Skipping Town

It was finally opening night for Lucia's musical, Mamma Mia. It was a long week for her of 9:30pm rehearsals, on top of homework. Monday night she came home at 9:45pm and announced she was going to go to Schenley for a run. "Absolutely not," I managed to say. "Then I'm going to run all around the house," she said. I don't think she actually did this. Where would she run in this construction zone? But maybe she did; I was asleep about five minutes after bringing her home. I did find a syrupy plate in the sink the next morning from what were, apparently, some very late-night Eggos. I mean--the week has been totally out of hand.  But tonight was opening night, and of course the show was wonderful, as all WT musicals are. It is always a joy to see how many kids participate--both boys and girls--and how excited they are about being on stage. Their friends come, and their teachers and the school admins. (I always take careful note of who shows up; most do. Don...

I'm delinquent with this blog for the first time in ages. I can't possible catch up day by day, but I'll capture a few details of the past eight days here: We barely see Lucia. Between musical rehearsal followed by runs and then meets on weekends, she is an invisible presence in our household, visible only for a second at a time if we're lucky enough to make it to a track meet and see her careen by. It is time, past time, for these all-consuming activites to come to an end. She has no time for anything, and by "anything" I mean schoolwork, and by "schoolwork" I mean precalc, in which, at the midpoint of this semester, she currently has a C. We have met with her teacher and advisor. We have a plan in place. The biggest part of that plan is THE END OF MUSICAL AND TRACK. Fortunately, the musical is this weekend. Then she will reclaim some of her time. (This weekend, with Andrew getting ready for a work trip to Italy, I was faced with a track meet an hou...

The weekend went too fast. Friday, Andrew and I went out to dinner at Morton's and then to the symphony. It was a lovely evening. We ordered way too much food (Andrew had gotten a gift card from a consulting gig), and we were pleasantly surprised when our waitress offered to keep our leftovers in the restaurant cooler so we could pick them up after the symphony (which was fabulous).  Saturday was focused on Lucia's track meet in West Mifflin. Andrew, Greta, and I went to watch her run her two events, the 4x800 relay and, her favorite, the 1600. She PR'd in both and ran a 5:48 mile. She was pleased. It was sunny but freezing and windy, and though the three of us left after her events were over, she stayed the rest of the meet, not getting home until 8:30pm. It was over a twelve-hour day for her. Sunday, Andrew and I had brunch with the Clarks. Lucia focused on studying chemistry. Greta and I sewed a few mini scrap monsters (something I saw on Instagram) and then did a big sp...

As part of my personal archiving project, I recently came across a cache of old files from my time in grad school in NYC. Among these files were documents from a temp job I held at an investment bank in 2000, which became, briefly, a full-time job. There were stories I’d jotted down, artifacts, pilfered printouts, articles, even photographs. I collected them all, scanned them, and wrote an introduction to what has become a hardcover volume in my archive, titled A Temp Remembers . I thought it might be of interest to share that introduction here, a reflection on this sliver of my past life. Names and identifying details have been changed. *** A Temp Remembers From 2000 to 2003, I worked off and on as a temp for the CEO of Global Investment Bank and his wife: Bill and Trixie Donner. I got the temp job in the ordinary way, through a temp agency, and worked there for a few months one summer and then on Fridays during graduate school (July 2000 - May 2001). After I finished my coursework, t...

Back to the reality of school for the kids, and the usual immersion in renovation chaos for us. The cabinets have been delivered, and we hope they'll be installed this week. That would be a good step forward. 

The kids had a great remainder of Spring Break this week. They continued to junk journal, and I joined them each day after work. Lucia studied precalc; Greta did some sewing. We began watching the second season of The Last Thing He Told Me. We went to the club for dinner on Thursday, where we engaged in a lively conversation about all the evidence for why Andrew is either a fugitive or the father of a second family in Peru.  They also got out all of their My Little Ponies, the magic of a full week at home taking over.  Friday, Andrew went to a Pirates game. The girls and I went to Shake Shack for tiramisu milkshakes, and when we came home, I showed them all of my Skipping Town volumes since they'd been asking for stories about their baby/toddler years. While in the attic, they decided to get out all of their Shopkins, and then they began setting them all up in my office. They were immersed in this return to their once-beloved collection. Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to be...