Acknowledging Spring

I seem to have survived children's choir for the year. There's just one more session, but that's the end-of-year program, so I don't have to come up with plans. We just meet, run through our song, and then perform. And then I'm free! The kids were cracking me up last night. At one point, they were getting a bit nuts, then one kid stepped up and started playing "Simon Says." The others really went along with it, and the room got a lot calmer. She ended with "Simon says, listen to the teacher," then gestured to me like she was turning the class over to me. I almost couldn't keep a straight face. I wonder if that's something her teacher does in school. I'll have to remember that one. Then at the end of class, I let them pick whatever their favorite thing of the year was to do one last time, and they requested the Beethoven, or as they call it "the thunderstorm music." The brainwashing seems to be working.

I also had a fun Doctor Who fan encounter with an older kid. I was checking in with the children's music director to verify plans, and she was doing the end-of-year party with one of the children's bell choirs. I missed the context, but one of the girls in the group (I'd guess maybe fourth grade) said, "I wish we had a TARDIS so we could go back in time to five minutes ago when we got here." No one responded, and she repeated it. I couldn't help but respond, "Oh, that would never work. You'd think you were going back five minutes, and you'd end up in Victorian England or in 1975." She totally lit up and we had a nice little discussion (and I got offered a brownie from their party). I got the feeling she'd been sending out the geek signal to see if anyone responded, but none of her peers had any idea what she was talking about. I don't know if it was better or worse that it was one of the teachers who got it, but I think I earned a few cool points there.

I seem to have finally acknowledged and even embraced the arrival of spring. I bought a new patio table yesterday. It was a thought in the back of my mind, since the one I have is so huge it takes up most of the patio, and it's white plastic that over the ten years I've had it has stained and cracked. I was at Target and they had one on sale that's a sort of wrought iron, more of a bistro table size, and still has the umbrella hole, so I bought it on impulse. Now I need a better umbrella base, and I found myself eyeing the Home Depot ad circular in the newspaper this morning. With the smaller table, maybe I have room for a lounge. And then I need flowers. I also have a clever idea for using trellises to keep the evil alien vine off the fence and off the patio by giving it something safe to climb on. If I'm thinking outdoors, it must be spring. It's probably a good thing that I don't have a real lawn or garden that I'm responsible for, just this little enclosed patio, because I only seem to really acknowledge the outdoors for a few weeks in the spring and then again in the fall, and the rest of the year I'd be getting nastygrams from the city about the jungle surrounding my house that I've allowed to grow while ignoring the outdoors.

I was also eyeing the ceiling fan in the ad that had a remote control. That's definitely on the to-do list for the summer. And I need to finally get around to painting the bathroom.

But first, a re-do of the web site and getting this book launched. Then I can deal with my environment. Or maybe it'll be summer and the "ooh, the outdoors!" phase will have passed.