orangery (mine)

This is the title of Clay Aiken's book:
Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life.

This is the cover of Clay Aiken's book:

This is the photograph following page 182 of Clay Aiken's book:

And....THIS IS ME IN CLAY AIKEN'S BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!

I am in Clay Aiken's book.

I look like a freaking ALIEN in Clay Aiken's book...but

I AM IN CLAY AIKEN'S BOOK!!!!!!!!!!

I quite literally fell out of my chair when I discovered it last night. Then I quite nearly ran screaming in to wake my sister and show her -- but I forbore. But I think I'll agree it was heroic forbearance. Because, you see, I AM IN CLAY AIKEN'S BOOK. Also, in fact, my sister is in Clay Aiken's book, because she is the one standing right behind me.

This is incredible. This is wonderful. This is unbelievable. This means, of course that CLAY AIKEN HAS LOOKED AT MY PHOTOGRAPH. IN WHICH I LOOK KIND OF LIKE AN ALIEN, BUT OH WELL.

Because, yes, I am in Clay Aiken's book.

The photo is actually mis-identified as Lexington, Kentucky, but still. It's us. It's me. (In my version of this photograph, by the way, which is in this entry, I look much more normal.)

Oh my. I feel faint.

I hadn't discovered all this until last night because (heroic forbearance again), I chose to buy things like food and gas for my car and light bulbs and actually wait for Clay Aiken's book until my grandmother could buy it for me for the holidays. Which she did (she also knitted me a cool scarf!), and so I hadn't read it until last night. When, of course, I read the whole thing.

And then fell out of my chair because...well, you know.

I am thinking of writing him. You know, to let him know it's actually Roanoke, Virginia instead of Lexington, Kentucky. (Hush up. I have no interest whatsoever in writing to the publisher. Don't you know an excuse when you hear one?)

Also to tell him I loved the book (of course) -- especially the sections on working in the special ed classroom, with which I thoroughly identified. ("I'd been teaching there two months and nobody died. I figured I was doing pretty well," he says.)

I figure since we're practically old acquaintences now, he'll probably pick my letter right on out of the pile. Right.

Oh my. I'm in Clay Aiken's book. Have you ever heard anything cooler in your life?