Things around here...
Well, it has been a while since I have posted, so I thought I would do a catch up post from this past month.
I had my 48th birthday a week or so ago. It was nice.We went to Fado Irish Pub for dinner the night before - tasty food, but it ended up not agreeing with either the COL or me later that evening - then the next morning, for my big present, the girls and I went off to NYC for a day trip.
I love New York City. I wouldn't want to live there, but I love to visit, and this trip was just a little too short for me. My plan is that next year when Dove graduates 8th grade, I will take her up for a long weekend and we can really relax and enjoy ourselves (then I will do the same for Robin when she graduates in a few years). Back in my pre-kids days, I used to visit New York several times a year. At the time, I had two single friends, Woody and James, who always let me crash at one of their apartments, and so staying in the city was cheap and fun. I'd often go up to see the Crowes playing there, or just to take in a play with Woody, or catch up with James. But now I have kids, and getting away is a bit more complicated, and James has had a partner now for many years and Woody now lives down here again, and my days of hopping on the train and just going came to an end.
So it was a lot of fun to get to go back up with my girls and have a day in the city. We caught the AmTrak - I love taking the train, just sitting with a good book or magazine and reading for three hours in a comfy quiet car - and the girls were so excited. Robin was psyched to see her first Broadway show, and Dove just loves big cities, as I do. We could walk around all day. Unfortunately, we were on a time constraint due to the show and the train ride home, so we had to limit our sightseeing. Both girls wanted to go to the big Toys R Us and they rode the ferris wheel. We window shopped and grabbed lunch at a pizza place on Times Square, and in true New York fashion, somebody bumped Robin as she was coming down the steps and her plate of spaghetti sauce spilled all down her jacket and jeans, and flew onto Dove's favorite backpack that she was carrying. Robin was so upset, but we got her cleaned up and fed and had to make a mad dash to the theatre to get there on time.
We went to see Pippin. I have a fondness for that show, having done it in high school, and I like Stephen Schwartz's work, by and large. When I heard that the first revival of Pippin was coming to Broadway this spring, I knew we had to go and that the girls would like the show. The new production is terrific, and I do recommend it for anyone going to NYC - the director introduced a circus theme that works beautifully in the show. It is visually beautiful and well choreographed and the girls and I loved it. Terrance Mann does an awesome job as Charlemagne - in the opening number the players do some interacting with the audience. The girls and I were in the second row, right, and he looked right at Robin and said "I am SO glad to see you here, and I knew YOU (Dove) would be coming, and you too (me)! My, my!" They both got the giggles and thought that was so funny. Then after intermission, as the second act opened, the players came up the aisles, and one of them, knelt down next to Robin and seemingly pulled a magic red light out of her ear. The funny thing was - it was the same trick that DOVE did when she was playing Addapearl in The Wiz last month, so the minute she saw the red light, she burst out laughing and whispered to me, "MOM! It's MY TRICK!" After the show, the girls saw Patina Miller, who played the leading player, and dang, she was good!, leaving by the stage door, and she graciously signed their programs and took pictures with them. She was so nice, and Robin was dying to get back to school to tell her friend Maria, who is also a theatre geek, that they met. :) It was really wonderful seeing the show and brought back some very happy high school memories for me. I was a featured dancer in the chorus back then, and there is one number called With You where Pippin is seduced by two women. During the show, Robin gave me this *look* during that number, like, oh my gosh, how embarrassing, this sexy stuff going on onstage (though it was actually pretty tame). At intermission, she said, "Well THAT was not appropriate! Did they do that song in your show, Mom?" and I said, "Yes, actually I was one of those two girls" and Robin raised her eyebrows and said, "Seriously, Mom? Seriously? Jeez!" Parents - SO embarrassing! ;)
All in all it was an incredibly fun day, but I wish we'd had more time. Robin is desperate to come back and see Phantom of the Opera (a musical I can't stand but will one day sit through it for my Little Bird), and Dove wants to see The Lion King (another one I could miss, but I will take her next year if that is her pick). There is a new musical version of Big Fish opening in the fall, and I DO want to see that - I loved the movie, it is probably the only Tim Burton movie I have ever enjoyed. So maybe I will get up to see that. Soooo much fun theatre in NYC, wish I had the funds and time to go more often! And Robin saw the Naked Cowboy on Times Square as we were leaving, and took a picture with him (Dove was aghast and would not even consider getting close!). :) A memorable birthday.
Back on the homefront, this week Dove tried out for summer Shakespeare again. She is still waiting to hear if she was cast. I think she has a good shot at a small part again this year, but they are doing Much Ado About Nothing (Robin thought it was called "Whatcha Do About Nothin'?"), which has a smaller cast than R&J did last summer. So we will see. I suggested a Hero monologue for Dove to audition with, but she wanted to do Phebe from As You Like It, which is a harder piece to sell, IMO, though it is funnier. In the 11th hour she got very nervous and realized that though she had it memorized, she hadn't practiced as much as she should have, and that next year she really does need to start working on it more than a day or two before. I could tell though that she was very happy just to be back with the company - she knew probably 75% of the kids auditioning that day. Once again, Dove was the youngest one there, though there was one new girl trying out who was just a year older, but most of the kids look so much older than her, the juniors and graduating seniors. One boy, who played Tybalt last year, looks like he has grown a foot since last summer! Dove has grown too, she is now just an inch shorter than me, and much curvier than last year, though she still has a babyish face. After she sat down to fill in her paperwork, a lady I did not know said to me, "My goodness, Dove is so much taller this year! She is really growing up!" It turns out she was the costumer last summer. :) Speaking of costumes, on the audition sheet, there was a space that said "Special Talents". Dove said she wrote in "Unafraid to wear boy's orange cap and pantaloons! :)" - which was her costume last year. She says her goal is to one day actually get to play a girl's part. I suspect that IF she is cast, she will be yet another servant/messenger/town watch type small part, but she would be happy with that. We'll see.
Today I took Dove for her first HS "shadow day". She is considering three high schools - which I will call St. Kateri's, Our Lady of Consolation, and Cardinal Shehan High. The closest high school to us is Paulinus High, which is right across the street from Immaculata, and the most convenient high school for her to attend. But Dove thus far has no desire to go there. She went to Open House there and was unimpressed with their science program, and went back for a Shadow Day in the fall and came out saying "Mom, this is just not the school for me." I'm not pushing, but will ask her to take a second look and maybe a second Shadow Day next fall, just to be sure she is not interested.
St. Kateri's is where I went to school. At the time, I liked the school very much. They were very liberal back in the late '70s - we had a modular schedule where 60% of our school time was unscheduled and we had a LOT of independent work to do. That system worked very well for me and, I think, really prepared me for the rigors of college, but apparently Kateri's has gone back to a more traditional block schedule. The school's population has also dwindled considerably in the last 30 years. My graduating class had 250 or so girls in it. Right now the senior class is shy of 100, and I have some worries that the school may close. They have an excellent science department and an accredited engineering program, which is what Dove is most interested in. So we will see what she thinks of it. Small classes can be good, but I don't want them TOO small. I think Dove would do well in a smaller school, honestly, and I think she would probably thrive in a single sex school - and sh.e'd have opportunities to do drama with their brother school, St. John the Evangelist. I am curious to see how her day went and what she thought of the classes. When we walked in, she noticed there was a lifesized poster of Shakespeare wearing a party hat taped to the lobby wall - apparently it is the birthday of the Bard and the English Dept provides all the girls with cupcakes at lunch to celebrate, and some of the faculty and student body dress up in honor of Shakespeare. Dove's student tour guide, a freshman who is also in the Engineering program, came down to meet her dressed like Moth from Midsummer Night's Dream. :) I know that scored a few points with Dove. :) The other two schools she is considering, Consolation and Shehan, are both larger, coed schools with student bodies closer to 1200. Shehan has been her top choice so far, as their engineering department blew her away at Open House, but she has not shadowed there. I was more impressed over all with Consolation, but Dove felt their Engineering program was not as good as Kateri or Shehan - but truth be told, we could not afford Consolation anyway, unless Dove got some pretty big academic scholarships, and Catholic schools are tighter with those these days, with some dwindling enrollments. So we shall see...she still has eight months to decide before she has to apply.
After dropping Dove off at Kateri, I went by to see my Aunt Katie, who lives in the old age home that is almost right across the street. Katie is still hanging on at 88. She pretty much subsists on chocolate ice cream, coffee and a donut in the morning, though sometimes I can convince her to eat some of the surprisingly tasty meals that they serve there. Katie was also painfully thin as a girl - my father referred to her as "Skinny" throughout my growing up - and though she plumped up a bit in late middle age, she is now back to being just a tiny bag of bones. I had not been to see her in some weeks and was feeling guilty. It is hard to see someone you love so much in decline, but I know she likes visitors and I am always glad that I saw her after our visits. Katie's brain is firing correctly about 25% of the time these days, and 75% of the time you have the dementia to deal with. When I walked in, she hastened to tell me that her husband, my uncle Justin (dead almost 20 years now) has taken a girlfriend and has squired this new hussy out twice. Katie was somewhat worked up about it. "He says he'd rather be with me, but he's taking HER out!" I assure her that this is pure gossip and that Uncle Justin would never ever cheat on her. She asks me where my father is, at the racetrack? My father passed away 22 years ago, but I say "Oh, you know my dad and the horses, he could never get enough of them!" We talk a bit about the girls, I tell her Robin wanted to stay home from school to come along to visit her, and she asks why my mother can't pick her up and take her home to her house after school? My mom, her house - gone 9 years. She tells me that she sleeps all the time, and I say that at 88 you do need a lot more rest. "88?! I'm not 88!" Katie argues with me, "I was born in 1924!" I tell her yes, that's right, and it's 2013, and she was 88 last summer. "It's 2008!" Katie insists. Nope, 2013. "And I'm 88?" she asks, sounding shocked, "Holy hell, I been telling them all here that I'm not even 80 yet!" I tell her that new permanent is making her like a spring chicken again, and we both laugh.
78 pounds, three teeth left in her head, and she still argues with me when I tell her she can't just put her shoes back on and take off. "Katie, where do you think you're going?" I ask her. "I'm going to stay at St. Francis's" (her old parish) she insists. She does not have the strength to get to the bathroom by herself, but somehow, she is considering pushing her wheelchair out the front door and taking up residence in her old church, 2 miles away. "Katie, you don't want to do that. You know what will happen. Father P will have you back volunteering in the kitchen again," I caution her. Katie was ever one for volunteering back in the day, keeping half the parish activities running. "Oh the hell with that!" she decides, "I'm done with that kitchen. He can find somebody else to cook on bingo nights, I did my time!" She did indeed. She reconsiders this whole move into St. Francis's plan. "Better off here!"
I tell her about our recent trip, show her photos of the girls and our relatives, and she tells me my Uncle Leroy (82 year old retired policeman) was in a car accident and did I know they found dope in his car? She shakes her head in disgust. The idea of my straight arrow, tough talking, pious uncle, getting arrested for having a rock of crack in his car is enough to make me suppress a giggle, but I listen as Katie spins this story, which may have come from a dream, a news story, something she overheard in the hall, who knows? Fifteen minutes later she tells me that it was my uncle Francis who was arrested with the rock of dope in his car, and did I know that her nurse here is a (sotto voice) lesbian? I never know what Katie is going to lob my way during our conversations, but I do know that she tells me that she gets lonely, and that she likes having someone to talk to, and that even when it is time for me to go, she smiles as I kiss her old gray head, and says, "Go on, get out of here!" with a little bit of her old sass. I love that old girl, I truly do.
This weekend will be a girls weekend at our house, as the COL will be on a trip with his bike group. The next weekend, I and the girls will be in OC for Dove's friend Mag's birthday party. It has been several years since we've been to the beach, and Dove and Robin are excited, even though it will be too cold to swim. Should be good for some girlfriend time for them, and I get along with Mag's mother, so I'm looking forward to a weekend of no housework and just relaxing. Life is busy - but good. :)
I had my 48th birthday a week or so ago. It was nice.We went to Fado Irish Pub for dinner the night before - tasty food, but it ended up not agreeing with either the COL or me later that evening - then the next morning, for my big present, the girls and I went off to NYC for a day trip.
I love New York City. I wouldn't want to live there, but I love to visit, and this trip was just a little too short for me. My plan is that next year when Dove graduates 8th grade, I will take her up for a long weekend and we can really relax and enjoy ourselves (then I will do the same for Robin when she graduates in a few years). Back in my pre-kids days, I used to visit New York several times a year. At the time, I had two single friends, Woody and James, who always let me crash at one of their apartments, and so staying in the city was cheap and fun. I'd often go up to see the Crowes playing there, or just to take in a play with Woody, or catch up with James. But now I have kids, and getting away is a bit more complicated, and James has had a partner now for many years and Woody now lives down here again, and my days of hopping on the train and just going came to an end.
So it was a lot of fun to get to go back up with my girls and have a day in the city. We caught the AmTrak - I love taking the train, just sitting with a good book or magazine and reading for three hours in a comfy quiet car - and the girls were so excited. Robin was psyched to see her first Broadway show, and Dove just loves big cities, as I do. We could walk around all day. Unfortunately, we were on a time constraint due to the show and the train ride home, so we had to limit our sightseeing. Both girls wanted to go to the big Toys R Us and they rode the ferris wheel. We window shopped and grabbed lunch at a pizza place on Times Square, and in true New York fashion, somebody bumped Robin as she was coming down the steps and her plate of spaghetti sauce spilled all down her jacket and jeans, and flew onto Dove's favorite backpack that she was carrying. Robin was so upset, but we got her cleaned up and fed and had to make a mad dash to the theatre to get there on time.
We went to see Pippin. I have a fondness for that show, having done it in high school, and I like Stephen Schwartz's work, by and large. When I heard that the first revival of Pippin was coming to Broadway this spring, I knew we had to go and that the girls would like the show. The new production is terrific, and I do recommend it for anyone going to NYC - the director introduced a circus theme that works beautifully in the show. It is visually beautiful and well choreographed and the girls and I loved it. Terrance Mann does an awesome job as Charlemagne - in the opening number the players do some interacting with the audience. The girls and I were in the second row, right, and he looked right at Robin and said "I am SO glad to see you here, and I knew YOU (Dove) would be coming, and you too (me)! My, my!" They both got the giggles and thought that was so funny. Then after intermission, as the second act opened, the players came up the aisles, and one of them, knelt down next to Robin and seemingly pulled a magic red light out of her ear. The funny thing was - it was the same trick that DOVE did when she was playing Addapearl in The Wiz last month, so the minute she saw the red light, she burst out laughing and whispered to me, "MOM! It's MY TRICK!" After the show, the girls saw Patina Miller, who played the leading player, and dang, she was good!, leaving by the stage door, and she graciously signed their programs and took pictures with them. She was so nice, and Robin was dying to get back to school to tell her friend Maria, who is also a theatre geek, that they met. :) It was really wonderful seeing the show and brought back some very happy high school memories for me. I was a featured dancer in the chorus back then, and there is one number called With You where Pippin is seduced by two women. During the show, Robin gave me this *look* during that number, like, oh my gosh, how embarrassing, this sexy stuff going on onstage (though it was actually pretty tame). At intermission, she said, "Well THAT was not appropriate! Did they do that song in your show, Mom?" and I said, "Yes, actually I was one of those two girls" and Robin raised her eyebrows and said, "Seriously, Mom? Seriously? Jeez!" Parents - SO embarrassing! ;)
All in all it was an incredibly fun day, but I wish we'd had more time. Robin is desperate to come back and see Phantom of the Opera (a musical I can't stand but will one day sit through it for my Little Bird), and Dove wants to see The Lion King (another one I could miss, but I will take her next year if that is her pick). There is a new musical version of Big Fish opening in the fall, and I DO want to see that - I loved the movie, it is probably the only Tim Burton movie I have ever enjoyed. So maybe I will get up to see that. Soooo much fun theatre in NYC, wish I had the funds and time to go more often! And Robin saw the Naked Cowboy on Times Square as we were leaving, and took a picture with him (Dove was aghast and would not even consider getting close!). :) A memorable birthday.
Back on the homefront, this week Dove tried out for summer Shakespeare again. She is still waiting to hear if she was cast. I think she has a good shot at a small part again this year, but they are doing Much Ado About Nothing (Robin thought it was called "Whatcha Do About Nothin'?"), which has a smaller cast than R&J did last summer. So we will see. I suggested a Hero monologue for Dove to audition with, but she wanted to do Phebe from As You Like It, which is a harder piece to sell, IMO, though it is funnier. In the 11th hour she got very nervous and realized that though she had it memorized, she hadn't practiced as much as she should have, and that next year she really does need to start working on it more than a day or two before. I could tell though that she was very happy just to be back with the company - she knew probably 75% of the kids auditioning that day. Once again, Dove was the youngest one there, though there was one new girl trying out who was just a year older, but most of the kids look so much older than her, the juniors and graduating seniors. One boy, who played Tybalt last year, looks like he has grown a foot since last summer! Dove has grown too, she is now just an inch shorter than me, and much curvier than last year, though she still has a babyish face. After she sat down to fill in her paperwork, a lady I did not know said to me, "My goodness, Dove is so much taller this year! She is really growing up!" It turns out she was the costumer last summer. :) Speaking of costumes, on the audition sheet, there was a space that said "Special Talents". Dove said she wrote in "Unafraid to wear boy's orange cap and pantaloons! :)" - which was her costume last year. She says her goal is to one day actually get to play a girl's part. I suspect that IF she is cast, she will be yet another servant/messenger/town watch type small part, but she would be happy with that. We'll see.
Today I took Dove for her first HS "shadow day". She is considering three high schools - which I will call St. Kateri's, Our Lady of Consolation, and Cardinal Shehan High. The closest high school to us is Paulinus High, which is right across the street from Immaculata, and the most convenient high school for her to attend. But Dove thus far has no desire to go there. She went to Open House there and was unimpressed with their science program, and went back for a Shadow Day in the fall and came out saying "Mom, this is just not the school for me." I'm not pushing, but will ask her to take a second look and maybe a second Shadow Day next fall, just to be sure she is not interested.
St. Kateri's is where I went to school. At the time, I liked the school very much. They were very liberal back in the late '70s - we had a modular schedule where 60% of our school time was unscheduled and we had a LOT of independent work to do. That system worked very well for me and, I think, really prepared me for the rigors of college, but apparently Kateri's has gone back to a more traditional block schedule. The school's population has also dwindled considerably in the last 30 years. My graduating class had 250 or so girls in it. Right now the senior class is shy of 100, and I have some worries that the school may close. They have an excellent science department and an accredited engineering program, which is what Dove is most interested in. So we will see what she thinks of it. Small classes can be good, but I don't want them TOO small. I think Dove would do well in a smaller school, honestly, and I think she would probably thrive in a single sex school - and sh.e'd have opportunities to do drama with their brother school, St. John the Evangelist. I am curious to see how her day went and what she thought of the classes. When we walked in, she noticed there was a lifesized poster of Shakespeare wearing a party hat taped to the lobby wall - apparently it is the birthday of the Bard and the English Dept provides all the girls with cupcakes at lunch to celebrate, and some of the faculty and student body dress up in honor of Shakespeare. Dove's student tour guide, a freshman who is also in the Engineering program, came down to meet her dressed like Moth from Midsummer Night's Dream. :) I know that scored a few points with Dove. :) The other two schools she is considering, Consolation and Shehan, are both larger, coed schools with student bodies closer to 1200. Shehan has been her top choice so far, as their engineering department blew her away at Open House, but she has not shadowed there. I was more impressed over all with Consolation, but Dove felt their Engineering program was not as good as Kateri or Shehan - but truth be told, we could not afford Consolation anyway, unless Dove got some pretty big academic scholarships, and Catholic schools are tighter with those these days, with some dwindling enrollments. So we shall see...she still has eight months to decide before she has to apply.
After dropping Dove off at Kateri, I went by to see my Aunt Katie, who lives in the old age home that is almost right across the street. Katie is still hanging on at 88. She pretty much subsists on chocolate ice cream, coffee and a donut in the morning, though sometimes I can convince her to eat some of the surprisingly tasty meals that they serve there. Katie was also painfully thin as a girl - my father referred to her as "Skinny" throughout my growing up - and though she plumped up a bit in late middle age, she is now back to being just a tiny bag of bones. I had not been to see her in some weeks and was feeling guilty. It is hard to see someone you love so much in decline, but I know she likes visitors and I am always glad that I saw her after our visits. Katie's brain is firing correctly about 25% of the time these days, and 75% of the time you have the dementia to deal with. When I walked in, she hastened to tell me that her husband, my uncle Justin (dead almost 20 years now) has taken a girlfriend and has squired this new hussy out twice. Katie was somewhat worked up about it. "He says he'd rather be with me, but he's taking HER out!" I assure her that this is pure gossip and that Uncle Justin would never ever cheat on her. She asks me where my father is, at the racetrack? My father passed away 22 years ago, but I say "Oh, you know my dad and the horses, he could never get enough of them!" We talk a bit about the girls, I tell her Robin wanted to stay home from school to come along to visit her, and she asks why my mother can't pick her up and take her home to her house after school? My mom, her house - gone 9 years. She tells me that she sleeps all the time, and I say that at 88 you do need a lot more rest. "88?! I'm not 88!" Katie argues with me, "I was born in 1924!" I tell her yes, that's right, and it's 2013, and she was 88 last summer. "It's 2008!" Katie insists. Nope, 2013. "And I'm 88?" she asks, sounding shocked, "Holy hell, I been telling them all here that I'm not even 80 yet!" I tell her that new permanent is making her like a spring chicken again, and we both laugh.
78 pounds, three teeth left in her head, and she still argues with me when I tell her she can't just put her shoes back on and take off. "Katie, where do you think you're going?" I ask her. "I'm going to stay at St. Francis's" (her old parish) she insists. She does not have the strength to get to the bathroom by herself, but somehow, she is considering pushing her wheelchair out the front door and taking up residence in her old church, 2 miles away. "Katie, you don't want to do that. You know what will happen. Father P will have you back volunteering in the kitchen again," I caution her. Katie was ever one for volunteering back in the day, keeping half the parish activities running. "Oh the hell with that!" she decides, "I'm done with that kitchen. He can find somebody else to cook on bingo nights, I did my time!" She did indeed. She reconsiders this whole move into St. Francis's plan. "Better off here!"
I tell her about our recent trip, show her photos of the girls and our relatives, and she tells me my Uncle Leroy (82 year old retired policeman) was in a car accident and did I know they found dope in his car? She shakes her head in disgust. The idea of my straight arrow, tough talking, pious uncle, getting arrested for having a rock of crack in his car is enough to make me suppress a giggle, but I listen as Katie spins this story, which may have come from a dream, a news story, something she overheard in the hall, who knows? Fifteen minutes later she tells me that it was my uncle Francis who was arrested with the rock of dope in his car, and did I know that her nurse here is a (sotto voice) lesbian? I never know what Katie is going to lob my way during our conversations, but I do know that she tells me that she gets lonely, and that she likes having someone to talk to, and that even when it is time for me to go, she smiles as I kiss her old gray head, and says, "Go on, get out of here!" with a little bit of her old sass. I love that old girl, I truly do.
This weekend will be a girls weekend at our house, as the COL will be on a trip with his bike group. The next weekend, I and the girls will be in OC for Dove's friend Mag's birthday party. It has been several years since we've been to the beach, and Dove and Robin are excited, even though it will be too cold to swim. Should be good for some girlfriend time for them, and I get along with Mag's mother, so I'm looking forward to a weekend of no housework and just relaxing. Life is busy - but good. :)