I want to continue to recap our recent trip to New Orleans, but I’ve been having a hard time getting my thoughts together on the second installment. My mind has been in this fog of pollen induced dreamy existence. I need to get back into more frequent posts, though, so here it goes. Back to New Orleans shortly.
It was tornado ally again this morning in our fine seaside town. Dark, foreboding clouds all morning and then the urgent tornado warnings. The kid texted me from school that they were sheltering in place – hiding in the locker room. The news was reporting that there may be tornado in the southern part of the town heading in our general area, but more likely to the east, closer to my work and where my parents live. They weren’t sure it was still a tornado because the storm had lost strength, but the cell was moving fast. This is the second time this spring the schools have lockdown and gone into emergency mode for tornados. I’m sure it’s fun trying to get all the kids back on message after that…
I’m going out to lunch with some co-workers today. We get certificates for a free lunch on our birthdays, so a few of us that have birthdays close to each other are doing our second annual birthday lunch get together. It should be fun, but I normally go workout at lunch and today is supposed to be a gym day. Instead I’ll be getting fat on Italian food. Oh well.
Things are heating up in the world of orchestra for the kid. She has been having a lot of after school rehearsals for a school concert next week. In fact, she has the Bay Youth end of year concert on Tuesday and her school concert on Wednesday. We have to be at a Bay Youth dress rehearsal Monday night at the venue in Norfolk and she is supposed to be going to a dress rehearsal for school on Tuesday, but we are not sure when because she needs to be at her Bay Youth concert by 6. It’s going to be crazy rushing around to everything. Then later in the month she has a big audition with Bay Youth to try to get into the Concert Orchestra for next year and also a piano recital. Next month is her violin recital – and then she is finally done for the summer.
Busy, busy, busy.
But this freshman school year is already almost over. We are talking about driving and learner’s permits. There is a boy in the picture. We are thinking about college. It’s all moving pretty fast.
The boy in the picture. Ugh. We took him with us to Busch Gardens last weekend. What a nightmare. I don’t know if it was him or just teens today, but he has no filter. He says and does anything he feels like whenever he likes – right in front of us. I’d say more, but I guess I shouldn’t. We hung out with them for a while and then let them go off by themselves. We went and drank beer. They have a craft beer hideaway in the festhaus, so we went there and hung out. While there we got to check out a beer talk and get free samples from Starr Hill Brewery. We went there a few years ago during a trip to the mountains and have always like their beer. Anyway, if you have a daughter I don’t recommend there being a boy in the picture, but I guess it’s unavoidable.
One of my favorite movies from the 80’s is Vision Quest, with Matthew Modine. Have you seen it? It wasn’t a big movie, but one of those cool finds that sticks with you forever. We watched it in the past year with the kid and she really liked it too. It’s about this guy in high school that is a wrestler and how his big dream is to beat this famous guy from another school who has never lost a match. He then has this girl a few years older than him move in with him and his father for a few weeks and he becomes obsessed with her. It gets in the way of his training and makes him question his goals and life. It even has a young Madonna singing Crazy for You in a club scene. Anyway, I realized recently that the movie was made from a book written in the 70’s, so I got it and started reading it. The book is a lot grittier and has some differences, of course, but it’s really interesting diving deeper into something that was a big part of my movie/life influences of my high school years. Check out the movie if you get a chance, though, it’s really good.
Speaking of movies, it’s almost the weekend and we are starting our summer movie fun tomorrow! We have tickets to go see Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Because of that, we are rewatching the first movie tonight, so it’s a crazy superhero weekend. It should be fun and the kid’s excited. And there is no boy going…
