Hello, Friday Fools! 

Who loves stickers? 🙋🏻‍♀️ Who loves emojis? 🙋🏻‍♀️Who wants to play the ride with me game? 🐴🙋🏻‍♀️ Then let's get social and post pics of ourselves holding up my book! The print copies have arrived in my shop and I've already shipped some out, complete with purple bandanas and stickers. If you feel called, or if my begging persuades you, 😉 please wear the purple bandana and snap a pic holding the book. You don't have to wear it like a bandit, either. You can wear it around your neck, as a headband or a hairband. You have options. 😂 If you purchased the digital copy you can join in on the fun as well by posting yourself holding up your device with the cover of The Reluctant Bandit showing. Fun. Fun. Fun! If I can snap a selfie, so can you (my friend Heidi loves to tease me about my photo aversion).

I remember a coworker asking me about my dissertation once. I told him the title, telling him to Google it. I didn't think he would--in fact, if you don't roll or widen your eyes when I tell you what the title is then I'm pretty sure you're really just asking the equivalent of what the weather's like (Ground Hog's Day) or you're not really listening. I promise I'm not being rude, more matter of fact. It's empirical evidence I've collected over the years of watching people's eyes glaze over when I tell them or spark with excitement (albeit much, much rarer). I don't know if he ever found it, but he did say this to me, "I couldn't find any pictures of you." I thought that was really odd. I told him, "I don't like having my picture taken. Why would any be out there?" I'm pretty sure he didn't know what to say about that. I didn't post or even do much on social media until fairly recently. There was a period where I developed a slight scrolling addiction with Instagram and then I put myself on hiatus. Now, I scroll for a few minutes and quit. My time management skills are shaky, at best. I don't need any other distractions 🐿🐿🐿

Back to my broken record--it would be awesome for you to post selfies with my book and use the hashtags #purpleclan,  #purpleclanriders, and #thereluctantbandit, tagging me and/or sending me your pic! I would geek out over that. 🤠🤓🐴 No joke. My boat would float for days.

For those of you who've purchased my book--many, many thanks. Now, I'll stop the newsletter book harassment for a bit. Moving on to emoji overuse. (No such thing...she whispers.)

The final note for my Friday Tomfoolery is that you all are not the only ones I harass with my emojis. In the above text exchange Monkey is asking me if I want coffee. He's being extra specific because I hadn't been agreeing to the coffee plan he set forth for the previous 3 or 4 times he asked. Normally, I'd type "K" (vs. the blue bubble, "Ok, thanks")--he hates this. I don't know why it gets his goat so, but it does. Everyone else uses these acronyms I don't understand, but K is somehow verboten? I thought it was the one efficient shortcut I could legitimately use. Nope. Sometimes I throw out a "K" to razz him and he gives me 🥺 Right? Low. That emoji gets me (like so many other things that make my eyes literally water). So I give him the emojis and he freaks. Not that you need me to interpret this like some piece of historical evidence, but note the CAPS. At least I got a "title" out of it--no matter how sarcastic. I give you all permission to call me Emoji Queen, if you so desire. Sash and crown to come. 👑 Young man better watch out because he's getting his when I become a grandma. 🤣 (Which better not be anytime soon...)

I hope everyone is well and that you find something funny, curious, or thought-provoking to brighten your days.

Take care!

~Ami