Today I'm going to call Judy Bloom. She taught me a lot about being a teenager and a young woman in her books Are you there God? It's me Margaret

Dini Tiger Tiger Eyes Forever.

Really, there's such a long list I could go on and on.

In fact, I distinctly remember the exact shelf

that her books occupied in Chaska Middle School.

I visited often checked out every single book on that shelf,

at least once, sometimes two or three times.

I can't think of anyone better to call

when seeking wisdom at this really confusing moment in

their lives. So I'm going to give her a call. Oh, You're going to be. Hello.

Hi, is this Judy?

Hello. Hi, is this Judy? It is Judy. Hi, Judy, it's Cheryl Strade. Hi Cheryl, how nice to talk to you. Oh, I mean, honestly, Judy, in all the dreams of my life as a writer, I never, ever, ever thought I would get to talk to you.

I have loved you for so long since I was a little child.

Well, I'm so glad that I'm still here.

I'm so glad you're here too.

We've made it this far that I can finally reach you.

So where are you? Well we live in Key West which is a lovely place to live. It's summer all the time and I'm a

summer girl and I'm here with my husband George and we live in an old

low-rise condo and we're on the second floor and so we're on the ocean with the birds and you know it's

feeding time in the afternoon and we get to watch all the changes. I know it's good for me in normal time, so I'm assuming that it's

good for me in these times too. I love the sea. I love everything about it. I like to go to sleep at night listening to it.

So I'm lucky. So is it just the two of you have you been socially isolating for some time now?

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