monkeymom's Diaryland Diary
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In which we go to a concert, talk to a handsome young man, shop, and babysit. Whew!
So yesterday I didn't wake up until 3 in the afternoon, and I found Kim, sitting in the den, worrying. The graduation gowns had arrived, and when they handed them out at school, she saw that the girl's gowns are (neon)orange, and the boys gowns are black. (It's embarrassing, but those are the school colors.)
The problem is, that I didn't order a gown for Kim, only a cap and tassel, because I have two kids who graduated from the same high school, in black gowns, thanks, and I had told her she could wear one of the gowns we already have! Kim was having a quiet nervous breakdown because she didn't have a (neon) orange graduation gown!
So I called the high school office, and told them what happened, and they had extra gowns, which I could have for a mere $40 - in cash, not check, and when she told me it was forty bucks, the secretary who answered the phone assured me that I could keep the gown, as if that was a major selling point. I said I was so grateful to be able to keep a (neon) orange gown, and she laughed. So I went to the ATM for cash and took Kim over to pick up her terrible graduation gown, and she is happy now. Last night at work, one of the guys told me that when he graduated from this high school many years ago, he remembers it being the same thing - the guys wore black and the girls wore orange. Ugh.
At the time that we were being thrifty by not ordering a gown, I was also ordering her graduation anouncements, and many of you will be priviliged to see the orange and black theme carried out there, too. I neglected to order name cards, which I discovered at work on Sunday night, when I started addressing envelopes. Sigh.
So yesterday, after dropping Kim off at home with her gown, I took a couple of Diet Pepsis to RA's house, and we picked a font and printed Kim's name on business cards on her printer, since mine is out of ink and you can't just buy that at St@ples, you have to order it on the internets. RA was having issues with her upstairs computer, so after we dinked around with that for a while, we went downstairs and used that one, got the cards printed, and I headed back home to get dressed for the Spring Concert.
Kim and another girl, who also played with the Youth Symphony Orchestra this year, were both playing a Senior Solo at the concert, and Kim has been practicing pretty intensely (for Kim, anyway) for a few weeks. She wore the blue prom dress for the performance, and she had already headed out to the school when I got home.
Rich was making a peanut butter sandwich for Kim, who didn't have time to eat before the performance, and he put that in my purse, so we could give it to her when we got to the theater for the concert. RA came over to go with us, and Rachel drove up just as we went out to the car, but we were a bit early, so we stopped and bought flowers for Kim, and RA tucked a Hershey bar into her bouquet for a surprise!
The concert was pretty good, except that Kim fumbled a little, and was feeling very bad about that later. The other soloist did a very nice job on the violin, and then the whole orchestra performed a couple of numbers.
In the middle of the first piece, Rachel leaned over and whispered to me that classical music makes her edgy, and I know just what she means, it's rushing up to a big climax, and it makes you feel hurried and tense, and also like there should be something happening! Like on Merry Melodies, when the classical songs play while cartoon animals run around making chain reactions of falling rocks landing on big spoons that fling something into the air! So I made gestures indicating explosions at the sides of the stage and Rachel laugned and nodded, and I whispered to her that what should be happening is that the conductor's pants should catch fire, and be smoldering while he frantically conducts! Then we were both imagining dynamite and smoldering pants and it was a little more entertaining. I had my knitting, too.
After the concert, there was a little reception to honor the seniors, and I ended up standing by Peter, who is young and handsome and lives across the street. He just got home from college for the summer, and came to the concert because he has fond memories of band. He's friends with the orchestra teacher, also, and while we were talking, the orchestra teacher came up and asked Peter to help fill out the horn section when the orchestra plays at graduation next week. Rachel hasn't seen Peter in a while and was surprised at how gorgeous he is now, since she remembers him as a skinny little geek who played Pokemon at our house with Kim.
I just want to say, too, how very much I love Peter, and wish I could give him one of my daughters to marry, but Rachel is taken now and Kim is nothing but a baby. He was so sweet; he told Kim that when he played the Senior Solo in his last year (he plays the French Horn), he did such a terrible job that he was embarrassed by the applause afterward, and was almost shaking his head sadly at the audience, wishing they would stop clapping because he was so ashamed. I love him! I hope it helped her feel better, because she was pretty sad about it, even though she knows that people think that anything played on the harp is beautiful, even the Flintstones Theme Song, and lots of people were complimenting her!
Then Rachel's phone rang, and she disappeared outside to talk to Ash, and I was bored, so I ate Kim's cake when she handed it to me so she could go up to receive an award. Rich stayed with Kim and rode home in her car, and I collected Rachel, who was still on the phone and showing her engagement ring to Peter and his mom ouside, and we left with RA.
Rachel continued to talk on the phone at home, and I was harassing her for dates and locations, etc, but they've only been engaged for a couple of days, so there aren't any real plans yet.
Since I wasn't getting any answers, I put on my shoes and took her with me on a long walk, and she just talked on the phone the entire time, while I tried not to ask anything, and was practically chewing off my own tongue in my efforts to be quiet because apparently everything in this world is not about me, no matter how much I wish it was.
And then I went to work, with the bag of graduation anouncements, and discovered that business cards are not the same size as name cards, and have to be trimmed down to fit in the slots of the anouncements by hand, painstakingly, and I was just so wired up from the concert and the walk, and possible PMS that I was just about jumping out of my seat every time the phone rang. What a night.
Rachel was still at our house when I woke up this afternoon, or I should say, when she woke me up! We went out for Chinese food for lunch, and she said she had shopped in the morning for a dress to wear to a friend's wedding this weekend, but she didn't see anything she liked. I suggested that she look at the resale shop where Kim got her prom dress, and wow, we found a fantastic dress and some amazing shoes there! Also, the owner of the shop, who is an older lady and very friendly, is from El Salvador and was happy to chat in Spanish to Rachel, so that entertained me!
It was so entertaining, in fact, that we were a little late getting home, and Kim and I had promised to watch a baby tonight, so as soon as we got home, I had to grab Kim and go.
Kim has never actually tended a real baby before, except once when we left her home with Kelly's baby for a half-hour while Karin and I took a walk. That's why I went with her, and I just supervised while Kim played with the baby and discovered just how boring a one year old can be. I know people who love babies, but I am not one of them. Yes, they are cute to hold for a few minutes, but then I am done, because they have very little conversatin, and are also sticky. Kim agrees. She fed him dinner and gave him a bath, and when he was asleep, I went home.
I'm back at work tonight with a cold soda, my sock knitting, and a library book. Ahh, is this not happiness?
11:14 p.m. - 2007-05-22
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
other diaries: |
