Girls Rock!

YEAH!
Check out my rockstar niece Izzy at her first-ever rock concert last Saturday at Portland's Baghdad Theater. She's ELEVEN. Look:


The concert was the showcase for the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls, an amazing girl-power extravaganza. Girls come from all over to learn how to rock, and it's not just music -- they really focus on self-esteem and POWER -- they even have a screenprinting workshop! The girls write their own songs, some really intense, some silly. Here are some samples:

"Let me make my own decisions / It's my life my body / I am who I want to be / You can't control me / So let me be free"

and I love this one:

"Dear Dwayne I hired a hitman
Dressed as a clown
I met him at that carnival
You dumped me at downtown
Don't be afraid it's not as scary as it sounds
He might not even kill you
Just kick you when you're down."

There were 19 bands and I thought it might be an awful trial getting through the evening but it was SO FUN. Such high energy! Izzy's band, The Deadly Imperfection, performed their song "Spatula City" -- which had nothing to do with spatulas but was an ode to these awesome women: Debbie Harry, Stevie Nix, Susan B. Anthony, The Donnas, Erin Gruwell who "not only changed the music business or history, but have Inspired women to reach out and grab what they want and not let go." How great is it that Susan B. Anthony is wedged in there? So funny! You can watch their performance HERE.

And here's the tired rockstar at dinner afterwards with her papa:

The night of the concert was also my surprise unveiling of my hair to my family. Heh heh heh. My mom reeled around a bit saying, "Oh my God," but you know, I obviously get it from somewhere. Look at this picture of the two of us wine tasting last year:

And look. My pink product has polka dots! (Say that five times fast!) This is Italian shampoo and conditioner specifically for pink hair. Che bella! I am enjoying it so far, I really am. I don't know how long I'll keep it this way. Who knows! One thing I do know is that it looks great with a kelly green T-shirt, and pretty awesome with enormous sky blue earrings. It's like a cartoon!


Exciting Writey Stuff
On an unrelated note, I got a call today from the lovely Jolie, of "Jolie & Sara" aka "the Washington girls" -- that's what Jim and I call them (and that includes Jaime too!). They're the directors of the Washington chapter of the SCBWI and they put on an absolutely fabulous conference near Seattle every April. I mean FABULOUS. And they invited me to give a workshop at the 2008 conference! Yippee! I'm so so excited! And manuscript evaluations too. I will be in humbling company -- there's a pretty big WOW factor to the faculty -- but I'd better not say anything because I'm not sure how official it is. I will say: children's writers, pencil in Seattle for April! In the meantime, I am so excited for the LA conference coming up in a couple weeks! Here's the deal: anyone who might be going: drinks Thursday evening at the Century Plaza's lounge; perhaps we shall spill out poolside!