Glimmerings

A few glittering sources of hope have begun to shine through the dreariness that has pervaded the last month and half. For one thing, I have an interview on Tuesday afternoon! Yay! I’m also going up to Vermont this week to look after the dog while my mom works late and my dad is delivering a boat, which means money. Yay again!

And biggest news of all… Alan is officially cleared to leave for Basic Training in November. Super yay! He found out a few days ago and I’ve sort of been saving it until I had a free minute in which to write. The problem, as I may have explained it, is that his chest is oddly shaped. So he was actually disqualified from service already. But they sent him for some further tests on his heart and lungs and he passed everything with flying colors. So the specialists sent their findings to the review board and they granted him a medical waiver. Yay! So in a few short months he’ll be shipping out and I’ll be here on my own. Thank heaven for cats to keep me company!

And as for the cats, Karma will be having her very first birthday at the end of August. So exciting for the Baby of the family. She hasn’t been to the vet since her last round of shots and spaying, but out of curiosity Alan stepped on the scale with her and found out that she now weighs in at an even 10lbs. She’s still smaller than Aladdin, but she certainly has some growing left in her and she’ll probably end up looking twice as big as him because she’s so damn fluffy.  She really is a pretty wonderful little cat. She comes when she’s called, plays fetch, never plays to rough with hands and feet, likes to cuddle and give kisses, and has quite enough personality for five kittens. She’s been sticking pretty close to me this afternoon because Alan and I went up to Vermont for the night yesterday, leaving the cats locked out of the bedroom so that Mike could finish the new back door, which undoubtedly involved the use of scary noisy power tools. Very traumatic for kitties.

Alan and I went up to Vermont for such a short visit because my mom was in a local production of "The Sound of Music." She was in the Nuns Chorus. I think she should have been a more major nun because she was clearly a better singer than a couple of them, but apparently that just isn’t done in community theater. You can’t just show up and land a major role, which makes a lot of sense, but still sucks. The woman playing Maria was quite good, and you could tell that theater was more than just a hobby for her. The Captain was rather dull. He was rather stiff. Of course, the character is stiff and formal, but this guy seemed like he was trying for that and failing and ended up just being awkward. Max was hilarious and very well acted. Apparently the guy runs the Cumberland Farms in Ludlow, which is pretty cool. Elsa was acted well, but the woman wasn’t a very strong singer and she and Max did have a song together with the Captain. The Children were a bit of a mixed bag. Gretl was cute and a very good mimic. She seemed to be absolutely channeling the movie character, down to the last lisp and inflection. Marta sang badly and tried to make up for it by being loud. Something tells me she has stage parents. Louisa was all right. She could have been better, but her singing was tolerable and she didn’t have many lines anyway. She’ll improve as she gets more experience. The boy playing Kurt had a lovely soprano singing voice, but always came across as being sloppy looking. Something about him was simply disheveled and it was rather distracting. Friedrich was terribly overacted. Half the time he was doing a parody of being macho and the other time he was painfully goofy. It became hard to take him at all seriously. Liesl. Ugh. Performed by an incredibly awkward 15-year-old, who had no idea what she was doing. When she walks with Rolf in the garden, she’s supposed to be a little flirtatious and coy, just exploring her power over the opposite sex with someone she feels comfortable with. This girl was awkward and extremely wooden. And yet according the paper, she was in this same play several years ago and played Gretl. Perhaps she made an adorable 5-year-old, but she made a lousy teenager.  The bright light on the stage was really the girl playing Brigitta. Brilliant. Good singer, good actor. Very comfortable on the stage and perfectly happy putting herself out there and giving it her all.

I found myself comparing it to the productions I saw so many times at Norwalk High and Norwalk definitely came out the winner. Despite the paper reporting that they had over 50 children auditioning for just 7 spots, I can’t believe that those were the best 7.

Anyway, like I said, things are looking up. My grandmother says that her friend Char needs help, but Alan’s worked with her before in the boat shop, and I’m not sure he’d be willing to do it again no matter how much she paid him. I’m hoping this interview goes well on Tuesday. It’s with a daycare in Ansonia. Yeah, I know. But I’m trying to accept the fact that even though it’s not what I want to do, I need to do something, and I’m good at it. I’ll see what the situation is and make a decision from there. I wouldn’t mind working with another teacher, but I’m fairly certain I don’t want to be the only teacher in a room of 10 again. That was just too painful. Like I said, we’ll see how it goes. I’m looking forward to it. Dina used to work up in the Valley, and I think it may have been with this group. She absolutely loved it and said she wished she’d never left. So here goes nothing.

I also wanted to mention that I went up to Canterbury and watched Jayden on Monday. Jen and Jay both told me that he had a really bad day on Sunday, and to be on my guard, but it went really well. He woke up, got himself dressed, and the two of us worked on picking up the clothes he had dumped out of the dresser the day before. He ate a little breakfast, showed me the various things around the house he’s so proud of (hastas, lava lamp, tomato plant), and did a bit more picking up of his room. We tried to go far a swim but it was too cold, so we decided to wait a while. Read some books, played on the back deck. Got back in the pool. We stayed in a bit longer that time, but Jayden’s lips got a bit blue and he was shivering, so it was time to get out and get dressed. He gave me a fuss because he wanted to stay in, but as that wasn’t an option, I gave him a choice about how he was going to get out. On his own at the stairs or with my help at the edge. He refused to choose so I had to carrying him out and sit with him in a chair. He tried to get back in the pool, so I carried him inside and blocked the door. It’s funny. At no point was he actually out of control crying. He was just whining. When I put him on the floor inside and he tried to hold onto my towel, I gently reminded him that it was mine and he let right go. He was very conscious of the decisions he was making. I left him work it out the floor and never once yelled or changed my mind about what we were doing. He calmed down and got himself dressed and agreed to come have lunch. I’m sorry, but there is nothing wrong with that boy that isn’t a direct result of the way his parents interact with him. We spent such a nice day together, most of it outside, and he wasn’t anything worse than a little sassy. All I had to do was remind him of a couple things and he was just as happy and well-behaved as could be. I didn’t have to ask him to do anything twice. Then Jay comes home and is sitting with the computer on his lap. I ask Jayden to put his microphone back in his room and suddenly he won’t. And of course, Jay doesn’t let me just work it out with him, but steps right in and makes it an issue, when it really didn’t have to be. ::sigh:: But how can I say anything about it? Where do I get off, right? Because I wasn’t there in an "official" capacity. I’m not his teacher or permanent caregiver. And I wouldn’t be because Jen is one of my oldest friends and it’s a teacher’s job to be upfront with parents even if they don’t want to hear it. I can only hope that if his behavior becomes a problem in preschool that the teacher will have the resources or ability to do home visits because that’s the only way to understand what’s going on.

Maybe when Alan goes off to Basic I’ll try to spend more time up there since I won’t have Alan to keep me company. I’m still nervous about it, but he’s excited, so I’m trying to set aside my worries. He’s made a lot of sacrifices for me. I can do this for him.

Okay, time to go catch up on my faves.

~Liz