The Blogiverse. Vast, uncharted, full of meteoric debris, aliens, danger, cruelty, kindness, flying saucers, wool, poop, advice, unwanted advances, welcome advances, wishful thinking, incorrect assumptions, venting, despair, loving voices, good examples, bad examples, Michael Jackson wannabees, Wil Wheaton, strangers with candy, and awesome people you learn to love, sight unseen. Here’s one you’ll adore. Go here, and tell him so. What a great guy.

I SAID, go HERE, and tell John he’s awesome. Do it NOW.

Do you want dessert or not? That’s better. Hmmph.

When I cleaned out my desk, in my old classroom last year, I found about a dozen baby teeth. You see, both my children went to my school, and whenever they lost a tooth, they would bring it to me for safekeeping, and I would put it in this little compartment in my big pencil drawer. The Tooth Fairy had to SEE the tooth, or there would be no quarter under the pillow.

That’s right. A quarter. The Tooth Fairy doesn’t have a money tree, you know. If there’s a quarter under your pillow the next morning, you know it was left there by the real, true, honest-to-goodness Tooth Fairy. If you were one of those kids who got dollar bills under your pillow, know ye now that the real Tooth Fairy was not in your bedroom. You were hoodwinked by a Tooth Fairy Impersonator, and all the extra quarters in the world can not make up for the fact that you were NOT visited by a being from the realm of fantasy. All you got was an adult who tried to buy your favor with money. What’s that, compared to glittery fairy dust on your pillow, and a quarter-holder made from a real leaf? You can always tell when the real fairies were in your room. And when the leaf quarter-holder started to dry out, you could crumble it and sprinkle it under your window, so MORE fairies could see that a true believer lived in your room. Sometimes, they visited you even when you hadn’t lost a tooth. They didn’t leave a quarter then, but they left faint glitter marks that only the very observant-est child could see.

Oh parents. It takes so little to fill a child with wonder.

Back to the teeth. Some of you may be thinking that I’m grisly for keeping all those tiny teeth, and I guess it’s a possibility, but honestly, they’re so LITTLE. They’re little, and pearly and perfect, and. . . little. I look at them, and I remember back to a tiny little person with a mouth full of those little bitty teeth. They weren’t little bitty teeth then, of course. . . they were just, teeth.

It’s years later when you realize how small those teeth were, and logically, how small that child was then.

It goes by so fast. Childhood is over in the wink of an eye, people. A WINK. Before you can realize what happened, your kids are grown and gone and calling you in the middle of the night to tell you they were in an accident. . . . but I’ll save that for later.

Pay attention. Have fun with your kids. Invest in a 59-cent tube of glitter. Make coin-holders out of leaves. Your kid’s mind will be stretched, as it wanders in fantasy, in worlds our eyes can’t see, and our adult minds can’t comprehend any more, and it’s good, it’s very good.

And if your child is too ‘cool’ for fairy dust, then he/she is too old for quarters.

Schools love to squelch imagination. If you ever discover that your child’s school is doing that, go over there and raise bloody hell. Imagination and creativity can’t be measured, you see, so most schools have eliminated them from the curriculum and repressed them whenever they can. It’s a national disgrace. Anything that can’t be measured and turned in to the State for money, isn’t allowed. Don’t get me started on this subject.

I have a handful of tiny baby teeth. I guess I don’t have to keep them hidden any more, since my kids are in their twenties now and I suspect they know about the Tooth Fairy. Then again, human teeth aren’t exactly something most people want to look at on a daily basis, although in the old days people made jewelry and buttons out of them.

I’ll put them in the goodie drawer, with the hair and the baby shoes and the tiny spoons.

I hope the CSI never investigates that goodie drawer. They’ll think a ghoul who practices voodoo lives here.

Now, about the accident. . . .

Belle was in an accident last night. She’s all right, thank you for asking, but her pretty turquoise car was rear-ended and the trunk is all folded up like one of those wrinkly dog’s butts. She’s dealing with two insurance companies (hers and the guilty party’s) and since she’s never done anything like this before, and because insurance companies are Satan, she’s getting very frustrated. Go over to her blog and wish her luck, won’t you please? She’s in my blogroll; see if you can find her. I told her I wouldn’t point her out directly, but is it my fault if you find her and go over there to visit her on your own? Fair warning: she’s fixated on the 80’s right now.

I am so glad she wasn’t hurt. My beautiful, beautiful child.

We have no money. We’ll have less this summer. I’m worried sick about that.

But somehow, thanks to you lovely people in the Blogiverse, I think we’ll manage somehow. Just knowing such niceness exists, gives me hope and the will to keep on. I am humbled and awed by you, and, to quote Hugh Grant, who quotes David Cassidy (when he was still with the Partridge Family), I think I love you.