Happy Easter, everyone! May the holiday fulfill your hopes for spring, chocolate, or eternal salvation, whichever makes you happiest.

This is my friend Michael.

On Wednesday, three of his comic shorts will be performed at The Woolly Mammoth Theatre.

The first play, Seat Yourself, centers on a couple at a restaurant who are harassed by an impossible waiter with a silly accent who doubts the man’s existence. The second play, Pompa y Circunstancia, focuses on a pair of brothers who miscommunicate about a graduation day prank. Both shorts have received accolades in recent Theatre Oxford’s 10-Minute Play contests.

The evening will conclude with Michael’s one-act play, Porcupine. It is a fictional take on Sigmund Freud’s 1909 visit to America, where, according to Michael, “he delivers a series of lectures and searches for his inner porcupine.” The action takes place in the Adirondacks where Freud and his psychologist contemporaries indulge in “a few days of deep thoughts, high silliness, and various mental and physical competitions.”

I cannot tell you how much I think you ought to go if you live anywhere near D.C. Michael is brilliant and quirky and creative and funny and well-versed on nearly every subject (even if he disagrees with my classification of The Thin Man as slapstick film noir). Check out his latest YouTube video if you doubt my sincerity.

I’ve been to readings of his last two plays, Artist and Protector of Children: The Life of Henry Darger and The Quick Brown Fox Jumped over the Lazy Dogs, at the Kennedy Center and particularly raved about the latter (skip down to the sixth paragraph) because of his playful yet meaningful use of language.

The reading is at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26, at 641 D St., N.W., in Washington, D.C. Presented by the the PlayGround Playwrights and directed by Kerri Rambow, the evening’s fun is free — but would be well worth it even if you had to pay.

I’m on a plane headed to Salt Lake (via Denver) right now, but even that can’t prevent me from giving you three beautiful things from my world last week:

1. DCBlogs pointed me to a notice that the National Zoo has a new baby beastie: a North Island brown kiwi. It even has its own webcam.

2. Pi Day was Friday. No, not pie. Well, yes, pie, too. But pi. Ï€. 3.14 …. Elspeth brought a mixed berry pie in to work to share. And I ate pizza (pie) and baked a peach-cherry pie Friday night. We ate the last pieces for breakfast this morning…

3. I saw two girls on the Metro this morning who looked like they might be headed down to the peace rallies. They reminded me of when Rebs and I came down to D.C. our junior year of college to protest Newt’s Contract Against America. The Metro girls just seemed so young (and, in retrospect, so did we).

I wish I’d gotten a video to share with you all of Jeremiah watching life go by via the full-length mirror we had in the kitchen. He’s the only cat I’ve ever known who uses a mirror the same way a human does — recognizing that what he sees is a reflection of what’s going on behind him. Such a smart cat!

Alas, our pot rack was above the mirror and it was rearranged recently. Tonight, as I was hanging a pot back up, a frying pan fell to the ground, cracking the mirror in the process.

At least it was garbage night…

Three years ago, I hung out my shingle and opened shop.

I hadn’t kept any kind of regular journal since high school and my writing skills were rusty. I didn’t read blogs for the most part, except for occasionally those written by friends. I certainly had no idea what to talk about.

But talk I have. I’m nearing my 1000th post — a milestone I’m likely to hit in April or May. I’ve been haphazard about posting this year and my writing has gotten lazy. I’m hoping that in this, my fourth year of blogging, the wild wordy way is going to open fresh before me, and I plan to take more time to cultivate notes and observations worth reading.

So here’s to another year together! Have some cake.

May I pour you some tea?

Thanks for sticking with me, dear readers. Three years ago most of us didn’t know each other. I’m pleased to have met you and to have been deemed worthy of your staying in touch with me.

I look forward to spending even better times together in the year to come.