drop everything...

ok, so at 12:15 pm my first born called on my cell phone......'my professor just told the class to be sure to come to the english department awards thing at 2:00......i guess i should show up to get my award...can you still come?....'.......we had received the letter of invitation earlier in the week......but our eldest demured about the event.......he had no time to spare for just an honorable mention in a fiction contest....but when he changed his mind and wanted somebody from home to be with him.....well our people are ready and able to drop everything when necessary....and go where-ever.......and so it came to be that at 2:00 pm i was sitting, changed, fed, and relaxed in the 2nd floor auditorium at u of k's main building.....with my boy and his roommate.....awaiting the keynote speaker...the poet marilyn hacker.......and the fiction and poetry awards....etc......'mom....that lady next to dr. edwards.....that is bobbie ann mason....'......wow......2 weeks in a row i have been in the presence of notable authors and poets......even the professor who presented andrew with his award is published.......i was glad i came up....but then...as i said....i am from drop- everything stock......when it became clear that my third pregnancy was not only a no-go...but that surgury was necessary with ectopic events......my parents were bustling in my front door with the peas they had been snapping on their back porch within 5 hours........just enough time to throw some clothes into the car and leave for kentucky.....no deliberation....no bargaining.....just drop everything and come when needed......the summer that our middle child collasped on the bicycle ride across iowa......we got out of our bed at 11:00 pm when the call came from the hospital....and we drove all night to be with him......because we are drop-everything folks.......not that dropping the filling out of health department paperwork for a quick trip to lexington is a big deal.....but it seemed to be to my son....and that is what matters most.........for the record.....none of these writers that i have met of late actually looked like writers......not that i know what a writer should look like.....but.......