During Tech week for Guys and Dolls I felt like I was drowning. We'd gone into that play with no idea what to expect so when Brandon started having rehearsals at 5:30 PM I was completely caught off guard. This time I was better prepared. I'd literally wrote TECH WEEK in big letters on my calendar as soon as I knew that Brandon and the twins would be in the play. I tried to keep things as simple as possible that week. I didn't feel like I was drowning. Instead I felt like I was treading water. It was still exhausting, but at least I felt like my head was above water this time around.
That treading water feeling lasted through tech week and into the actual performances. In 14 days there was a play or rehearsal on 11 nights. Every day I'd look at my calendar and be like, "Okay, what do I have today." And I'd make sure it got done. But I wasn't doing much pre-planning for anything. The play dominated EVERYTHING.
But it was so worth it. The play was WONDERFUL. I have so many good memories from the last two weeks and so I want to write about them. So let's get to it.
TECH WEEK - Monday March 6-Wednesday March 8
Monday
I worked in the morning on Monday. Basically I worked every day. I'm going to save time and not talk about it much. But yeah, I was working through all this craziness.
When the kids were home from school in the afternoon we went and ran errands. This was a divide and concur day. I took the girls and Brandon took Derrick.
Derrick has been obsessed with going on a treasure hunt and finding a treasure. We are all a little sick of him talking about it. So when he picked up the junk mail and saw and add for Arctic Circle and started talking about going to Artic Circle and ordering a hamburger I was like, "YES, Finally something we can actually make happen!" So he and Brandon went to Arctic Circle and Derrick ordered a hamburger and they had a good time.
I took the girls two places. First we went to Joann's and bought ribbons for Charlotte and Lydia's hair. Their hair is still dyed and I had a plan for how to hide most of the color with braids, but I figured that ribbons would help distract from any color that did show.
Then we went to target to pick up a Lego set that Lydia had ordered with money she'd been saving up. Since we were there I decided that's where we'd get the other things on my list. We bought mascara and foundation for their stage make up. (I've never had much use for foundation so we didn't have any at home. I had to have Brandon explain to me how to pick it out. - Find the color that matches your skin tone and go one shade darker.)
We also bought hair spray and clear elastics so I could do their hair.
When we got home we had just enough time to make a quick dinner while I tested out braiding the girls hair. Then Charlotte, Lydia, and Brandon left at 5:15 to be at rehearsal by 5:30.
This whole time I'd been so careful to protect our schedule for tech week that I hadn't given much thought to what Derrick, Veronica, and I would do each evening. It was actually really refreshing to realize we had NOTHING!
We ended up writing out a schedule on the downstairs whiteboard that detailed who got to pick a movie on which night. I "watched" the movies with Derrick and Veronica. That really meant I zonked out on the couch while they watched the movies. Other nights I was awake and would do things on my computer while watching things with them.
Brandon and the girls didn't get home until about 10:30 that night.
Tuesday
Okay, I said I worked every day, but actually I didn't work on this Tuesday. I'd enjoyed taking the day off for my birthday so much the month before that I decided to try it more often. I figured out that I could probably take every other Tuesday off of work. So I took it off and it was lovely to know that I didn't have to worry about getting ready and heading into work at all that day.
I've wanted to clean off the area above our kitchen shelves pretty much this whole school year and I finally got to it. I wish I'd taken a before picture, but here's the after. Picture that area with twice as much stuff.
I also met up with Chicken Liz and went on a walk around the neighborhood and then stayed talking at her house for a long time. She and I both like gardens so I had fun pointing out yards I like in the neighborhood. Everything was still dormant, but it was good to know that spring is coming soon.
In the afternoon Veronica didn't have therapy, but she did have tutoring. I took her to that and Brandon made dinner. When we got home there was just enough time to braid the girls hair and get them out the door.
Oh and I can't remember if this was Monday or Tuesday, but I was able to put together a bag of make up and brushes for them. I subscribed to an Ipsy subscription about 2 years ago in part because I wanted to have a lot of make up options available to the girls as they got older. This made it all worth it. I had blush, I had powder, I had eye shadow, I had eye liner. The only thing I didn't know was how to do "stage make up." So I sent them off with the bag of make up and was like, "Find someone to help you with that." One of the pick-a-little ladies taught them. (Though Brandon totally could have.)
Derrick, Veronica, and I watched more movies after they were gone.
Wednesday
On Wednesday Veronica stayed home from school. There was really no good reason for keeping her home, but sometimes I just have to give in. She has a substitute teacher while her teacher is on maternity leave and while the sub is good (she was Charlotte's 5th grade teacher last year) she'd doing things a little differently than Veronica's real teacher and that's hard for Veronica to handle some times. So she was home.
But I still had to go to work. (Okay, I guess we are going to talk about my work every day.) I told Veronica she had to come with me and be there for 3 whole hours. She was like, "Okay, I know what 3 hours is like. That's how long it takes to get to Utah." So she came and watched things on my phone while I worked for 3 hours.
In the afternoon I poked around in the backyard for a bit. We'd had snow off and on for several days or maybe weeks. The snow was finally melting, and the grass was very wet and spongy. I took this as a "before picture." I'm excited to get things going in this backyard again.
That afternoon I met with our accountant to go over our tax return. He ended up getting us a little more money than my test run with Tax Act had come up with. So I'm glad we went through him. Plus he actually understands the Schedule C. I've never understood those.
I had a little bit of time between the time I left the house and when I needed to be at the accountants so I'd stopped at D&B for some recon.
I was dreaming about lilacs among many other things.
Veronica didn't have girls activity because she hadn't gone to school, but honestly it was kind of a relief that she didn't go because it made the afternoon a little simpler.
We had another quick dinner that happened nearly simultaneously with doing the girls' hair. I'd ordered them dance tights from Amazon and those showed up this day. The girls liked those. We haven't been much of a dance family, but I grew up in Kearns, where dance was a huge deal. Even my uncoordinated self was in social dance performances in high school. So I knew that the girls would probably want dance tights to wear on stage. They liked them a lot. (And when I saw the show I was like, "yep, those tights work perfect.")
The tights had shown up right on time. This was the dress rehearsal night. It was a long rehearsal. The girls and Brandon didn't get home until after 11:00.
First set of performances Thursday March 9 - Monday March 13th
Thursday
Earlier in the week I'd let the girls know that they could sleep in if needed on any morning after a rehearsal or play. They took me up on that on Thursday morning. They slept in about 45 minutes and then got ready I took them to school right before 1st period ended.
The Attendance secretary at the middle school is married to one of the men in the Barbershop Quartet in the play. When we walked into the school she asked with a smile, "Did you sleep in?" I said, "Yes they did, and you know why." She laughed and said, "Yes, I haven't seen my husband all week!"
After I dropped the girls off I drove over to the accountants office and signed the tax return. (I'd wanted him to make sure he hadn't used the wrong education credit for me.) After that I went to Walmart and bought more socks and underwear for everyone. We'd been getting dangerously low on those things.
And then I went and did the little grocery shopping trip.
I was putting things away at home when Lydia called me and asked me to to pick her up. She was having some lady trouble. So I picker her up and then dropped her off at home. I went into work for a several hours.
The local paper had taken pictures during the dress rehearsal and had a story about the play in the paper on Thursday. I was able to get my first look at the costumes that Charlotte and Lydia had been telling me about. They had the cutest grey dresses and black shoes. You can see them on the left side of the picture. Brandon is in the back on the right side.
That afternoon we had another rushed dinner and hair session. I'd finally figured out the best ways to do the twins' hair.
I'd pull the side sections that had colored hair into a small pony tail by their ears. Then I would braid that with the rest of the hair into two long braids. I'd double the braids over so that the most colorful parts of their hair would be mostly hidden. Then I tied ribbons onto the braids. The whole thing took 8 elastics and a lot of hair spray. The end result was pretty cool looking. It almost looked like I'd weaved colorful ribbon all through their hair.
Here's Lydia's.
And here's Charlotte's.
They were both pretty nervous for opening night that night. Lydia was the most vocal about it. They went off to the theatre with a lot of apprehension.
Derrick had Occupational Therapy at 5:30 so we all left the house at basically the same time. Veronica came with me and waiting in the lobby for Derrick's appointment.
When that was over we went home and watched more movies.
I figured the play wouldn't be over until 10:00 and Brandon and the girls wouldn't be home until 10:30 at the earliest. So I was super surprised when they came into the house at 9:55. They were all so excited to tell me all about the play. Lydia said she'd been nervous, but then was like, "Oh I know what to do."
The girls were excited to show me the makeup they'd done all by themselves. Here's Charlotte.
And here's Lydia. They both looked so much older.
Our friend Kelly, (AKA Mr Kelly from when he was Derrick's worker) had gone to opening night with his wife. And Charlotte and Lydia's young women class came too.
They'd had a great time with opening night.
Friday
The wind started blowing super hard during the night. When I started getting everyone up in the morning I found Marcia hiding on the couch in the basement. Later I tried to let her out to go to the bathroom, but she turned right around and went back in the house. She was so scared of the wind.
I thought for sure that Charlotte and Lydia would want to sleep in again on Friday morning. But they got up on time and I dropped them off like it was a regular day.
I went to work and got a lot of little weird billing things taken care of. It's little things like sending an invoice to a Foster Care case worker with the Department of Health and Welfare or sending a statement to my contact with the Twin Falls County Juvenile Detention Center.
I left work around 11:30 to head over to the elementary school. When I walked out of the building I could see a bank of dark clouds heading our way. My weather app had said to expect snow around 12:00 and I guessed that this was it.
There was only a small amount of blue sky left.
I drove to the elementary school which is only about 1 mile away from my work. By the time I got there the cloud covered the sky.
About 5 minutes after I went into the school there was rain, and then hail and then snow. It snowed for a good hour.
When I came out everything was covered in snow. I actually took this picture several days earlier during a different snow storm. The snow storm on Friday was probably one of the worst we'd had all winter. We had a good two inches on the ground.
I was at the school to help with the Mustang Day Sale. We were testing out a new way of doing it. The old way of doing Mustang day was like this: We'd set up a table with lots of fun toys and candy on it. The kids would come to the table after lunch and pick out what they wanted. They'd give us the money and we'd give them the items.
This worked, but it was rather disruptive to the students the rest of the day. Kids who bought stuff were tempted to play with it. Kids who didn't buy things felt sad. Teachers asked if we could do something different.
So this time we sent home order forms and the kids turned in their money at the beginning of the day. The PTO ladies just put together the orders in bags and delivered the bags to the teachers at the end of the day.
I think this new way will work out great . . . but we need to streamline a few things. As it was this first day was A LOT of work. And there were only three of us there to do it all.
I started out the afternoon saying something like, "I need to leave at 2:15, but we should be done in plenty of time for that." I ended up finishing the deposit at 2:16. Thank goodness the PTO president works for our bank because she was able to take the deposit. I wouldn't have had time.
I left the school and drove over to the middle school to pick up Lydia. She'd had some "girl problems" that have been half the reason she's missed so much school this year. I told her if they happened again I'd take her to the doctor. Well OF COURSE that happened to be during this already crazy week. But I kept my promise and made a doctor appointment for her.
So I checked her out of school. (And made small talk with the attendance secretary about the play while we waited for Lydia to come up from her classroom.) Lydia and I drove over to the doctors office. We are still at the same clinic that's close to our house, but last fall I switched Lydia and Charlotte to a female doctor (in anticipation for situations like this.) Well that lady recently had a baby so this day we were with another lady who we'd never met.
I REALLY like this lady. She said, "Heavy periods aren't uncommon when you first start having periods, but that doesn't mean you have to live with them."
So we talked about options and then she said, "We'll start with blood work and then go from there." And I was like, "oops."
It had completely slipped my mind that of course the doctor was going to order blood work. I hadn't prepared Lydia for this at all.
Lydia had been sitting on the examination table, but she came and sat by me. She was obviously nervous.
The nurse took us down to the lap. The phlebotomist down there was really great. We had to wait for the courier to get there because some of the tests were time sensitive. the phlebotomist wanted to make sure they'd be taken to the main lab at the hospital as soon as they she drew the blood.
While we were waiting she showed everything to Lydia and also took the time to find which arm had a good vein. That sort of helped. I went down to the nurses station and got a bottle of water from Theresa. She was like, "Who are you here for now?" I was like, "Oh I just live here these days."
Back at the lab Lydia was still really nervous. I was holding her hand and trying to comfort her. But inside I was near tears myself. It had been such a long day. I'd taken a lunch with me because I'd known I'd probably not make it home, but I'd eaten that back at 11:00. I was hungry, and worn out, and I still had so much to do that day. I was happy I could be there to take care of Lydia, but I was thinking, "Who is going to take care of me?"
And then I remembered - I did have someone coming to take care of me. Our friends Bob and Vonnie Coombs were coming from Idaho Falls to see the play that night. When they'd first contacted us about coming to see the play they'd offered to bring us dinner or take us out to eat. I'd said it would be great it they could bring us something. But I hadn't thought much about it at the time.
Vonnie had been texting us weather updates and for a bit it looked like they might not come. But they had decided to come and they were going to pick up food from Wendy's. While we were in the doctors office I got a text that they were getting the food and would be at our house shortly. That was the absolute best news I'd had all day.
The courier showed up and it was time to draw the blood. I held Lydia's head in my arms. Lydia cried a bit, but overall did great. She was very happy when it was over. We both were.
When we got back home Bob and Vonnie were there. It was like they were angels. Not only had I been away from home for nearly 8 hours, but our power was also out. I have no idea what we would have done for dinner if they hadn't brought to do us. I guess we'd have had cold cereal.
We all crowded around the table and ate. I had a hamburger with bacon on it and it was the most incredible tasting hamburger.
Soon it was time to do Charlotte and Lydia's hair. And then they left with Brandon to go get ready for the second performance. Bob and Vonnie stayed around for a little bit, but then they went to their hotel to freshen up before the play. We'd coordinated our tickets so we'd be sitting together that night. So we said we'd see them at the show.
Around 6:45 Derrick, Veronica, and I went to the Orpheum. We took a picture with the poster out front before we went into the theatre.
Bob and Vonnie were already there. We all sat together on Row I. My coworker Jeanette said hi almost as soon as I found my seat. She said, "I was in the lobby and I recognized your voice when you came in." Yep, that me being super loud and memorable.
When I'd gone on the ladies retreat with Twin Falls Community Church I'd met a lady whose daughter played Mrs Paroo in the play. She said she was going to the play on Friday night. So I looked around and saw Debbie and went to say hi. She was there with another friend from Bible Study named Sheila. After I talked to them I found Jeanette and met her husband and kids. Then I went back to my row and talked with Derrick and Veronica and Bob and Vonnie.
We pulled up the digital program. It was fun to see everyone's bios. (I'd written the bios for Brandon and the twins so those weren't a surprise, but the others were great. I found out the boy who plays Winthrop went to Derrick and Veronica's school.) You can access the program with this link. (It will always display the program for the most recent play so if you are reading this in the future scroll down to the bottom and find the file for Music Man.)
Here we are getting ready for the play to start.
We weren't allowed to take pictures or videos. But later I was able to get access to the google drive where official pictures taken by Olivia Garcia were uploaded. So thanks to those pictures I can give you a good look at what the play looked like. (Olivia was in Jive and is one of the kids that I've never met, but that I'm oddly invested in. She was also a Hot Box dancer in Guys and Dolls.)
Soon everything went dark and 13 men filed onto the stage and sat on chairs. The overture played and then the lights came up and the men started singing the traveling salesman number that starts the show. Brandon was in this scene. You can see him in the front row of this picture. He only had a few parts, (mostly saying "What's his line" a couple times.) The main singers did such a good job with this song. And we've all been saying things like, "What'd ya talk." And "He doesn't know the territory!"
Our friend Ivan played Harold Hill in the play. He'd been in the Music Man as a 7 year old and he'd always wanted to come back to it and play Harold. You could see the absolute glee he felt at playing this dream roll. During the first scene on of the sales man says, "You ever heard about a fellow named Hill?" Ivan lowers his newspaper and grins at the audience.
The next scene was the introduction to the town of River City, Iowa. The cast all sing "Iowa Stubborn." Charlotte and Lydia were in the "Squires Family." Their dad was Jacey Squires who would end up being the high tenor of the barbershop quartet. Their mom was one of the pick-a-little ladies. They were a family of farmers and the mom and dad did a bit where they looked like the painting "American Gothic." Charlotte and Lydia held a giant frame for that bit.
Here they are with their family. I love how happy they look.
The next big scene that the girls were in was "Trouble" when Professor Hill convinces the town that the pool table will lead to trouble. I don't have a picture of it, but there's a part where Harold Hill pulls one of the twins toward him and the other twin grabs her arm and wont let go.
The next scene with the girls was the big town meeting at the Gymnasium. Here they are sitting with their stage mom. They were told to look board. They even yawned at the same time.
They got up to do the culturally insensitive Wa-Ta-Nee Girls part. I'd wondered at the appropriateness of doing this scene in 2023, but everyone played it in a way that was to show that no one in the town liked it (except Mrs Shinn who really had nothing else to be excited for.)
The scene is interrupted by a firecracker set off by a teenage boy that Brandon catches. Brandon was Constable Locke. Up to this point he'd been in the back without many lines. But he came barreling up to the front with a booming voice and caught the kid and demanded he stay with him. Brandon looked so important in his uniform. When they'd first started with costume fittings they'd had Brandon try on a military dress jacket. He'd told them, If you want a military jacket I can just wear mine. It fits me perfect. So he took all his awards and his Warrant Officer bars off and wore his own dress blues jacket throughout the play. He'd added a belt around the waist so he could hook his fingers into it when he needed something to do with his hands. He had real handcuffs and a key ring. The keys came from Veronica's extensive key collection.
You can't see it, but Brandon also had a flask hidden in one of the pockets. They needed a reason for him to loose track of Tommy so that Tommy could be in the dance number for 76 Trombones. Someone suggested that he turn around and sneak a drink out of the flask. Tommy took that as an opportunity to sneak off. (And later Brandon gave a drink to Mayor Shinn, but not many people caught that bit. The director didn't even know about it until the cast party on closing night.)
Harold Hill comes in and talks to the town about how they need a Boys Bands and soon they are singing and dancing along with his idea. This was the first time Charlotte and Lydia really danced in the play. (There had been a little bit of dancing in Iowa Stubborn, but this time they were all over the stage.)
You can see Ivan was in his element with this number.
There were a lot of trombone related movements in this piece. I love the end pose.
Brandon was back for a little bit of dialog in the scene where Tommy meets Harold. Brandon had to work really hard on his lines here. He had the dialog down, but he couldn't do it with a straight face when Ivan was smirking at him. He finally took a picture of Ivan doing one of his funny faces and set it as his phone background. Then he'd practice his lines while looking at the picture. It must have worked because he did a great job.
He held that kids arm so tight I wondered if he didn't have a bruise by the end of the play.
I've talked a lot about what my family was doing in the play. But let's talk about the main characters. Ivan was blowing it away as Harold. And Breeana was fabulous as Marian. A lady on our row was convinced that the main actors were part of a professional traveling group. They were that good.
Veronica's favorite song is Marian the Librarian. That was such a fun number to watch. At the end Harold kisses Marian and she goes to slap him. He ducks and she hits a teenage kid. Derrick loved that part. (He'd totally there for the slap stick.)
Act One ended with "The Wells Fargo Wagon" number. I don't think I have any pictures from that, but it was also well done. And I might have teared up when little Winthrop lisps "Sister Sister isn't this the most scrumptious coronet you ever did see." In real life Ivan is an Occupational Therapist, but in this he's something of a speech therapist.
Intermission was spent talking to Bob and Vonnie and reading the program. Derrick and Veronica went exploring.
Then it was time to start the show again. The show starts with the big Shepoopie dance number. If there is anything I wish I had a video of it was this dance. There was soooo much going on. Charlotte and Lydia each had a dance partner. Lydia was paired with an 18 year old kid (The What'd ya talk salesman from the first number) and Charlotte and paired with a 13 year old. Charlotte's partner goes to her school, but she doesn't really see him much at school. Both partners were happy the girls had hair ribbons to help them tell them apart.
At first Brandon hadn't been in the Shepoopie number. But then his friend Makeesa from Guys and Dolls pulled him on stage and made him dance with her. They worked out a whole back story for the Constable that had him secretly liking Makeesa.
So I was trying to watch three family members dance in this fast paced all over the place dance number. They danced as partners. They danced in groups. They formed circles and rotates around each other. They kicked and jumped and had a blast. There was so much to see. I told them later that I wished I could sneak into the show every night just to watch Shepoopie.
One of my favorite songs (that my family wasn't in) was when Marian sings Sweet and Low while the Barber shop quartet sings Lyda Rose. Derrick must have liked that song too. When it was over he said, "I love you!"
One of the things I liked about this play is that towns people would often be walking by back stage while something else was happening up stage. So I appreciated when Charlotte and Lydia walked by with their family during some of the scenes at Madison Park.
Everything comes to a head near the end of the play when the town's people find out that Professor Hill is a fraud. Brandon handcuffs Harold. In the next scene Harold is still handcuffed and Brandon is holding on tight to him. Brandon told me he always felt bad in that scene. Ivan/Harold had been prancing and dancing all over the stage making big moves with his hands and feet. As soon as he's handcuffed he stops moving. He hunches over. Brandon said, "It's like I broke him."
Of course everything comes out all right in the end. The town people decide they want Harold to stay. The boys show up in their uniforms and everyone is so thrilled to see their children "playing" instruments that they think they sound wonderful - even though they don't. (Side note: This is what I say the primary program is like. I'm of the opinion that rehearsals are pointless because the parents will all be like, "That's my little boy singing a song.")
The play ended and the cast all ran off the stage and into the lobby. People streamed out to congratulate the cast on their way out the door.
I was in line to see Brandon, but our line wasn't going fast enough for Derrick. He moved to the other line and started congratulating all the barbershop quartet members. He made his way to Marian and next thing I knew she kissed him on the cheek! Derrick's eyes got big and he looked at me like, "OHHHHHHH." Charlotte and Lydia saw the whole thing.
I took this picture of Charlotte and Lydia. They were so happy and excited.
Here's Brandon. Oh funny story. He'd shaved his beard on Monday and then started wearing eye liner in the tech rehearsals. Some how the eye liner hadn't washed off all the way before he went to work on Tuesday. And his cheeks looked really red compared to the newly shaved skin. He said he kept getting such weird looks. He finally had to be like, "okay, everyone. I'm in a play."
Here we are together.
And Brandon with the girls. Someone had brought flowers and was passing one out to everyone.
Veronica borrowed Brandon's hat.
Here's Charlotte and Lydia playing with their friend Katherine. She's Ivan's daughter.
I wanted to get a picture of Brandon with Makeesa.
And I wanted one of Brandon with Ivan. Somehow this was the result. It was hilarious.
We also got this gem that unfortunately came out blurry. I think I was laughing too hard to hold the camera steady. These too are so funny together.
Charlotte and Lydia wanted to show me the dressing room so they took us all down to the dressing room under the stage. It's three rooms. One for boys, one for girls, and one common area with lots of mirrors for putting on make up / hanging out. The common room has a TV that shows the stage so they can watch for their parts. They'd explained to me before, but I hadn't realized how small the common room really was. I was like, "How do all 37 of you fit down here?"
I took Derrick and Veronica home. Brandon took Charlotte and Lydia to the after party at Buffalo Wild Wings. Normally they do a party on opening night, but since this play started on the Thursday and nearly everyone in the play had kids they decided to do the party on Friday night.
Somehow Charlotte and Lydia ended up with the extra flower so we had a whole bouquet in our house.
Saturday was an absolute nothing day.
We slept in. I didn't get up until 9:00.
Maybe if the weather had been nice I would have wanted to do something in the garden. But it was too snowy and too wet. And I was way to tired anyway.
I got up out of bed, but pretty soon I fell asleep again on the living room couch. Later I took another nap on the garage couch.
Brandon went to take a nap and fell asleep for 4 hours.
The kids watched all three Smurfs movies.
At some point Veronica set up a relaxation station in her room.
This girl had the right idea for the day.
That afternoon I made a really difficult decision. My sister Lindsey was coming into town the next week. (This was the rescheduled President's Day trip.) I'd been planning to drive down to Utah to see her the next Friday. The kids were out of school, but Charlotte and Lydia had the play so it would just be me and Derrick and Veronica going down. In my head it made sense to go down to Utah. But in my body I knew it didn't make sense at all.
I was so tired after this long week. I figured I'd be just as tired the next weekend. And so it didn't make sense to plan a 3 hour road trip down to Utah.
So I called Lindsey and let her know. She was disappointed, but she understood. She told me some of the plans for their week in Utah. We'd had big plans for big sibling fun during our President's Day weekend. But that wasn't quite the case this time around. Hillary was quite literally in the middle of moving to California. If I came down to visit I would basically be coming to help load the moving van. (Which under normal circumstances I'd be happy to do, but again, I was probably going to be super tired after another week of the play.) So that made me feel okay about missing this chance to hang out with all my siblings.
There was another play that night so I helped Charlotte and Lydia with their hair. (That's another reason I needed to be in Twin the next weekend.)
Derrick and Veronica were super squirrelly so I decided that we couldn't stay home again. We drove over to the school playground and they played there for a while. Then we went to Walmart so I could buy myself socks. (Because I'd completely forgot to buy myself socks on Thursday.)
We walked around and looked at lots of things at the store. Veronica was like, 'We need to hurry." and I was like, "We literally have NOTHING else to do tonight."
Brandon wasn't sure if there would be another after party that night. His plan was to bring the girls home and then take me to whatever party was happening. Well there was no party, but we decided to have our own party. He dropped off the girls and took me to Applebees. We ordered an appetizer plater to split and a dessert for each of us. All the food arrived at the same time and I was like, "This was the best idea ever!"
We were both super tired so we just kind of talked and then sat quietly and then talked some more. But it was nice. We got home around 11:30 - I think. Time was getting a little wobbly. Daylight Saving Time started at 2:00 AM and I was already starting to be like, "Well it's 11:00 now but that means its really midnight."
Honestly, there is absolutely no way we would have made it to church on time on Sunday. Fortunately, we didn't have to worry about it. Our stake was having stake conference and it didn't start until 10:00 AND we could watch it over Zoom. I was like Halleluiah.
Sunday was another day of taking it easy. We listened to conference and watched our come follow me Youtube Videos.
In the late afternoon we had to get out of the house because all the kids were a little crazy. We drove out to Murtaugh so they could play on the big 3 level playground there.
Brandon and I sat on the bench.
It's been a while since I saw all the kids swinging together.
We went back home and had dinner. This was the first day all week that there wasn't a performance or a rehearsal. Honestly, it felt like we were forgetting something. All evening I was like, "don't you guys need to go?" I don't remember what we did. I think Brandon and the kids watched a movie. Maybe I did too? I don't know.
Monday we were back to the daily grind. And it was more painful than usual because of daylight saving time. I'd taken one too many naps during the weekend and had had trouble falling asleep until 2:00. (In my defence it was really one 1:00 thanks to the time change.)
The kids all had school. Brandon had work. I had work.
I'm not sure how Brandon made it to work on time. When my alarm went off at 6:30 - that was really 5:30 - I laid in bed and wondered how important in the grand scheme of things it was to get my kids to school on time that day. I decided not that important.
I didn't get up until like 7:30. Charlotte and Lydia were still able to get up and get ready for school on time. I dropped them off a few minutes before the bell rang. Then I came home and picked up Derrick and Veronica. They were about 45 minutes late for school. And then I went to work. I was only about 15 minutes late. I have no idea what I was wearing and I think I had hardly any make up on.
Somehow I made it through the things I needed to do that day. But at the first chance I had I went home and took a nap.
After school I had parent teacher conference with Derrick's teacher. I can't believe he'd almost done with Elementary school.
And before we knew it, it was time to start getting ready for the play. Everyone was a little blah about the play this night. I was doing one of the twins hair and they were so tired. I asked them if they were excited about the play. They said not really. I asked them if they knew anyone that was coming. They said no. Even Brandon seemed a little worn out.
While I was braiding one of the girls' hair my phone rang. It was my sister Lindsey. I picked it up and she said something like, "Well I have a surprise for you. I'm on my way to Idaho. I have Emily and Dad in the car with me." Instantly everything changed. This play performance went from being routine to being special. The kids were cheering. Brandon perked up. I was so happy.
Charlotte, Lydia, and Brandon went out the door knowing that they'd have people in the audience who came to see them specifically.
Derrick and Veronica watched movies like usual. But I spent some time making sure the guest bedroom was ready for visitors. My dad would be staying in a hotel, but Lindsey and Emily would be staying at my house.
Around 10:00 everyone arrived at our house. They'd taken pictures at the theatre. Here's my dad with the Twins and Brandon. My mom couldn't make the drive up to Idaho, but she'd picked out flowers for both the girls. And she sent rolo candy for Brandon. (He used these to make rolo cookies for the cast party.)
We added the flowers to our collection. They made me so happy to see them all week long.
Here's Emily, Charlotte, Lydia, and Lindsey. Lindsey put this up on Facebook with the caption "No you aren't seeing double."
We all stayed up talking until 11:00. Then Lindsey and me took my dad to the hotel and helped him get situated.
We came back and stayed up talking with Emily until 2:00. It was great. There were lots of giggles.
The next morning I was exhausted again. But this time my kids weren't as tired. I got them up and out the door at the right time. Emily was still asleep, but Lindsey came with me to drop them off at their schools. Then we drove to the hotel and picked up my dad. We went back to the house and talked until about 10:00. Then they had to get going to get back to their families.
I'm so happy they were able to make this happen. This was all in the works before I'd decided not to go to Utah, but it ended up working out perfectly.
No Play - Tuesday March 13-Wednesday March 14
In theory I could have gone back to sleep after everyone left that morning. But oddly I wasn't that sleepy. So I got out my computer and started writing notes for this post. I didn't have it in me to actually start writing. But I wanted to get some notes down. Those came in handy.
I was planning to go to work at 12:00 for admin meeting. But at 11:00 I got a phone call from the school. Derrick had hit another kids. The Principal said something like, "If it was any other kids he'd be suspended, but I'm not sure he'd understand that." I told her. "You should suspend him. I'll make sure he understands." So I went to the school and picked Derrick up. He was pretty sad. I told him that he was in trouble and couldn't watch any TV for the next two days.
We went home and he had some lunch and then I took him to work with me. I had to bend the no TV rule a bit and let him watch youtube on my phone so I could go into Admin meeting, but after that he was off my phone and sat in my office for another 40 minutes while I took care of stuff.
Then we went home and he hung around and pretty much did nothing while I worked from home. Brandon came home and made Derrick go out to the garage and do work with him.
Veronica had both therapy and tutoring that afternoon. I was planning to take her to both of those things, but then I'd think "Am I going to have enough time after tutoring to do Charlotte and Lydia's hair?" I was really perplexed about that until I remembered that they DIDN'T have the play or a rehearsal that night. This thought cycle repeated itself about 5 times. I could not wrap my head around the fact that there was no play that night. It was so strange.
My day was a little nuts. I took Veronica to her things and then came home and had dinner. Then I went back to work and took care of a few things that I hadn't been able to do from home. (Mostly organizing papers). We had our team meeting at 7:00. That was over around 7:25 and I hurried over to PTO Liz's house for Bible Study. I'd texted her earlier to let her know that I was probably going to be late and that I was sorry if I created a disturbance. She said it would be fine. I really was only about 8 minutes late.
Her family room was filled with women. Many of them were from the retreat. But there were some more new faces. We were all there to start our study of 1st Peter. It was a really good first meeting.
I stayed around to talk to people, and then left around 9:30. I was so happy to come home and
Wednesday was the last day of school for like 10 days. The kids had Thursday and Friday off for Parent Teacher Conference. And then spring break was the next week.
Veronica was considering not going to school, but then remembered they had St Patrick's Day things that day. So she went. Charlotte and Lydia were a little slow getting out of bed, but they made it to school on time.
Derrick was with me. I worked from home for a while and then we went into the office for an hour. Then I worked from home for a little bit more.
When I picked Veronica up from school she was in tears. She told me that a boy had grabbed her backpack as she was leaving the school. He'd pulled her backpack and that had caused her to fall onto the ground and bonk her elbow. She's had problems with this student before, but usually it's just name calling. This was the first time it was physical. As we walked home I wrote an email to the Principal letting her know what had happened. I sent it before we made it to the house.
I had a reply a little later saying that she'd reviewed the security footage and had confirmed what had happened. She'd called the parents. She'd made sure it wouldn't happen again. (I'm not sure how. Maybe the teacher will keep the other student in class until everyone has exited the room.)
So yeah on Tuesday my son was suspended for hurting another student. And on Wednesday my daughter was hurt by another student. Parenthood is a roller coaster.
Derrick had therapy with Mr Mark. They were hoping to go treasure hunting, but Mr Mark hurt his leg. So that pushed it off AGAIN. Derrick was so disappointed AGAIN. Maybe this whole thing is just a lesson in patience for Derrick.
Charlotte and Lydia came home. They'd been able to buy some fun things with their "Cubs Cash." Lydia had bought a can of Fart Putty. We spent way too long sitting in the living room laughing at the Fart Putty. Charlotte was especially entertained. I was like, "Obviously are all super worn out. This shouldn't be that funny."
Brandon had his first RV customers of the season so he was gone most of the afternoon. I had parent teacher conference at the middle school. I couldn't leave Veronica home so she came along with Charlotte and Lydia.
At this school you only have to meet with the Primetime (kind of like homeroom) teacher. So I met with Lydia's and then Charlotte's. Both girls had made masks in social studies. The masks and other homework we available in the prime time room.
Here's Charlotte's Cardinal Bird Mask.
And Lydia's wolf mask.
Then we wandered around the school and could meet with other teachers if we wanted. We stopped in Charlotte's Social Studies Class. Her teacher asked Veronica how old she was and was shocked when Veronica told her she was nice. Veronica started introducing herself to the teachers as "Lydia's Little Sister" and she'd do air quotes when she said little. It was kind of funny.
We went to the drama room and walked onto the stage. We peeked into the gym. Lydia introduced me to her art teacher from last quarter.
Veronica had never been in the middle school before so she was in awe of everything. Charlotte and Lydia liked showing it all to her. I noticed how much more confident they were in the school than they had been at back to school night when all this had been brand new.
We made it home before Brandon or Derrick. I made a quick dinner.
After dinner Charlotte and Lydia and I went to the church for the Girls Camp Kick Off. It felt much more organized than last year. Though I still had to ask someone to tell me where they were going because they'd given out all the info so fast.
The theme is Daughters of a King and all the girls got crowns. Somehow this picture happened when they came home.
Thursday March 16th - Pick up Rehearsal
The kids were all home on Thursday which meant we could sleep in. It was lovely. When we did get up I had all the kids help me clean the house. This was spring cleaning / company is coming / we are getting ready for a vacation / the house just needs it cleaning.
At 12:00 I let everyone watch movies and I went to work. I felt like this was the first time all week that I'd actually been a fully functioning human at work.
While I was at work Brandon took Derrick and Veronica grocery shopping. Normally I take care of that, but I'd been too busy with getting the house clean so Brandon took care of it.
I stayed at work until almost 4:00. When I got home I thought that Brandon and the twins would have to start getting ready for rehearsal. But Brandon told me it didn't start until 7:00. Whew. That was nice.
As it was, Derrick, Veronica, and I had to leave before Brandon and the twins. When Derrick had been suspended I'd texted Veronica's Marial Arts Coach from last spring. He was offering the same spring deal that he had last year. I wanted to sign Derrick up because I figured he needed a physical outlet, but I was concerned that it would be too noisy for Derrick. So I asked if we could drop by for a test run.
Derrick was NOT happy about this, but somehow I got him to go to the Karate Class. The coach was so good and came up to Derrick and talked to him really quietly and calmly. He told him that it was okay if he didn't know what was going on. He should just try his best.
Then Derrick joined the rest of the kids up in the front of the room. Coach always starts with a few minutes of small talk with the kids. Derrick wanted to participate so he told the coach "I'm super strong!" Coach responded with "You're a Potato." This was exactly what I felt Derrick needed. He has a bunch of people in his life that act like he is the most special kid. (Me included.) But I think that Derrick needs at least one person whose default setting isn't praise. Coach is great at motivating kids, but he's not one to treat them like they are special just for being there. It can be a little off putting, but there's a reason behind it.
Derrick just kind of sat there trying to figure out if potato was a good thing or bad thing.
Then it was time for class to start. Coach had everyone stand up and they yelled "Yes Sir!" Derrick stood up too, but he just stood there. He didn't participate in the jumping jacks, he didn't sit down again. He didn't do anything the other kids were doing. I knew exactly what had happened. When I'd briefed Coach on what Derrick might do if it was too loud I'd told him, "He usually will cry and try to get away as fast as possible." I'd thought about telling him about Derrick's other reaction - going slightly catatonic. I didn't tell Coach about that because I thought Derrick had outgrown that. But nope. As I watched Derrick just stand there I could tell that his brain had disengaged as soon as the other kids had yelled.
I wondered what exactly would happen next. It didn't take long. Coach always has the kids say the four rules of the room. "Be Quiet, Be Still, Look at Coach, Help Others." And they yell them out. That did it.
Derrick turned around and walked out. He grabbed his shoes and socks and would have gone right out the door if I hadn't stopped him. I had him sit down and put on his socks and shoes. The whole time he was yelling and saying he hated karate.
It was pretty obvious that this wasn't going to work. I'm glad we figured it out before I paid for the two month class.
We went to the car. I texted coach to thank him for letting us try. Derrick was still pretty worked up. We went to the library and Derrick was still a little teary as we picked up the movies that were waiting for us.
Then we drove to Smiths to get gas. He was a lot calmer by the time we were done.
We went to the church so I could attend Relief Society. It was all about Bee's taught by Heidi Tubbs of Tubbs berry farm. They needed pollinators on their farm so they got into bees years ago and now are super experts. They help other people know how to take care of bees / know what to plant to help the bees.
Derrick and Veronica played in the gym while I was in the Relief Society room. I'd brought a bunch of paper so Derrick could make paper airplanes. They played with those, but they also invented some of the loudest basket ball games ever.
Meanwhile Brandon and the twins were at the pick up rehearsal. This is always kind of a silly rehearsal. Brandon stood in for Makeesa as a Pick-a-little lady.
Lydia and her dance partner ended up handcuffed and danced the whole Shepoopie in cuffs.
They came home telling about the silly things that had happened.
I knew the next day was St Patrick's Day, but I hadn't planned anything for it. I was kind of hoping the kids would forget.
But Veronica didn't forget. She made an elaborate trap in the living room. So at 10:30 Brandon and I walked to Smiths and bought some surprises.
I spelled out this message with Skittles.
And we had mini cupcakes, rainbow sherbert, and the rest of the skittles in the freezer.
Brandon took it all a little further and added shamrocks.
He sprung all the traps.
Final Performances - Friday March 17- Sunday March 19th
Friday I went to work in the morning and then had the kids help me with some last minute cleaning in the afternoon. Brandon's parents were coming up for the play. His sister Shannon was also coming. We knew that his parents were staying over at our house for sure, but we weren't so sure about Shannon. I had plans to move Veronica somewhere and put Shannon in Veronica's room so I wanted her room pretty clean.
I also had the kids spend a lot of time outside cleaning up dog poop. Brandon's taken care of it through most of the winter, but it was time for the kids to do that again. While they did that I pulled up the dead plants in the front yard.
Steve and Jacque showed up around 4:00. Everyone was excited to see them. We had home made pizza for dinner. Then it was time for me to do Charlotte and Lydia's hair. After a few days off it took me a little longer to get their hair to behave.
They went to the theatre at 5:00. Why do they have to go so early? Well they have to have time to get into costumes and put on their make up. But this time they went extra early because they knew parking was going to be a nightmare. There was a St Patrick's Day parade happening in front of the theatre and so they would probably have to walk a ways.
Everyone else in the cast had the same idea. They all ended up being at the theatre earlier than they thought and so were in costumes and ready earlier. What ended up happening is one of the best memories that Charlotte and Lydia have from the play. Brandon too. They all told me about it at different times.
Everyone started singing. They did the songs from Enchanted and then somehow moved onto singing Down By The Bay. This was apparently the very best rendition of Down By the Bay EVER. People were doing complex harmonies, rounds, descants. They said it was beautiful. I could just picture them all squeezed into that tiny dressing room space and singing together.
Back at my house I laid down to take a nap for a little bit.
Then Steve, Jacque, Veronica, and I drove over to the theatre. It's a good thing I drove because I had to do some crazy stuff to find an open parking lot. The parade was long gone, but the drinking parties had just started. Main street was still closed and there were people everywhere.
Steve and Jacque had bought their tickets before I'd decided when I wanted to see the play again. Veronica and I decided that we wanted to go with them so I got online to buy tickets. Most of the seats were taken, but I'd been able to get two spots next to Steve and Jacque. Shannon was a little behind us on the side. She and Analynn met us there.
Derrick didn't want to see the play again so he stayed home and watched movies.
The building was packed. I've never seen the lower level completely full. It was tonight. And the mezzanine upstairs had many of it's rows filled too. I heard there were over 200 people in the audience.
The play was so amazing. I picked up on things I hadn't noticed before.
Here are more pictures. These ones aren't really in any apparent order. (Actually I think they are in backwards order, but I'm too tired to move them.)
Here's Mayor Shinn yelling at Tommy while Brandon holds him. Veronica likes Mayor Shinn and can repeat a lot of his lines.
Here's one of the twins peaking out from behind the littler kids.
Veronica says this picture is like in Monster's Inc when Mike is blocked, but it still excited that he was on TV.
Dancing during 76 Trombones. Brandon is in the back watching.
More dancing during 76 trombones. These guys were so good.
The girls dancing.
This is Lauren. She played Zenidea. She also choreographed the whole thing. Later I heard the director describe Lauren as able to bend the rule of space, time, and physics in order to fit all the people on the stage and have them dancing together.
Ivan being Ivan with everyone watching.
The townspeople at a meeting.
More towns people.
Charlotte and Lydia with their stage dad.
Everyone during trouble.
Lauren, with Brandon in the background.
You can tell he loved this part so much.
Trouble. It's hard to tell in this picture, but this was one of the only times Charlotte and Lydia stood near Brandon.
Harold and Marcellus. They were hilarious together.
And the whole cast. This is a great group of people.
The play was great! As we were filing out Shannon and Analynn happened to be standing near Jarod the director. I told him, "These two came all the way from Tooele for this." He said thank you. Shannon told him that she used to do plays and she misses it so much. His reply says so much about why community theatre is so good in Twin Falls. He said, "Well it only takes getting on stage once to get back into it." He didn't tell her, "Oh take classes." or "well start with finding a vocal coach." He just said to get on stage again.
This is important because Jarod isn't just the director of The Music Man. He owns the Orpheum. He runs the drama camps. He sets the schedule. He's the heart and soul of theatre in Twin Falls. And he believes in putting people on the stage. It pays beautiful dividends.
Veronica was super hot so we went outside to cool off. I took this picture of the entrance.
And then one of the twins popped their heads out and I got this beautiful photo.
I tried to get a picture with the girls in front of the marque but it didn't work out very well.
Shannon planned to drive back to Utah that night so she said goodbye to everyone.
Back at the house Jacque had gifts for everyone. Years ago she started making quilts for each of her 14 grand kids. (She had like 3 grand kids when she started this project.) Brandon is the youngest so his kids were the last on her list. She recently finished the last of the quilts for our kids. So she brought them with her to give out.
I wish I had better pictures, but I was so tired by this point. Here's Veronica's with hers. It has Snoopy fabric on it.
Derrick's has monsters.
Lydia' has holidays.
Charlotte's also has holidays.
Charlotte and Lydia immediately put theirs on their beds.
I was tired so I went to bed soon, but Brandon stayed up talking with his parents.
In the morning we had breakfast and said goodbye to Steve and Jacque. Then I started on my big plans for the day.
The first warm Saturday is something of a holiday for me. This year it came a lot later than other years. I was so excited to start working on the garden.
My first stop was D&B for lots of garden supplies. Derrick and Charlotte came with me and found the chicks. Charlotte wants one so bad, but I just don't think it will work this year.
Then Charlotte and I went to Toy Town to buy a game that we want to play during Spring Break.
And finally Brandon and I went to Lowes to buy supplies for a big project we have planned for later next week.
We came home and I went to work on different yard projects.
First up was planting a lilac in the side yard.
It's small now, but it should grow to cover my bedroom window.
And look at these cute little tulips that are growing around the Rose of Sharron.
I put stepping stones into the grass in the back yard. (And somehow forgot a picture. Just picture 5 grey stepping stones in the grass.)
I sprayed oil on the fruit trees to keep the bugs at bay. I bought a sprayer to make the job easier. It's a cheaper model, but it's better than anything I've had in other years.
The kids came out and played outside without coats on for the first time in months.
I started cleaning out the shed. (And forgot to take a before picture when it was super dirty and junky inside.)
I was just going to clean it out and then put everything back, but I decided now was a good time to move the shelves in from the garage. Brandon and I have talked about moving these out here and this was as good a time as any.
I can't believe how much more storage room I have now. Like why didn't we do this sooner?
We also put up things to hold all the tools. This is another simple thing that makes such a difference.
I would have loved to just keep working outside for like 3 more hours, but there was a play that night. So around 4:00 I went inside to make a quick dinner and then I did the girls' hair. Charlotte as so tired she basally just laid in my lap while I did her hair.
They performed for another packed house. After the play was over Brandon brought the girls home and picked me up. We went to the RedHawk Gastropub for a fancy after party. The lady who played Adelaide in Guys and Dolls started a Facebook Group for people who want to dress up really fancy and go see the local plays together. Then after the show they go out to eat at the RedHawk. They invite the cast to come too. This is only the second time they've done this, but I hope they do it forever because it was so much fun!
Brandon was able to see some of his friends from Guys and Dolls that weren't in Music Man. The lady who played Sara in Guys and Dolls was there. It was her birthday and everyone sang to her. It was beautiful.
Here's a cast picture from that night.
And here's our little group. We were sitting with Rachel, Sara, and Sarah's husband. Sara was Charlotte and Lydia's stage mom. Rachel is married to the man who was the school counselor when Charlotte and Lydia were in 3rd grade. I told her that Charlotte had been so anxious and nervous that year and we'd had to meet with the counselor. And now look at her. She was fearlessly on stage.
Brandon ordered a burger and I ordered fried green beans - mostly out of curiosity. They were amazing. The burger was good too.
We stayed until almost midnight and then we went back home. I'd kind of told the kids to try to be in bed by 11:00, but nobody took that seriously. They were ALL still awake.
I'd already said that we wouldn't go to church on Sunday but that cemented it. As it was, we barely were awake at 9:00 to watch on zoom. I don't think Derrick came out of his room until 11:15.
Everyone was feeling lots of mixed emotions about this last performance. On the one hand they were all feeling ready to be done. But on the other hand they knew this was the end. This group of people would never be together again. And that's a very sad thought.
They played to another packed house. And then it was time to break down the set. They packed up their make up, tuned in their scripts, and placed their costumes on the edge of the stage.
There was an after party that families were invited to. Derrick was all over the place from his disrupted sleep schedule and said he didn't want to go so I let him stay home. Veronica and I went to the party. Even though I haven't been involved in the play as an actor, I still feel part of the community - especially the community of close supporters. I walked into the theatre and immediately saw people I knew. There was Debbie - from Bible Study and mom to Mrs Paroo. There was Mr Stokes - Charlotte's old school counselor and husband to one of the pickalittle ladies. There was Kerrie - the Middle School Attendance Secretary and wife to one of the barber shop quartet men. I talked with all of them.
There was pizza for everyone and some people had brought cookies and brownies. Then the Assistant Director handed out awards to the tech crew. After she was done Jared gave out awards to everyone in the case. The awards were simultaneously silly and heartfelt.
Lydia's Dance Partner got the "What'd ya talk" award because is his memorable delivery of that line.
The littlest boy in the cast got the "Don't call be adorable" award.
The low tenor Barbershop guy got the "Pun-pocalypse" award.
The high tenor got the "I survived the Pun-pocalypse" award.
Jarod would give a little bit of context for the awards. He said that no matter what Charlotte and Lydia were always ready to do whatever he asked of them. So Lydia got the "Ready to Rock" award and Charlotte got "Ready to Roll." Yep, those are my girls.
Brandon got, "Best Character Development" because of all the little side plots going on with his character.
Brianna who played Marian had been sick for 3 of the performances, but powered through it and didn't miss a performance. She got the Warrior Woman award.
And Ivan. Ivan got the Heart of the Play award. No one deserved it more than him.
Jarod set up karaoke and Brandon and the twins stuck around for that. I would have liked to stay, but Veronica was out of interest so I took her home.
Brandon and the twins got home about an hour later. Brandon was a little sad that the play was over. he said, "I need a comedy." So he and the kids watched a movie.
When he did Guys and Dolls he had a pretty bad case of the after play blues on the Monday after the play ended. So I had a plan for that.
We are actually going on a little trip tomorrow. He's so excited that he doesn't have to go to work tomorrow.
And whew, I'm so happy that I was able to get this all written before the trip.
It's 1:16 in the morning and I trying to think how to sum this all up. Obviously, doing this play was a big commitment. Not just for Brandon and Charlotte and Lydia, but all of us. Would I do it again? Yes, but not anytime soon. I actually really like this time of year for plays. What else are you going to do in the evening in January and February. So I'm totally open to the idea of another play next year.
But the girls are already talking about auditioning for Little Mermaid this summer. I told them it's going to depend on dates.
Wait, I'm supposed to be summing things up here. Let's try again.
On Saturday I asked Brandon if his character wanted Harold to stay in the town. He's already standing when they ask everyone to stand to signal that they are happy Harold came to town so it's hard to know what the Constable is thinking in that moment.
Brandon said that he felt like the Constable liked Harold as soon as he took Tommy under his wing. He knew Harold wasn't a threat. In the end he catches him because he's just doing his job.
I liked that.
We also talked about whether or not Mayor Shinn is the villain of the story. I said he was the antagonist at best.
I also said that Mayor Shinn is the first person to talk after the band starts playing at the end. He doesn't have a son in the band, so he's not like the other parents who are just thrilled to see their children playing. In fact, he's probably not under any illusions about how "good" the band is. But he is just as thrilled.
His line is something like, "Mrs Paroo! That's Winthrop. That's Winthrop playing in the band!" He sees what Harold did for that little shy boy who didn't talk to anyone. And he knows that's a big deal. In the end it doesn't matter how good the band is. It matters that it exists.
And that's what I'm always going to remember about these past two weeks. Were these weeks busy and rather exhausting. Yes! But were they also some of the most exciting of the whole year so far. Yes.
I'm so glad that this play happened and that we were able to be part of it.
Just what is a girl to do when she is a college graduate in economics; a wife to an aviation enthusiast; and the mother of four children age nine and under? I'm not sure, but I am trying to figure it out. Read along as I find out where I fit in the world.
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