Cle-ver!

I have a friend who said the other day, "I don't blog because I'm not clever."
I didn't realize cleverness was a prerequisite for blogging. I know I'm not often clever. Does she read my blog and think I'm clever? Am I really clever, or does just having a blog make me seem clever? I have to admit that her comment gave me a bit of performance anxiety. Now I have to be clever.
Clever is one of my favorite words. I've been using it on my kids for years. I abandoned "You're so smart" in a squeaky, baby talk voice long ago. Now I try and look at them with admiration, nodding my head a bit with my chin jutting out a little and drawl out "Clever!", accentuating both syllables. Somehow I think it's a much bigger compliment. It's all in the body language.
Speaking of body language, who teaches that? There are so many people out there who can't read body language--simple, easy body cues that everybody knows. I'm not talking about the signals you make up with your friends to come save you from being trapped at a party by someone helplessly boring. I'm talking about the quick nodding of the head with the rapid firing of curt "uh-huh, yeah, uh-huh" that should signal people that you get it and enough already. But there are people who just don't get it. So where do you take classes for BLSL?--(body language as a second language) It should be widely offered and a required course if more than three people turn you in to the "BLSL police". It would make things so much easier for me. And after all, isn't that what we're all working for? A life that is easier for me?
Now, wasn't that clever!