(Sunday Paper, Volume II, Issue 27)

Hey!

Good to see you!

What's it been, a month? More?

I hope you've enjoyed my time away as much as I enjoyed it - sure did enjoy getting a chance to show off my daughters' writing talent to you...and I always enjoy seeing Kathy share her writing with a new audience.

The guest posts proved more popular than I thought...and inspiring to some who have volunteered to throw their guest-posting hats into the ring.

So I'm here this week to check in, get caught up a bit, and then we'll have some more guest posts: a few more family members, and there are some friends and fellow comedians I'd like to bring into the fold a bit too.

But today, I'm back at it.

So let's get caught up.

*We're going to go with all bullet points here, and no categories, because this post is essentially a giant combo version of my writing, comedy, and what I've been enjoying.

*I want to start by explaining the picture. I may or may not have written about this before. I can't remember: But every week on the 'Baseball Tonight' podcast, Buster Olney talks to Todd Radom. He's a graphic designer whose work you would certainly recognize - it's prominent in the sports world in many teams' logos or promotional materials. (And with events like All Star Games, etc.) This season he's counting down the best team logos in history and this past week he talked about the Mets' logo as number 14 out of the top 30. He talked about its classic look and I just started imagining it as my logo, if it said 'John' instead of "Mets". So Monday evening I sat down and drew it. It didn't take as long as I thought it would - it only took a couple of hours - the longest part was coloring in all that blue. I'm not bragging when I say that...it's just that, I've spent a lot of time in my life drawing the Mets logo, so this just involved looking at it in more detail. And figuring out how my name would look in bubble cursive, I guess you'd call it. I'm really pleased with how it came out. Though I wish I had done those seams on the bottom better. And, of course, I wish I did the cursive 'n' better so it didn't look so much like "Johm".

*When last we spoke it was towards the end of that crazy jam-packed month of May. We made it through! It was super-busy but it was great. We managed to make it to every event. The softball team even won a playoff game as May spilled into June.

*Speaking of winning playoff games - or the lack thereof - there was a time while you were reading all those guest posts that I thought the Mets might make a run: mid-June they were within shouting distance of the Nationals and played Washington with a chance to make up some significant ground. Instead they buried themselves and were exploring trading veterans to stock up on the future. I let myself believe in them again only to have my dreams smashed. That's pretty much how it always goes. And right now they're beating up on bad teams and setting me up for huge disappointment again with another Nationals series on the horizon.

*Last year I told you in the Sunday Paper Notes about my friend Kevin's grandfather turning 100...and totally missed the opportunity to tell you this year that he turned 101! That was last weekend...but it's still worth sharing. Also, my parents celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary, which is no small feat. (Kevin's grandfather turned 56 the day they were married!)

*Spent last Sunday night watching Kwasi Mensah record an hour of comedy. It was a great show overall - he had Sam Ike feature, and he's very funny, and Srilatha Rajamani was the host and she set an amazing tone for the show. If you have the chance to see any of them I would recommend it, and to see Kwasi do an hour was really impressive. We've become pretty friendly over the past few years (and I'm hoping I can get him to do one of these here guest posts at some point). I went to the show with the intention of supporting him and learning how you put together a production like he was putting together while listening to jokes I had heard many times before. I didn't expect to enjoy myself and laugh so hard at so many of the jokes - including stuff I hadn't heard before. So if you come across Kwasi somewhere I can't recommend seeing him enough - he's talented. And he has at least an hour's worth of good material.

*Speaking of comedy shows - Check the 'Comedy Shows' link at the top for where I'll be in July. Two Comedy Studio dates - one on a Sunday and one on a Friday. If you want to go to one of the cooler spots in the area to see a comedy show, go to one of those. The future of that spot is uncertain, so take advantage of the fact that I have these two days this month and come on out!

*Some quick "Notes notes" about the guest posts:

The end of the school year and softball season and looking at all they've accomplished these past ten months or so really gets me swelling with pride about my daughters. Seeing their Sunday Paper guest posts only added to all of that.
I always love reading Kathy's writing - she did some funny stuff for my old sports blog. I think you can get an idea from her guest post of why I like her so much.
Also, the fact that she thinks I'm supportive in her MBA pursuit is funny because I feel like she's been super-supportive of me in my pursuits....so I guess we'll just say we're equally supportive of one another.
It's funny to me that:
- A 10-year-old, 8-year-old, and almost-6-year-old all wrote posts, and it was the almost-42-year-old who first penned the word "fart" on the Sunday Paper.
- Kathy mentioned her trip to Utah this summer: After she went last year she spent a couple of months trying to convince me we should go as a family and after I dragged my feet on it a tiny bit one day she just said to me, "Never mind, I'm going with my sister."

*Kathy mentioned I have a new book idea I might get started on soon. I also have a podcast idea that I think I just need to dive headfirst into. I've also started to journal in the weeks I've been away from the Sunday Paper, we'll see how long I continue with that. I've felt somewhat creatively rejuvenated recently so I need to ride that momentum.

*I've been able to stockpile some ideas for the Sunday Paper moving forward, too, so there's lots of good stuff coming once I am back to it regularly. And if you found out about the Sunday Paper because of a guest post - thanks for reading and for coming back! I hope you like what I have to say too. "Like" the Facebook page and follow along on Twitter please! And look forward to a lot more guests in the future, starting next week.

*(We've covered this ground before: I don't share my birthday on Facebook. I understand the appeal of it - I like getting lots of messages from people as much as the next guy, but there's a long story here and I'll write about it someday. But I want you to know that my birthday is this Friday and if you want to do something for me instead of just writing 'Happy Birthday' on Facebook you can tell your friends about the John Sucich Facebook page and get me some more page likes there. Right now it's essentially just a pathway to the Sunday Paper but as I get these creative endeavors more and more off the ground I'd like as many eyeballs as possible on what I'm putting out there. So thanks for that. And for all the support. If you're reading this, chances are you're the only people I care to hear from on my birthday anyway.)

*Hope you have a Happy 4th. And know that because of you I'll certainly have a happy 7th.