Clown and mother
During the campaign, Barack Obama reached out to Native People and was adopted in a traditional Crow ceremony by Hartford and Mary Black Eagle of Lodge Grass, Montana. They were introduced as grandparents to Malia and Sasha. Obama honored his Black Eagle family by having them brought to Washington DC and given prime seats to witness the Inauguration Ceremony.
His mother Dr. Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, would have been proud.
I have been a weepy mess, tearing up several times a day, ever since Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger ditched a US Airways jet safely in the Hudson River last Thursday. The cinema-cheesy symbolism went straight to my core and I am convinced that the United States of America is an airplane and Barack Obama is the cool, calm Carey Grant/Sidney Poitier/Jimmy Stewart type genius pilot who is going to save us all. Or not. Everything makes me tear up. Boats. Airplanes. People asking me what kind of coat I have because they need to buy a warm one before they leave for Washington, DC for the Inauguration. Twitters from friends who are on their way to DC or already in DC. Martin Luther King Day. Fresh snow. Civil Rights Movement veterans on CNN. My husband telling me Obama chose a Nobel prize winning physicist as his energy secretary. Listening to “This American Life”. Miley Cyrus in a grown-up red dress. Malia and Sasha Obama taking pictures of Miley Cyrus. My 8-year-old rolling her eyes because I am tearing up because I am watching both my kid and Malia Obama mouth the words to the Disney tween songs they both know by heart. Reading the Inauguration Parade lineup that includes both the Crow Nation of Montana and the Brooklyn Music and Arts Program. I’m just sitting here with my seatbelt on looking out the window at the water putting all my faith and hope in the pilot as my life flashes before my eyes and I pray for a safe landing: Ourfatherwhoartinheavenhallowedbethynamethykingdomcomethywillbedone-onearthaseitisinheavengiveusthisdayourdailybreadandforgiveusourtrespasses-asweforgivethosewhotrespassagainstusandleadusnotintotemptation-anddeliverusfromevil-AMEN
I am always conflicted; playing with my child vs housework. Writing vs performing. Exercising vs volunteering at My Kid’s school. Creativity vs getting a real job and on and on and on. So it wasn’t out of character for me when Jef started to talk about being in the theatrical space, I caught my mind wandering and had to bring it back into the room three times. The first time I realized I had gone off topic was when my mind came back into the room after I learned that Saturday’s workshop is 3-6 instead of 11-2 as I had thought. This lead to a working out of numerous scenarios for My Kid’s weekend schedule as I had made tentative plans with another mother to take the kids to see a movie on Saturday afternoon. The second time I lost concentration was when in the course of developing an improv I fell into a bit of a reverie about Bush falling through a trap-door at the swearing in ceremony and Obama coming down from the sky in an airline pilot’s uniform… The third time my mind wandered away from the studio work at hand, I thought about a handbag I used to own and wondered if I could use any found object to develop a relationship with up to and including grief and loss and weather that would be a good clown piece for me to work up. I’m tired and wide awake from several cups of coffee and several cups of green tea and my mind is still full of meaning of life, good work, and competency vs heroism thoughts that arise from the safe landing of a disabled plane in the Hudson River and timely rescue of all the passengers by local boat crews and the preparations for the upcoming Obama Presidential Inauguration. There’s a clown lab scheduled for Tuesday, but I will not go. I already know that my head and my heart will be in Washington, DC where I would rather be at this historic time. I moved from Montana for a post-graduate job in my congressman’s office on Capitol Hill and I auditioned for Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in the center ring of the arena between shows while the Circus played Washington DC. I hope to spend Tuesday evening drinking champagne at home with my husband and watching the recap of the Inauguration Day on TV.
Last year I was such a good mommy helping My Kid sell her Girl Scout Cookies to the neighbors and the folks at the diner and showing others who didn’t even want the cookies how to avoid the calories by sending them to the military troops overseas (so My Kid could get her Girl Scout Cookies for The Troops badge). This year I have done nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. Squat. Nothing.
Therefore my kid has sold nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. Squat. Nothing.
Sooooo. The sale ends this weekend…. Yikes!!!!!
I am scrambling to find out the price of a box of cookies. I am that out of the loop!
Bad timing. The sale started in December not long before Christmas break. Need I say more…
My sister came from LA for a visit.
We went to Hawaii for a conference and My Kid missed the first week of school.
Our return was delayed and we took the red-eye from Seattle arriving back in Brooklyn at 6:30 am Monday morning. The Husband stopped at home just long enough to take a shower before going in to the office.
My Kid got to school on time so she could touch base with her teachers and classmates on the last day before the @#$%^! No Child Left Behind 3rd Grade English Language Assessment Two-day-long Standardized Test!
The Husband was too busy and too new at his job to let anyone know his household contained a cookie pusher and take orders at the office like I wanted. Last year he took orders from his team but by the time the cookies arrived the company had been sold and the staff had scattered and we were left with a lot of extra cookies. I don’t want to do that again.
And now the sale ends in 4 days! I don’t want My Kid to sell NOTHING!
Just trying to sell enough to get the participation patch…and maybe the cookies for the troops patch…
As for the Girl Scout incentive prizes; pajamas, beach towel or USB Band and iPod Nano (for selling 1000 or more boxes of cookies) Fageddaboutit!