Mark Hayward Is My Hero

I’m spending a long weekend with my cousin and family in Leonia NJ. Today we went to the bakery, and were met at the door by the largest pile of butter I have ever seen. It was awesome.

Worth Their Weight in Butter: My Cousin Scott and his daughter Frances at Balthazar Bakery in Englewood NJ

I had a shockingly good chocolate chip cookie, and we brought home a giant, and delicious, loaf of bread.

Other highlights so far:

• didn’t get lost on the way here
• played a surprise game of soccer with my dog
• got yelled at by a NY cop
• juggled tennis balls representing the Jewish Matriarchs and Patriarchs for Tot Shabbat at the local Synagogue
• got recognized as being from Pittsburgh by the grocery bag I had the tennis balls in

Unfortunately I was not able to connect with my NYC juggler pals, but I’ve got a whole day and a half left in Leonia, so who knows what else might go down.

I just got back from Juggle Those in New York City and it was awesome. Those NY jugglers know how to have a good time. As it turned out, most of my favorite jugglers in the world were there. It was such a good time.

On Sunday a bunch of us went to the Barnum & Bailey, Ringling Brothers Circus. I found the narrative rather hard to sit through, but all of the acts were spectacular. I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but the motorcycle act was truly unbelievable.

There’s nothing like going and watching the circus when you’ve shown up with your own posse of jugglers and clowns. :)