My Beautiful Wickedness

for a week and then NYC for a while. I’ll drop in when I can and say hi. Lots of dancing, music, art, and theatre…it’s like a two-week immersion urban arts camp. Good wine. Good company. Ought to be fun.

for a week and then NYC for a while. I’ll drop in when I can and say hi. Lots of dancing, music, art, and theatre…it’s like a two-week immersion urban arts camp.

Waking to the sound of birds.  Waking to the light. Cantaloupe for breakfast. Eating breakfast on the porch. Hot coffee in the cool of the morning. The color green. Desultory weeding. Having some leisure. Playing board games with my kid during the day. Reading for pleasure. Traveling. Baseball. Thunderstorms. Short haircuts. Short sleeves. Shorts. Soft-serve ice cream. Sun on my face. Flip-flops (the state shoe of South Carolina). Cucumber salad. Watching stars come out. Crickets.

These are the golden days of my life. Everything is moving so quickly that it’s hard to really enjoy the strawberries and taste the wine.

Three pieces of news. It would be random bullets of crap, but I have forgotten how to make bullets.

I am now a great-aunt. Caitlin Rose was born last weekend. She’s amazing. Her parents are fatigued. Babies are bundles of possibility and need; I don’t personally want another one but having a kid has been the most interesting thing that I’ve ever done with my life.

Chloe got her test scores back from 4th grade. Once again, a slew of perfect scores. I am not saving money quickly enough to pay for a college of the caliber that she’ll be needing.

Another dance season is winding down. Chloe won a studio spirit award for her positive relations with others at her recital last night. Only nationals left after this weekend. My summer is flying.

Don’t know if anyone remembers that Gordon Lightfoot song but me.

Today was a strange one. There was a lot of disrupted sleep from the ground-shaking roof-wrecking thunderstorm. Water came in down the sides of the chimney and ran down the walls of the upstairs bathroom…luckily, I guess, the upstairs bathroom walls are back to the studs, so it was easy to get at and clean up. We had to rush upstairs and do an emergency wick job to direct the water into some containers and into a makeshift bathtub thrown together of cardboard and contractors’ bags. I am so fortunate that I married a sensible man.

I guess we both laid there and worried all night because he was up at the crack of dawn to take stock and get the fans running so our attic wouldn’t mold. I got up with a headache and so nauseated that I idly wondered if I might be pregnant. I dosed myself with a half-cup of coffee (because I am that much of a junkie), grabbed a bucket, and went back to bed. Three hours later, I woke up feeling punky but not sick to my stomach any longer. I had a dream that Betsy had to come walk me back home from the driveway of the local Toyota dealership. I was barefoot and in a blanket and she was very kind to me, taking me by this interesting house with Mother Goose friezes all over the top on the way back to my place. Whatever that means…

Kid had been out of the back porch painting some papier mache creations that we had laying around. She is happy as can be with some art supplies and free rein to create. When that project concluded, we cleaned some house, did some laundry (got fooled by a passing shower and so our clothes got an extra quick rinse, but now they are drying nicely) and made some bread. I have all the ingredients for strawberry jam, so the only question is whether to make freezer jam (easy — straightforward) or regular jam (somewhat more involved, but longer lasting an accomplishment).

It’s going to be salmon steaks, a salad, and fresh bread and butter for dinner. I haven’t really felt like eating anything today, but that does sound sort of good.

So, not an earth-shattering day of grand accomplishments, but a nice little house day. Considering that I thought I was coming down with the flu as day broke, I am satisfied.

I’m so tired that I’m considering watching hockey just to have something to look at that I don’t have to think about while I drink my beer.

Kid danced in 11 routines. Her solos (one of which was put together in a little over a month) got high golds (which is an A-/B+), as did her trios and 5 of her other group routines.  2 group routines scored platinum (which is the A+) score. The old lady dance (where the girls dress up as old women and shake their canes to disco tunes) won the humor award, which was cool. Her team also did reasonably well, all things considered, and they certainly had a lot of fun. However, if I don’t see another rhinestone or smell hairspray for the next month or so, that would be cool too.

I’m packing up for this weekend’s three-day dance competition and as I’m counting costumes, I realize that my daughter is dancing an even dozen routines. She’s packed her doll, her good luck bear, her lucky make-up sponge (don’t ask), and is already begging to be allowed to wear my iPod for a little while when she’s backstage. She’s such a little girl but on the verge of being some other creature entirely. 

Anything to cut the stress.  The team is having a rough meet and we’re not even at the venue yet. Two of her teammates have broken bones in the last twenty-four hours, including her choreographer’s teenage daughter. This girl is a lovely dancer and a really nice person. She’s also a featured performer in nearly everything the older kids do. It’s heartbreaking that she’ll be on crutches rather than flying across stage on Saturday night.

Time to sleep.  Still so much to do before the housesitter shows up.

Friday — Kid had a pizza party to attend with her dance team. The hosts (both mother and daughter) are wonderful people; I so admire them for making their home a welcoming place.  I have a lot to learn on that front.  My home is comfortable but requires overlooking of things like the completely broken bathroom upstairs, the pile of toy clutter on the porch, and the general lived-in look it acquires after a long weekend.  Anyhow, John and I went out to dinner and took a lovely sunset walk around a local park that reminds us both of Iowa. It was a sweet way to spend an evening. 

Saturday — After dance, it was a day at Great Escape (a local Six Flags park). The weather was gorgeous and the lines were super-short.  We never waited more than three or four minutes to get on anything.  That made for double and triple rides of the big wooden coaster and other “big” rides.  Kid talked us into sitting in the splash zone for the pirate show, so we got completely soaked.  She also likes the raft rides – ditto.  Anyhow, it was a long and happy day.  I have to brag on my kid for a minute.  We were in the park for about eight hours and we had not one whine, no sulk, no disagreeable anything.  She was cheerful and excited and just a delight to be with.  

Sunday — After dance, we went to see the new Trek movie.  I loved it.  I’m not very critical about movies, so you won’t be getting a big dissection of the strengths and weaknesses.  It was meant to enjoy, not think about too much.  We also watched the Red Sox beat the Mets (yay!) and tried to watch the Coca-Cola 600, but that was rained out. 

Monday — yardwork in the early morning, doing all the leftover maintenance stuff we hadn’t gotten to yet.  Then planting stuff (Kid had gotten some seeds for Easter in her basket and so we stuck them in the ground and hoped that the frost was over), a huge doll fashion show with appropriate silliness, some board games, and a big barbeque in the early afternoon. The Coca Cola 600 was again a big bust — hated the way it ended, even though I’m the most casual of fans — but did give us the reason to turn off the TV and do something with our lives.  Kid danced a couple of hours (competition coming up this weekend) and then, after she went to bed, we we watched the second episode of the Tudors.  It’s like soft-core porn for historians. 

Today Kid’s still off from school, so I don’t know what we’ll get up to. We had to soak the sweetpea seed overnight, so there’s still that to do.  I might also try to make her a top out of white eyelet so she’ll hush about an overpriced top she saw at the store.  Maybe we’ll just go to a playground and have a good time — she’s got callused hands from swinging on the monkeybars, so I know that she would enjoy that.