Update

I should be swimming, but brrrrrrrr and I am just a lazy old tired woman.

Lets's see... I probably should recap, but frankly I cannot remember much... Yikes it has been a while since I last wrote. OK let's see I guess I will start with the Winter Pop's concert

Maddie got a solo this year which was cool. She practiced her brains out. She is sometimes a little pitchy vocally and strains on her high notes. She also has had a cold for quite some time. I too have had a rather nasty cold and was off school last wednesday.

I got an e-mail from the mother of one of the boys in the show who was looking for a robe to make him look like Christmas Present I of course read the subject of the e-mail as him wanting to look like a Christmas present and pictured some kind of box and bow kind of thing instead of the green furry robe with holly wreath headpiece. When we finally got that all straightend out I told her I had a lovely velvet robe that I had made for another show. That sounded good to her and I sent it along to school with Mad. I even cut some white fur off my big hunk for cuffs and sent along Maddie's real wolf fur collar.. that was the first costume

Wednesday (the day I was sick) I drove into Janesville to pick up my chair. The upholsterer finally got it done. Mad and I picked it up and then headed for Goodwill to look for a white blouse for her to wear to the concert. She was singing with the women's choir and her solo was right after. Being the stage mother that I am I wanted her to have an outfit change for her solo and racked my brain trying to come up with something she could do quickly... We thought about a skirt she could pull up over her black slacks or maybe a vest or jacket, but really didn't have anything that would work too well. We hunted through the blouses and she came up with about 15 to try on. There were no long skirts that caught her eye. I waited outside the dressing room and as I was rather aimlessly glancing around my eye caught a hint of green velvet (I always go for the lush fabrics) I pulled a couple hangers apart and there was a beautiful crushed velved victorian style jacket with gold buttons across the bust and lovely long tail. I fairly squealed with delight. I snagged it and shoved it under the dressing room door.

None of the blouses she tried on looked good with it though and finally she remembered a white sequinned top. She had a pair of black pleated palazo pants and the whole outfit came out just classy looking... she even got to sit in the super fragile vintage sleigh that apparently only has two boards that are stable. I envisioned her crashing through the priceless artifact, but she very gracefully stepped out of the sleigh and finished her song with nice expression and even hit her notes. A big relief to her mom but I get ahead of myself

I got a second email thursday asking me about other stuff we might have in the costume closet at school. This one needed to be something blue and icy. I couldn't think of anything that would fit the bill there until I recalled a long velvet blue robe that someone had worn in the first middle school play and that was in my attic. I later went up and found a couple other things that I thought would be possiblities and was going to send those in the next day.... only problem with that was we ended up with a snow day Yippeee!!!!!!

That night we were scheduled to have a Bunco party at one of the teacher's houses. I was lucky enough to be deemed fun enough to be considered for the 12 woman roster. I think I was not on the A list. The party had been cancelled earlier because of weather and I don't think anything was going to stop Joy this time. I got a call late in the afternoon telling me they were going to pick me up in an hour. I got dressed (best thing about a snow day) and grumbly got ready for the party. I really would have rather stayed at home. I guess there were reasons for me not being on the A list LOL We got out to her house and had a wonderful time... none of us had ever played before and I ended up winning my 5 dollar ante back so it was cool. Several girls at another table got into some odd coversation about blow jobs, but I wasn't at that table. Teachers get kind of wild sometimes.

Saturday was the Pop's concert ... I took Maddie and the costumes in for a rehearsal... the choir director was freaking out because of the missed rehearsal time due to snow, but the kids could have cared less. The rehearsal went pretty terrible and I was not anticipating a great show, but danged if they didn't rise to the occasion and do terrific all round. Maddie's great nemisis came out in a skin tight spandex blood red blouse and black mini skirt. She looked sexy and pretty, but maybe a little much for high school. I think the girls should stick to long dresses or pants in our theater since the audience sits pretty much below the stage. It is not always the prettiest view.

After the concert Maddie asked if she could go to Culvers. I said sure and off she ran. I felt a little left out. Puck was working and I was left hauling costumes home all alone. I pouted for a minute then decided to go out to Culvers myself. She was surprised to see me. I gave her a bad time for not inviting me then bought her some icecream and sat with the mom who drove them out there. Kids!!!

Sunday we were going up to LaCrosse for our last college visit... I called my sister to let her know we were on our way and spoke with her husband. He very quietly told me they had had a fire that day... I sucked in my breath and waited for the rest. He is the Tech Ed teacher in their town and has been a car buff for as long as I have know him. He and my sister have lived and breathed old cars for as long as they have known each other.

He was working on a Volkswagen for a friend of his. That had been his friends first car I think. Anyhow as he was taking the gas tank out some gasoline spilled out and dribbled over to the halogen light he was using for light. The place was on fire in an instant. Pat found himself on fire and burnt his hands attempting to put his clothes out. They had not gotten any snow so he had to roll the fire out in the dirt. He ran down to call 911 then back up to save his beloved cars. He ran inside to see if he could save the Corvette, but quickly and intellegently realized that he needed to get the hell out.

He had to stand and watch 50 years of cars and tools burn to the ground. They lost four cars (two collector cars) all his tools, acetyline tanks, a brand new sand blaster, his chainsaw (they have a wood heater in their home)all his car manuals, it was horrible... by the time the fire department came it was pretty much over.

He ended up with second degree burns on both hands and one leg. It looks like insurance will cover much of the physical loss and they have a terrific support group of friends. I hope it was good that we came up and that we were not a burden. Maddie spent all her time with her cousin and I talked to Ellyn. Pat was quite subdued, but he seemed to be adjusting. Lots of concerned phone calls from friends that afternoon. I think they will be ok after a while, but it will be rough.

Monday Maddie and I headed over to LaCrosse to tour the campus. It was bitterly cold with a strong wind. The tour was ok, but our guide was greatly into sports which is not something Maddie is terribly keen on. We got a chance to see the theater and it looked good, but they do not have an experimental theater which means they really cannot do theater in the round or very intimate drama venues. It seems that she will be going to River Falls... it will be weird to have her at the same place both Puck and I graduated from... we have created a dynasty

Today was tough to be at school. Heck I have had almost a whole week off. We had our first drama meeting and 130 kids showed up... that is about a third of the whole dang school.... it is going to be interesting... Puck wrote a funny series of lines which I added to...

You know you might have been involved in Middle School theater too long when…

1.Most of the items in your living room have much longer resumes than any of your actors

2.Much of your casting decisions are based on how the kid acts in class

3.You track your cast’s grades to see who might need an under-study

4.An actor’s dependability has been prejudged by the actions of their older siblings

5.In order to protect your reputation you make sure to note in the program that the students did most of the work of building and painting the set or to thank the parents for making the costumes

6.You dread a surprise visit from the playwright due to the fact that half the characters and their lines are figments of your imagination and were never in the original script

7.Some of the best performances you see are at the cast party.

8.You discover that sixth graders can’t paint, seventh graders can’t sponge and eighth graders cannot dry brush

9.At dress rehearsal you swear you’ll never do this again, but two week s later you are wondering what play to you next year

10.You quickly discard any script with more than 6 male roles or kissing

11.You get a little tired of justifying how girls are perfect to play detectives, cops, firemen and newsboys and crowd scenes make you tingly.

There you go Spidey.... that ought to keep you in reading material for a minute or two :)