right?  Industrious people, we are, here in Red Dirt Country.  And, clearly Dr. Bodnar is as well.  You can find her demonstrating how to take off, detach into two pieces, and then apply to your face in gas-mask fashion this invention on YouTube.  Click here for the demonstration.

Well, that’s about it for right now.  With this news update I’m sending you warm wishes and hoping you have a safe and happy weekend.

All the very best to you and yours…Red Dirt Kelly

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